A Month in the Life- And less than a month to go!

Dear friends,

We are less than a month away from the November 7th election, and I feel so excited to become Ward 4’s City Councilor of Northampton, MA. I’ve been keeping quite busy since our last update, and I’d love to fill you in. So, take a seat (you know I am!), and settle in for some updates from your soon-to-be Ward 4 City Councilor:

✨I started with the Northampton Neighbors Neighborhood Circle Encore Zoom presentation on September 27th, where I met with more Ward 4 residents, those who were unable to attend the in-person gathering the week before. We had a lively discussion as I addressed the concerns of my fellow Ward 4 residents, and it was a great opportunity to get in touch with more folks in this community who I plan to stay in touch with throughout my time as councilor.

✨The following day, September 28th, I met up for coffee with the concerned parent I told you about in my previous update who had attended the September Disability Commission meeting to share his frustrations with the poor sidewalk conditions in Northampton endangering his teenage son who is a wheelchair user. After attending the Commission meeting, he contacted the Department of Public Works to report the dangerous sidewalk on his street, only to be told by them that the sidewalk in question was not on their list of scheduled repairs. He and I decided to team up in-person to get to the bottom of this slow, infuriating, dismissive process, because parents looking out for the safety of their children deserve better than that from their local government. This is their city too, and they should have a say in which sidewalks are getting repaired.

✨On that same day, Disability Commissioner Amy Sugihara, along with the ADA coordinator and I, visited St. John’s Episcopal Church to advise them on how to improve the interior of their already very accessible Church, to suggest ways to make it more welcoming and inviting for people with disabilities. Truly, it felt so refreshing to be in a space where such tremendous thought, attention, and care has been put into accessibility. Thank you.

✨On Sunday, October 1st, at Helen Hills Chapel, I attended the memorial service of the renowned disabled disability activist Laura Rauscher who was the director of disability services at Smith College for over 20 years. Though I never had the privilege of meeting Laura Rauscher - I was invited by her friend and former chair of the Disability Commission, Christos Palames - it was an honor to be in the presence of so many disabled people whose lives she changed, who loved her so much. I felt blessed for this deeply moving glimpse into the life of a woman who transformed Smith campus into a more accessible landscape, whose lifetime of disability activism, wisdom and dedication towards improving the lives of so many people right here in Northampton will be an enduring legacy of love and leadership that sets an example for all of us. Thank you Christos and thank you Laura.

✨Thursday morning, October 5th, I met up with Ryan Feyre of Springfield’s The Reminder to discuss my goals and aspirations as candidate for Ward 4 City Councilor. He asked excellent questions which gave me the opportunity to share some of my feelings about how I think I can best serve our amazing city. You can read the article, which also includes interviews with Ward 2 candidate Debby Pastrich-Klemer and Ward 3 candidate Quaverly Rothenberg HERE.

✨On Tuesday, October 10th, Northampton’s Disability Commission meeting had a new election where Vice-Chair Emma Cornwell and I were both unanimously re-elected. We happily accepted! I look forward to serving as Chair of the Disability Commission for the next couple of months until I will resign to take office as Councilor. In addition to our election, we had a very productive meeting, with many visitors from the public engaging with us in conversation about important visible and non-visible accessibility concerns in the Main Street redesign plan, as well as unsafe sidewalks all over the city. I want to express that it felt exciting to have such spirited community interaction with the Disability Commission, and I’d love for that to become a regular occurrence.

[image description: this is a screenshot from the Disability Commission meeting held on Zoom on October 10, the moment after Jeremy has just been elected as Chair for the third time. The screen is split, showing 16 participants, most of them smiling. The caption says: Whoooo Jeremy thank you Linda Jeremy]

✨The next day, Wednesday the 11th of October, it was an honor to testify to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in full support of Senate Bill 446 and House Bill 769- two acts which would expand access to trails in nature for people of all abilities. At the request of Meg Bandarra, the mastermind behind the Unpaved Trails For All project, I shared with the House of Representatives the story of my first experience visiting an unpaved accessible trail, at Lake Wallace Sensory Trail in Belchertown. You can read my full testimony alongside a terrific article written by New England Public media about the hearing HERE. Thank you so much Meg for your advocacy, and for including me and my story.

[image description: this is a screenshot of an article from New England Public Media, titled: "'Calm, soothed, and able;' western Mass. users offer testimony on impact of accessible trails" by Nancy Eve Cohen There is a Zoom screenshot of Jeremy Dubs, a white disabled man with glasses and red hair testifying before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Underneath are the captioned words, said by Jeremy: "The exclusion that I've experienced so often."]

✨On Thursday, October 12th, after meeting up for coffee with Ward 2 City Councilor Karen Foster and Disability Commissioners Emma and Amy to discuss all sorts of topics related to accessibility, my wife Becca and I joined our band Bunnies in Lee, Massachusetts to play some of our new songs on Community Television for the Southern Berkshires. At the end of the night, I was still drinking the same coffee that I began earlier that day. You can watch the full Bunnies performance HERE.

[image description: this is a screenshot of a video of the band Bunnies playing music. The scene is very surreal from left to right: Becca, a tall woman with black hair in a ponytail wears swirly purple clothes and plays trumpet. Jeremy, a man with orange hair plays guitar and sings in his wheelchair next to a sculpture of upside down legs. Matthew Newman, a cool person with a big beard, button shirt, and cool hat plays drums in front of a large tapestry, and Jack Godleski, another cool person with a beard and buttoned shirt, plays keyboard and has light reflecting off of them. The drums have BUNNIES painted on them and everything seems to be swirling around.]

✨The following day, October 13th, I had the important opportunity to articulate and share some of my thoughts about racial justice and equity by answering questions that Western Mass Showing Up for Racial Justice (WMSURJ), Northampton Abolition Now (NAN), and Racial Equity And Learning (REAL) asked of the upcoming and incumbent city councilors. My audio and written responses are now posted here on my website and I hope to hear what social justice and equity mean to you.

✨Also in the past few weeks, your generous donations were put to good use when we bought buttons, magnets, and stickers, beautifully designed by my incredible campaign manager Maria Guarino. They are free to all who want them! I’d be happy to ride my power wheelchair to deliver them to you at the destination of your choosing, if you live in Northampton, or we can mail them to you. Feel free to reach out and let me know!

[image description: These are two photos side by side. The first is a photo of a campaign button sitting on a table. It has a circle of blue around it with white stars and says VOTE in white on top of a red background. Underneath, in blue letters, it

says: JEREMY DUBS WARD 4, next to a photo of Jeremy, a white man with red hair, wearing a blue flannel shirt, sitting in his manual wheelchair. Underneath him are the words: REIMAGINE THE WHEEL in white letters on a red background. The second photo is a photo of Jeremy’s wife and campaign team member Becca wearing Jeremy’s campaign button on her jeans. She looks down at it proudly.] ✨And finally, it isn’t just buttons (though we did take a long time to design the perfect ones.) Our team has been thoughtfully, carefully, and intentionally adding content to our REIMAGINING and DISABILITY tabs on this website: www.jeremy4ward4.com This includes a link to Northampton’s ADA Transition Plan which will play a key role in guiding my work as Ward 4 City Councilor. Also, it includes information about terms I frequently use in my campaigning, such as disability, ableism, and disability justice. I look forward to your input, to learning together, and to Reimagining the Wheel. Yours, Jeremy Dubs