A shift is happening. You can feel it as you read this. People are sick of the old ways of doing things and are ready for radical change. Mamdani’s win in New York is incredible for so many reasons: a 34-year old Muslim Democratic Socialist has both sparked and tapped into the progressive energy that people have been craving for decades.
Here in Santa Fe, we are on the brink of change as well. With Michael Garcia set to lead the city starting in January, Santa Feans are also craving radical change. We are sick of top-heavy governmental institutions that don’t listen or make room for the majority of the people who live here. We are sick of working hard to cater to wealthy tourists and second homeowners while over 50% of our workforce can’t afford to live here. We want new ways of doing things that go beyond just politics, including how we stay informed about what’s going on.
At 505OMATIC, we have embarked on a community experiment. We noticed that local news and information wasn’t showing up in our social media feeds, which is how many of us get our news these days. So we took the plunge and started making videos about issues that affect our community. We love doing this work. We are showing up and engaging with all kinds of people - community activists, artists, city councilors, people experiencing homelessness. We are doing this work because we care about the town we live in and the people who call this place home.
But like a lot of grassroots organizations, our main challenge is sustaining this work. So far we have mostly been volunteering our time. We are now trying to figure out how to make money - not to make ourselves rich, but to support ourselves while we continue to do work that enriches and informs our community. The thing is, if you are reading this, or watching our videos, or coming to our Living Room events, you are already a part of this project.
Before 505OMATIC, I worked in the nonprofit industrial complex, where we are taught that there is a finite amount of resources. That we must compete with all of the other people who are also doing good work, all to try to secure money to continue doing the good work. It means spending hours on grant applications advocating for our cause. It means busting our butts to put together fancy events that mostly serve as photo ops for wealthy people. It means trying to appeal to the sympathies of those who have the money. This is the traditional way of doing things: playing an exhausting game we wished we didn’t have to play.
What if there was a different way? We recently published a story on Community Timebanks, and the response was amazing, quickly becoming our most engaged with story. This demonstrated how people all over the country are hungry for alternatives to exploitative capitalistic systems. As the wealthiest people in our society continue to hoard resources at the expense of everyone else, we ask, is it possible for us to move in the opposite direction on a local level? Can we work together to create the kind of community where everyone’s basic needs are met, and where we can truly thrive?
505OMATIC believes this is not a hypothetical. We are already seeing the shift: mutual aid groups providing food to those who need it; faith groups providing shelter for the unhoused; organizations protecting our immigrant neighbors and community-powered news outlets, like KNKX in Seattle that was able to keep their independence by buying the station with help from the community.
In order to be truly self-sustainable, we need the community’s support. To be community powered we need 6000 yearly subscribers. Though we don’t want to guilt you into subscribing, we do want you to know that we can’t do this without you. (Besides, do you really want to continue giving all those mega corporations the monthly subscription fees that support their financial contributions to the fascist regime that is attempting to take over our country as we speak?!... Ok maybe a little guilting). This work is of and by the community: this includes every comment and every criticism you leave us on social media; every person who shows up monthly on the third Thursday to eat popcorn at the Jean Cocteau; every tip you give us about stories we should cover. We know you care about this community as much as we do, so we invite you to buy in to 505OMATIC - through a paid subscription, a donation, or by coming to our upcoming birthday party (Dec 13th at Chomp!).
Together we’ll continue to build our collective future together, one story at a time.
