Nothing About Us Without Us

Friends and Constituents,

I hope you’ve had a good week and weekend, despite all the chaos. 

I had a busy week as usual (see my monthly log at the bottom of this email), but I wanted to focus on two totally separate events that had a common thread running through both of them.

First, I attended the community meeting that the Save the Ransburg YMCA Coalition held on Thursday evening.

Second, I helped resident organizers hold a townhall meeting discussing their frustrations with their landlord and property managers on Saturday. 

Two different events, with very different demographics in the room. Yet both events featured rooms full of frustrated and angry people, for the same reason: we had no seat at the table where decisions were made that deeply impacted our lives.

Nothing About Us Without Us

Ironically, this quintessentially Indianapolis experience in the year 2026 can be described by a Polish medieval phrase that became popularized by South African disability rights activists.

The phrase “Nothing About Us Without Us” puts a finer point on ideas underpinning the American slogan “no taxation without representation”. People naturally understand that they should have a seat at any table where their lives and livelihoods are impacted. 

I was invited by the CEO of the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis to a private meeting with elected officials to discuss the closure of the Ransburg Y. I declined the invitation and urged leadership to attend the community meeting.

Unfortunately, the community town hall ended up featuring row after row of empty chairs at the front of the room, showing that each and every one of the board members and leaders of the YCMA of Greater Indianapolis stayed home and refused to meet directly with the community.

The CEO and Board sent me an open letter to the community to summarize the meeting I had declined with them. The letter stated that for 18 months, the board had been conducting over 100 meetings and exploring options for the Ransburg YMCA, and that they regretted the necessity of closing the Y. 

But in the room on Thursday night, longtime members, staff, and advisory board members of the YMCA stated that they had only been told in January that the Ransburg might need to close. Community members were reasonable and understood that the Y needed to raise money, and did not demand impossible goals. But all of us were furious that we had not been part of the discussions and decisions around the future of the building and the communities it supports.

We haven’t given up - community members are still fighting to re-open the Ransburg YMCA and find a path forward that will help serve the thousands of children, adults, and seniors that benefitted from programming there. But the board and leadership of the Y have chosen not to be part of those efforts.

On Saturday, we saw a glimpse of a different path forward: one where those impacted by financial decisions are able to participate in making those decisions.

I have been working to help residents of TWG-owned properties for months now, with intensifying efforts in the last few months. In January, I wrote about the PILOT agreement TWG is seeking in order to redevelop an affordable housing project. Last week, I wrote about the power of collective action that tenants are demonstrating in pushing to raise deep concerns about property maintenance. All of these efforts led to an amazing event on Saturday the 28th.

Tenant leaders from multiple TWG properties helped plan and organize everything that happened that day. Representatives from the Indianapolis Fire Department, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Gleaners, John Boner Neighborhood Centers, the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, GIMA, and AARP all attended and offered their support to tenants. Tenant leaders made the best potato salad I’ve ever had in my life, cupcakes, a Girl Scout Cookie dirt pudding dessert, a wonderful green salad, tea sandwiches, and more, and my campaign paid to supplement this with a ton of delicious cajun food from Yats. TWG sent a representative from senior management to listen in, and their property management company, Elmington, sent several representatives as well. And KT Love from Allies for Humanity was absolutely indispensable for everything that happened - coming up with a soulful playlist of music, providing a microphone out of thin air when it was needed, and helping to lift up the voices that needed to be heard.

We collectively came up with a list of community agreements about our conversation, knowing that we had a room full of frustrated people. Together, we agreed not to allow cross-talk or back-and-forth conversations, and agreed that everyone should respect and pay attention to each speaker. Each speaker was encouraged to try to keep their comments to 2-3 minutes so that others would have a fair chance to speak. For over two hours, a multiracial group of residents of all ages and incomes respected these agreements and listened to each other share their own frustrations and hopes.

Over and over again, residents spoke about similar issues: Fire alarms that went off for hours on end without property managers addressing them. Elevators that went down for maintenance and stayed down for days or weeks at a time. Furnace filters not replaced for months or years at a time. Confusion around who to contact for repairs due to frequently-changing property managers. Vendors complaining they did not have the tools to properly perform their jobs. Vendors complaining that they hadn’t been paid for services rendered. Entry doors that worked inconsistently or failed frequently.

Residents shared their deep and very personal pains as well: a woman who was evicted spoke about her son’s ashes being thrown in the trash with no attempt to contact her to retrieve them first. A man was evicted by a SWAT team under suspicion of selling drugs, but was not apologized to when no evidence of this behavior was found; he claimed many of his personal possessions were stolen by the crew that forcefully emptied the apartment.

Throughout this litany of frustrations, residents were remarkably respectful towards management and expressed understanding that any landlord needed to be judicious with their use of funds. What bothered them the most was feeling like they had no opportunity for redress, and no fair way to communicate and have their desires respected.

That’s why residents are working to form a more formal organization, and asked TWG to work alongside that organization to continue to solve problems together.

In a letter to TWG that resident leaders and I collectively drafted, we proposed a path forward that would allow me as the district councilor to support the desired PILOT agreement:

“-We’d like TWG’s written commitment not to retaliate against anyone involved in convening this town hall or residents’ association. (Note that this is already a legal requirement under IC 32-31-8.5-2, but residents and I would all feel better about it if you’d commit to that). Similarly, we would like TWG to acknowledge the residents’ association as a group TWG will continue working alongside.

-We’d like Elmington to commit to responding to property management issues within 24 hours of them being reported, and to providing weekly updates to residents for issues that are not possible to fix urgently.

-As a way to hold TWG and Elmington accountable to this, we’d like to ask you to highlight the residents’ association and/or the Mayor’s Action Center on flyers in each of your buildings so that residents not being served well know where they can send complaints.

-We would like to schedule a progressive series of meetings about other issues. As a proposed first issue to tackle, we would like you to take immediate action to repair and replace entry door systems at any properties where these systems are currently malfunctioning.

-Residents would like to be assured that elevators will remain operational, permitted, and that they will have the ability to get future elevator issues resolved promptly

Again: we all understand that changes will take time and that in affordable housing, there are limitations to the resources and funds you have available to provide. We are merely asking for residents to have a seat at the table and to work alongside you to improve conditions at TWG-owned properties.”

Nothing about us without us. Residents insisted on a seat at the table where decisions are made. And today, TWG committed to exactly that.

Ms. Twylla, Ms. Valerie, and Ms. Shanise, the three top resident leaders who worked so many hours to make the event a success, are overjoyed at this victory. It will be the first of many! We know that we need far more affordable housing units in Indianapolis, and we have many steps to take in order to fix all the problems that residents have reported.
But it feels much better to be at the table, working for a solution, even when it’s difficult work. Thanks to TWG for taking this first step with us.

In love and solidarity,
Jesse

MONTHLY LOG!

Sunday 3/1: Had brunch to celebrate my wife’s birthday. Caught up on correspondence and housework.

Monday 3/2: Full Council meeting and wife’s birthday activities.

Tuesday 3/3: Therapy. Helped plan a meeting at the Debs House in Terre Haute. 

Wednesday 3/4: Therapy. Met with leaders from Urban Hope Indy. Met with an empty-nester interested in getting involved with local politics. Talked with a Kroger rank-and-file leader working to set up a town hall about affordability.

Thursday 3/5: Spoke at the Circle at Recycleforce. Had coffee with a friend who runs a theater. Followed up on a few outstanding constituent requests from the City. Met up with a few friends to plan the Debs House meeting.

Friday 3/6: Met a friend for coffee to talk renewable energy, utility bills, and local politics generally. Therapy. (Yes, it was a busy week for therapy). Party business call. Correspondence and constituent emails.

Saturday 3/7:  Worked to organize 3/15 protest. Gave a speech at the anti-war protest at the Statehouse. Helped celebrate a constituent and friend’s birthday with a “reverse surprise birthday party”.

Sunday 3/8: Talked with a friend in West Lafayette about fighting against homelessness and the effectiveness of Indianapolis’s Streets to Home strategy. Had a family birthday party in Greenwood. Composed my weekly email and video.

Monday 3/9: Chatted with candidates for office I’m mentoring / advising. Worked on personal finance catchup. Picked up some pins a friend made. Talked with Jay Height from Shepherd Community Center about ongoing concerns with housing and security on the near eastside. Met with Indiana Members Credit Union’s leadership to tour their new headquarters in the Bottleworks District and better understand their needs. Met with a few other Councilors to discuss ongoing friction with a City department leader. Metropolitan Economic Development Committee meeting.

Tuesday 3/10: Therapy. Went to Lowe’s to pick up some items needed for a painting project in our front room. Attended a GIMA tenant’s rights / tenant union meeting. Doctor’s appointment. Met with a constituent to talk local politics and catch up on Holy Cross issues. More work to plan the Debs event.

Wednesday 3/11: Met one of the tenant leaders who has been organizing to tour her building and review the issues she’s been working on. Caught up with KT Love to plan out how we can better serve our housing-insecure neighbors. Therapy. Met a former administrator with the Department of Metropolitan Development to hear his perspective and insights on the City. Met with a politically engaged constituent who is relatively new in town to share my perspective on Indianapolis politics and hear hers. Caught up on laundry.

Thursday 3/12: Met with a college student doing a project on public transportation and logistics. Met with a representative from the Builder’s Association of Greater Indianapolis to hear their perspective on development. Gave a presentation to the Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter at Miami University in Oxford, OH. Planned out more aspects of the Debs House meeting.

Friday 3/13: Therapy. Helped give a friend a ride home from the hospital. Spent a few hours planning and strategizing for the tenant townhall. 

Saturday 3/14: Participated in the Walk for Water rally for Eagle Creek Park against the LEAP district. Helped with last-second preparation for the Debs House meeting.

Sunday 3/15: Went to Terre Haute with friends to celebrate the launch of the Socialist Party of Indiana at the Debs House! 

Monday 3/16: Finished writing my weekly video and sent my email update. Talked through the status of the safety improvements I requested back in 2024 as my $1 million Council District project (hopefully about to actually commence that work). Attended the Environmental Sustainability Committee meeting to talk about environmentally dubious bills that have passed the Statehouse, and to discuss data centers.

Tuesday 3/17: Was sure to wear green. Therapy. Invited a ton of organizations and individuals to the tenants’ association meeting. Talked with the Prosecutor about how to hold gas station owners accountable for marketing drug paraphernalia to children. Board meeting for the Indy Community Land Trust.

Wednesday 3/18: Gave an interview to a friend from Urban Hope Indy. Therapy. Met to talk podcasts with a lawyer friend of mine thinking of starting one. Met with my District Director to plan out canvasses.

Thursday 3/19: Met with the Government Relations folks from AES to hear their perspectives on the recent cancelled town halls, the proposed sale to the Consortium led by Blackrock, and utility bills. Had lunch with a friend from DSA. Operation Indy Animals Legislation and Enforcement working group meeting.

Friday 3/20: Therapy. Party business call. Met with the tenant organizers who led the tenant association meeting the following week to plan out the event. Got a beer with Jeffery, one of my favorite urban planners and visionaries.

Saturday 3/21: Attended a friend’s combination housewarming / baby shower. Caught up on sleep and chores around the house.

Sunday 3/22: More catching up around the house. Wrote my weekly email and recorded the accompanying video.

Monday 3/23: More last-second planning for tenant association meeting. Biked to a kickoff event for the Mononx16 group working on a tactical urbanism project. 

Tuesday 3/24: Picked up some copies of flyers for the tenant association meeting, stopped by the pharmacy. Caught up on finances. Biked to the NESCO board of directors meeting.

Wednesday 3/25: Took a test to look into whether I have ADHD. Went with Ms. Valerie, one of the tenant leaders, to shop for supplies for the tenant association event and to put up flyers at a few buildings. Had a lunch meeting with Shepherd Community Center leaders and pastors from the area to discuss the Declaration of Independence, the power of fasting, and ways to continue pushing for liberty and justice for all. Attended a webinar about public surplus programs put on by the Association of Indiana Counties. Met with a woman who will hopefully be running for office next year. Got a haircut from my wife!

Thursday 3/26: Met with Kona, the sweet dog staying with us for a week. Sat down to get to know Doran Moreland, the new Council chief of staff. Spoke with Rafael Sanchez on the phone about the tenant association event. Attended the Ransburg YMCA community meeting.

Friday 3/27: Spoke to a constituent and neighbor about the former Indiana Women’s Prison site and potential funding through the East Side HOTIF. Lots of last second prep for the tenant association meeting. Party business call. Grabbed a drink with a bunch of DSA friends.

Saturday 3/28:  Held and executed the amazing tenants’ association meeting thanks to Ms. Val, Ms. Twylla, and Ms. Shanise doing amazing work, the Parks Department staff at Frederick Douglass being extremely helpful and friendly, and a ton of wonderful residents, service providers, and property management representatives all coming together to try to improve the buildings.

Sunday 3/29: Planned out calendars and meal prep for the week. Worked on taxes. Dealt with an issue involving a friend of mine and allegations of abuse. Went to my brother-in-law’s birthday party in Greenwood. Got a flat tire thanks to potholes in Indy.

Monday 3/30: Heard back from TWG that they agreed to the residents’ conditions and the PILOT agreement can move forward! Dealt with the flat tire - requiring a tow since the new car doesn’t have a spare. Gave a talk to the IU Indianapolis Sam Masarachia Scholarship class about how political office can be used to help with organizing. Worked on a speech for this coming Saturday for Young Men Against War. Making some wings for dinner. Debriefing with a group of activists from around the state who went to No Kings events. Wrote this email and recorded an accompanying video.

Tuesday 3/31: I have therapy tomorrow. Working on a READI grant application support letter. Making food. Picking up the car from the shop (with luck). Walk and Talk with Martindale-Brightwood leaders. Canvassing for Clif Marsiglio!

As a reminder, I send these updates about how I spend my time to you because you pay my salary. I appreciate any and all feedback you have! What am I not doing enough of? What do you want to see more focus on? How can I better serve you?