In 2004, the Republican National Convention was held in New York City. Activists came from all over the country to make sure opposing voices would be heard. A permit was requested to hold a march and rally in Central Park. The march snaked through the streets of Manhattan with no destination because Mayor Bloomberg refused to grant a permit to hold a rally in Central Park. He claimed that it would be too expensive to reseed the grass. A few of us handed out little bags of grass seed, hoping to convince the mayor that our intensions were good. Alas, the mayor prevailed, and demonstrators never got to the park, but we called our little action Seeds of Democracy.
In 2017 we turned Seeds of Democracy into a website to provide information and political resources for voters New York’s 19thCongressional District. Our elected representatives in Congress and the State Senate were all Republicans.
We along with many likeminded voters worked together to elect Democrats in the 2018 election. Our congressional representative and 3 state senate seats in the 19th flipped to the Democrats. Both Congress and the New York State Senate gained Democratic majorities.
Now in 2023, a Republican has been elected to represent the 19th Congressional District. Some of us are not ready to go back to the days of not having our views represented in the U.S. Congress.
Our focus will be a little different from the original website. We have organized the website by counties and will provide information on Boards of Elections, Democratic Committees, fairs, farmers’ markets, enrollment and election data so that voters can learn about our newly formed Congressional District.
We may not be planting grass, but we are continuing to cultivate information about our district. Our democracy needs to be reseeded now and then and we’re here to help that happen.