If elected, what will your top priority be for the city of Colorado Springs?
There are a lot of everyday hardworking people that are experiencing homelessness and are having to live with family or live in their vehicles according to some residents that I have spoken with city wide. I believe this has a lot to do with not having enough affordable housing and this would be one of my top priorities to work with city staffers, community and developers to come up with the best decisions that will benefit all members of communities city wide that are affected by this issue. One other priority that I have is to INTENTIONALLY work with everyone and acknowledge other perspectives because this does not seem to be happening with the current council on many issues that are important to community, but working together is how we will come up with the best solutions that will benefit everyone. We're Better Together!!
What should city council implement to address the impacts of COVID-19?
I believe that council should work closely with the state and federal government for additional resources. Access to more funding (grant dollars) to empower small businesses, tax incentives, job training will be crucial, mental health counseling and more rental assistance and these are all starting points keeping in mind that there is much work to be done and the city should be at the forefront of helping community get to a new normal. COVID-19 has impacted everyone and we must all work together by empowering each other to boost our economy back up. Resources and Access are key components to help over come the impact that COVID-19 has had on our city. We must heal together, work together, rebuild together because we're better together.
What needs to be done to address the growth the city has been experiencing?
I believe that we must invest more dollars in affordable housing, safe roads, help businesses expand and help improve school districts as these are questions that people are asking prior to moving to our city, so we must make sure that we have clean safe neighborhoods that are kept up and provide resources and access for all members of our city to thrive. The decisions that we make now will impact for years to come so we must come to the table with forward thinking in our decision making processes and make sure that we are setting up our children and grand children for success with the decisions that we are making today.
