Unseen Tallahassee is everywhere.
It is made up of people opening stores before sunrise, delivering meals after dark, raising children in public housing, renting homes they may never be able to purchase, and working schedules that make attending a three-hour government meeting nearly impossible.
I know Unseen Tallahassee because I was raised in it. My family moved here after losing our home during a difficult period shaped by addiction and incarceration. My mother sometimes worked five jobs. I spent 14 years in public housing and grew up traveling between Pinewood Place and neighborhoods across this city by bicycle and longboard.
I also know it through work. I have worked in landscaping, construction, janitorial services, grocery stores, farmers markets, restaurants, delivery and rideshare. I have traveled more than 130,000 working miles across Tallahassee, transporting thousands of people and delivering tens of thousands of packages. I have heard about this city from front porches, checkout lines, job sites and passenger seats.
Yet many of these voices are missing from local elections.
When roughly two-thirds of eligible voters do not participate in primary elections, a relatively small circle of habitual voters, donors, political organizations and insiders gains enormous power over our future. These networks begin deciding which candidates are “serious,” which ideas are acceptable and whose experience counts before most residents ever examine the ballot.
People are not simply apathetic. Many are exhausted, working multiple jobs, caring for family or struggling to afford their lives. Others have watched government overlook their neighborhoods for so long that voting feels disconnected from meaningful change.
We need politicians willing to galvanize people around visions for the future, not simply signal that they care. We need leaders who will build Tallahassee from the ground up and who have already demonstrated that commitment through years of work.
That is why I stepped forward.
I started my first community garden at 16. Since then, I have helped build gardens in public housing and underserved neighborhoods, organized food drives and litter cleanups, led invasive-plant removals, restored native species, supported recycling and composting initiatives, worked with tenant organizers and created community events. Much of that work happened without institutional backing, traditional funding or political recognition. I did it because the work needed to be done.
Our city needs that same spirit in government: meet people where they are, give them something real to believe in and invite them to help build it.
Early voting continues through Sunday, and Election Day is Tuesday. Regardless of whom you support, make your voice heard.
Unseen Tallahassee is not a fringe group. It is the working heart of this city, and it is time for that heart to have power.
Darryl “Dar Wavemaker” Alfred is a longtime community advocate and candidate for Tallahassee City Commission, Seat 3.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Unseen Tallahassee deserves a voice with your vote | Opinion
Reporting by Darryl “Dar Wavemaker” Alfred, Your Turn / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Darryl “Dar Wavemaker” Alfred, Your Turn | USA TODAY Network
