Michael Payne

"There’s no one silver bullet for the affordable housing crisis. But some of the actions City Council can take include: Respond to historic inflation and rising housing costs and increase our annual investment target for affordable housing from $10 million to $13 million a year. Create a permanent line-item for the Pathways Community Resource Helpline, funded at a higher level to ensure there's a lifeline for families facing eviction and emergency bills. Fully fund resident-led redevelopment of Westhaven."

"We've made a major, historic investment in renovating and modernizing Buford Middle School. But there are other critical needs City Council has to take action on: Prepare for investing in Walker and all the other school buildings in our system with significant deferred maintenance. Provide strong pay and benefits for teachers, to ensure teachers can afford to live in our community and that our schools can attract and retain enough teachers to match a growing student population. Invest in direct tutoring in literacy and numeracy for children in kindergarten through third grade, to reduce the achievement gap early. Invest in recruiting a diverse pool of teachers, along with investments in mentorship programs. Invest in career and technical education opportunities. Increase bus driver salaries to alleviate the school bus driver shortage."

"After passing our Climate Action Plan (CAP), it’s now up to us to actually implement it. My top goals for implementation of the CAP include: A decarbonization study is under way for our city-owned natural gas utility. We need to use this as a jumping off point for planning how to get our City out of the fossil fuel business and bring down energy costs for residents. Hire enough staff to implement our Climate Action Plan and create investment mechanisms -- a revolving loan fund and a Green Bank -- to finance green retro-fitting and decarbonization. Invest in expanding tree canopy and public green space; in particular, we need to implement the Urban Rivanna River Corridor Plan to preserve the Rivanna as a public park and natural area for years to come. Electrify our municipal vehicle fleet, with school buses as a first priority. Avoid locking-in new fossil fuel infrastructure. Seriously pursue the numerous new federal funding opportunities for local climate action. Billions of dollars are now available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the American Recovery Plan Act."

"It’s critical for the environment and the health of local communities to invest in public transportation and bike + pedestrian infrastructure. City Council needs to: Finish -- and then implement -- our Regional Transit Vision Plan, which will set the stage for creating a Regional Transit Authority. Improve CAT's app. Expand CAT route frequencies, with the ultimate goal of 15 minute routes. Hire sufficient project managers to get through our backlog of bike/ped projects. Increase wages and benefits for CAT bus drivers. Provide funding for new bike/ped projects. Find creative ways to make protected bike-lanes a norm -- not an exception -- in Charlottesville. Work with schools to strengthen and expand the Safe Routes to School initiative."

"Every neighborhood deserves to be a safe environment with opportunities for everyone who lives there. City Council needs to follow national best practices and: Invest in youth mentorship and youth job programs. Expand successful existing programs such as CAYIP and PHAR’s Youth Internship Program. Invest directly in neighborhoods and provide recreational and career opportunities for every resident. Expand our existing GO Programs and invest in a city-wide strategy for community wealth building. Implement the Marcus Alert System. Seriously invest in reducing gun violence — without succumbing to the false idea that repealing criminal justice reforms will achieve that goal."