Neighborhood Assemblies as a Response to Crisis

A teach-in on neighborhood assemblies. Neighborhood assemblies are assemblies of neighborhood people who meet to make decisions and policy for their neighborhood. They function as local legislatures. And in Berkeley, they can make binding decisions on zoning and development through the use of Zoning Overlays. They are therefore a response to the affordable housing crisis that we now face.
There will be a description of the assemblies, and accounts of how they have been used elsewhere – in particulat, in Jackson, MS, and in Cuba. In Jackson, assemblies were organized by Chokwe Lumuba, and used to change the political relations of the city. In Cuba, the entire system of Municipal Assemblies function as the real voice of the urban neighborhoods.