Equity

Starts at Work and Extends to the Home

Charlotte continues to become a less affordable place to live for working families. We must make critical investments in our families and communities now to reverse this trend. Heads of households making a liveable wage leads to improved housing opportunities, better educational opportunities for their children and better access to all forms of health care.

We must invest in Charlotte’s working families by:

Recruiting businesses and companies who will commit to hiring Charlotte residents and will provide good paying, career-path jobs.

Working on policy that encourages city staff to negotiate with contractors that pay their employees a living wage

Rallying behind the call for workers rights and ensuring that all people are paid the same wages for the same work.

We also must invest in Charlotte’s communities, ensuring that workers bring their paychecks home to safe and secure communities, by:

Continuing to push development of mixed-income neighborhoods with access to jobs, schools, services and entertainment.

Promoting home ownership for working class residents to help them to accumulate wealth and also enhance the Charlotte tax base.

Access

If People Can't Show Up, They Can't Move Up

Access is both physical and digital. We must lead in making investments in bridging the digital divide as well as invest in transportation infrastructure. If we do not eliminate our dividing lines, we will never achieve our full potential as individuals or as a community.

We must ensure that our city is accessible and inclusive by:

Including all citizens in the policy-making process. Now more than ever, citizens are seeking ways to become more involved in government. Access to information - unfiltered and in real time - is necessary for full engagement.

Fully implementing the updated 2030 plan for public mass transit, especially enhancing east-west connectivity to fully serve middle and low income working populations. The plan will both alleviate traffic congestion and spark economic development.

Prioritizing digital inclusion for all Charlotte residents. Internet access is no longer a privilege but essential infrastructure to ensure upward mobility for all. Through public-private partnerships we can transform Charlotte public spaces into internet-connected hotspots igniting entrepreneurship and creativity. Charlotte should be the leader in the way cities use 5G technology.

Interconnection

Pillar of a Strong Democracy

Charlotte is more than just a place to live; it is home. City Council must build bridges across our city’s diverse communities and between branches of government. I am that bridge builder.

In order to build an equitable and accessible city we must invest our social capital with individuals and groups who have been left out by:

Working with government partners that support comprehensive strategies in order to create a community where families are not destabilized due to interactions with the criminal justice system.

Encouraging adults to mentor our young people. By creating continuums of wisdom we can ensure that future stakeholders of Charlotte will not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Nurturing relationships in the community that connect Charlotte residents to opportunities, information and resources that demonstrate to every child, youth and family that their contributions are vital to the success of our community.