While most development can have a positive effect on our city, it can also harm some of our citizens if we don’t have reasonable incentive policies to guide decisions. We need a wide variety of development projects and reinvestment in the Eastside to help return it to its former walkable glory erased by many decades of disinvestment, much of which is included in our 2017 Transit-oriented Development Plan that outlines how we can ensure smart development along our bus and streetcar routes.
We should encourage a mix of affordable housing and market rate housing and catalytic development that will spark much-needed progress in historically ignored parts of the city. In addition, we need to attract good-paying jobs and encourage employers to put their company in the heart of the city instead of on the outskirts where affordable housing is difficult to come by and the location is hard to reach by public transit.