Election Day Is Here!
Dear Friend,
I want to take this time to thank you for your support in my first term as your Councilmember. It has been an incredible journey and I am very excited about the opportunity to continue serving you four more years.
As a candidate, I committed to work hard to ensure we have safer and stronger neighborhoods. I have secured additional first time resources for District 1, brought more jobs to our city, placed more police in our neighborhoods, added green space for our children, and created legislation to provide job opportunities for our youth. I have been the voice on tough issues that affect all of our residents regardless of background or socioeconomic status. Our team has worked incredibly hard to fix our sidewalks, repave our roads and clean our alleys.
But all of this could not have been possible without your help and input. When I ran for office I made the promise that “if you couldn’t come to City Hall, City Hall would come to you”. In the last four years, I held over 35 coffee and community meetings throughout District 1. At those meetings I was able to personally hear your concerns and provide you with updates impacting you and your neighborhoods.
Although there have been many accomplishments in District 1, there is still more to do! I hope I have your support today to continue serving you a second term as your Councilmember.
My Promise To You: Then & Now!
I kept my promise of creating Safer and Stronger Neighborhoods! In the last four years I supported adding firefighters and police officers in our neighborhoods. We celebrated the opening of the Tower District Satellite Station (an investment of $25,000), a new Police Station in North West Fresno, and added a firetruck and additional firefighters to the District 1 Fire Station 9. Citywide we have also invested in new fire engines, patrol vehicles, and police motorcycles in an effort to increase response times and make our neighborhoods safer.
To create stronger communities, I have supported efforts to increase housing options and opportunities through new affordable housing units on Blackstone and McKinley and new single family homeownership opportunities West of 99. To serve the growing community West of 99 we have put together a Private/Public partnership to provide a community center, library and new multifamily housing in Highway City.
I kept my promise of beautifying our neighborhoods! In the last four years I have stood strong in advocating for beautification of our neighborhoods through investment in our older parks and funding of the recently adopted Fresno Parks Masterplan. We have planted hundreds of trees in our parks, organized neighborhood clean-ups, and supported additional funding for our Code Enforcement Department to combat blight.
We have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on street paving and sidewalk and gutter projects throughout District 1. In 2016, and investment of $610,000 for 6.5 miles of streets were repaved in District 1 and over $280,000 was invested in construction and repair of sidewalks and gutters. In the next two fiscal years over $6.2 Million in funding will be provided in infrastructure improvements throughout District 1. This year we were awarded $1.9 Million for construction of the Polk Avenue widening project from Gettysburg to Shaw which will bring much needed curbs, gutters and sidewalks. Over the next four years we have secured funding commitments of over $3 Million for Polk/Shaw Avenue widening and drainage construction. Also during that four years, over $3 Million in funding has been secured for traffic signal installations throughout District 1.
I kept my promise of bringing more businesses to District 1! In my first year in office, to encourage new business, services and housing in economically disadvantaged and declining areas of Fresno, I introduced two new ordinances. The first, providing new development with incentives to invest in disadvantaged neighborhoods when developing new businesses, services and housing. The second ordinance encourages replacement of blighted and underutilized/blighted structures through development impact fee incentives. Over the last four years we have seen investment of several new businesses in District 1 including: Vallarta Supermarkets, Starbucks, Ampersand Ice Cream, Buffalo Wild Wings, Casa de Tamales, Dollar Tree, Expo Party Rentals, Goldstein’s, Paintbrush Assisted Living among others.
I kept my promise of investing in our Youth! I believe that our youth provide a very important role in our community, which is why I fought hard to fund our City of Fresno Youth Commission. I have also supported and secured funding to provide our youth with paid summer job opportunities and internships, I was also pleased to be able to launch my own District 1 Young Councilmember Program to help develop our future leaders and teach them about our local government.
I am proud of what we have accomplished in the last four years and with your support I wish to continue to work hard on your behalf and complete the projects we have started.
Sincerely,
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