Here's the unfortunate fact. The answer to the first question is ABSOLUTELY NOT! They stopped listening to you a long time ago and it's likely why you stopped getting (or ever got) involved in local politics. But, congratulations. You've made it to the list of the "politically oppressed"! The answer to the second question is obvious: that depends on you. Once you yield away your power to them at the ballot box, your city leaders get to define their narratives, then dictate THEIR priorities and prescriptions to the problems that, ironically, were created by their own poor policy choices and oversights (i.e. a "doom loop").  it's like asking a poor carpenter to fix his own mistakes. But, why and how has this happened? By monopolizing the narratives AND the platforms (i.e. a compliant press, rampant social media censorship (yes, that's you Nextdoor), a captured city council agenda, antiquated, siloed and cumbersome (by design) communication tools for the electorate) that manage their policy messages, the vast majority of us continue drinking the bitter Kool-Aid and voting in the same ideologues who advance their OWN agendas, their underlying PARTY'S agenda, and the agendas of the LOCAL RULING CLASS with few to no avenues for any effective resident pushback (for starters, think high-density housing developments). We're constantly playing defense just to preserve, let alone advance, our individual rights, our property rights, our business profitability, our bank accounts, our households, our safety, our children, our culture and our futures from their incessant incursions. Our political system has become bloated, overly-intrusive, non-transparent, stagnant, captive and no longer represents the interests of ordinary residents. In today’s "representative" democracy, local leadership is convinced that government knows what’s best for the people, so asking the electorate what it thinks is simply a waste of their time and yours. But, HELLO?!!! THE PEOPLE know what's best for THE PEOPLE (duh) and WE THE PEOPLE must start steering the decision-makers back toward OUR shared vision for prosperity (i.e. the "Public Good"), as they have lost complete sight of it. While one may be understandably skeptical, even cynical, whether such a seismic shift in our local zeitgeist is even possible, there's good news on the horizon. Such a fundamental change is just around the corner.