Priorities

New Orleans is expensive. High housing costs, including taxes and insurance, are unsustainable for many families. The City does not have enough enough affordable housing units, and we have seen a concerning increase in our unhoused population. As a Councilmember, I will work collaboratively with folks in community organizations, the business community, and at all other levels of government to ensure our citizens are able to comfortably afford to live in NOLA without having to choose between safe, affordable housing and other basic necessities.

New Orleans struggles to deliver consistent city services. Residents have grown accustomed to street flooding, power outages, boil water advisories, intermittent trash pickup, and a piecemeal approach to routine maintenance that is both unpredictable and inconvenient. As a Councilmember, I will work to help develop and support systems to streamline services and ensure regular delivery. By catching up on deferred maintenance, we can look to build future maintenance schedules that will be more affordable to maintain and think creatively about future sustainability.

As a teacher and a parent in the New Orleans public school system, I have seen firsthand the evolution of the charter school movement. While I am deeply grateful to be a member of an excellent school community, I am keenly aware that there are not nearly enough seats in high performing schools for us to consider the system a success. As a Councilmember, I will do everything in my power to ensure adequate and equitable funding is available to public schools. I will work closely with school board members to support their efforts in ensuring school success, and I will be a constant advocate for the best interests of the children of New Orleans. Every child deserves a high quality education — we need to do more to deliver on that democratic promise.

Our first responders are among our hardest working residents. As a city we need to do more to enable them to do their jobs to the best of their ability to serve and protect New Orleans residents. Our emergency response times are dangerously slow due to understaffed agencies and city ordinances that do more to hinder than help. We need an agressive strategy to recruit and retain Firefighters, Police Officers, and EMTs, including competetive pay and benefits in alignment with the essential services these folks provide.

New Orleans is a world-class city, and we should be attracting world-class businesses as economic drivers. Over the past ten years, I have watched many friends and family members move away because we simply do not have enough economic opportunities. We cannot afford to continue losing citizens at the height of their careers. As a Councilmember, I will work with local and regional business development agencies to attract well-paying jobs to New Orleans so that all citizens can live here secure in the knowledge that they do not need to choose between their careers and the city they love.

New Orleans loves tradition, but we need more balance between maintaining the best parts of our history and considering where we might be as a city in 10, 20, or 50 years. We need elected leaders who are prepared to think boldly about not just the present, but also the future. I believe in New Orleans, and I would be honored to help develop and promote that vision.