Vote Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera
For Hyattsville City Council
Meet Our Candidate
Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera, MAL, is a 35+ year veteran in social justice movements. Lisbeth has extensive experience organizing and training at the intersections of sexual orientation, gender identity, racial/ethnic identity, faith, and culture related explicitly to communities of color in the United States. Lisbeth has crisscrossed the globe and the country, training workers and community leaders in organizing, leadership development, and community building strategies from a grassroots perspective.
Lisbeth has worked with people of faith across denominations to ensure we can be who we are, love whom we love, and practice our faith free of judgment.
Currently, she is a candidate for a Doctorate in Ministry (DMin) in Theology and Social Transformation. She holds a master’s in Theology & Social Transformation and a bachelor’s degree in biology and sociology. Today Lisbeth lives in Hyattsville, MD, alongside her wife, Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz, and their chosen family, both human and furry.
Why Am I Running?
Hyattsville is a growing city, part of an important corridor in MD, and a gateway to our national capital, Washington, DC. It deserves a city council representative of all its people, who make Hyattsville a vibrant location and an example of progressive success. In addition, threats to democracy continue to increase, and change and sustainability begin at the grassroots level, with the people, their thoughts, opinions, and most importantly, needs. Representative democracy is not to be taken for granted; it must represent. Therefore, I chose to accept the challenge and represent all of who we are as a multi-racial migrant from Puerto Rico, queer, male of center cis-female with a working-class background individual who believes in the collective voices power to improve the City for all its inhabitants, not just the privileged few.
Addressing Our Most Critical Issues
Hyattsville is a city on the verge of exponential growth. Having lived in Silver Spring, MD, while observing its rapid changes in the early 2000s and observing the displacement of many long-term residents at the hands of unaffordable housing, crumbling infrastructure, and increased ethnic and racial tensions, I learned to spot bubbling points of conflict and work with stakeholders across the county to advance solutions. I now see many of the same signs in Hyattsville. Answers can be put forth, and proactive thinking is at hand, for reactionary responses emerge from desperation without much thought and can be hurtful. Problems such as housing, infrastructure, and ethnic and racial tensions require forethought. Investment is better than band-aids, and that’s a big part of how I propose we begin solving our challenges and make them into examples for others to follow.
Hyattsville is a city as strong as its citizens. I would, therefore, say it is headed in the right direction but threatened to derail progress as investors and others take advantage of our current social and economic situation as a city, a county, state, and country. Corporate housing is swiftly moving in, taking homeownership opportunities and inflating prices away from many who see Hyattsville for what it truly is: a diverse, family-conscious, mixed-class, and affirming city. People who will invest in the town for the long-term and not as business opportunities better be left behind once the economy turns or the lots dry up. Slow, sustainable progress is better than rapid expansion with weak foundations. The thread is that fast move, not the steady progress I believe Hyattsville citizens wish for.
The Right Direction for Hyattsville
Count On Lisbeth
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