We support Proposition 206, Tucson Fight for $15
The Board and Staff of Living Streets Alliance unanimously support and stand behind Proposition 206, Tucson Fight for $15. We believe that a living wage is essential to our mission and vision and is a critical step in ensuring a good quality of life for all Tucsonans.
Right now, a Tucson worker earning the current minimum wage needs to work 61 hour a week to afford a 2-bedroom home, and we know that that number is increasing steadily as home and rent prices in the Tucson area continue to skyrocket. If passed, Prop 206 will gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2025, meaning that roughly 85,000 Tucsonans will get a raise. That’s a big deal.
Adopting a living wage is a clear and straightforward way to begin to address poverty, but let’s dig in. You may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with Living Streets Alliance and transportation? Sure, making more money will help people afford—and have options for—safer and more reliable transportation, which in turn can help them access more opportunities, better paying jobs, etc. But for us at LSA, it’s even deeper.
Have you ever heard the expression “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu?” In our ten+ years of working with people in communities all over Tucson and South Tucson, we’ve observed a glaring misalignment between what people want and need for themselves, their families, their communities, and what actually gets prioritized, funded, and built. On a philosophical level, that’s what our work seeks to address; to bridge that gap and bring needs and vision into alignment with what takes shape when it comes to transportation and streets.
One big reason that this misalignment is happening is because so many people aren’t at the decision-making table. If you need to work 61 hours a week to afford a 2-bedroom home, and you need to put food on the table, and you need childcare and healthcare and to care for others, that sure as heck doesn’t leave a lot of time for engaging in the public process. We want to see more people have at least the basic stability to be able to participate in our democracy and that’s just not happening. In the meantime, resourced people get to call the shots about our transportation values and priorities as a community. We at Living Streets Alliance want this to change; we want diverse voices at the table and equal footing in decision-making processes. Providing a higher minimum wage will help eliminate at least one barrier to public participation.
Collaboration. Over the years we have learned so much from working and being with people. We’ve learned that trust is the most valuable thing that can be bestowed upon us and that true advocacy can’t exist without it. To that end, we are intentional about moving at the speed of trust. This means that issues at the forefront for Living Streets Alliance aren’t always front and center (and in fact, they rarely are). By committing to showing up no matter what; showing up for what matters to the people and communities we’re working with, we forge a trusting relationship over time. What we know and hear about the immediate challenges that so many people are facing is rooted in an inability to accumulate wealth because of systemic inequities (and systemic racism, but that’s a whole other blog post). Raising the minimum wage is a key step in starting to decrease the huge disparity between the haves and have-nots. So here we are, showing up for the communities whose trust we have asked for, in support of Prop 206. It’s important to them, so it’s important to us. That’s what true collaboration and partnership looks like.
And finally, as an organization and as individuals who make up this organization, we believe that all people should be paid a wage sufficient to support themselves and their families and allow them to live with dignity.
To learn more about the Tucson Fight for $15 initiative visit their website: https://tucsonfightfor15.com