Issues

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Everyone needs a safe and healthy place to live. Housing should be affordable and energy efficient! I will work to:

Use Inclusionary Zoning. The housing crisis continues to hurt a lot of people here in Buffalo. Spending more than 30% of your income on housing leaves you vulnerable to losing your home due to eviction or foreclosure. The cost of housing is increasing at a much faster rate than incomes are. This causes both renters and homeowners to be priced out of their neighborhoods. Inclusionary zoning requires a portion of total housing newly constructed to be affordable to people with low to moderate incomes. 

Pass the Tenant Bill of Rights. Renters often are forced to live in unsafe conditions when landlords fail to maintain their properties. The Tenant Bill of Rights protects renters’ rights to timely repairs, to know who their actual landlord is, and to not be evicted as punishment for reporting unsafe conditions. By holding rental property owners accountable for upkeep, we can ensure safe and healthy housing conditions. These tenant protections also benefit neighbors who own their homes!  

Provide Access to Lead Abatement & Education. The 14207 zip code has made New York State’s list of “Communities of Concern” for lead poisoning. Lead poisoning permanently affects our children’s ability to learn and grow into healthy adults. Programs to help property owners remove lead already exist, but they need to be better advertised and promoted. Renters also need to be educated about things they can do within their homes to keep their families safe. I know how scary it is to be worried about your child’s health. One of my children was diagnosed with a borderline lead level as a baby. That’s why helping homeowners with lead abatement and renters’ access education is such a priority for me.

Improve Path to Homeownership. I bought my first home in 2002 for $22,500. At that time, I received $5000 from the city’s Down Payment And Closing Cost Assistance Program. Housing prices have skyrocketed, but the city hasn’t raised the assistance amount in over 20 years! By increasing funding to this program, grants can keep pace with housing prices and more people can become first-time homebuyers. 

Provide Assistance to Homeowners. Maintaining our older housing stock can be expensive. Low or fixed income homeowners often can’t keep up. Financial assistance through grants and low-interest loans for repairs, improving energy efficiency, and conversion to renewable energy will help people stay in their own homes and help improve our housing stock. We need to increase access and funding to existing programs that address this issue.

We all deserve to be safe in our homes, in our neighborhoods, and in our businesses. Most undesired behaviors are rooted in unmet needs. Investing in data-based, best practice programs helps prevent crime by providing needed resources and opportunities. My plan is to:

Invest in Health & Human Services. Buffalo’s North District has high rates of poverty, drug & alcohol abuse, and people experiencing mental health conditions and homelessness.  There are organizations and community groups helping address these needs, but they often don't have enough resources to keep up with the need, and the wait for treatment programs can be months. By fully implementing Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), which is a partnership between police and community service providers, people in need would be placed in an intensive case management program linking individuals with a wide range of services, including transitional and permanent housing and/or drug treatment, which reduce recidivism and improve quality of life for participants and the community. 

Enhance Youth Activities. As a mom and a 22-year Buffalo Public Schools teacher, I know that when children don't have structured activities to participate in, they create their own, and it's often not what we would like them to do. But structured activities are not accessible or affordable for many families. The Buffalo Public Schools have created wonderful afterschool programs, Saturday Academies, and Parent Centers, but these programs are often under-utilized. We need to better connect families to existing programs, as well as create more opportunities for youth participation to keep our kids out of trouble.

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). CPTED is an urban planning approach that uses urban and architectural design of built and natural environments to deter potential criminals, prevent and reduce crime, and increase community feeling among residents. CPTED includes things like better lighting in public areas, repairing or demolishing abandoned buildings, routine maintenance of parks and green spaces, and better clearing of litter and trash. These principles should be a key part of city planning.

Stick to the Green Code. The City's Green Code is designed to make sure that new businesses are pedestrian friendly so that our neighborhoods are safe for kids and families to walk around in. When developers are granted exemptions to the Green Code, it diminishes the safety and walkability of that neighborhood. The more comfortable people feel walking around their neighborhoods, the safer those neighborhoods become (and the more foot traffic the neighborhood’s small businesses get).

Law Enforcement. We need better training and accountability to maintain the honor and dignity of our police force. All officers should receive anti-bias, de-escalation, and trauma informed care training so they can interact safely with all members of our community. Misconduct must not be ignored—officer disciplinary records should be publicly accessible, records should follow officers to new positions/localities, and a civilian review board should be empowered to bring transparency and trust back to our public safety officers.

We need clean air, clean water, clean land, and renewable energy to be healthy and sustainable for future generations. As an environmental science teacher, I understand the seriousness of these issues and the need to act now!

Improving the City’s Preparedness for Extreme Weather. With climate change, we will continue to see more extreme weather, including severe summer heat as well as severe winter cold and snow. We need a comprehensive city emergency plan to deal with both the severe heat in summer, and to ensure that residents are not stranded without heat, medical assistance, vital services, or the ability to attend school or use public transit every time we have more than 6 inches of snow in winter.

Re-tree the City. Trees are important because they produce oxygen, improve air quality, slow climate change, offer shade, reduce temperature (which also helps lower summer utility bills) and make for more enjoyable walking experiences! We have lost trees due to disease, storms, and removal. We need to create and fund a city-wide re-tree plan.  

Green Infrastructure. The Great Lakes are the largest freshwater source in the world (outside of glaciers). Our history as the second most industrialized section of the city has left us with brownfields. We need strategic development to best utilize, clean up, and protect our environment. Green infrastructure protects our water and air quality, creates space for recreation, and mitigates climate change. By improving environmental conditions, we will improve our health and quality of life. Building a green economy also creates family-sustaining job opportunities!

Support Renewable Energy Initiatives. The state Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and the federal Inflation Reduction Act give us tools to stop climate change by transitioning to renewable energy and building infrastructure to support it. This creates family-sustaining jobs, helps municipalities finance green energy programs, and provides grants to homeowners and small businesses to off-set costs associated with green energy projects. We must support these laws and take advantage of their job creation and grant opportunities.

Invest In Public Transportation. Over 40% of people in Buffalo don’t own a vehicle and rely on public transportation to get to school and work. Reliable transportation is essential for people to keep their jobs and afford quality housing, healthcare, food, and other purchases. Comprehensive, affordable, and consistent public transit also reduces our reliance on fossil fuels. Over the last few years, the NFTA has cut bus routes despite increased municipal funding. We must expand and improve public transit to reduce traffic congestion and pollution, alleviate parking issues and improve commutes, make different parts of the city accessible, and make it easier for people to go shopping and enjoy public events and spaces.

As a 22-year BPS teacher, I value education and life-long learning. Education is key to creating safe and healthy lives. Here’s my plan to address education as a Councilmember:

Collaboration with Buffalo Public Schools. Young people need quality education and wrap-around services to help them become good citizens. The city needs to partner with the Board of Education to fund the data proven programs needed to support students and their families. This collaboration would also help reduce duplication of services. 

Adult Education & Workforce Development. The Buffalo Public Schools has adult education programs to help people gain the knowledge and skills they need for jobs and professional development. Northland has great programs that lead to family-sustaining wage jobs in the expanding green energy industry. Both of these programs are underutilized. We need to increase outreach as well as listen to people in the community about how to remove the obstacles to participation. I would also work with unions to create paid pre-apprenticeship programs to ensure we have workers for trades and industry.

Public Education Campaigns. Community education is important to give people knowledge about health & safety, laws, and resources that are relevant to their lives. I will increase community outreach to people in the North District through holding district-wide stakeholder meetings, doing door-to-door campaigns, and creating a public database with language and disability access so that all City of Buffalo residents can easily find and connect with the organizations and services they need.

My personal and professional background enables me to understand and relate to diverse perspectives. I have belonged to or worked with a wide array of individuals, unions, and community groups over the years to collaborate and build consensus in decision-making on important issues around education, healthcare, and workers’ rights. 

As an elected official, my leadership style will:

1. Be guided by economic, social & racial justice values and by the public good.
2. Prioritize the health and human rights of everyday people and measure success through community-oriented markers, such as how much the district’s eviction rate goes down, how much the owner-occupied homeownership rate goes up, how many slumlords are held accountable, and how many people participate in district-wide community meetings.
3. Involve the community in the decision-making process through transparent and proactive participatory governance, district-wide stakeholder/community meetings, improved language access through interpretation/translation services, community surveys, direct contact with residents through door-knocking campaigns, and more opportunities for participatory budgeting and community planning.
4. Be collaborative with subject matter experts, block clubs, community and business associations, and individuals impacted by issues to determine what unmet needs exist, and what additional resources are needed. This includes looking at the resources and community organizations that are currently available to folks in North District. 
5. Build relationships with local, county, state, and federal elected officials, community organizations, and the business community to lobby for policies and resources to benefit North District residents. 
6. Work to ensure efficient, effective, equitable, and reliable city services for our neighborhoods, streets, sanitation, public parks, and other public facilities. This includes maintenance and staffing levels enabling us to enjoy public areas, such as parks, playgrounds, pools/splash pads, and ice rinks. 
7. Be guided by best practices from other cities. When a city service in Buffalo isn’t working well, we need to research what other cities do (such as for snow removal, repaving, disposal and recycling services, sidewalk maintenance), so that we can implement the best and most efficient ways to serve residents.  
8. Help our city become financially solvent by pursuing and fully utilizing state and federal grant opportunities, thoroughly reviewing budgets and disbursements and challenging discrepancies, and strategically planning for consistent maintenance and replacement of city equipment.
9. Ensure that city-owned property in North District is used and/or sold to benefit the whole community, and that the whole community can take part in decision making and planning. We must protect playgrounds and other publicly beneficial spaces that allow us to live healthy and active lives, because such spaces make our neighborhoods more attractive to families and small business owners.