With so many people focused on national elections, especially as November 5 gets closer every four years, many don’t realize how much more power they have in local elections. Federal changes, or lack thereof, can often feel like they don’t affect the average citizen. But the actions taken, or not taken, by your local government can have a dramatic effect on your everyday living situation. Here are just a few ways your local government improves your community.
1. Neighborhood Playgrounds and Community Centers
For parents with small kids, neighborhood playgrounds can be lifesavers. Stay-at-home moms are often out of ideas for what to do with their babies and toddlers by 10 a.m. Parents with restless kids after school need places for their kids to burn off steam. And grown-ups need bonding time, too! Time to gripe about the kids, work, and the craziness of life. Neighborhood parks and community centers offer refuge for families.
Your city’s parks and recreation department is charged with planning, designing, and maintaining your city parks and community centers. Government staff will ensure play structures are safe, broken swing sets are repaired, trash is picked up, and the local flora is well landscaped. They also plan community classes like swimming, yoga, gymnastics, and sports for kids and adults. It’s perhaps one of the greatest services your city has to offer.
2. Parks and Natural Spaces
Aside from playgrounds, cities and counties also manage parks and other natural spaces. Not everyone wants to hang out at a playground with a bunch of screaming kids. Sometimes, you just want access to nature — large fields of grass, rose gardens, small lakes and ponds, etc. Cities without these natural spaces often feel like concrete jungles with buildings and other structures (not to mention cars and trucks) all around and no fresh air to enjoy.
Your local city or county government is responsible for choosing spaces to preserve and landscape. Many cities have beautiful layouts that include Japanese gardens, botanical gardens, or even arboretums. You may also find duck or koi ponds. Typically, the city will pave a path that winds through and around these little nature escapes so you can go for a stroll, coffee in hand, and chat with a friend amid the beauty.
3. Hiking Trails
For those interested in a bit more adventure, you can get off the beaten path and find a local hiking trail. Many people take for granted that these trails have been planned and carved out and can extend for miles of hiking or biking in the wilderness. While a gym membership may cost you hundreds of dollars each year, a hiking trail is free (with the exception of possible parking fees).
Okay, so they’re not exactly free. You pay for the planning and maintenance of these trails with your tax dollars. Just like with parks and playgrounds, hiking trails are paid for by the city, which is funded by the tax dollars you pay. Experts work hard to preserve the land, figure out how best to plan a trail through it, and then maintain it by removing debris or fallen trees that impede the paths, all so you can get fresh air, sunshine, and movement in nature.
4. Water, Garbage, and Sewers
It’s easy to imagine that little invisible elves run local systems like water, garbage, and sewage. Sadly, they don’t. That’s your tax dollars hard at work. Your city is the reason you have clean drinking water, garbage pickups, and sewage systems. The national news story that came out of Flint, Michigan is a perfect example of what happens when a city drops the ball when it comes to these services.
Without city and county-maintained water, garbage, and sewage, the United States would look just like it did back in the 1800s, when garbage filled the streets, water made people sick, and sewage overflowed in local waterways. Thanks to organized local government, you pay state and municipal taxes, and the government provides these services either free or at a very low cost. It’s a perfect example of democratic socialism.
5. Clean Streets and Walkable Neighborhoods
Finally, if you feel safe on your streets, in your parks, and in your neighborhood in general, that is largely thanks to your local government. There are plenty of cities in the U.S. that have trash blocking sidewalks, high crime rates, and broken roads and streets that don’t allow for family walks or neighborhood strolls with a friend. That reality is largely due to a failure on the part of their local government.
Clean streets mean you have city workers picking up trash, street sweepers coming through once or twice a month, and police officers keeping the peace. Walkable neighborhoods mean your city has zoning laws that ensure mixed-use lots that allow businesses and housing to interconnect, so you can walk to the farmer’s market, the movie theater, or the bank. These are services funded by your tax dollars and overseen by your local government.
Local government can be much more efficient than the large, unwieldy federal government feels, where changes come slowly — if at all. The people who run your city and county government are people just like you, moms and dads, retired, blue-collar workers, and those interested in really making a change. And more often than not, in cities across America, they really do make a difference, improving your community one park and playground at a time.
