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Image of the El Paso skyline with a desert foreground.
  • Home Rule

El Paso and other Texas cities are getting ready for Abbott’s ‘Death Star Law’

El Paso County Commissioner David Stout, along with LP members representing Austin and San Antonio, explain how the Death Star Law will hinder their ability to meet their communities' most urgent needs.
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  • Housing

Two New Resources Help Electeds and Community Members Advocate for Strong Rent Stabilization Policies

A new rent stabilization toolkit in partnership with Power Switch Action and a messaging guide to support local elected officials developing their own ordinances.
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Illustration by Lincoln Agnew of the Texas flag with black and white photos collaged within it, including an image of an eye.
  • Home Rule

Texas Lege’s ‘Death Star’ Bill Is the Latest to Target Austin

“It is important to me as a local policymaker to keep the faith that we will continue to fight for our communities despite all the barriers that the state Legislature wants to put on localities,” said Austin City Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes.
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A photograph of downtown Ithaca, New York featuring old buildings and pedestrians walking and biking along the street.
  • Climate Justice, Economic Justice, Leveraging Federal Resources

New Resource Helps Local Electeds Maximize Federal Funds for Equity

Our newly released memo shares tools and best practices to help local electeds maximize federal funding opportunities to advance equity.
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A masked person holding up a sign that says "not going back."
  • Home Rule

Texas Cities Are Getting Ready For The State’s ‘Death Star’ Law

Three LP members representing El Paso, Austin, and San Antonio speak out against the Death Star Law -- warning of the detrimental local, state, and national implications of such a far-reaching power grab.
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  • Leveraging Federal Resources

Using Federal Funds to Create More Just Communities in North Carolina

ARPA provided localities with a historic level of funding. Local electeds across North Carolina have allocated those funds towards a just recovery and look towards the future on how to leverage other federal programs to best support their communities.
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  • Housing

74 Local Elected Leaders Urge Federal Government to Protect Tenants

Over 70 local elected officials submitted a comment calling on the federal government to pass tenant protections for enterprise-backed multifamily properties.
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A photo of a group of people holding a sign saying "SA STANDS" in Bexar County, Texas after the creation of an immigrant legal defense fund.
  • Immigrant Justice

📬 The Network Download | Immigrant justice edition | July 2023

Check out the work our network is doing to advance immigrant justice!
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Arial view of the Texas State Capitol lit up at night.
  • Home Rule

The ‘Death Star’ Bill is About Kneecapping Democracy in Texas

LP's Kara Sheehan weighs in on what the Death Star Law means for localities across Texas.
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Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd) reacts at a City Council meeting on March 15, 2023.
  • Public Safety

Cops Should Not Respond To Mental Health Emergencies, Experts Say As City Weighs Ordinance

Chicago Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez's “Treatment Not Trauma” ordinance would enable the city to handle mental health emergencies without police officers.
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Federal Advocacy Roundup | July 2023

The July2023 Local Progress Federal Advocacy Roundup breaks down recent troubling SCOTUS decisions that advance the interests of right-wing billionaires at the expense of working people and communities of color.
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Close-up image of a person's hand highlighting text.
  • School Boards

Plainfield BOE Debates Cultural Responsiveness of its Textbooks, Votes to Resurface Hub Stine

Plainfield Board of Education Commissioner Azim Gray stands up for culturally responsive curriculums.
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Have a Media Inquiry?

Local Progress is a movement of local elected officials advancing a racial and economic justice agenda through all levels of local government. We are elected leaders who build power with underrepresented communities and fight to reshape what is possible in our localities all across the country. 

Want to get in touch with us for a story? Reach us at press@localprogress.org.

In The News

At Local Progress, we seek to make the aspirational pragmatic by showing how government can be a tool to create just and equitable outcomes and reshaping peoples’ understanding of governing from an institution to a collective responsibility. Here are some highlights of our media coverage:

Small child receiving medical care reaching out from a bed (Photo by Dzulhaidy Abdul Rahim / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
  • Leveraging Federal Resources

I’m the Mayor of St. Paul. Here’s How Our City Is Erasing $100 Million in Medical Debt.

More and more local governments are using federal funds to relieve residents’ medical debt. Mayor of Saint Paul Melvin Carter explains why it's a simple, straightforward way to meet our communities’ needs.
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Congressman Greg Casar speaks to protesters at the Governor’s Mansion against the Death Star Bill on Sept. 7, 2023. The protest was organized by the Workers Defense Project who want to protect the mandated rest breaks for workers outlined in local Austin ordinance. | Photo received from Kevin Kim (The Daily Texan)
  • Home Rule

Opinion: One Year Later, Local Leaders Must Be Bold Despite “Death Star” Law

July 1, 2024 marks one year since the City of Houston sued the state of Texas over the Death Star law. San Marcos City Councilmember Alyssa Garza makes the case that now is the time to be bold – to advance policies that uplift the very communities our legislature wants to silence.
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social housing in Vienna, Austria
  • Housing

Is this European city a model for Philadelphia’s affordable housing? One Council member thinks so

Philadelphia City Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Kendra Brooks visited Vienna earlier this year with Local Progress to learn about its housing polices.
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Photo: Josh Katz| The state should no longer design roads where pedestrians are just an afterthought, like this entrance to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
  • Climate Justice

New York Pols Back Gounardes’s Bill to Cut Driving by 20%

For decades, transit planners have widened roads and expanded highways as cities have grown. But these interventions have only increased traffic and worsened pollution. LP members in New York wrote to legislative leaders demanding state DOT take a new approach to planning.
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press Releases

  • Housing

After Grants Pass: organizing to house all our neighbors

In response to the Supreme Court's cruel decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, we will continue to organize for housing for all.
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  • Housing

Local Progress Condemns Cruel Supreme Court Decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson

In response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, Local Progress put out the following statement.
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  • Climate Justice, Economic Justice, Home Rule

180+ State and Local Elected Officials Urge Congress to Reject the EATS Act

LP and the State Innovation Exchange (SiX) released letters calling on Congress to protect local and state governments ability to create policy that is responsive to the issues their own communities face in the agricultural industry. 
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  • Immigrant Justice

Local Leaders Denounce Senate Deal That Would Gut Asylum

In response to the Senate’s proposed border deal that would gut asylum in exchange for foreign military spending, Local Progress released this statement.
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📬 LP Network Download | Traffic safety, ceasefire, history in Minnesota, & more! | January 2024

Here’s a look at some of what’s happening across the Local Progress network this month.
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