Fresno City Council District 7 Candidate Forum

Let's talk about that.

Let's break that down into several things.

Let's start with infrastructure.

How do you do that? How are we gonna pay for that? And how are we gonna get that done? What do you prioritize? Since you brought it up, Nav, I'll let you

address that.

I think, by and large, the conversation has to, our transportation measure is gonna be a crucial piece of this.

So I'm optimistic that Measure S is going to pass, and that really is where we're going to have to ensure that those dollars are invested into South Fresno neighborhoods, and really, I believe, through a worse-first model or an equity-based model.

If Measure S is not on the books, we're going to have to start getting really, really creative and looking at gas tax revenues and other sources of infrastructure funds, but really, I do believe the city... as our county needs a transportation measure on the books.

So I'll say I'll be voting yes on measure S and yes on measure D as a backup.

So I'm really proud to be supporting Measure S. I actually, as a mom, I met with a lot of my own neighbors, invited them to community meetings to help shape what was going to be on the ballot and ensuring that the priorities under Measure S were reflective of the residents, especially in some of our most underserved neighborhoods.

So safe routes to school is a really big one.

For 15 years, I've been working with moms across District 7 and across South Fresno that their top issue was the lack of safe routes to school.

And so for me, it's also going to be ensuring that we are working directly with the schools and the parents when putting those dollars to use.

because that's oftentimes what we see is, what we saw with Measure P is it's not enough to have the funding in place for parks, we also need a council member that is proactively moving these projects forward.

And so I saw the difference when you have a council member, I worked at a council office where we were very proactive in following the parks projects, making sure they were moving along, and catching funding and project delays and keeping them on track, working directly with residents.

Whereas, quite frankly, I saw the opposite in my own district representation where my own neighborhood park sat years behind delay.

And so I'm a big believer that it's not enough to have the funding.

We also need the representation that is putting in the work to move these projects forward.

And that's what I've been doing for 15 years.

On the homelessness issue, what do you think about the city's approach? How would you grade them? And then if you don't like it, you know, what would you do differently?

Yeah, so I'll tell you one of the biggest issues that I worked with residents and small businesses when I worked in District 3 was to support residents when there were encampments and empty lots next to them and when there was an issue next to their businesses and they weren't able to get the support that they needed from the city.

And what I saw there is that ultimately the city policies do not have enough meat for enforcement with these kinds of issues.

whether it's land or property owners that weren't being responsive to actually cooperating with PD on some of these encampments and empty lots, or PD not being able to enforce in front of businesses because of lack of enforcement on land.

lack of policies that allow PD to intervene.

So we do need a stronger enforcement mechanism when those come into place.

Let's talk about that.

Let's break that down into several things.

Let's start with infrastructure.

How do you do that? How are we gonna pay for that? And how are we gonna get that done? What do you prioritize? Since you brought it up, Nav, I'll let you

address that.

I think, by and large, the conversation has to, our transportation measure is gonna be a crucial piece of this.

So I'm optimistic that Measure S is going to pass, and that really is where we're going to have to ensure that those dollars are invested into South Fresno neighborhoods, and really, I believe, through a worse-first model or an equity-based model.

If Measure S is not on the books, we're going to have to start getting really, really creative and looking at gas tax revenues and other sources of infrastructure funds, but really, I do believe the city... as our county needs a transportation measure on the books.

So I'll say I'll be voting yes on measure S and yes on measure D as a backup.

So I'm really proud to be supporting Measure S. I actually, as a mom, I met with a lot of my own neighbors, invited them to community meetings to help shape what was going to be on the ballot and ensuring that the priorities under Measure S were reflective of the residents, especially in some of our most underserved neighborhoods.

So safe routes to school is a really big one.

For 15 years, I've been working with moms across District 7 and across South Fresno that their top issue was the lack of safe routes to school.

And so for me, it's also going to be ensuring that we are working directly with the schools and the parents when putting those dollars to use.

because that's oftentimes what we see is, what we saw with Measure P is it's not enough to have the funding in place for parks, we also need a council member that is proactively moving these projects forward.

And so I saw the difference when you have a council member, I worked at a council office where we were very proactive in following the parks projects, making sure they were moving along, and catching funding and project delays and keeping them on track, working directly with residents.

Whereas, quite frankly, I saw the opposite in my own district representation where my own neighborhood park sat years behind delay.

And so I'm a big believer that it's not enough to have the funding.

We also need the representation that is putting in the work to move these projects forward.

And that's what I've been doing for 15 years.

On the homelessness issue, what do you think about the city's approach? How would you grade them? And then if you don't like it, you know, what would you do differently?

Yeah, so I'll tell you one of the biggest issues that I worked with residents and small businesses when I worked in District 3 was to support residents when there were encampments and empty lots next to them and when there was an issue next to their businesses and they weren't able to get the support that they needed from the city.

And what I saw there is that ultimately the city policies do not have enough meat for enforcement with these kinds of issues.

whether it's land or property owners that weren't being responsive to actually cooperating with PD on some of these encampments and empty lots, or PD not being able to enforce in front of businesses because of lack of enforcement on land.

lack of policies that allow PD to intervene.

So we do need a stronger enforcement mechanism when those come into place.