On the Issues
Prioritize Public Safety
Safer Roads ∙ Vision Zero ∙ Flooding Mitigation ∙ Investigate Property Crimes ∙ COVID Recovery ∙ Mental Health Care ∙ Substance Abuse Treatment ∙ Emergency Management
Public safety impacts every resident, worker, commuter, and tourist – plus every sector of our local economy. Sadly, our county leadership is often distracted from much-needed public safety solutions with luxury amenities or pet projects. Let’s change that!
We need Every Road Designed for Safety to protect pedestrians, cyclists, children, people with disabilities, and even drivers themselves from serious injuries and fatalities. No more delays! Additionally, Arlington’s leaders must finally stand up to Metro (WMATA) to fix their chronic issues.
Invest in Stormwater and Emergency Preparedness to be proactive against future crisis while not ignoring the past crisis of COVID. Upgrading our infrastructure, establishing effective data-driven procedures, and forming better regional partnerships are critical for our community’s resiliency.
Implement Police and Criminal Justice Reform so our local law enforcement can focus on incidents they actually need to be dealing with – domestic assaults, robberies, DWI’s, and other violent crimes while also fully investigating property crimes. Let’s invest in trained professionals for mental health, substance abuse, homelessness assistance, and parking enforcement so that our law enforcement can protect the public’s safety and civil liberties.
End the Housing Crisis
Lower Property Taxes ∙ Missing Middle ∙ Streamline Permits ∙ Affordable Housing Investments ∙ Community Land Trusts ∙ Homelessness
Arlington is facing a critical housing affordability crisis, so we need an “All-of-the-Above” solution to help everyone: middle-class and lower-income, current homeowners and renters, plus those without any home at all.
Pass Missing Middle for the Middle Class to stop the squeeze on families, minorities, the elderly, and young professionals that’s forcing them out of our community. This will open up duplexes, townhouses, and even “garden condos” to be built across the entire county as potential “starter homes” for new families and “downsized homes” for people as they age.
Provide Relief for Current Homeowners by lowering real estate property tax rates, streamlining permits for renovations, and allowing more Accessory Dwelling Units.
Too many of our affordable housing efforts are short-term band-aids. Truly Lift up the Lower-class by expanding our affordable housing investments, improving renter protections, and establishing innovative models of affordable ownership such as Community Land Trusts and Shared Equity Mortgages.
We must achieve No More Homelessness, so more emergency shelters and permanent supportive housing need to be provided while tying them into expanded financial assistance, mental health, and substance abuse treatment networks.
True Accountability & Reform
Fully Fund the County Auditor ∙ Ranked Choice Voting ∙ Arlington Way 2.0 ∙ More Transparency ∙ High-tech Agile Arlington ∙ Data-driven Evaluation ∙ Expand the County Board
Improve how we handle local elections and governance to rebuild the “Arlington Way” (v2.0). Follow A Better Way with Ranked Choice by implementing “Ranked Choice Voting” to open up our elections to more candidates and new voices. Mend relationships with civic associations and advisory commissions. Other major reforms such as expanding the size of our County Board or even changing to a form of government with a Mayor should also be considered.
Even well-run governments need professionals to serve as the eyes, ears, and voices of vulnerable residents and taxpayers. Recommit to Independent Auditing of all county operations by fully funding the County Auditor’s office – created in 2015 but since left understaffed and is now leaderless. Bring together our many other different disconnected “auditing” functions with better communication, cooperation, and perhaps some organizational merging. Go line-by-line through county budgets with a focus on data-driven evaluation of every program and facility.
Our county desperately needs to respond to problems and implement projects faster. That’s why we need An Agile Arlington that adopts organizational models that high-tech talent have been using for decades in order to modernize, be more open, and become a flexible organization.
Save our Small Businesses
Even before the pandemic, local small businesses were struggling under taxes, regulations, and poor county planning. Current leadership eagerly changes the rules and gives tax subsidies to Amazon, but does very little to lift the burden on local business.
Our underserved residents are most impacted by tree loss and climate change, so I will empower volunteers and neighborhood civic associations to help implement solutions focused on incentives, growth, and equity. Everyone deserves access to nature.
New Partnerships for our Students
We invest a lot into our schools, but too many parents have seen declining results. The County Board needs to be a strong partner for our students, parents, teachers, and bus drivers by improving communication and transparency with the School Board.
Latest News
Your Guide to the Candidates
You may have seen this chart in your door, at a farmer’s market, or floating around social media. Here are the explanations behind the colorful icons on where me and the other candidates for Arlington County Board stand on the big issues of this year:
Theo Rides a Bike
I love cycling and advocate for better bike lanes and trails. Join in on the #VoteTheoChalkArt activities!
We Can Do More: Tree|Houses in Arlington
Can we build more affordable housing, without sacrificing environmental safety? Do these two issues need to conflict?
Thoughtful and Blinding: The Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s Candidate Forum
The focus of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s forum was refreshingly on small business issues and economic development, which I was prepared for with concrete solutions to our problems
Our Greatest Failure is our Unsafe Streets
Date: Monday, August 1st. Time: Evening, around 7:30pm after the sun had set and it was getting dark. A life was taken on one of Arlington’s streets. Three weeks ago yesterday, at the intersection of South Glebe St and 2nd St South, mother of six children Viviana Oxlaj Pérez was walking her bike when she […]
Trees Love Missing Middle Housing
The Missing Middle proposal has set off a firestorm of controversy but what I want to focus on right now is whether Missing Middle housing will result in the loss of our precious tree canopy.