My Platform

I’m running for City Council Ward 1 because Durham is home and a community that I love and have such gratitude for. I believe that if we come together, we can build a livable future all of Durham can enjoy. Through empathy, collaboration, and smart policies, we can abate the pressures pushing out so many of our marginalized neighbors. We can strengthen our local economy. We can have a healthy, resilient environment. We can keep our neighbors safe.

  • Fight displacement through programs that provide home repairs, low-income homeowner support, energy efficiency, eviction diversion, and legal aid to fight corporate advantage.
  • Identify public land and broker public-private partnerships to build more long-term affordable units
  • Produce more affordable units and missing middle housing through local revolving construction loan programs, streamlined permitting for pre-approved affordable designs, and a revised Unified Development Ordinance
  • Promote economic mobility and economic justice so Durhamites can afford a greater range of housing, like workforce development in partnership with Durham Tech to prepare Durham workers for emerging industries, and the Excel Durham Guaranteed Income program
  • Maintain free bus service and expand local and regional transit to conveniently and affordably connect people from where they live to where they work and play
  • Expand infrastructure for the most affordable forms of transportation – walking and biking!

  • Develop an economic strategy that supports our local businesses and promotes environmental sustainability, while diversifying our tax base to take tax pressure off low-income and fixed-income homeowners
  • Protect and promote Durham’s arts and our cultural heritage as key lever of local economic development, using the new Durham Cultural Roadmap (in development) as a guide
  • Foster locally responsive housing development by small scale local developers
  • Explore public-led commercial development targeted to support local businesses and local income neighborhoods
  • Innovate ways to reduce waste through reuse, create green jobs, and keep more money locally

  • Address flooding through green infrastructure like rain gardens and bioswales to address stormwater runoff from development
  • Tackle the heat island effect in low-income, marginalized neighborhoods through an expanded native tree canopy and green space
  • Draw from the Triangle Resilience Partnership research to prioritize low-income areas that suffer most from heat and flooding
  • Use the UDO to shift land use to better protect our natural ecosystems
  • Accelerate our city’s transition to renewable energy and energy efficiency as laid out in the Carbon Neutrality and Renewable Energy Action Plan, including more solar arrays on city buildings and growing our participation in the Green Source Advantage program
  • Protect environmentally sensitive areas, like our New Hope Creek Corridor, from the encroachment of development, and re-orient growth away from car-centric sprawl

  • Address root causes of violence, like economic and housing insecurity and racial injustice
  • Grow the HEART program to bring compassionate alternatives to more situations that are non-violent
  • Fully implement Vision Zero to protect pedestrians and cyclists from traffic fatalities and injuries, including calming more of our streets and putting in more sidewalks and protected bike lanes 
  • Welcome our immigrant and LGBTQ+ neighbors and protect them from outside attacks