The systems have to change, and that impactful change comes from those of us who have felt the harm that exists in the way they function currently. Everybody deserves the opportunity to take their kids to the park, and to access adventure in the mountains, and to go to see the parade of lights with people they love, but how do we have time to do those things when we’re so worried about how we’re going to keep the lights on? How we’re going to pay another rent increase? How do we build the businesses we dream of, that will support not only ourselves and our families but the communities we grew up in, when the time and cost of licensing takes all of our resources and capacity? Where do we move to when generations of our families get pushed out by real estate developers bringing in more short term rentals driving up the cost of housing? How do we make sure our unhoused neighbors survive the night without their belongings, and without the adequate and appropriate services to access to be anywhere other than where our systems have left them?

Bandaids won’t fix these problems, and when you haven’t experienced them firsthand, you don’t have a baseline of what actually needs to be fixed. Im running for office because I have that experience, not the policy, not the language necessarily, but the understanding of the impact of everything we’ve built that doesn’t work on a human level to make sure each and every person in this city has the opportunity to thrive, too many of us barely have the opportunity to survive. I want to help change that narrative so that more people who’ve come up like me spend their lives knowing they can hold power in the shaping of their systems, the sustainability of their communities, and the ability to thrive for themselves and their families.