Passing the Mic: East Hills Council of Neighbors answers, "What are you finding people saying about Black Lives Matter and reallocation or defunding of police?"

Fran Dalton, neighborhood organizer at Garfield Park Neighborhoods Association, asks Grand Rapids' neighborhood associations:

• "In this recent environment with Black Lives Matter and the trend to looking at reallocation or defunding of police, I'm wondering what other neighborhood associations are finding people saying about that?"

Maggi Rivera, Executive Director at East Hills Council of Neighbors, responds, and passes a question on to other neighborhood associations in the city:

• "Since the city is doing their Master Plan for the next twenty years . . . beyond 2040, where do we see neighborhood associations? What do we see in them?"

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Passing the Mic is a project of Community Media Center that promotes online, community-wide discussion of local issues and topics using the spoken word.

Residents are invited to share one to three-minute audio responses to locally-focused questions from fellow neighbors, with questions geared toward all Grand Rapidians or specific communities within the city. Keeping the discussion going, speakers are encouraged to end their responses with their own question related to a local issue or topic – passing along the opportunity to amplify community voices.

Opinions expressed through Passing the Mic are those of the speakers and do not reflect the editorial voice of The Rapidian or CMC. Posted responses are subject to The Rapidian’s Terms of Use, which include adherence to inclusiveness, civility, ethical reporting, proper credit, local emphasis, and open identity (no anonymous posting).