campaign phone number
864-404-7438
I spent the first 8 years of my career in the military as an Army helicopter MEDEVAC pilot after attending Furman University. I returned to Greenville in 2012 to attend graduate school at Clemson University. I have been on the Advisory Council at Homes of Hope since 2017 and serve as a Deacon at my church, Downtown Presbyterian. I have also served on a city-appointed seat of the Greenville Airport Commission for 7 years, spending 2 years of that as Chairman.
1) Responsible growth that prioritizes neighborhoods and maintains a high quality of life. This includes continuing to invest in greenspace, neighborhood parks, and housing affordability. Also being mindful of existing residential neighborhoods as new projects are proposed.
2) Public Safety, Infrastructure and Transportation. These things are critical for a healthy community but will be very easy to be complacent with as our city grows and leadership turns over
3) Fiscal responsibility and economic development. No matter what our challenges are, and no matter what our city aspires to be, we cannot address those meaningfully if we are not healthy financially and if people are not investing in our city for the right reasons.
Complacency and losing sight of core city functions and services as leadership turns over and the city continues to grow. We have challenges that need to and should be addressed but we also need to proactively always be thinking about and planning for public safety and core city services in a way the sets the next generation up for success. As our city grows we also need to be more mindful of ensuring all neighborhoods are beneficiaries its successes, mainly in housing availability and infrastructure.
First, decide what we want our public transportation to look like within our city limits, make plans around that, and create a plan to execute on the vision. At the same time, increase collaboration with our county, state and federal colleagues to improve upon the system that serves individuals who might work in our city but may live outside our city limits.
Reducing barriers for groups that create the housing and better communicate which mechanisms the city has available to incentivize affordability within new and existing inventory. The city has an important role to play (financial and otherwise) in the effort but success also depends on the private sector and non-profit groups. The city can be a great convener in this regard to enable the efforts of groups already doing it well and leveraging the different abilities of various stakeholders.
campaign phone number
(678)5912984
I served in the AmeriCorps program for two years where I led a home repair program for seniors and those with disabilities and worked with neighborhoods. I've led in my career- federal grants, housing plans, neighborhood and city/downtown plans. I led efforts for affordable housing- reducing housing barriers, passing incentives for the private sector, and over $30 million in investment. I also was vice-chair of County Parks and Rec where we expanded our trail and chaired the United Way Young Leaders Society raising money for our most critical needs in the community. I was director of Keep Greenville County Beautiful and Young Voter Coalition and graduate of Leadership Greenville, Furman's Women Leadership, & Grassroots Leadership Program.
Bring homeownership back to 60%, with focus on affordable options through Land Trust models, incentives, and vacant parcel tools.
Establish small, efficient trolley route connecting neighborhoods with the city and ensuring those who live downtown don't need cars. Also, park and ride options to all surrounding cities. This will reduce traffic and increase safety, as our collisions are at an all time high.
Increase tree canopy to 50% by replanting and less clearing (this will save up to 15% on utilities costs for household) This can be done by using tree fees the city is sitting on- over $3 million, also to remove dying trees ahead of hurricane season.
Adjust zoning to outright allow child care in all residential districts.
Over development coupled with poor planning. I would incentivize growth where we can handle it (within our nodes identified in our 2040 plan), to create strategic overlay zones. Doing so will protect neighborhoods from growth that is out of scale while promoting growth where we actually have road capacity and infrastructure. Additionally, it has the benefit of providing a tax incentives for economic development- supporting small businesses, improving transit (trolley in city, buses to employment centers), housing affordability, child care, and adaptive reuse of vacant buildings (reducing the development of green space) while relieving the County of the infrastructure and service costs and boosting property taxes for both.
My plan includes bus and trolley (mentioned above) 30 min. routes, extended public transit operating hours, improved infrastructure to stops and covered stops – which will increase ridership and reduce traffic (150k people daily). My revenue strategy avoids tax hikes by using innovative technology to improve our traffic light system in real time, while also letting speeders, texters, and red-light runners fund these improvements. This not only accelerates transit upgrades, but also promotes safer streets for everyone and allows our law enforcement to focus on public safety and not traffic.
It's incredibly critical. We have the ability to use our city land towards mixed income development that provides affordable homeownership, and rentals that build equity for people. We can innovate for accessory dwelling units and tiny home subdivisions and reduce regulations and design guidelines to make the process easier to build BUT incentivize affordable through strategic overlay zones partnering with the County (mentioned above). We also could use vacant tax tools to better support this effort, increasing mapping of missing middle and smart infill. Permanent supportive housing for our homeless population and creative uses for old hotel/motels for our restaurant/retail workers.
