Representatives from the Canal Side Community Alliance returned late on Sunday night after an intense 3 days in Washington, DC where they presented at and participated in the National Jobs with Justice Conference. The days were long, packed with workshops, plenaries, networking opportunities, open spaces, and informal conversations about unfair labor practices in throughout the country, and an action against Wal-Mart. I personally walked away feeling rejuvenated, overwhelmed, and furious.
Rejuvenated because I spoke with leaders and staff from around the country that were embarking on the same journey we here in Buffalo are immersed in. Rejuvenated because there is an immense amount of comfort in knowing that there are people working nationally for the same vision of a just community that we are lifting up here in Buffalo.
Overwhelmed, because there is so much work to be done.
And furious, because injustice is so pervasive, and there are simple measures that could be taken that would provide shared prosperity for all.
The CBA is one of those simple measures. It’s innovative, it’s fair, it’s reasonable. CBA campaigns are being used as a mechanism for change throughout the country, under the similar conditions-an extraordinary amount of public money is being invested in development that may or may not explicitly address the immediate and long term needs of communities. In some cases, development actually destroys communities. CBA’s are about demanding not only public benefits in exchange for public dollars, but demanding to be recognized, to be seen, and to no longer be invisible to policy makers and developers.
The process is more complicated than the premise. The Canal Side Community Alliance understands and respects that. But the process could be simpler if from the beginning, community stake holders were given a seat at the decision making table. It would be easier if laws and law makers favored both community and business interests equally. It would be easier if communities were provided money for sustainable development, rather than bailing out banks to clean up their messes.
Our negotiations locally continue to move forward, though sometimes it moves slower than what we had hoped or anticipated. Our negotiating team continues to bring solutions to the table to address expressed community concerns and desires, whether it be planting native vegetation to minimize rain water in the sewers or committing to dedicate staff to supporting Women and Minority Owned Businesses (contracts alike). These are small steps towards changing the way we collectively think about development. And this is a small step towards identifying viable solutions for problems that have haunted us for decades.
Stay tuned for an update on our next negotiations-August 22nd or August 23rd. If you have any questions, please call the Coalition for Economic Justice at 892.5877.
We are also having a Canal Side Community Alliance Meeting on August 24th, at 4pm. If you are interested in attending in order to take direct action towards ensuring a Community Benefits Agreement for the Canal Side Development Project, please let us know-micaela@buffalojwj.org. We’d happy to have you.
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