Consejo Municipal — Ciudad de Albany

I would like to continue my active leadership by:

-promoting mobility and safety with traffic calming, bicycle, and pedestrian projects

-supporting parks and open space including the waterfront

-supporting climate action by promoting the efforts of our Sustainability Committee and seeking the funding they need

-driving economic vitality by removing roadblocks to appropriate development projects

-addressing the housing crisis

-implementing a city-wide street tree plan

There are many important issues to our city, but we will fail to be able to do much if we do not keep our cty econmically viable. This means removing roadblocks to smart development and doing what we can to help our local businesses, and making sure we are not missing out on any funding opportunties like grants.

PDAs are a great tool for helping our city grow wisely - densely along the transit corridors. We are in a housing crisis and i believe increasing the housing stock is one key element to alleviating the housing pressure. Taking advantage of PDAs, and the grant opportunties and other opportunties they provide, is good for our City. Growth must also take into consideration the current property owners and their concerns. Stepping down building heights next to existing properties is one tool to use. Building housing along transit corridors means being able to build housing where occupants don't need that many cars. The northern San Pablo Avenue area is perfect for this due to its proximity to a BART station. Where parking might be a concern, however, the tool is residential parking permits.

The City is already under a consent decree to repair our sewer systems and we are makng good steady yearly progress towards repairing the entire network. On the City Council, I have made sure that staff has budgeted for this and continues this progress. Keeping our infrastructure up for alternative transportation is vital to clean air. I have long supported many bicycle and pedestrian projects in Albany and will continue to do so. On the ballot for November in Albany is a parcel tax for sidewalk repair, brought forward by an advocacy group that I co-founded. The tax is graduated to the size of the parcel - multi-family units and condominiums pay the least. This will help ensure that those who want to walk can - I'm especially concerned with our children, those with mobiliy issues and the elderly. Making sure that people can easily choose non-greenhouse-gas producing vehicles for their transport is important to me. That is also why I will push for electric vehicle charging stations in Albany should I be elected to a second term. We need to support those who choose plug-in vehicles.

1.  Keeping the City on track to meet our GHG goals.

2.  Work towards completion of our Active Transportation Plan

3.  Begin planning on how our community will respond to climate change and ocean rise.

4.  Seek to encourage Albany appropriate solutions to the Bay Area's housing needs.

5.  Seek funding and begin planning and construction of Solano Ave. streetscape improvements.

The most immediate issue for Albany currently, is our growing lack of affordable housing.  Too many in our community are being displaced by the rising costs of housing.  Stop gap solutions have been proposed, but I believe that the only long tem, sustainable and socially equitable solution is to find ways to increase our housing stock.

The first part of th at balance has to be education.  Education on what is being proposed by the Plan Bay Area goals. Then, while keeping an open dialog with our community, explain that there are solutions to the perceived sacrifices around parking, traffic/ congestion, etc.  Many of the solutions involve looking to expand alternatives to private car ownership.  Increased density along our transit corridors can help make our community greener with a greater level of goods and services available to everyone in the community.  It does require those in government to keep strenghtening our transit systems, walking and biking routes and other infrastructure. 

Albany is fortunate in that it has already begun the replacement of our existing sewer line, and has in place a plan for a fairly rapid completion of our goals.  Grant moneys and extending some existiong bond measures should be able to make this job doable.  The important issue going forward is making sure that these improvements not only cover the needs of today's community but also the needs of a likely larger community we are likely to have in the future.

I would like to: (1) ensure that Albany’s streets and pedestrian pathways are as safe as possible; (2) ensure that Albany meets its Climate Action Plan goals to reduce greenhouse gas emission; (3) maintain Albany’s fiscal health and budget surplus; (4) develop an active strategy to preserve and maintain Albany’s waterfront, open spaces, and parks; (5) address affordable housing with a comprehensive approach tailored to Albany; (5) continue to implement Albany’s Active Transportation Plan; and (6) support Albany's schools, police, and fire department.

To continue Albany’s prosperity infrastructure maintenance and development, affordable housing, and the affects due to Albany’s changing demographics needs to be addressed.  Albany’s sidewalks need to be improved to ensure that all of Albany’s residents can navigate the city.  More street lights need to be installed to improve community safety.  A comprehensive and holistic approach is needed to address affordable housing in Albany.  Albany’s demographics are changing and the concerns of both the new families moving to the city as well as the longtime residents of Albany should be addressed.

To balance the regional Planned Bay Area (PBA) goals and local goals there needs to be a healthy dialogue with the community about what PBA is proposing and how it will impact our community.  Community outreach and involvement about affordable housing, Albany's rental market, and parking is another necessary process to make sure that local conditons and needs are understood and considered.  By involving the cummunity we can tailor our individual policies and measures to address the concerns of Albany's property owners, landlords, renters, business owners, and parking issues.  Albany's Climate Action Plan and Active Transportation Plan are two ways that Albany can work to reduce greenhouse gas emmissions and our dependance on individual car ownership, both PBA goals.  ABAG provides development strategies, resources, and funding that could potentially benefit Solano Ave. and San Pablo Ave. which are both Priority Development Areas.

Support for Albany’s existing plan to replace and improve the sewer infrastructure is essential.  While the actual repairs are important it’s also important to make sure that Albany’s infrastructure system will be able to meet the future needs as the city grows and develops.

I would like to see the city of Albany encourage more developers of low-income housing to bring their projects to our city.

I would also like to see the City perform better outreach and encourage a more vigorous dialogue between the various demographic groups in our city about the issues that we face.

Housing. A shortage of affordable housing and, in the case of rent increases, a lack of communication and (in the most egregious situations) a lack of regulation.

A hard working person who has lived in Albany their whole life, and whose equally hard working parents could afford to raise them here, should not live in fear of being priced out of their own town just because they don't own their own parcel.