Issues

  • Glendale has a lot going for it, but despite its strengths many residents struggle with housing and financial stability. High housing costs impact everyone, including essential workers who can't afford to live in the city. We can do better by:

    • Building more homes: Increasing housing supply is crucial. We need more affordable rentals and more homeownership options.

    • Protecting current residents: We need to strengthen protections for renters, especially against unjust evictions, with supportive policies for both tenants and the majority of responsible landlords.

    • Ending homelessness: Glendale's "Continuum of Care" program is a feather in our cap, but it requires ongoing support and expansion to help more individuals, treating homelessness as a critical humanitarian issue. 

  • Glendale has the enviable reputation as being one of the safest cities in America. But while crime is low, street safety remains a major concern. Speeding and reckless driving are epidemics which need to be brought under control. At the same time, congestion and parking remain major irritants for many Glendale residents. My vision for a better transportation involves:

    • Enforcement & Education: by leaning on technology, including speed cameras, we can extend the reach of our recently expanded traffic enforcement team; but enforcement and education cannot do the job alone.

    • Safer Streets by Design: we need to shift from designing streets for maximum throughout and speed to designing them for safety. We have the plans and tools; it’s now about careful execution that brings the whole community along.

    • Tackling Congestion at its Source: by bringing housing and jobs closer together giving people safe, convenient and reliable alternatives to driving, we can grow our economy without growing our traffic woes. 

    With strong local leadership and a clear vision, Glendale can be a place where kids can safely walk or bike to school, seniors feel comfortable crossing the street; downtown is thriving but not gridlocked, and getting around is easy, safe, and stress free for all.

  • As we prepare Glendale for a richer and more sustainable future, we need to deal with our aging infrastructure and growing financial liabilities from decisions make decades ago. We can do it if we come together and meet the challenge as a community.

    My vision involves a three pronged approach:

    • Empowering growth: by attracting entrepreneurs and supporting existing businesses, we can boost economic activity and generate revenues to make our city even more attractive, a virtuous cycle.

    • Smart spending: by increasing efficiency and harnessing technology, we can control costs while maintaining the police, fire, housing, parks, libraries, street maintenance, code enforcement, permitting and other services we depend on.

    • Balanced revenues: by developing new business services, making better use of city assets, and spreading the tax burden fairly, we can generate funds needed to meet our current and future obligations.

  • Change is the only constant in life. While we can’t keep Glendale frozen in time, we all want development that feels human and preserves our sense of home and connection to the past. To achieve that, we need to focus on:

    • Balancing growth and preservation: by embracing necessary development while respecting Glendale’s character and history, we can ensure new project enhance rather than degrade our city’s charm.

    • Building the range of housing we need: by building a variety of housing types—including housing affordable at all income levels, housing that accommodates young people, growing families and retirees, and housing that offers a real pathway to home ownership—we can serve the needs of our diverse and evolving population.

    • Dealing honestly with State mandates: while we work to protect local land use authority, we need to be realistic about State mandates and worth with them; empty threats to sue the State are a distraction which will leave us all worse off.   

    With honest and thoughtful leadership, we can evolve the city gradually in way that preserves housing choices, gives young people a path to homeownership, and allows historic and hillside neighborhoods to coexist with a walkable, transit-oriented urban core.

  • We’ve made real progress in attacking multiple sources of pollution these past six years. But there’s much more to do to:

    • Decarbonize our energy system

    • Electrify our transportation and building stock

    • Eliminate fumes and noise from gas landscape equipment, and

    • Cut the growth of plastics and food waste. 

    At the same time, we need to recognize that we are facing a hotter, drier and more fire-prone future, and need to make investments today to keep Glendale thriving, safe and livable well into the future, such as:

    • Expanding our urban tree canopy and adding shade to public spaces;

    • Implement cool pavement and cool roof programs;

    • Promoting CERT and Fire Wise programs in the more at risk neighborhoods;

    • Hardening our water and electrical infrastructure to defend against supply shocks.

    A note on utility rates!

    I recognize that residents are struggling with utility rates. Rates are up for many reasons, but mainly because we are undergoing a major, and long delayed, utility modernization project. This project includes replacement of the old Grayson power plant, investment in a waste-to-energy project at the Scholl Canyon Landfill, and once in a generation upgrades to the system for distributing power to homes and businesses across the city. The modern design Council adopted in 2022 had a lower price tag than the traditional all-gas system it rejected in 2018, but it’s still a major expense. Fortunately, as we electrify vehicles and buildings, we can use smart technology and targeted financial incentives to shift load to those times in the day (and night) when it is cheap and easy to supply that power. This is a real and achievable strategy for keeping rates down, and it doesn’t require adding to the existing pollution burden on neighborhoods like Pelanconi, Riverside Rancho and Grandview downstream from the power plant.

  • The Trump administration has ushered in unprecedented levels of illegality, cruelty, corruption, and national self-destruction. I am committed to defending Glendale by:

    • Ensuring we recover the millions of dollars in tariffs paid on imported equipment should courts deem the tariffs illegal.

    • Establishing a dedicated team in City Hall to keep residents housed and fed in the face of threatened cuts to federal housing or other social services funding.

    • Supporting our immigrant community from arbitrary abductions of hard working and law abiding residents by masked federal agents.

    • Calling out and confronting local actors who are attempting to inject Trump-style finger pointing, misinformation and intolerance into the Glendale political scene.