My work for the Eastside began with Citizens for a Better Environment, where I was an organizer for environmental justice initiatives and helped clean up the Mississippi River. Environmental Justice soon became the center of my work when I became Project Director of the Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association, where we focused on investing in our parks, providing resources for our older buildings, and repurposing industrial buildings. As your City Council Member, I have brought the same passion for keeping the Eastside clean and green-friendly through different projects like the Northeast Green Campus initiative, Eco-friendly housing, and just recently championed the first Blue Roof to be built in our community.

Public Safety

How will you keep young Black and brown kids safe — those who are simultaneously the most at risk from gun violence but also most at risk during interactions with the police? What do you believe are best practices for solving these issues in tandem, and how will you involve the communities most affected in problem solving and determining next steps?

The safety of our children is of paramount importance to me. We must invest in afterschool and youth programs so that our children have a safe space to learn and develop with their peers. Giving our children the chance to pave their own way in life is what makes our communities strong. We must also create opportunities for our officers to ingratiate themselves with our youth in order to cultivate strong, trusting relationships. Our children will feel safe with a police force that makes an effort to connect and understand what is afflicting them.

People of color in Minneapolis are killed or otherwise harmed by law enforcement at disproportionately high rates, despite many attempts at reform over several election cycles. How do you intend to reshape a policing system that has been resistant to change, and slow to show meaningful strides toward equitable community outcomes?

I support a holistic approach to public safety that will both keep Minneapolis safe and structurally reform the current police department. I believe that public safety is not limited to assistance from an armed officer; I have continuously supported alternatives to traditional policing. I have supported the funding of violence prevention programs as well as the incorporation of mental health professionals and social workers into our public safety system. I believe that future public safety systems must continue to implement these alternative public safety programs and professionals.

I also believe that we will not increase public safety without our police force. Dangerous situations are inevitable and require armed individuals capable of preventing them. Considering our current staffing levels, defunding or abolishing the police department would leave Minneapolis vulnerable. I believe that through working with Chief Arradondo we have a real opportunity to change the culture, training, and tactics of the Minneapolis Police Department for the better.

Substantial reform and the maintenance of safety are not mutually exclusive. Through embracing alternatives to armed officers, funding violence prevention programs, and working with our reform-minded chief, we can create a safer, more just, and more effective public safety system.

What are your stances on memorializing public spaces when our community is grieving, and/or demanding action through constitutionally-protected protests? What policies would you put in place or what organizations would you engage to ensure residents can do these things safely?

I favor memorializing public spaces where we can come together to grieve and remember as a community. Helping my constituents navigate the city process is one of the reasons I ran for City Council in the first place and will continue to help facilitate this process for memorialization. Protesting is an inalienable right and I will do everything in my power to ensure that those who wish to enact this right will be listened to and remain safe when they do.

Housing

Rental assistance from the federal government has helped keep people in their homes through the pandemic. This funding is not permanent, however, and inability to pay is the leading cause of evictions. What is your stance on more permanent rental assistance, rent stabilization, and/or rent control measures in Minneapolis?

I have spent the last 15 years working with neighbors and stakeholders to bring quality, affordable housing projects to the first ward because I believe everyone deserves a place to call home at night. I am in favor of rent stabilization and have supported these protections throughout my time on the Council. We must continue to fight for and fund initiatives that benefit everyone.

Gentrification results in cultural loss for communities and major economic impacts for those priced out of their longtime neighborhoods. As our city grows, what plans do you have to combat gentrification and increase the amount of affordable housing available in Minneapolis?

Our city has had considerable growth over the last decade, that is why it is so imperative that we are mindful and create intentional policies that address the current displacement dynamics. Cultural Corridors, for example, is an affirmative way the City addresses displacement, access to goods and services, access to economic opportunity, and creates a community system that works for its people. We must continue to support programs and initiatives like Cultural Corridors as well as advance the production of housing units at 30% and below of the AMI or area median income.

In the last few years, Minneapolis has experienced a spike in encampments of unhoused people on public land — a high percentage of whom are Black and/or Indigenous. Many of our unhoused neighbors see this as their best housing option over shelters (for reasons of personal safety, pet ownership, or having to abandon property). What will you do to protect these neighbors and connect them with safe and stable housing?

This particular issue is less significant in our ward than in other parts of the city. However, when encampments have risen up in our community stakeholders, institutions, parks and rec officials, and housing division officials, have helped work to relocate encampments into housing. By working with code service officials, we were able to expand shelter spaces and expedite additional spaces. There is a constant conversation between block leaders, safety liaisons and community organizers to make sure of clear communication lines between all parties.

Jobs and Economy

Black, Indigenous, and Minneapolis residents of color pay local taxes and contribute to our local economy, but often do not receive the same shared economic benefits as their white counterparts. Through generations of oppression via policy and unequal systems, wealth has been chronically and systematically extracted from BIPOC communities—how do you envision addressing this legacy of economic harm, in both the short term and the long term?

The pandemic has greatly impacted our local economy, especially in our marginalized communities. We must leverage city, state, and federal dollars to provide relief to our community-based business and continue to strengthen our racial equality standards through contractual relationships, policy review, and workforce development. We must continue to support BIPOC and indigenous communities and give them the resources to create generational wealth. In the long term, here in the Eastside, we must support and highlight the rich diversity of our commercial corridors like Central Avenue and empower community ownership, business models.

The power dynamics of work are heavily tilted against low-wage workers, especially immigrant workers. What actions have you taken or what plans do you have to protect and support these workers?

I have been a strong fighter for workers’ rights and unions throughout my time on the City Council. I helped pass the wage theft ordinance and will continue to advocate for work development programs and support our service industry workers.

Racial Justice

Explain your understanding of systemic racism, and how—or whether—you believe it affects Minneapolis’s education systems & outcomes, our housing market, our environment, public safety, healthcare, or other major systems.

Systemic racism is a cancer that has dangerously spread into too many aspects of our BIPOC community’s lives. We see it in the funding gap for our urban schools, the quality of healthcare and treatment, the disproportionate burden of pollution, the lack of reliable public transportation, and many others. It’s imperative that we elect leaders who recognize these gross inequalities and develop effective policy that actively fights these damaging practices.

Our community suffers from some of the greatest racial disparities in the country across many social, educational, and economic metrics—and has for some time. If you’re in government now, what have you done to address this, and do you feel your efforts have been enough despite the lack of change? And if you’re seeking office for the first time, what ideas are you going to put forward that haven’t already failed?

In the last few years, I believe that we have taken steps in the right direction to ease the systemic racial disparities in Minneapolis. However, I do not think that we have done enough.

In my role as a City Council Member, I have continuously worked to foster growth within our diverse communities. I have worked with the city and community leaders to develop affordable housing. I have championed the diverse business community on Central Ave. And I have worked tirelessly to ease the effects of gentrification in my ward.

To continue to address inequality, I believe that we must invest in minority-served school systems, businesses, and affordable housing

Climate

Climate change is already upon us, and its causes are on such a large scale that we can’t expect everyday Minneapolitans to recycle or LED bulb our way to a solution. How would you encourage businesses in our city to adopt practices to mitigate climate change, and/or hold them accountable for practices that worsen it?

Climate change must be addressed at the local level. Here in the Eastside, we have already accomplished a great deal of environmental initiatives for our schools, housing, and businesses but there is still so much work to be done. We must enact smart policies to both improve sustainability and reduce emissions. We must enact tax incentives to reward those who go green and tax those who do the most damage.

Voters’ Rights

What have you done or what will you do to protect and expand voter access in your ward/Minneapolis?

The Eastside has always had great access to civic processes. During the pandemic, I ensured that our election officials in schools, polling places, and community centers were safe and supported. I believe that, in order to foster a functioning democracy, we must ensure that all citizens have easy access to the polls. Whether that be through mail-in voting, early voting, or day of voting, as a city we must provide the necessary resources to facilitate access to the polls.

Governance

Who are the people and/or organizations that would be part of your decision-making process in office

My favorite part of my job as City Council Member is talking to my neighbors. Listening and connecting with fellow Eastsiders guides my work as I fight to create effective policies that ensure local values are uplifted while we create opportunities for everyone. That is why I’m running for re-election to continue to represent and deliver opportunities for the first ward.

Last Word

What’s one thing you think Minneapolis does well that you’d like to build upon if elected?

Housing is the foundation that social growth is built upon. Through championing affordable housing projects we can help underserved communities prosper. Minneapolis has taken tangible steps towards building an equitable housing system that offers all residents a chance to live and prosper in this community. However, I think we can go further. We must work with the city, housing partners, and the community to continue to push towards a system that allows all residents the opportunity to attain stable housing conditions.

I’m most proud of the work I was able to accomplish in the Office of Performance and Innovation at city hall. Our team started working on developing alternative responses to police in 2019, long before the murder of George Floyd. In my role as lead designer for the team, I developed our inclusive design framework for policy making and got to lead the community budgeting process behind the Safety for All Budget that included the development of a dedicated mental health response team. The work I did with my team on the Safety for All Budget I think is a good example of the kind of work I like most and excel at: bringing people together to facilitate community consensus. I’m not the center of attention in that work and don’t want to be! I’m a connector. I help the people who are most impacted collectively make decisions about what’s best for the community. That’s been my approach to leadership in the Office of Performance and Innovation and it’s the same approach to leadership that I will bring to the council.

Public Safety

How will you keep young Black and brown kids safe — those who are simultaneously the most at risk from gun violence but also most at risk during interactions with the police? What do you believe are best practices for solving these issues in tandem, and how will you involve the communities most affected in problem solving and determining next steps?

To keep Black and brown kids safe, we need to ensure their communities and neighborhoods are safe. And to do that, we need to adopt a public health approach to gun violence, offer youth programming that is culturally relevant and trauma-informed, at the same time that we invest in crime prevention and alternative responses to crime that focus on community healing and repair.

Policing alone is not going to solve gun violence or prevent it from happening. Public health research tells us that gun violence is linked to poverty, low social mobility, and low public trust. We need to focus on creating the conditions that will prevent gun violence in the first place. That means everyone has the money they need to live with dignity, access to the education and jobs that make social mobility possible, and investments in shared community resources that bring folks together and create opportunity. Finally, the overwhelming number of calls for service do not require an armed response and would be better handled by mental health professionals, social workers, mediators, and counselors trained to help folks suffering with addictions. By investing in alternative responses, we’ll be far more effective at keeping BIPOC youth safe.

People of color in Minneapolis are killed or otherwise harmed by law enforcement at disproportionately high rates, despite many attempts at reform over several election cycles. How do you intend to reshape a policing system that has been resistant to change, and slow to show meaningful strides toward equitable community outcomes?

We know that the Minneapolis Police Department does not keep us safe. They don’t prevent crimes and rarely solve them. And while they fail to have an appreciable impact on crime rates, they do maintain a well-documented track record of harm against our BIPOC, undocumented, unhoused, and LGBTQ+ neighbors. That’s why I have prioritized investing in alternative and preventative approaches to public safety and support replacing the MPD with a Department of Public Safety. By establishing a Department of Public Safety, we can proactively address the conditions that result in crime rather than responding after the fact and perpetuating harm in our communities.

While working with the Office of Performance and Innovation, I led the community budgeting process behind the Safety for All Budget. The process resulted in the community deciding to shift $8 million away from MPD and toward funding alternative approaches through mental health services. As CM, I’ll be committed to this common-sense approach. I intend to increase our investments in alternative and preventive approaches to public safety by embracing participatory processes and ensuring our community is involved in making those decisions. That’s how we will make policing obsolete.

What are your stances on memorializing public spaces when our community is grieving, and/or demanding action through constitutionally-protected protests? What policies would you put in place or what organizations would you engage to ensure residents can do these things safely?

George Floyd Square has been important to me, personally, as I have grappled with the murder of George Floyd and our city’s response to the uprising. I know from my experience how important that space has been for so many people looking to heal from our collective trauma caused by yet another murder by the police. GFS has given people a space to grieve, to connect, to heal with others in our community. People there built gardens, made art, fed each other, and cared for each other in the aftermath of a horrifically cruel murder. They made GFS sacred by doing the simple and life affirming work of caring for each other.

Memorial spaces are vitally important for community healing and community organizing. That’s why it’s so important that the city not make unilateral, top-down decisions about whether or when to clear them. These spaces are community responses to broken trust and abuse of power, which makes it even more important that the city do the important work of engaging with folks who have built the memorials. Meaningful engagement that brings all impacted parties to the table to seek consensus about a way forward should be the minimum expectation.

Housing

Rental assistance from the federal government has helped keep people in their homes through the pandemic. This funding is not permanent, however, and inability to pay is the leading cause of evictions. What is your stance on more permanent rental assistance, rent stabilization, and/or rent control measures in Minneapolis?

I support all of the above. No one should experience housing insecurity in Minneapolis. Housing is a human right, and basic decency requires us to prioritize people above profits. Because our city’s housing crisis is multifaceted, addressing it will require a broad range of policy solutions. Even if housing vouchers were a universal entitlement, we would still have an inadequate supply of affordable and accessible housing to accommodate all of our neighbors.

My goal as a councilmember is simple – every single person who wants to make a home in Minneapolis should be able to do so. And every policy solution that gets us toward that goal is on the table, including rent stabilization, increasing the supply of public housing units, and expanding access to perpetually affordable homeownership to name a few.

Gentrification results in cultural loss for communities and major economic impacts for those priced out of their longtime neighborhoods. As our city grows, what plans do you have to combat gentrification and increase the amount of affordable housing available in Minneapolis?

We don’t have to accept physical, cultural, and political displacement as inevitable consequences of our city’s growth. We can mitigate and even prevent negative outcomes of gentrification, like displacement and the loss/commodification of culture in our dynamic communities, and ensure residential stability for our neighbors by supporting community-driven anti-displacement policies like rent stabilization and TOPA.

There are also several things we can do to increase the supply of affordable housing options throughout the city. Minneapolis can and should incentivize Single Room Occupancy and other shared housing solutions in addition to significantly deepening our investments in the Perpetually Affordable Housing program. The city can also ensure residential units are included in developments zoned for mixed-use. This will ensure we are not just gaining more commercial space and forgoing the opportunity to create more units. Beyond that, it is critical that we prioritize the preservation of our existing affordable housing supply – subsidized, unsubsidized, and public.

In the last few years, Minneapolis has experienced a spike in encampments of unhoused people on public land — a high percentage of whom are Black and/or Indigenous. Many of our unhoused neighbors see this as their best housing option over shelters (for reasons of personal safety, pet ownership, or having to abandon property). What will you do to protect these neighbors and connect them with safe and stable housing?

We have to begin by acknowledging the way that policy failures have created this problem and at the same time resist the narrative that folks in the encampments are “refusing services” because they are uncooperative or irrational. Policy failures across every level of government have made encampments the best option some folks have, which means it’s incumbent upon us to create better options for our neighbors.

Most importantly, I believe the City Council needs to work in active partnership with the county and state governments to coordinate the services and resources it takes to help people who are currently living in the encampments into permanent housing — in a way that addresses all of their underlying needs. I believe that coordinating function is a crucial function of municipal government. Beyond that, getting folks into appropriate and dignified housing and keeping them safe from violence is going to require the city prioritizing the development of SROs and other low cost housing options. It’s going to take changes at the county level and in the rules at local shelters, in addition to significant investments in public housing. Finally, addressing this issue is going to take ongoing organizing efforts by folks who care deeply about our neighbors currently living in encampments, even after the election.

Jobs and Economy

Black, Indigenous, and Minneapolis residents of color pay local taxes and contribute to our local economy, but often do not receive the same shared economic benefits as their white counterparts. Through generations of oppression via policy and unequal systems, wealth has been chronically and systematically extracted from BIPOC communities—how do you envision addressing this legacy of economic harm, in both the short term and the long term?

Repairing the harms caused by generations of economic oppression will require a multifaceted approach to wealth-building in BIPOC communities. I led the development of the Small Business Portal through my work in the Office of Performance and Innovation. We created this resource with BIPOC entrepreneurs in mind, knowing that navigating city processes can be a major barrier to successfully launching and growing a business.

Navigating city processes is not the only barrier to launching a wealth-building business. In the absence of generational wealth, many BIPOC entrepreneurs struggle to find sources of funding to start or grow their businesses. As an elected official, I will work to create targeted sources of capital that are conscious of the historical sources of these disparities so we can close the wealth gap over the long run. Over the short run, I will use the purchasing power of the city to create more equitable contract opportunities for BIPOC businesses and entrepreneurs.

Repairing the economic harms will also require significant investments in programs that increase homeownership in BIPOC communities. For most families, homeownership is the primary means of generating wealth. BIPOC folks have been historically excluded from the benefits of homeownership, which has closed off the possibility of the generational transfer of wealth. We have a moral obligation to right that wrong. The city must take action to increase home ownership among BIPOC communities if we are going to make progress toward achieving wealth equity.

The power dynamics of work are heavily tilted against low-wage workers, especially immigrant workers. What actions have you taken or what plans do you have to protect and support these workers?

Minneapolis has given workers some big wins in recent years by setting standards for sick and safe time, minimum wage, and wage theft protections, but I think we can go further and ensure greater labor protections by adopting more industry-specific workplace regulations – like the hospitality worker right to recall.

Our $15/hour minimum wage won’t reach all workers in Minneapolis until July 2024. Workers making $15/hour right now can’t afford to rent most one-bedroom apartments in our city. By 2024, the rent burden on hourly workers will be even worse. It’s true that our minimum wage after 2024 is tied to inflation, but housing prices are increasing at faster rates than inflation, so that’s not good enough. Winning a $15/hour minimum wage without a tip credit was a great start, but we need better standards for all workers in our city, including a higher minimum wage.

I also know immigrants and refugees are overrepresented in our essential workforce which is why I support requiring employers to provide emergency paid sick leave to essential workers instead of requiring them to use their own accrued sick and safe time. I think it will also be worthwhile to explore whether there is opportunity for greater collaboration between the Labor Standards Enforcement Division and the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

Racial Justice

Explain your understanding of systemic racism, and how—or whether—you believe it affects Minneapolis’s education systems & outcomes, our housing market, our environment, public safety, healthcare, or other major systems.

For centuries, racial discrimination was an explicit part of our legal code. Jim Crow laws, racial covenants, and other explicitly racist policies codified white supremacy into our social and political institutions. It’s only recently–within my parents’ lifetimes–that we have outlawed explicitly racist laws and policies. But after centuries of discrimination and oppression, explicitly racist laws and policies are no longer necessary to continue to produce racial hierarchy and oppression. In fact, laws and policies that are ostensibly race-neutral can and do continue to produce unjust, discriminatory outcomes. Systematic racism is the term to refer to the ways in which racism and white supremacy have become so thoroughly integrated within our social and political institutions that even race-neutral laws and policies can produce racially discriminatory outcomes.

We can see the effects of systemic racism in Minneapolis in all of the well-documented disparities that exist between white folks and BIPOC communities. Whether we are measuring health outcomes, interactions with police, access to jobs, transit, or high-quality food, on every measure BIPOC folks experience worse outcomes and less access.

Because of how systemic racism works, it doesn’t take feelings of hatred or intentionally discriminatory actions to reproduce these harmful outcomes. All we have to do is defend the status quo and we’ll keep getting the same results. As long as we’re unwilling to attend to the ways in which racism is built into our social and political institutions, we’ll be unable to make amends and repair our community.

Our community suffers from some of the greatest racial disparities in the country across many social, educational, and economic metrics—and has for some time. If you’re in government now, what have you done to address this, and do you feel your efforts have been enough despite the lack of change? And if you’re seeking office for the first time, what ideas are you going to put forward that haven’t already failed?

I want to resist the premise of this question. The way it’s worded, it gives the impression that racist outcomes in Minneapolis persist, despite our best efforts. As a city, we’ve tried things to reduce racial disparities and those interventions have failed. I don’t think we’ve made our best effort. I don’t think racist outcomes in Minneapolis are persistent because no one has yet figured out what it would take to undo them. Frankly, we continue to have racist outcomes in our city because we’re trying to fix racial disparities while keeping everything the same. We can have the status quo or we can have racial justice but we cannot have both. We know what it would take to undo the deep and persistent racial disparities in Minneapolis, we as a community have not yet agreed to take the necessary actions.

We will have racial justice in Minneapolis when we decide to invest our city dollars into programs that extend the Minneapolis Miracle to everyone in our city. That means spending our money on programs that guarantee access to housing, jobs, education, and food. It means investing in full-service schools to ensure families have access to the social services they need to thrive. It means culturally relevant programs that address the unique needs of immigrant and diaspora communities.

What gives me profound hope is that my neighbors are no longer willing to accept the status quo. Since the murder of George Floyd, folks all over our city, from all backgrounds, have been demanding that we finally make our best effort, that we finally take the actions we know will end racial disparities in our city. This election poses a profound question to all of us who live here: Is Minneapolis going to become the multiracial democracy we know it can be? Or, will apathy, cynicism, and fear continue to allow the concentration of power in the hands of those who are wealthy, well-connected, and disproportionately white? I feel a deep sense of hope and optimism because after hundreds of conversations with my neighbors and folks throughout the city, I believe that as a community we are ready to make our best effort in the work for racial justice.

Climate

Climate change is already upon us, and its causes are on such a large scale that we can’t expect everyday Minneapolitans to recycle or LED bulb our way to a solution. How would you encourage businesses in our city to adopt practices to mitigate climate change, and/or hold them accountable for practices that worsen it?

The city can: leverage their purchasing power to make it more affordable for businesses to transition to clean energy, products, and services; utilize their contractual power to source from local businesses that are already fighting climate change; and incentivize businesses to update their infrastructure and policies to reduce their environmental impact. For example, I would replicate a program from Ramsey County which made relief grants for businesses to improve their recycling and waste programs. Additionally, there are under-utilized and under-funded state-, county-, and utility-level programs that mitigate climate change. The city can create awareness campaigns to popularize these programs, and support groups that work to catalyze climate action in businesses and residences alike, like MNCEE.

There are protections already in place in our city code to reduce air pollution and protect public health. However, those protections only work when they are enforced. On city council, I will work to ensure that the Minneapolis Health Department is fully funded so that they have the necessary resources to enforce these codes. But the climate emergency necessitates measures beyond existing regulations– we must strengthen our regulations to match the scale of the crisis. Currently, we have regulatory codes that allow for the permitting, review, and enforcement of violations for projects that affect air, water, and hazardous waste pollution. These codes help protect our communities by providing a regulatory framework to mitigate the potential impacts of developments in their neighborhoods. We need to expand the city ordinance codes to include climate change. Without climate-specific city codes, already marginalized communities will continue to be the most vulnerable to the devastating impacts of climate change.

Voters’ Rights

What have you done or what will you do to protect and expand voter access in your ward/Minneapolis?

I began my advocacy for voter access through volunteering with my local senate district. During the 2020 election year, I co-chaired our Outreach and Inclusion committee where we organized efforts around voter outreach, polling center wayfinding, coordinated texting, chartered buses to polling locations, and other means of increasing voter participation in the midst of the Covid pandemic. After the 2020 election, we’ve seen a historical assault on voting rights around the country. As an elected official, I will be a strong advocate for expanding voter access, not just in my ward, but throughout the city—especially in communities with historically lower turnout. It is our responsibility to make the process of voting as invitational and inclusive as possible and I believe we can do more to increase turnout and participation. I will look to partner with organizations that have an ongoing relationship with many of our communities who have had lower participation rates and ensure there is proactive outreach, convenient polling locations, and appropriate cultural and language support for voter access.

Governance

Who are the people and/or organizations that would be part of your decision-making process in office?

One of the most enriching aspects of running for public office is getting the opportunity to meet with engaged voters. Ward 1 is filled with so many engaged residents who are community leaders and experts in their own right, many of whom have expressed the lack of responsiveness they’ve received from city hall. My primary focus is the people of Ward 1 and I plan to create opportunities for regular feedback and accountability. In the past, only certain constituents had the privilege of responsiveness from their elected official. Under my leadership, I will hold myself accountable to every constituent.

The process of campaigning has brought me into close relationships with progressive organizations and organizers across many areas impacting our community. I will build on these relationships beyond the campaign as many of these leaders have been deeply engaged in this work and have developed knowledge, expertise, and networks that go beyond electoral politics.

Last Word

What’s one thing you think Minneapolis does well that you’d like to build upon if elected?

Minneapolis does a good job of removing barriers and making voting accessible. Minnesota frequently leads the country in voter participation and this is made possible by the leadership of our municipal officials making voting as accessible as possible. Having strong voter participation demonstrates the level of civic engagement our community desires. Although Minnesota has a high overall voter turnout, we know many BIPOC and immigrant communities are left behind. Removing barriers to voting isn’t enough, we need to proactively engage every community and make it known that their participation is valued and desired. As a council member, I will work to deepen opportunities for engagement beyond voting to include participatory budgeting and policy-making that is grounded in inclusive design principles. My goal is to ensure that all of Ward 1 is represented in the policy-making process, especially folks who have traditionally been excluded from these processes.