Pushing Back On Republican
Caused Chaos
Bringing Down The Cost Of Housing
The chaos that Donald Trump and his Republican allies have unleashed on our county is simply unacceptable. While county government cannot stop what is happening, it can mitigate it. We must ban any element of county government from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. We must prioritize the hiring of Allegheny residents to open county job who were cruelly fired from the federal civil service. We must also direct the county to set up an informational warning system for residents placed at risk by federal actions. This involves alerting residents when a new federal policy has the potential to subject them to unlawful actions by the administration, and to inform them of their legal options. We must keep each other safe until the storm has ended.
For Allegheny County to be a great place to call home, people must be able to afford a home here. We must build more housing. The county should take steps to encourage development and increase the housing stock. However, the county must also ensure that *all* residents have access to housing. The county must build affordable housing, with priority for locations along public transit lines. Finally, we must look to provide tax relief to the elderly and those at risk of losing their homes.
In this time of unprecedented chaos coming from Washington, we must have a county government that protects our community and takes every possible step to keep residents safe and prosperous.
We must also look beyond playing defense. We must look to how we can proactively tackle problems in the county and make this a home worthy of the amazing folks who live here.
Protecting Our Residents
Our brave first responders must receive all the resources they need to fully accomplish their missions in a safe and effective manner. We must also explore how we can expand our concept of a first responder to include emergencies where the current three types of responder might not be the most well suited. Police should not be asked to handle a mental health crisis where there is no threat of violence. Finally, we must create safe streets and infrastructure to ensure that all residents can move about the county without fear of physical danger.
A healthy environment allows our residents to live healthily lives. We must impose tougher penalties on polluters who poison the air our children breathe and the water our children drink. However, we must also reward good corporate citizens who take proactive steps to limit their pollutants. I firmly reject the notion that we can either have a healthy environment or a prosperous economy. We can, and should, have both. The county government must also work more closely with municipalities to advance local suitability projects - whether that be planting trees, fixing sewers, or cleaning up waterways, etc. Our county is a team, and we must work together like one. Finally, we must expand our parks and their amenities. Western Pennsylvania is a beautiful place to call home, and this cherished inheritance should be enjoyed by all.
Chase Corruption From Our Government
While the daily corruption seen in Washington is heartbreaking, in Allegheny County we must strive to be better. We must strengthen our ethics commission and give it the resources and authority to root out corruption and punish offenders. We have to enforce our campaign finance laws to ensure the fairness of our elections. Finally, we need to strengthen the ability of unions to protect county workers so that all our valued civil servants are protected from any bad practices government has imposed on them.