The Desert Trumpet joins the nonprofit local journalism movement
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The Desert Trumpet has exciting news! We're becoming a nonprofit to support independent reporting of local news and, thanks to $60,000 in funding, we can continue to report on Twentynine Palms City Hall. We want to thank our new fiscal receiver, AHA Projects, for helping us secure this crucial support. Although we are moving from an all-volunteer project to a publication with a (mostly) paid staff, The Desert Trumpet is committed to ensuring that access to our reporting remains free of charge and free of ads.
The Desert Trumpet was founded by a small group of volunteers in April 2022. We remain committed to increasing political engagement and encouraging a participatory political process. Our focus is on Twentynine Palms but our goal is to report on social justice, equity and environmental issues throughout the Morongo Basin, as well as provide a forum for residents to interact on these issues.
Per The American Journalism Project:
Local news connects us to our community and to our neighbors. It uplifts voices that would otherwise go unheard.
Local news demands accountability of community, business, and governmental bodies. It forces decision-making structures to operate within the public’s view.
Local news lends us agency, empowering us with the knowledge we need to make informed decisions about issues critical to our daily lives.
Providing an independent voice in the Morongo Basin news ecosystem is crucial to our mission. But if we are going to maintain the quality reporting expected by our readers, The Desert Trumpet needs to evolve into a nonprofit local journalism model, which includes paying staff and writers. Too much news is happening, and the struggle to survive is too great to continue reporting as volunteers.
We’ve always been flattered by our readers’ offers to fund our writing but until now, The Desert Trumpet has been unable to offer subscriptions or accept donations. With fiscal receiver sponsorship from AHA Projects, we can do both. Won’t you consider supporting The Desert Trumpet by becoming a paid subscriber or by donating? We still need to raise $10,000 of our 2024 budget in order to bring you the City Hall reporting you’ve come to rely on.
Subscribe via Subtack
Monthly $5
Yearly $50
Sustaining $100
Via Paypal / Donations over $100
Donations of $101 or more can be sent via the AHA Projects Paypal (our fiscal sponsor). Donations include a subscription.
Via check / Donations over $100
Donations of $101 or more can also be mailed via check to our fiscal sponsor. Specify that your donation is for The Desert Trumpet in the memo line of your check. Donations include a subscription.
AHA Projects
Cheyanne Sauter
2501 12th Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90018
Your subscriptions and donations support:
•Everything we currently do including Twentynine Palms City Hall reporting on all Council and Commission meetings as well as on issues crucial to our City
•Coverage of local elections
•Explainers on complex subjects such as sewer and wastewater
•Investigative reports planned for 2024, including research on the proposed solar farm
Your subscriptions and donations will help us build for the future:
•An intern program for training young local journalists
•Complete Twentynine Palms City Hall coverage including reporting on all Council, Commissions and Committee as well as issues crucial to our City
•Coverage of local elections, including Twentynine Palms City Council and Yucca Valley Town Council candidates and elections
•Coverage of the Morongo Basin including Yucca Valley City Hall and unincorporated areas such as Joshua Tree, Wonder Valley, Flamingo Heights and Landers
•Investigative reporting of Morongo Basin environmental, equity and social justice issues
•Industry standard pay for staff and writers
•Spanish translation of City Hall reporting
•A fund for legal enforcement of the Brown Act to advocate for transparency in local government
About AHA Projects
The Desert Trumpet is fiscally sponsored and supported by AHA Projects, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation located in Los Angeles, California, and qualified as exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”). AHA’s charitable purpose is to support artistic creators through innovative partnerships who are solving our communities’ greatest challenges. Through thoughtful risk, advocacy, and creative relationships AHA will fiercely elevate the presence and preservation of arts and culture in our communities.
Share your thoughts in the comments below. Please note that we do not allow anonymous comments. Please be sure your first and last name is on your profile prior to commenting. Anonymous comments will be deleted.
Congratulations!
Even though I am not a 29 Palms resident, I feel that it’s important to keep up with what’s going on in our communities, and as a local artist keeping up with PAAC. Even if you just stayed with 29 Palms city council activities, I’d keep reading, but being able to expand your coverage is exciting hear. Thank you, and keep up the good work!
Greetings City Council, Planning Commission and Important City Officials of Twentynine Palms!
Thank you for your service to our quickly transforming community.
Before getting to the following concerns, I'd like to take this moment to refresh ourselves with the General Plan Vision as stated on the City of 29 Palms website:
"The City of Twentynine Palms seeks to create and promote the economic and social well being of its residents while maintaining a relaxed atmosphere and clean air quality, as well as simultaneously creating a stronger and more diversified economy through attracting arts and tourism development, health/retirement, recreational and clean, nonpolluting industries.
These goals should be guided by two principles: (1) sustainability and (2) adaptability.
This requires that existing needs be met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, and that, to the degree reasonably possible as determined by the appropriate approval authority, community activities should adapt to the natural environment, rather than the natural environment being changed or adopted to these activities. In addition, the City will encourage high quality development compatible with the missions of the Joshua Tree National Park and Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center."
In this moment we're all most likely aware that great shifts are occurring in our community (and globally) on many levels, as every aspect of our lives are all interconnected no matter who we are and what are economic and political standings are in this community.
I'll also assume your awareness of our housing crisis is a top item of discussion in your circle as well as mine, because without a solid home base lives quickly crumble. As I watch the Short Term Rental (STR) industry ravage through our community, watching close friends and vulnerable families loose their home base due to a lack of affordable housing. I am awe struck to learn that the Planning Commission wants to propose passing a city ordinance to legalize Glamping. As a fourth generation resident of 29 Palms and a 20 year local business owner who lives in a neighborhood where our homes are on 2, 5, or 10 acre parcels, I am horrified of what the proposed destruction this Glamping ordinance would do to our sensitive wildlife corridor and our social well being.
Fortunately, I live in a neighborhood of kind supportive individuals that have become like family members. But already 20% of the homes in our neighborhood are STRs, creating dead zones where we have little to no interaction with the individuals who own those STR properties and create distress from time to time from the their tenants. This saddens our family oriented neighborhood. We would be further disappointed by our city officials if they allow further destruction of our community by legalizing Glamping, as the environmental and social issues would outweigh solving economic issues that the city may be struggling with.
Please, consider the voice of your citizens who value an intact community, protecting the wildlife and living in a kind supportive community of individuals who care about each other. And not just thinking about how to make a quick buck or create opportunity for a few organizations that might benefit from this proposed Glamping ordinance.
Save the historically heartfelt pioneering values of 29 Palms, where we love to look out for each other. This attitude inspires tourists to return over and over because they feel this connected friendly space we've created together! Our connection to each other is our strongest asset, and it'll stay that way if we grow intelligently by protecting our environment, social serenity and adapting sustainable ideas that serve our community as a whole.
A great example of how to grow intelligently is to research other desert cities like Taos, New Mexico. Taos has many more decades of experience with rapid tourism growth. They demonstrate valuable knowledge for our community that we could adopt, like how they manage their STRs.
Our unstoppable cultural Renaissance is rapidly transforming our community in so many positive ways, I just pray we grow intelligently, without sacrificing the well being of our most vulnerable individuals and families.
I'd also like to mention that the Morongo Basin Conservation Association is holding their annual meeting and an item of discussion is the STRs Impact Study.
Here's the MBCA invitation:
"We hope you will be able to attend and share your thoughts on these and other issues MBCA is tracking. The meeting will be catered with a light breakfast and lunch served. There is no charge to attend, but we encourage you to take this opportunity to renew your MBCA membership! Please RSVP for the event on our website!
When: Saturday, February 3, 2024, 9:30am - 1:00pm
Where: In person at the Town of Yucca Valley Community Center
57090 Twentynine Palms Highway
Yucca Valley, CA 92284
Finally, another topic of discussion that could be of value in understanding the shifts quickly happening in our community: asking long term business owners how their clientele has shifted in recent years.
Thank you for your dedicated service and consideration of my citizen concerns about legalizing Glamping in the City of Twentynine Palms,
Gretchen Grunt
29 Palms Creative Center
6847 Adobe Road, 92277
760-361-3461
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