A vision for Carrboro

I grew up in Carrboro and I'm raising my kids here too. So I know how this town has changed over the decades and I know the challenges we face. I'm running for Town Council because I care deeply about our town's budget, how we use our land, and how we support our residents from the youngest members of our community to the people who have lived here for generations.

I envision a Carrboro where we have grandparents, their grandkids, the kids’ teachers, and the nurse aides who visit the grandparents all living, working, and happily playing inside Carrboro. I envision a Carrboro with more and better access to green, shady spaces for everyone. I envision a Carrboro where more of our residents can share in the joy of our quirky town.

Platform

Equitable Transportation

People need safe and easy ways to get between home, school, work, groceries, and parks regardless of how they're getting around. I drive, walk, ride a bike, or ride the bus depending on the day or destination, so I know that there are challenges regardless of what transportation mode people use.

I envision a Carrboro that is more connected and equitable for how people get around town

There’s a phenomenon in transportation design called the “curb-cut effect” that refers to designing our communities so that they are accessible to all people regardless of ability or disability. Addressing exclusions experienced by one group of people can create an environment that’s better for everyone.

The term came from the physical cut curbs installed to ensure a smooth passage between the sidewalk and street so that wheelchair users can easily get around. But today, everyone benefits from these cuts - including people pushing strollers or carrying heavy bags. The technology designed for disabled people can help everyone else.

The Carrboro Connects Comprehensive plan, in the Transportation & Mobility section, already says that we will measure “Quantity of off-road bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure installed to improve high priority connections and complete the pedestrian and bicycle network.”

I will advocate for us to make more and faster progress on our pedestrian and bicycle network.

There are clear examples in Carrboro of areas with limited or unsafe connectivity that must be improved. I will advocate for prioritizing safe crossings along Highway 54 -- where residents currently run across the highway to catch a bus -- and at intersections where school kids currently cross to get to our middle and elementary schools.

We must ensure equitable and safe access to our schools, neighborhoods, and Businesses. In doing so, Carrboro will live up to its self-image as a community that is welcoming and inclusive to all.

Climate Justice and Action

We know that in Carrboro we are already experiencing hotter and more extreme weather.

Carrboro must continue to center equity as it tackles climate resilience

Carrboro has already taken important steps to reduce the town’s carbon footprint: the town recently committed budget for electrification of its vehicles, and has centered climate action in its comprehensive plan.

As the town takes more and bigger steps to work towards its climate goals, we must continue to center those least able to afford the burden, such as our elders on fixed incomes and those with unstable housing or no housing.

The comprehensive plan centers “plans and policies [that] will improve equity by increasing the community’s access to experiencing natural places, especially for those who currently have less access.” I agree, and that means asking ourselves how we can shape the future of Carrboro to be greener and more resilient through our land-use policies, through our recreation and cultural resources, and as we think about the future of our town’s economic development.

Building affordable and better housing

I believe that Carrboro should be a town that welcomes people at all stages of their lives and all income levels. Increasingly, it is not - land use policies over the past decades have pushed out artists, single parents, senior citizens, and people who can’t afford a large single family home.

Incentivize the housing people want and can afford

We say we’re an inclusive and welcoming place, but our current land use ordinance makes it difficult to build housing that is accessible and affordable.

The biggest impact change we can make is to our zoning, permitting, and planning processes. Our town code produces a set of incentives, and those incentives make it much easier to build very large and expensive houses. Making changes means we can live up to our values and that more of the people who work in Carrboro will be able to live in Carrboro.

Anti-racist Learning and Practice

I am a White Latino whose marriage would have been illegal prior to the 1967 Loving v. Virginia ruling, and in my lifetime I have seen both progress and setbacks in how we talk about and reckon with racism in this country.

I strongly believe that finding and using structured ways to talk about, learn about, and practice dismantling racism can bring us together rather than divide us. This isn't just a whimsical bit of faith; I believe this based on personal experience with teams and published research. We are all hurt by racism, and we all benefit by coming together to rid ourselves of it.

People of all races and ethnicities come together to make Carrboro the wonderful place that it is, and we are also a town that is named after a virulent racist. We have a cemetery that our Black neighbors tell us matters deeply to them precisely because access to it was denied to them within living memory. I'm listening, and I promise to work to translate what I learn into policy that keeps Carrboro leading on issues of Justice.

I believe that we owe it to the Rogers/Eubanks Road community and other historically under-represented communities to continue to improve how we gather feedback from them so that future growth and development put right some historic wrongs. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to grow both justice and our population if we elevate the voices of the historically marginalized in how we move forward with the Greene Tract.