Bottom line: we need to keep people in their homes.

Over the last several years, housing in Santa Maria has become more and more unaffordable as the housing crisis worsens. Residents are forced to double, triple, or quadruple up just to make ends meet. Renters are struggling with rising rents, on the brink of eviction. Many of our neighbors have been forced into homelessness.

Santa Maria can be a place with affordable housing for every life stage. It could protect its residents from being pushed from their homes. City leadership could support the development of housing to meet the needs of its residents.

We need to keep residents in their homes. We need rent control to protect residents from unjust rising costs. We need to protect renters from unjust evictions. We need to legalize the development of homes for all situations: housing for individuals, students, couples, and the elderly.

Bottom line: jobs in Santa Maria ought to pay you enough to live in Santa Maria.

The cost of living in Santa Maria has soared and the minimum wage has failed to keep pace. Recent inflation has only made this worse. The minimum wage wasn't enough to live off of before and it is absolutely not enough to live off of in 2024. In addition, many of our community members work in unsafe and unjust working conditions.

Working in Santa Maria can be a dignified experience. Putting in 40 hours of work per week, you deserve to be able to afford a roof over your head, food on the table, and to rest and enjoy your life. City leadership has the power to increase opportunities for dignified work.

We need local jobs that pay a livable wage and jobs that pay a family-supporting wage. We need to ensure a safe working environment for all, free from wage and labor exploitation. We need to protect and encourage the right to organize within the workplace and hold bad players accountable.

Bottom line: Santa Maria businesses ought to be supported and prioritized.

For decades, when Santa Maria builds retail, we build short-lived big box stores and strip malls. We build freeway oriented retail designed to serve those passing through our community instead of local place-based businesses designed to serve the community. We subsidize the development of big box stores, making it difficult for generational local businesses, invested in this community, to survive.

Santa Maria can be a city where local businesses thrive and serve the needs of neighbors. We need leadership that prioritizes the needs of local businesses and residents.

We need to end subsidies to national corporations. We need to lower the barrier to entry for local businesses and create opportunities for them to succeed. We need to reimagine where small businesses can operate and incentivize alternative business structures.

Bottom line: neighborhoods should be equitable and accessible for all residents.

Over the last 70 years, Santa Maria has committed and re-committed to the subdivision as the main way of organizing our neighborhoods. These places have no practical way of accessing any amenities, like a grocery store, let alone a job, without the high cost of owning and maintaining a car. In addition, subdivisions divide us from our neighbors, making it difficult to build community and contributing to the loneliness epidemic.

Santa Maria can be a comfortable place to live, for all residents, all while making the city a more affordable place to live. We cannot repeat the same pattern expecting different results.

We need to start building neighborhoods that can provide a complete life: home, school, jobs, shopping, community, and open spaces. We need to allow our existing neighborhoods to slowly and gently evolve to provide more resources to existing residents without displacement. We need to reclaim our neighborhoods as a place for community, not just a place to sleep at night.

Bottom line: we need to hold leadership accountable and we must change the status quo.

For the past 15 years, the city has entered each year in a structural deficit. The city has delayed important maintenance, leading to declining parks, rough roads, and limited community center and library hours. The city has delayed hiring important positions and neglected paying its employees a fair wage.

Santa Maria can have a balanced budget, take care of its maintenance responsibilities, and expand services offered. We need to proactively address the structural financial challenges in this city: relying on new development to pay for prior financial commitments.

We need to encourage development that can sustain itself without draining city resources. We need to listen to the community when they tell us their priorities. We need a healthy budget, which requires accountability from our leadership and community oversight.

Bottom line: The number one way to reduce competition for parking is to reduce the need for parking.

As Santa Maria grows and affording a home of our own grows more out of reach for the average resident, many have had to resort to cramped living situations. Inevitably, this leads to more cars parked in our driveways and in our streets, creating tension between our neighbors.

Santa Maria can be a city where residents do not need to worry about where they're going to park after a long day at work or running errands. It can be a city where the trip home is something you look forward to.

We need to prioritize alternatives to driving so that some of us can make the choice to walk, ride, or take transit. We need to prioritize the needs of those of that already use alternatives because they keep parking spaces open. We need to allow some jobs and businesses closer to home so taking an alternative is a realistic option.