Areas to Focus and take Action

It is critical, now more than ever that our community stands strong together, and that we empower and protect each other. This means fostering an environment where we accept each other for who we are, where people can be nothing less than their authentic selves. We have to act on equity shortcomings and prioritize improving the lives of our community members.

The impact of decades of under investment in our housing supply is clear. The high price for housing and rent has placed a significant financial burden on members of our community, forced out lifelong neighbors, and restricting new opportunities to only the wealthiest among us. We know we need to build more housing, but we cannot keep exclusively building luxury apartments either. I’m committed to working with the city and our neighborhoods to create a more affordable Salem.

Despite recent improvements in infrastructure and the creation of the Salem Skipper program, most people in Salem still need to rely on an expensive car to navigate their daily lives. Salem is blessed with the MBTA Commuter Line, but people do a lot more than commute into Boston. We need to continue to focus on improvements in transportation infrastructure & services to work towards a more safe, affordable, and sustainable Salem.

Salem has come a long way in the last few decades, but as our tourist economy continues to grow we must double our efforts to support residents, local business owners and workers. We must leverage tourism as a strategic municipal resource in order to fund and facilitate access to quality services to all and to reduce the tax burden on residents.

Growing up on the North Shore, I thought forest fires were a California thing. But the reality of climate change now forces our city to combat several challenges at once: drought, forest fires, and coastal flooding, among others. Salem must continue to reduce city-wide emissions, but we also need to take action now to combat the impact of climate change and focus on targeted improvements to our municipal infrastructure. We need to conserve more water during times of drought and increase our capacity to store runoff water during flooding events.

Salem has a long history of creating shared outdoor spaces, including Leslie’s Retreat Park, Mack Park, Greenlawn Cemetery, Harmony Grove Cemetery, and more across the city. Keeping with this tradition, we must continue to create spaces where community members can gather at zero cost. At the same time, we also must strengthen commitment to stewardship of spaces we already have, ensuring that future generations can continue to enjoy them just as we do.