Purple Party
Viewing as Priya Raghunathan

Common Ground

Everyone writes their own position privately. A panel drafts candidate statements the group might be able to sign. Members rank them, critique them, and the panel redrafts with the changes shown. The group ratifies by vote — and what does not survive the vote is published alongside what did.

Housing near transit

Closed 28 August · 34 members · browse any stage

Should cities be allowed to override local objections to apartment buildings near transit stations?

Politics · Local34 participants3 rounds · 2 redrafts
Ratified statement

“Most of us accept that transit-adjacent housing should be easier to build than it currently is, and that local objection processes are frequently used to protect incumbents rather than to surface real costs. We also agree the infrastructure costs are real, that they often land on people who had no say, and that override policies routinely fail to fund them. We do not agree on whether state governments can be trusted to administer an override fairly, and that is the live disagreement — not whether the housing should exist.”

Endorsed by 29 of 34 members.
Cluster A
15 of 18 endorsed
Cluster B
14 of 16 endorsed
Declined
5, with reasons

Both clusters endorsed at close to the same rate. That is the only condition under which a statement here counts as common ground — a statement one cluster carries alone is a majority opinion, and the product has other places for those.

Published dissents

Declining requires a reason, and reasons publish.
Dana Whitfield · declined
“I endorse everything except ‘frequently used to protect incumbents.’ That’s an assumption about motive, and I don’t think you can read motive off an outcome.”
Halima Farouk · declined
“Too weak. The statement treats the infrastructure objection as equally evidenced and it isn’t.”

The two dissents pull in opposite directions — one says the statement assumes too much, the other says it concedes too much. A consensus tool that hid this would be a manufacturing tool.

Open now

Stage 2 · 61 members submitted · 4 days remaining

Is remote work responsible for the decline in downtown tax bases, or was that decline already underway?

Business · Local61 submittedStage 2 of 4

Three candidates. Rank them and critique the one you put first.

Not yet submitted.

Other sessions

Closed sessions stay readable, including the ones that ratified nothing.