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Infrastructure & Transportation
Public Infrastructure that Prioritizes People: Safer Streets & Sidewalks and Public Transit for an Urban Environment
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Indianapolis needs to make comprehensive investments in public infrastructure that prioritize people. The Eastside has some of the oldest infrastructure in the city. We all know the very real impact of constant potholes, nonexistent or non-ADA compliant sidewalks, and streets that work for cars - not for people. We are facing a traffic safety crisis. Last year alone, vehicle crashes led to 900 deaths in Indiana, including several pedestrian deaths in District 14 and 40 citywide. Roadway crashes, deaths, and traffic violence are unacceptable, and also preventable. As Councilor, I will make it a priority to improve street and sidewalk safety, especially in school zones, invest in our public transit system, and improve our physical infrastructure.
School Zone Safety
District 14 knows all too well that many of our school zones are simply unsafe for children. The City should prioritize critical and rapid safety improvements to our school zones to protect our children. We should create a separate, dedicated line item in our budget that will promote simpler, transparent signage; speed cushions or bumps; and random, nondisclosed traffic enforcement. This fund could also be used in coordination with our school districts to create safer bus stops and highly used routes children take when walking or cycling to school.
Increased Public Transit
The Blue Line will run along the southern border of District 14, and presents an incredible opportunity for our community to improve our physical infrastructure and pedestrian safety and to promote transportation equity. Throughout construction, community partnerships and feedback should be considered and adopted to ensure we are building a transportation system for everyone. Initial construction will occur to the west of District 14, so by the time construction occurs in our district, lessons learned about any adverse impact (especially for our small businesses) can be proactively addressed. We can also reaffirm our commitment to transportation equity by providing free or reduced fares for our disabled and low-income neighbors.
Improved Physical Infrastructure
We can supplement and reform the City’s Complete Street policy with a Road to Zero strategy. This includes adopting and increasing the implementation of proven physical countermeasures that reduce crashes, such as adding or enhancing leading pedestrian intervals to provide additional time for people at crosswalks, constructing medians and pedestrian crossing islands, installing pedestrian hybrid beacons and speed cushions, and reducing the number of physical lanes for vehicles through road dieting. We must also create a safe system culture and approach that anticipates human error and is designed to reduce or eliminate opportunities for crashes entirely. Our streets should be constructed to accommodate multi-modal forms of transportation (cars, bikes, pedestrians, etc.), meaning dedicated physical space for these transportation options. Dedicated space for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transportation demonstrates our commitment to non-vehicular traffic. Proper street lighting and physical protective barriers separating non-vehicular traffic and vehicular traffic, as well as reducing speeds, will protect all people (and pets!) regardless of their mode of transportation. Finally, we need to increase traffic enforcement that discourages speeding. Rethinking our physical infrastructure to accommodate more than vehicles is an important step toward improving street safety, but so is dedicating resources to our public safety officials to enforce speed limits and other traffic violations.
Public Health
& Safety
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Every Neighbor, Family, and Child Deserves to Feel Safe and Supported in Their Community
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The Eastside community has felt the impact of rising crime and safety concerns in our neighborhoods and our city. As your City-County Councilor, I pledge to work alongside our public safety officials to ensure our neighbors' concerns are heard and addressed, and to find innovative ways that local government can make our communities safer.
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We also know that a safe community is a healthy, housed, and supported community. Everyone deserves access to healthy foods, affordable and clean housing, and healthcare, including supports to address mental health and substance use disorder.
Housing For All
Housing is a right, and an essential basic need. However, safe, clean, affordable housing is out of reach for many of our neighbors. As your next City-County Councilor, I will address housing instability through a multi-pronged approach. Like many other cities, Indianapolis is experiencing rising home prices, which continue to make homeownership unattainable, widen the racial wealth gap, and put longtime homeowners at risk of losing their homes due to rising property taxes. I am committed to helping social service providers and other nonprofits that are working to make homeownership a reality meet their mission by providing necessary resources for these programs while also reducing barriers for many first-time homebuyers and marginalized communities. While the merits of homeownership are well-known, many of our neighbors rely on rental housing. Unfortunately, the Indiana General Assembly has preempted any local government in our state from regulating and enforcing landlord-tenant agreements and from including inclusionary zoning as part of housing developments. As a result, many renters are not only cost-burdened in their rental housing, but also living in substandard, uninhabitable housing. As Councilor, I will advocate for additional resources so that health code and other violations are enforced and landlords are held as accountable as possible. I will also be a fierce advocate for more affordable rental housing, holding the most generous incentives for housing developers who include affordable housing units in their developments. Finally, our city has approximately 2,000 individuals who are unhoused – a reality we should refuse to accept. We should use remaining federal stimulus funds to house these individuals immediately. We can do that right now - every day we allow people to remain unhoused is another day where we accept this problem. Over the longer term, we need to make robust, innovative investments in permanent supportive housing so our most vulnerable neighbors have a place to sleep.
A Safe, Healthy Community Is a Well-Resourced Community
While there is no doubt that increasing crime is a top concern and needs to be addressed, we must also do more to address how and why our communities become unsafe in the first place. Generational poverty affects educational outcomes for our children, leads to less healthy communities, and ultimately makes our neighborhoods less safe. When someone is unable to meet their basic needs, they are too often forced to make heartbreaking decisions. As a City, we need to invest in affordable housing, increase healthy food access, provide high-quality childcare, and create job opportunities that pay living wages and provide benefits like healthcare. Economically-stable communities are safe communities. As Councilor, I intend to use my experience and skills as an anti-poverty advocate to ensure Indianapolis is doing everything in its power to allow neighbors to thrive.
Vibrant & Inclusive Neighborhoods
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Together, We Can Create A Vibrant, Safe, and Inclusive Future for the Eastside
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A vibrant and inclusive Eastside community is one that supports small businesses, champions public schools, and preserves and improves public spaces that are welcoming for all neighbors, including its parks, libraries, and community nonprofits.
Being a truly inclusive City also means that we need to do more than pay lip-service to our support for underrepresented or marginalized communities. Instead, we must authentically listen to concerns; proactively engage advocates and neighbors to identify solutions; and be persistent in our efforts to change our policies and practices to ensure Indianapolis is a safe and welcoming place for all.
Finally, I understand that no one knows better what your neighborhood needs than you. That is why I will continue to show up to your neighborhood meetings, knock on doors to understand your goals, and be your advocate to get things done.
An Economy That Works For All Neighbors
District 14 has a number of opportunities for large economic development projects, but these developments need to provide benefits to all residents of our district, not just businesses. This includes jobs that provide living wages and benefits (wage floors, not averages), incentives to businesses with clean records of supporting union labor, and development that includes community input and feedback. Together, this will provide a district economy that works for everyone. However, this requires a Councilor who is not just focused on the deal making process, but also on proper oversight and enforcement of development deals and incentives. We must also recognize that our small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Small businesses provide neighborhoods with their charm and character, hire local neighbors, and are a pillar of District 14. We need to ensure that local regulations are implemented without undue complexity or burden for our local entrepreneurs, while also ensuring that incentives are available to small businesses that want to expand or start their operations in our district. We will also need to provide relief and resources to small businesses that are financially impacted by construction and transit development, such as through the Blue Line.
Preserving & Expanding Green Space
Green space has immense benefits to our community, including promoting better air quality and increasing carbon capture (which is critical to addressing climate change). According to the Indiana Forest Alliance's Forests For Indy project, there is much more we can and should be doing in District 14 to expand access to parks and protect and preserve our trees.