Platform

Cut Red Tape Vision Sacramento’s growth and prosperity are being held back by a permitting and approval process that is too slow, too complex, and too costly. We can keep strong standards for safety, equity, and environmental protection while delivering housing, opening businesses, and building modern infrastructure faster and at far lower cost. Let’s start with a city government that acts as a reliable partner, not a bureaucratic barrier, to progress. Policy Why This Matters Excessive red tape isn’t just an annoyance… It’s a direct tax on our city’s future. Every month of delay in opening a new business or building a new home represents lost jobs, lost housing, and lost economic vitality. Small business owners, in particular, face overwhelming hurdles, draining their capital and morale before they can even open their doors. This inefficiency stifles entrepreneurship and tells innovators that Sacramento is not open for business. The costs are also human. A family waiting months for a simple home addition, a shop owner struggling to expand, or a neighborhood plagued by a vacant lot that could be activated. These are the daily consequences of a system that prioritizes process over outcomes. Furthermore, slow approvals for essential infrastructure, like broadband and cell towers, leave entire communities behind in the digital age, harming remote work, education, and even emergency communications. Cutting red tape is not about lowering standards; it’s about raising efficiency. By simplifying steps, embracing technology, and focusing staff time on complex reviews rather than routine approvals, we can accelerate housing construction, help small businesses create jobs faster, and improve city services without raising taxes. This builds public trust, generates new revenue through growth, and demonstrates a city government that is competent, responsive, and firmly on the side of its residents and their aspirations. Let’s build a Sacramento that says “yes” to progress.

Finish Our Bike Trail Vision Finishing our bike trail system means achieving true connectivity while ensuring it enhances and never compromises neighborhood safety and quality of life. A complete network must serve as a safe corridor for recreation and transportation and a secure, valued asset for every community it touches. Policy Why This Matters A bike trail is more than pavement. It’s a piece of public infrastructure that weaves through the fabric of our neighborhoods. For too long, the conversation has been stalled between those demanding connectivity and those fearing the consequences. Too often, these real fears are dismissed as simple “NIMBYism,” but that label misses the core of the issue for many residents. The conflict often stems from a painful clash between historic property maps and modern public use. In some areas, residents have deeds, surveys, or long-held understandings that include land the city now identifies for the public trail. From their perspective, this isn’t just an inconvenience. This feels like the city is taking what they believe is rightfully theirs. This perception of government overreach fundamentally erodes trust and turns a community amenity into a symbol of alienation. Let’s recognize that you cannot build a trail on a foundation of resentment. Good design must be paired with good faith. Before any design work, we need transparent, respectful dialogue to address these historic entitlements head-on. This means clear communication about easements, property lines, and fair processes. For a trail to be successful, adjacent residents must see it as an asset, not a loss. By proactively addressing these legal and perceptual concerns and by integrating security features like controlled access and lighting from the outset. We can build trails that are both welcoming for the public and respectful of the homes beside them. This turns potential adversaries into stakeholders. Finishing the trail this way delivers a double victory: it provides a vital, car-free artery for Sacramento families to enjoy our city’s beauty, while demonstrating that City Hall can listen, be fair, and build infrastructure that strengthens, rather than divides, our communities. Let’s connect our city, the right way.

Fix Our Streets Vision Our streets are our circulatory system, connecting us to work, school, and each other. Their condition is not just about potholes; it’s a direct measure of public safety and civic responsibility. Let’s implement a proactive, data-driven strategy that prioritizes fixing what we have to make it safe, ensuring every dollar spent prevents accidents, protects residents, and preserves our infrastructure for the long term. Policy Why This Matters For too many Sacramento residents, “fixing our streets” has meant a reactive, patchwork response to complaints. This approach is both inefficient and dangerous. It allows small problems to become safety hazards and major capital projects, wasting taxpayer money and failing to address the root cause of risk. The true cost of neglected streets is measured in bent rims, but also in emergency room visits and preventable tragedies. A faded crosswalk or a missing curb ramp isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a barrier for a senior or a parent with a stroller, and an invisible hazard for a driver on a rainy night. By pairing urgent maintenance with targeted safety upgrades, we stop managing decline and start building inherently safer corridors. This strategy is fundamentally pragmatic and fair. It uses objective data to direct resources where the need is greatest, ensuring equity across neighborhoods. It recognizes that a well-maintained street with clear markings and safe crossings is the foundation of a livable community where kids can walk to school, businesses can thrive, and families feel secure. Fixing our streets the right way is a down payment on Sacramento’s future. It demonstrates competent, fiscally responsible governance that values safety over shortcuts and invests in the basic infrastructure that binds our city together. Let’s build streets that are not just smooth to drive on, but safe for every person who uses them.

Our Vision Sacramento must make it easier for small businesses to open, operate, and grow by removing unnecessary barriers and treating entrepreneurs as partners in our city’s success. Policy Context Small businesses are the backbone of our neighborhoods, providing jobs, stability, and opportunity for families across Sacramento. Yet today, many entrepreneurs face a permit process that is slow, expensive, and unpredictable. These barriers often delay openings for months or stop businesses from opening altogether, leaving storefronts vacant and commercial corridors struggling. Sacramento should streamline and modernize its permitting process to reduce red tape, shorten approval timelines, and lower unnecessary costs. By lightening the load on small businesses, we can encourage new restaurants, shops, and services to open their doors and bring life back to empty retail spaces. Supporting small businesses is not only about economic opportunity. It is also a smart fiscal policy. Thriving local businesses generate sales tax revenue, create jobs, and strengthen the city’s long-term funding sources. A healthier business environment helps stabilize the city budget while reducing reliance on short-term fixes and one-time revenues. When small businesses succeed, families succeed, neighborhoods thrive, and the city benefits from a stronger and more sustainable local economy.

Our Vision Affordability means lowering the total cost of living, not just the price of housing. Policy Why This Matters Affordability is about more than the price of a home. It is about the total cost of living and whether families can realistically build a stable life in Sacramento. Housing, transportation, and access to basic services all work together. When one becomes too expensive or unreliable, it puts pressure on everything else. For decades, homeownership followed a ladder. People started with smaller, more affordable homes, built equity, and moved up as their lives and careers grew. That ladder has broken down. New housing is often built at price points far beyond what first-time buyers can afford, while development is frequently disconnected from transit and everyday services. This forces families to rely on multiple cars, long commutes, and rising fuel costs just to get by. Affordability also depends on infrastructure that supports modern life. Reliable transit options give residents alternatives to car ownership. Safe walking and biking routes reduce transportation costs and expand access to jobs and schools. At the same time, internet access is no longer a luxury. It is essential for work-from-home jobs, remote learning, telehealth, and everyday communication. When we upgrade utilities and infrastructure, we should also expand broadband access and explore free or low-cost internet programs so families can participate fully in today’s economy. By designing housing alongside transit, alternative transportation, and modern utilities, Sacramento can lower everyday costs for residents while expanding opportunity. This approach does not just make housing more affordable. It makes life more affordable and gives families more choices in how they live, work, and move around the city.

Public Safety Vision True public safety is the essential foundation of a thriving city. It is built daily through intentional design, proactive intervention, and clear standards that prevent harm before it happens. My vision is a Sacramento where safety is designed into every block from well-lit streets designed to save lives, to policies that compassionately address homelessness with accountability, to a layered security strategy that ensures our police can focus on protecting our community from serious crime. Safety is the bedrock of opportunity, and every resident deserves to feel secure in their neighborhood. Policy Why This Matters For too long, “public safety” has been narrowly equated with the number of police officers. While a fully staffed department is essential, safety is fundamentally shaped long before a 911 call is made. A dark, poorly marked street is a public safety failure. A sidewalk obstructed by an untreated mental health crisis is a public safety failure. A business district where vandalism and petty crime go unchallenged is a public safety failure. Our current approach often asks police to solve problems they are not designed to fix, stretching them thin and deepening community frustration. We must be smarter. By designing roads that naturally reduce speeds, we prevent tragedies. By lighting our public spaces, we reclaim them for everyone. By honestly differentiating between those who need a hand up and those who need professional intervention, we can address homelessness with both compassion and accountability. Finally, using a mix of trained security personnel for visibility and deterrence in commercial areas is a practical force multiplier. It protects small businesses, improves the environment for residents and visitors, and allows our sworn officers to concentrate on the complex, high-risk work that truly requires their expertise. This comprehensive strategy moves us from merely responding to crime to systematically preventing it. It makes every city dollar and every city worker part of the safety solution, creating a Sacramento where people feel secure because the environment itself is designed for security.