People's Alliance, as a member organization of Durham CAN (Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods), will be allocated up to seven votes at the assembly coming up on May 22nd, from 3:00-4:30 at El Centro Hispano, 201 W. Main St (they always start and finish on time). The delegates at this assembly will ultimately decide what issues CAN will take action on this year. We surveyed our members earlier this year to find the issues you are most concerned about. The two stand-out issues were very low-income housing and education. Please let us know if you are able to attend as a PA delegate to ensure our voice is heard at this assembly. Please email [email protected] if you are able to attend.

 
Other upcoming CAN Dates:

June 5th: Delegates Assembly (where the issues decided upon at the Internal Assembly will be announced to media and government leaders). Location TBD.

PA Members and Friends,

Please see the following message from Tom Miller. We are asking you to send a quick email to the Senate Finance Committee (emails below) and ask them to vote NO on Senate Bill 183. Then ask your friends and neighbors to do the same!

Thanks for your continued activism on this issue!

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Your e-mails and resolutions are really beginning to work! Support for the billboard bills has been dropping off as your legislators have begun to express some doubts about this legislation which has proved to be so unpopular. The sponsors are determined, however, and the billboard industry’s lobbyists have been relentless. There is a strong chance that they will push the bills again this week.

 

We need your help right now! This week we expect that the powerful Senate Finance Committee will vote on the bill. Please send the members a short, unequivocal e-mail asking them to vote NO! on Senate Bill 183 – the Billboard Bill.

 

In your message, say that you are opposed to a measure that would dilute local billboard controls and double the area of trees to be cut down in front of billboards. Point out the results of the recent state-wide poll about billboards.  Citizens across our state oppose industry's attempt to override local billboard controls. An April 2011 statewide poll confirms this ...

 

Eight out of every 10 voters surveyed (80 percent) said they opposed allowing up to seven electronic billboards per mile. Senate bill 183 would permit digital billboards every 1,500 feet on each side of any interstate or highway in a commercial and industrial area –as many as seven billboards every mile.

 

Two thirds of those surveyed said they generally opposed any increase in the number of billboards in North Carolina.

 

Seventy  percent of North Carolina voters surveyed said that electronic billboards that flash changing ads every eight seconds would present a distraction to motorists, according to the poll.



More than 80 percent of those surveyed said they opposed removing more trees so that billboards could be seen for longer distances.



Here's a new website with more background: http://www.savetheview.org

 

Please forward this email to your email lists and networks!

 

The time is now. Together, North Carolina’s neighborhoods  can stop out-of-state billboard companies from spoiling our state’s natural beauty and  overriding local decisions.

 

Thank you,

 

T. R. Miller

Durham InterNeighborhood Council

 

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Send your short, polite message to important legislators at these email addresses (it's easy, just cut & paste)...

 

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],  [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

 

PA is a member of Stand Up Durham. We are urging everyone to call or email a member of the school board prior to their vote on the budget this Thursday, May 12th.  The budget proposed by Superintendent Becoats would cut 117 positions from DPS. Join PA and the Stand Up Durham coalition at the school board meeting this Thursday at 6 PM at 511 Cleveland St. (Meeting starts at 6:30).

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Good evening fellow supporter of public education. You are getting this email because we need you to act. As we’re sure you know already, stakes are high for public schools in North Carolina. The state government is proposing drastic cuts to our schools, and many are worried that we’ll never be able to recover. We cannot continue to stand by and let our children’s futures be jeopardized. We cannot continue to stand by and let our dedicated school workers take the hit for policies that take money from the things we need and give it to the wealthy.

 

Stand Up Durham is asking you to take action now. In order to get what our schools need, we need to tell the state, the county, and the Durham school board what we want. We told the state loudly at last week’s One Voice Rally in Raleigh, and we will continue to let them know what we need. But we also must ask our local leaders to Stand Up, Be Brave, and support public education.

 

The Durham school board meets Thursday at 6:30 at 511 Cleveland St. to vote on a budget proposal laid out by Superintendent Eric Becoats. This budget would cut 117 positions from DPS, and we cannot afford a single cut to our people or our programs. We appreciate that the school board is planning to ask the county to raise property taxes in order to avoid bigger cuts, but we need them to Stand Up, Be Brave, and ask the county to fund a budget with NO CUTS TO POSITIONS AND NO CUTS TO PROGRAMS.

 

We are asking you to immediately send an email or make a phone call to a member of the school board listed below. Tell them why public schools are important to you. Tell them your story. They want to hear from you. In addition to your story, we are asking that you ask them to:

 

1. Stand up and be brave

2. Pass a budget that calls for no cuts to positions or programs

3. Ask the county to help fund it

4. Let them know that you are planning to contact and speak with county commissioners and state representatives. If they act with BRAVERY, we’ll have their backs.

After you send the email, mark your calendar and join us on Thursday, May 12 at 6:00 at 511 Cleveland St. in downtown Durham for the DPS school board vote on next year’s budget. Please contact Stand up Durham at [email protected] or 919.210.9256 if you have any questions.

 

School Board Contacts

Minnie Forte-Brown (919) 530-7106 [email protected]

Heidi Carter (919) 490-0513 [email protected]

Natalie Beyer (919) 382-2823 [email protected]

Leigh Bordley (919) 536-4230 [email protected]

Nancy Cox (919) 419-6369 [email protected]

Frederick Davis (919) 544-4999 [email protected]

Omega Curtis Parker (919) 544-3455 [email protected]

 

Stand Up Durham is a coalition made up of the Committee for Democratic Education, Durham Allies for a Responsive Education, Durham People’s Alliance, The Dream Act Fellowship at Southern High School, and parents, students, school workers and community members.