It’s growing slowly, but surely, and by the next meeting, it may have doubled again.
A handful of people, some of them strangers, turned up in Erika Koenig-Workman’s Steveston kitchen last month for her Green New Deal (GND) town hall.
And on Monday evening, she hosted a second town hall for her Green New Deal Richmond-Steveston group, this time at a slightly more formal setting in the City Centre Community Centre, with around 25 people attending.
Koenig-Workman set up her own GND group, with similar events happening across the Western world on the back of a U.S. Democratic-led stimulus package that aims to address a global climate and economic crisis.
“We went through the presentation (on Monday) for the Green New Deal and then we broke out into small groups to brainstorm about things they wanted to see happening in the city,” Koenig-Workman told the Richmond News.
“There were people of all ages. We talked about moving away from the use of fossil fuels and plastics, with new jobs being created for those in those areas.”
Koenig-Workman said she was “immensely encouraged by the turnout and the feedback.”
“And one of the younger attendees put together a quick presentation to empower people to take action.
“When people feel they can do something, they will be motivated to make a change.”
Koenig-Workman said her group has immediately started working on the next town hall, which will be an outdoor event at the end of July, outside the Beat Merchant in Steveston.
The Steveston-based artist and writer has carried out town hall meetings before, including a coal shipping awareness event at Steveston Community Centre in 2012, when there were plans to ship U.S. coal along the Fraser River.
