Platform Points
Why am I running for Council? Why put in so much time and effort for a role that gets so much scrutiny from the public and doesn’t even pay the annual wages of a very part-time job? I seek this role because I get the chance to work hard at work worth doing. That’s the crux of it. Local government is important. The work we do directly impacts the day-to-day lives of all of us. To quote Councilman Mike Ford: “How we do things in local government matters. Understanding the Council-City Manager form of government matters. Earning the trust of colleagues matters.”
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Nonpartisanship
I am wholeheartedly nonpartisan, and this is at the core of who I am as a candidate. The teamsport machinations of national parties have no place in the minutia of our bi-monthly meetings. I’m not a party-line voter, rather I vote on the issues or the content of the character of the individual at hand. When we cast our votes on public works bids, taxation, special events, or other ordinances throughout Oshkosh, we shouldn’t seek to bring the ideologies of the left or the right to vie for favor, rather we should consider the voices of our neighbors, the history of our neighborhoods, and the future that we’ll be building for our children and generations yet to come.
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Historic Preservation
Where architecture is concerned, downtown Oshkosh on and off Main St., and also South Oregon St. are our most historically prominent. Several of the downtown properties have been there since the rebuilding after the Great Oshkosh Fire of 1875. So many of our buildings were made with nationally renowned Cream City bricks. We have work to do to A) recognize these buildings for their historic significance and B) put policies in place to protect them for the future.
One specific example of what we need to do is to give our mural ordinance an update. I am very much in favor of murals and public art, and I laud the efforts of our arts committees and the downtown BID, however this work must be done respectfully to the brickwork moving forward. The recent Algoma Alley project took at least 30 years off the life of the facade of those buildings according to the Wisconsin Association of Historic Preservation Committees. We’re passing the buck to the next generation to fix this problem that we’ve created for them. That’s not fair, and it will come at a cost to our descendants. Several cities in Wisconsin have updated their ordinances to great success. Downtown Green Bay is one close example, but the best example by far is Ashland. The Ashland mural walk is one of the finest in the state, and it’s done with complete respect to the architecture. There are materials that can be applied to bricks before they’re painted that both protect building facades and can serve to preserve the artwork in the future when it needs to be moved. It’s all a matter of thinking 50 years ahead, not just five.
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Affordable Housing
My position on affordable housing is best articulated by Councilman Buelow. To paraphrase from his platforms: “I believe all of our community members should have access to safe, affordable and dignified housing…We will need creative solutions like accessory dwelling units, and tiny-homes. We also need new housing developments that offer units at a variety of price-points, and multi-use building structures that support office, commercial, and housing units.”
I’ve heard time and time again from fellow Oshkoshians that the cost of housing is becoming unobtainable to many. This topic is one that I personally have a lot to learn about. It’s important to learn and grow, and I look forward to working with experts and talking with all of you about this issue. Together we can come up with the best solutions for our friends and neighbors.
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Thriving Downtown
Downtown Oshkosh gets better every year. In the 2010s we really saw a revival of the 400 block with restaurants and businesses that have lasted and provided quality service and products. That decade ended with revitalization of the Washington Ave. corridor east of Main St. with the revitalization of the Downtown YMCA, the Howard, and eventually the Corbett House. Anchored first by the success of Wagner Market and Winnebago bicycle, we’re now seeing the next stage of spillover into the 500 block with the success of Elsewhere and the Gibson, but there’s still more vitality to be injected into that block to come. And of course, there’s the Northwestern building. TJ Rodgers plans to transform that building into an upscale boutique hotel, restaurant, and other small businesses will undoubtedly breathe new life into historic downtown.
City Center also needs to become associated with our collective understanding of “downtown Oshkosh.” If you look at a map, it’s a huge piece of property that practically spans the entire space between the Main and Jackson St. bridges. That’s why the Jackson St. bridge is so important. It’s easy to think of Caramel Crisp, Mara’s, and the other businesses in that corner as part of downtown since they’re a stone’s throw away from Main St., but we need to encourage other businesses to bring their workers into the rest of City Center, and realize that Jackson St. truly is an entrance into downtown.
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Communication
...really?
I'm sarcastic about this point, because what candidate is going to say "oh, I'm against communication and transparency"? No candidate, obviously. I think having "communication" as a platform point is a hollow blanket statement, and I even jab at myself for including it here in this blog. Actions speak louder than words. Let's do the damn work! Still, if you need to see what I would say about communication, read on.
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I am an open book with my opinions about City matters. I’m a fairly adept writer and amateur videographer, too. I intend to provide regular video updates on my platforms to share what’s going on. I think an ongoing Q&A video series would be highly informative. Too many smart adults don’t understand the different responsibilities between City, County, and even school board. How many of you have heard the City talk about “TIF districts'' or “raising the levy”? Okay, now how many of you can explain what each of those terms means in one paragraph? I want to communicate what these things mean in practical terms as they apply to work being done.
I’m also interested in bi-weekly community walks on off weeks from Council meetings. I will announce what neighborhood my youngest daughter and I will be walking through, and you can join me for up to three miles of questions and camaraderie. Additionally, I am quite open to joining your social group / service club / church as a guest to talk about Oshkosh, and I would appreciate being invited to tour any business.
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Step Up!
It’s easy to complain about Oshkosh online at home from the comfort of your device. It’s harder to actually do something to make the changes you want come to life. That’s what needs to happen though! Stop spitting into the wind. Join a board. Volunteer in your community. Start an action group for something that you’re passionate about. Do something tangible to advance your goals and improve our city for all of us.
I particularly want to engage students in local government to a much greater extent than is being done presently. If elected, I would specifically like to work with our high schools to designate student representatives to all of our City commissions. I also want to take Council members to civics classes and school assemblies to actually talk about what local government looks and feels like firsthand.
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Cost Vs. Quality
Oftentimes, good things cost money. What a concept! When a Council decision comes before me I am not foremost going to be finding a way to race to the bottom for the cheapest option. Every decision needs to be scrutinized, and if it’s truly better for the City to pay more for something and find that money elsewhere in the budget or vote to nominally raise taxes, then that’s how I will advocate.
Take the Jackson St. bridge, for example. Right now the City is geared to build a tall flyover bridge, like the kind we have crossing HWY 41. It’s the cheapest option, but also the best option for public safety. Think of this though: consider the change of view; consider also the fact that Beckets and its City Centre neighbors may lose Jackson St. access; moreover consider the name - flyover. Do you really want people to “fly over” downtown Oshkosh? I don't. This is a corridor to the heart of our city and it needs to be treated with dignity, not frugality. We will be living with this bridge for another 75 years. Couldn't the bridge itself become a destination - a backdrop for parties at Becket's, Dockside, Loos Cruise tours, etc?
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My original opinion of the flyover was more harsh than it's become. I thought about fighting it, but now I realize it's more important to work ahead an ensure that we allocate money to make the bridge a beautiful site instead of a blah, beige, boring monstrosity. You can read more in this blog.
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Code Audit
I served as a Neenah Rotarian for nigh on eight years. During that time I befriended many business owners and homeowners throughout the Fox Cities. I marveled how easy it was for people to get contractors to come do a project, or how affordable an improvement was to permit. One night at Barrel 41 I met a man who did mud jacking work and I asked him why things were easier to get done in Appleton than they were in Oshkosh. His frank response: Oshkosh is over-permitted. Generic folksy story aside, we are frankly over-permitted. This leads to contractors not wanting to work in Oshkosh - how many of you have experienced problems getting a general contractor to commit to a project or do it in a timely manner? Those people and their crews are hard-working individuals who have better things to do than deal with red tape. Moreover, and let’s be honest here, plenty of work gets done in Oshkosh without permits.
If permitting were more straightforward, relevant, and affordable, there would be less of a reason to avoid getting one. There would also be less of a reason for tradesmen to avoid working in Oshkosh. It all starts with a code audit. When you look at the municipal codes listed on our City website, you see that many of them have been revised within the last five years, but not all of them. Still, a revision doesn’t explicitly mean that the code was reviewed by an unbiased third-party code attorney. I can’t be a candidate who supports the revitalization of downtown if I’m not working to make parcel maintenance easier to do, and the City more inviting to work with. I want to see a 2024 revision date on all of our code documents next year, don’t you?
Parks & Rec
I would argue that our parks and recreation trails are a part of the lifeblood of our city. When you describe Oshkosh to your friends who don’t live here, what things are you telling them about? It’s a fair bet that the riverwalk, South Park, or some other public space comes up early in your conversation. We are a city on the water - such an amazing asset - that invites people from all around to come and enjoy what we have to offer.
In the late 1800s Mayor Ephriam Stevens purchased two sizable tracks of land that became South Park and North Park (today Menominee Park). He was known as the “Parks Mayor” for this act, and believe it or not, it cost him the election after just one term. You see, even back then the spending of City money on public spaces was seen as frivolous and irresponsible. We’re fortunate today to look back at over 130 years of our history with these parks to see that Mayor Stevens was right, and we’ve all benefited from those purchases and their stewardship by the Parks Department.
If Stevens was the “Parks Mayor”, then I want to be your “Parks Councilman”. We have wonderful parks, we could have more, and we need to budget for it to make it happen. I advocate for the continuation of our riverwalk, the revitalization of facilities in our existing spaces like the bath house on the beach at Menominee Park, and I’m open to more creative uses of existing spaces. Wouldn’t you like to see a dog park downtown, for example? I could see a private/public partnership come together with a vision to convert Roe Park to a clean enclosed dog park. That part of the city is so densely populated with no close tracks of land for dog owners to let them run. It’s just an idea, but these thoughts excite me!
