Things discussed at my borough's (pop. ~1800) council meeting this past Monday:

- Evicting tenants because their landlord can't follow the law (didn't do required inspections, obtain required licenses, etc)

- Existing arrest warrants for said landlord

- New liens against properties

- Tax increases in the neighborhood of $80-300/yr, which is considerable when the median income is roughly $2250/mo gross.

These are councilors that are elected in unopposed races the vast majority of the time, and when they are opposed the margin may only be a dozen votes. Because they're in off years you're looking at maybe 8-10% total turnout (~45 or so per voting district), and there may only be 25 or 30 total votes in even opposed elections. For folks given the power to evict, halt property sales, etc. I'd argue the power given per vote require is on par with state executives and higher than a freshman member of Congress.

I didn't grasp the importance of local races until I became involved.

Short of everyone running for office (at least once), I wish there was a way to communicate this truth to the average voters.

I'm still unclear on why there hasn't been a mass movement that tells people who are interested in affecting political change, but who live in enclaves where everyone already shares their political views, to instead move to a city/town where their views are radical, and then run for city council there, giving like-minded but disenfranchised voters of that district someone to vote for.