What Can City Council Do?
One in five Charlottesville families still don't earn enough to afford basic necessities. Nearly half of families in our city struggle to afford housing. In just two years, housing costs soared by 25%. And in just one year, our homeless population increased by almost 70%. We face a growing climate crisis. The achievement gap within our schools hasn’t been closed. Our public transit system remains inadequate for too many families.
These are just some of the challenges we face every day in Charlottesville. So, what can City Council actually do about it all?
In the past three years we’ve taken bold action. We adopted an affordable housing strategy and invested at least $10 million a year in affordable housing. Resident-led redevelopment of public housing and Friendship Court continues. We've made historic investments in schools. We've passed a strong collective bargaining ordinance, setting a regional standard for labor rights. We've given our Police Civilian Oversight Board subpoena and investigatory power. For the first time, we've incorporated a Climate Action Plan into our comprehensive plan. We've overhauled our real estate tax relief program to strengthen it. And we've made major investments in public transportation, setting the stage for creating a regional transit authority.
But there’s no question about it: there’s a lot more work to do.
There's no one answer for solving these critical issues. But if re-elected, I hope to work on several critical priorities:
Affordable Housing
There’s no one silver bullet for the affordable housing crisis. But some of the actions City Council can take include:
Respond to historic inflation and rising housing costs and increase our annual investment target for affordable housing from $10 million to $13 million a year
Create a permanent line-item for the Pathways Community Resource Helpline, funded at a higher level to ensure there's a lifeline for families facing eviction and emergency bills
Fully fund resident-led redevelopment of Westhaven
Work to create a permanent, year-round homeless shelter that can serve as the first entry-point to finding permanent housing for our homeless neighbors
Prevent gentrification and displacement by expanding rental and real estate tax relief programs, along with investing in home rehab
Create a Land Bank so that the City can purchase land and partner with CRHA, community land trusts, and non-profits to build new permanently affordable housing
Legalize more affordable housing types throughout the City
Expand the use of Community Land Trusts in order to open up opportunities for wealth building and home ownership to more families
Demand UVA enter into a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program so that UVA can’t avoid paying property taxes and more money is available for housing and other community needs
Strengthening Our Schools
We've made a major, historic investment in renovating and modernizing Buford Middle School. But there are other critical needs City Council has to take action on:
Prepare for investing in Walker and all the other school buildings in our system with significant deferred maintenance
Provide strong pay and benefits for teachers, to ensure teachers can afford to live in our community and that our schools can attract and retain enough teachers to match a growing student population
Invest in direct tutoring in literacy and numeracy for children in kindergarten through third grade, to reduce the achievement gap early
Invest in recruiting a diverse pool of teachers, along with investments in mentorship programs
Invest in career and technical education opportunities
Increase bus driver salaries to alleviate the school bus driver shortage
Climate Action
After passing our Climate Action Plan (CAP), it’s now up to us to actually implement it. My top goals for implementation of the CAP include:
A decarbonization study is under way for our city-owned natural gas utility. We need to use this as a jumping off point for planning how to get our City out of the fossil fuel business and bring down energy costs for residents
Hire enough staff to implement our Climate Action Plan and create investment mechanisms -- a revolving loan fund and a Green Bank -- to finance green retro-fitting and decarbonization
Invest in expanding tree canopy and public green space; in particular, we need to implement the Urban Rivanna River Corridor Plan to preserve the Rivanna as a public park and natural area for years to come
Electrify our municipal vehicle fleet, with school buses as a first priority
Avoid locking-in new fossil fuel infrastructure
Seriously pursue the numerous new federal funding opportunities for local climate action. Billions of dollars are now available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the American Recovery Plan Act
Transportation
It’s critical for the environment and the health of local communities to invest in public transportation and bike + pedestrian infrastructure. City Council needs to:
Finish -- and then implement -- our Regional Transit Vision Plan, which will set the stage for creating a Regional Transit Authority
Improve CAT's app
Expand CAT route frequencies, with the ultimate goal of 15 minute routes
Hire sufficient project managers to get through our backlog of bike/ped projects
Increase wages and benefits for CAT bus drivers
Provide funding for new bike/ped projects
Find creative ways to make protected bike-lanes a norm -- not an exception -- in Charlottesville
Work with schools to strengthen and expand the Safe Routes to School initiative
Public Safety
Every neighborhood deserves to be a safe environment with opportunities for everyone who lives there. City Council needs to follow national best practices and:
Invest in youth mentorship and youth job programs
Expand successful existing programs such as CAYIP and PHAR’s Youth Internship Program
Invest directly in neighborhoods and provide recreational and career opportunities for every resident
Expand our existing GO Programs and invest in a city-wide strategy for community wealth building
Implement the Marcus Alert System
Seriously invest in reducing gun violence — without succumbing to the false idea that repealing criminal justice reforms will achieve that goal