Gauging the Issues
Meeting Challenges
Many people will say they have all the solutions to all your problems. I think we all know those people are the ones we need to question the most. I have a clear vision for how to tackle some staggering problems and to seize opportunities that exist right in front of us, but no one can or should do this alone. We all need to rely on each other to guide this city toward a brighter tomorrow. By connecting Bangor together, we can face any challenge.
Seizing Opportunities
Bangor’s technical and public transit infrastructure is outdated. Our small businesses have been faced with unprecedented challenges over the last year and a half. We are faced with a number of serious problems that need to be addressed, and we can begin by working together with community leaders and local organizations to find practical and lasting solutions.
Invest in Small Businesses
The U.S. has lost more than 1/5 of all of its small businesses to the economic hardships of the pandemic. To help promote small business growth Bangor must move into the future and start investing and assisting new and old small businesses. Whether it is through economic advice, investing into a co-op business model, or giving employees a first refusal when a business is being sold, Bangor needs to show it is looking toward the future broadly, economically.
Civil Rights
As a member of Bangor's novel Advisory Committee for Racial Justice, Economic Justice, and Inclusion, we have spear-headed multiple ways for the city to help the city grow with less of a bias than it used to have. There is still a ways to go, yet Bangor has proven it wants to do better to grow its culture and understanding of other cultures, and I am proud to be a participant in helping this change take place.
Update Technical Infrastructure
Whether we talk about updating Bangor's website to be more user-friendly, or creating a city transit mobile app to make the bus system more feasible, or combatting Spectrum and giving all Bangor citizens high-speed internet, there are many parts of Bangor's technological infrastructure that have been ignored for decades. If Bangor wants to be a competitive city for citizens to live in the 21st Century it must invest into the future. Most of these problems have simple solutions, but we have to act now if we want Bangor to grow.
Social Services
Simply put, Bangor needs to expand its social services. Bangor Police Department is being completely overworked with burdens they should not have to deal with in the first place, and that is not right. To help aid and solve Bangor's issues with homelessness, drug addiction, economic hardships, and so much more, we need to invest in trained professionals specifically in these fields; I would further add our need for social workers is so necessary the city needs to heavily consider on-job training, a training program that certifies a citizen to work in Maine's social services, or granting tuition assistance programs for students seeking social work degrees.
Home and Economic Equity
The re-zoning and possible expansion of public housing would be a huge step forward to help this crisis, yet this economic hardship is felt across this state as well. Properties that have old or even crumbling foundations are priced at such absurdly large levels we give little to no incentive for young people to buy homes. This issue is only made worse when property taxes rise despite the fact wages stagnate across the country. If Bangor needs to raise property taxes it needs to focus on those who can afford to pay higher taxes: multi-national corporations. I believe it is high-time we re-evaluate the property of companies like Wal-Mart, who try to cut their property taxes all the time and repay the community by giving sub-standard employment opportunities, and make them pay their fair share in taxes so we can give regular citizens the economic break they need to survive.
Road and Sidewalk Infrastructure
Ten years ago it was standard in Bangor to have sidewalks cleared after a winter storm as soon as possible. Now we are lucky if we get neighborhood sidewalks cleared once a year. Many citizens I have talked to constantly bring up the stagnation of sidewalks and how roads repaved the previous year sometimes have issues where they need to be redone all over again. This might be a small issue to some, but 1/3 of all Bangor voters bring up this one issue all the time. Bangor needs to listen to its voters and address this issue. I understand we live in a cold climate, but that means we must be vigilant in our roadway infrastructure. Whether that means hiring more employees, increasing the salaries of employees, or investing in new roadway technology to help elongate road and sidewalk longevity, we must represent the interests of Bangor.