Editor’s Desk: Issue 8
Dear reader,
There’s a certain kind of magic in Wheeling during the summer. The way the lush, green hills cascade around The Ohio; the way the city comes alive with outdoor music and festivals; the way the air becomes heavier and hazy yet everything feels a little lighter.
But it’s important to note that this summer hasn’t been easy for some of our neighbors. When the Valley was hit with a dangerous heatwave over the Fourth of July weekend, little to no efforts were made on the part of the city to provide cool, safe spaces for unhoused people. There is actually no city emergency plan for extreme weather for unhoused individuals.
Wheeling’s City Council is doing its best, ostensibly, to be taking a balanced approach to tackling the issue of homelessness. We have yet to see what direction their ‘Homeless Taskforce’ will take and whether the outcome will be beneficial to our community – or spell further surveillance and criminalization of homelessness downtown. Based on Wheeling’s track record, I have my reservations about this venture.
As a Gen-Z kid who came up in a world of recession and war and constant political and social upheaval, I’m sure it won’t stun you when I say I lack confidence in our current economic and political systems. But I’m far from hopeless. I just choose to put my hope in the everyday people I actually see making change.
Both in Wheeling and on a larger scale, it’s clear that we cannot depend on the ‘powers that be’ to solve our problems. We have to depend on each other. Change begins on a small scale – with a feeling of dissatisfaction or inspiration or anger that bubbles up and starts to spill over. It starts with a conversation, a Facebook post, a Canva flyer, an impromptu meeting in a neighbor’s living room.
Wheeling has already seen an abundance of grassroots organizing this summer borne by these small starts.
When the aforementioned heat wave hit the Valley, our parent organization, House of Hagar and Street Moms partnered with local organizations to offer reprieve from the scorching temps for those who needed it.
A small group of inspired local business folks took it upon themselves to organize an independent music festival, Jamboree City, which drew 1,500 people to downtown Wheeling and generated upwards of $100,000 in revenue for local businesses in a single day in June. In just under 90 days they tapped artists, musicians and private businesses to launch a successful event sure to grow even larger next year.
Also in June, the City Council voted ‘yea’ on a resolution disallowing the Friendlier City Project from flying a pride flag at Heritage Port for their annual festival (mandating that only the Wheeling, West Virginia and U.S. flags be flown on city flagpoles.) In the days following, and as a firm reminder that pride started as a protest, the FCP launched a social media campaign encouraging Wheeling’s people to display as many pride flags from private residences as possible, and display flags they did!
When it was discovered – and I use that word intentionally, because there was no transparency or public announcement whatsoever – that a data center project was slated for the former Foundry site in Warwood, locals acted quickly. In the span of just a couple weeks, dozens flooded a Warwood townhall, around a hundred came together for an informational session at Waterfront Hall and many of those same organizers and concerned citizens overran a City Council meeting to express their disapproval.
I think our August issue of Mustard Seed Mountain really reflects this moment in Wheeling, a time when those dissatisfied with the current state of things are getting more and more organized. We are not just demanding a Wheeling that works for us, but forging it. Every day, blow by blow.
In this issue, you’ll find a piece from local organizer and Feeding Warwood founder Polly Barks about the power of hyper-local organizing and just how impactful looking out for your immediate neighbors can be. Meanwhile Ohio Valley Mutual Aid organizer Libby Horacek discusses Really Really Free Markets, an anti-establishment way community members can fill their needs by giving and receiving items for free.
Local independent journalist Justice Hudson covers the grassroots push for more transparency about the proposed data center project in Warwood and our own Ashlie Howard profiles Quenton Norcraft, a local volunteer who doesn’t wait for permission to make change – he sees a need in his community and fills it.
That’s what’s really special about Wheeling, among a great deal of other things. Here, we look after our own little corner of the world. That can mean something as small as buying someone a coffee when they don’t have cash on hand or as big as speaking up at a council meeting or helping muck out someone’s home after a flood.
Please make the most of these last couple months of Wheeling summer magic, enjoy this issue and, most importantly, take care of your neighbors.
Stay cool. (And cool,)
Niamh Coomey
Niamh Coomey