Rising up—locally. Success stories of local organizing efforts.

We assembled a partial list of examples of community activist success stories, where organized pressure from the public made a difference in the outcome—whether or not it’s the outcome you wanted, it’s proof that decision-makers do listen.

Sometimes it’s the result of members of the public speaking up; other times it has taken long and involved battles, even litigation.

We asked several local elected officials and staffers for ideas, and reviewed our own archives. Send more examples to letters@mcweekly.com, or add them in the comments here. 

• Creation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in 1992
• Banning short hoes, el cortito, in farm work in 1975
• Making Ciclovía Salinas into an annual event starting in 2013
• A pesticide field posting ordinance approved by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors in 1983 that became a model for a statewide field posting law
• Passage of Measure Z in 2016, banning fracking and wastewater injection in Monterey County
• Opening of the California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery in in 2016 after 20-plus years of organizing by local veterans
• Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) teams established after the1998 fatal police shooting of Charles Vaughn Sr. in Seaside
• Making Pinnacles into a national monument in 1908, then expanding it until it was designated as a national park under President Barack Obama in 2013
• Creation of CSU Monterey Bay on the former Fort Ord, where the first classes began Aug. 28, 1995
• Creation of the Neighborhood Improvement Program in Monterey in 1985, which directs 16 percent of hotel taxes to neighborhood-level projects like sidewalk and lighting improvements
• Protection of a majority percentage of former Fort Ord lands as open space
• A successful 1987 federal Voting Rights Act lawsuit against the city of Salinas that converted City Council positions from at-large to district elections, intended to help Latinos win fair representation; since then, Latinos have consistently been elected to council  
• District elections for King City City Council
• District elections for Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System
• Withdrawal of the controversial fumigant methyl iodide from the U.S. market in 2012
• Creation of Window on the Bay as public open space in Monterey
• Creation of the 18-mile Rec Trail
• Plastic bag bans
• Defeating Plasco’s proposed trash gasification plant in Gonzales in 2012
• Noise abatement at Monterey Regional Airport
• Training on governing with racial equity for Salinas and Monterey County elected officials
• Job training for locals to participate in Fort Ord cleanup effort