It’s a cool evening in late March at Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park in Sweetwater and a group of local residents — some carrying signs and bullhorns — are settling in for their daily and nightly ritual: protesting against the trailer park’s owners plans to demolish homes and redevelop the property they collectively call home.
The park residents have not only been demonstrating since December after the company that owns the park — CREI Holdings — told roughly 900 families they’d have to pack up and leave by May 31. Some residents have chosen to take a stand in the midst of their turmoil with a different approach: by running for local government.
“ Me and some of my neighbors, we decide to run. Not only to fight the wrongdoing, but to improve the community, the city,” said Li’l Abner resident and Sweetwater commission candidate Luis Armando Chanlatte…