ISSUES

QUALITY OF LIFE

Reduce Violent and Property Crime Rates

• Work with school superintendent to focus on the needs of children in grades 1-8.
• Coordinate with the Sheriff to identify and improve family living conditions of young juvenile offenders.
• Continue work toward improving intervention services.
• Create a voluntary committee to research and develop plan to reduce property and violent crime rates.

Increase Livable Wage Job Opportunities

• Establish an Incubator Program for Trade Jobs taught by union master tradespersons with opportunities for paid internships and apprenticeships.

Increase Affordable Housing

• Incentivize the preservation and construction of quality rental housing for families, seniors, and individuals making 30 to 50% of the area median income (AMI).
• Study the Miami-Dade Housing Trust best practices which have been nationally recognized for effective strategies for Tallahassee.

Reduce Poverty Rates which annually exceed 20%

• Establish dedicated funding to address root causes of income inequality and inadequate affordable housing.

TRANSPARENCY AND EFFICIENCY IN CITY GOVERNMENT

Support Stronger Ethics Policies

• Follow the recommendations of the Independent Ethics Board for lobbying disclosure in Tallahassee city government.
• Crack down on lobbyists abusing loopholes in ethics code.
• Require elected and senior officials to list EVERY meeting either with a lobbyist and other persons contracting with the City.
• Increase transparency on political action committee contributions.
• Support pay equity and fair application of policies for all city employees.

LIVABILITY AND TOURISM

Increase Recreational Amenities for Families and Visitors

• Explore the potential for a Water Park as an economic development engine to generate dollars from other North Florida counties to support local jobs, hotels, restaurants, and retail business in Leon County
• Work with Chambers on feasibility of visitor Trolley tours of Tallahassee to introduce historic sites and amenities.
• Work with Visit Tallahassee to expand and improve the Downtown Heritage Trail.

NEIGHBORHOOD AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION

Restore Frenchtown as a Place of Commerce and Residential Vitality

• Invest in the revitalization of longtime businesses like Economy Drugs established in the 1960s for neighborhood stabilization.
• Support the identification and preservation of Tallahassee’s forgotten Black History.

Protect Established Neighborhoods

• Stop the encroachment of student housing on older, established neighborhoods.
• Enforce residential preservation zoning.
• Support stronger code enforcement to identify substandard housing and ensure it is brought into compliance.

environment

• Maintain and preserve Tallahassee's Canopy Roads
• Protect Tallahassee's heritage oak trees from clear cutting for development
• Maintain landscaped and natural buffers between established neighborhoods, incompatible land uses, and major roadways
• Ensure that proper and timely notice is provided to impacted neighborhoods for zoning changes or new developments that encroach on neighborhood preservation protections

Support Clean Energy Goals

• Continue work to implement the CLEAN ENERGY PLAN adopted in 2023.
• Work with local Chambers of Commerce to incentivize and attract “Green“ businesses to Tallahassee.

Protect Our Natural Resources

• Safeguard our groundwater and wetlands.
• Defend this region’s “world-famous” Wakulla Springs.
• Create and support land banks to acquire open space.

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Support Smart Growth

• Prevent sprawl with a compact Urban Service Area.
• Oppose urban development planned decades in the future on current rural properties that will deplete limited tax dollars for current needs.
• Limit annexations outside the Urban Service Area.
• Concentrate on infill development and investments to bring all existing city neighborhoods and business districts up to quality livability standards.