Hey everyone! I'm ruminating on running for my local state assembly seat or city council (leaning towards city council, I don't have any name recognition or political network to support an assembly seat run, so it'd be a hot mess probably). Around here, candidates typically run on pro-farm, pro-family, pro-cop, tough on crime platforms. I'm intending to run on a platform that focuses heavily on lowering the cost of living through policy choices. I think it can work specifically because this area is not very economically advantaged, and the cost of living has gone from bad to berserk in the last five years; meanwhile, there's really not that much crime here.
So, the platform goes like this:
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Ditch your car payment! I want to build world-class bicycle lanes and useful, predictable public transit that will help you travel in much greater comfort for a fraction of the cost of car ownership.
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- We'll achieve this goal by establishing transit-oriented zoning along our arterial streets that sets minimum density requirements, parking maximums and metered parking (60% goes to a special fund for the metered community to spend on improvements, 40% to the transit system directly, not one cent to the general fund), prioritizes pedestrian, public transit, and cyclist infrastructure, and sets up special taxes in the zone to sustainably grow our transit network.
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- No more bicycle gutters. All bike lanes will be class III or IV. The bicycle lane should be as safe for your kids to bike on as this sidewalk is for them to walk on.
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We will strive to have the most livable neighborhoods in the country. If you want bread, you won't need to spend gas to get it; if you want coffee, you won't have to drive to an overpriced big business. Buying the basic essentials or getting a small bite to eat will be no more difficult than walking to the end of your block.
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- we will do this via aggressive zoning reform. Not sexy, I know, just know three things:
- No more parking minimums, period.
- Allow small commercial (small grocers, small cafes) in all residential zones.
- Re-zone the city so it's once again legal to build great places like main street.
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We're going to make sure that people can afford housing by building housing.
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- We're going to focus on tried and true historical forms of building, like over-under mid-rises, to make sure that everyone has a good place to live, whether you're a broke college kid, a family of six, or a senior on fixed income.
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We're going to balance the city budget by fighting sprawl. We will not annex one more acre until we know how that land is going to pay for the services it's going to consume. We're going to make sure that we're not wasting our valuable land burying it under parking lots and abandoned industrial parks; land will instead be used for housing, green spaces, and businesses to serve people.
Those are the key points I think will resonate most with people in my area, and align with important parts of my vision for our future. There's a few places where I've decided to be strategic about stuff so as not to scare people; most folks agree the cost of housing is too high, but most people also get freaked out when I start talking about bringing down home prices and building apartments instead of single family homes, for example. I'm still considering speaking plainly about it anyway.
Thoughts?