District 78 — California State Assembly

Coming from San Diego, I understand the gravity of California's housing situation. That's why homelessness relief and housing affordability are most assuredly among my top issues:

• On the San Diego City Council, I have improved approaches to housing legislation and solving homelessness. I have been at the table fighting for better inclusionary requirements, introduced and passed a resolution to promote development of permanent supportive housing across the city, and worked with the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System and the City to develop public lands into pubic housing. I have also been making decisions to invest in the preservation and rehabilitation of our affordable housing stock. 
• On the issue of rent control/stabilization, I am currently working with local tenant advocacy experts to develop a reform package that the San Diego City Council can review within the next year, consistent and beyond the scope of AB 1482
• As Chair of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, I have worked tirelessly to update systems of care, identify funding streams, and increase housing supply for our most vulnerable San Diegans. This is particularly important for communities of color and the LGBT community as we know that they are disproportionally impacted by homelessness. Taking best practices to Sacramento, I will fight for a permanent stream of homelessness funding, comprehensive statewide planning, and updated care and services so the most vulnerable Californians have a path out of poverty.

Access to clean drinking water is one of the most pressing environmental and quality of life issues in all of Southern California. As our population grows and droughts increase in length and severity, entire towns find themselves without water. This pattern is only going to become more severe as climate change worsens. We need long-term water planning for the state of California that includes conservation, recycling, and rainwater capture and storage. The Capitol needs leadership that is willing to make long-term, difficult decisions about water resources and reliable funding for necessary water infrastructure. 

In addition, I recognize that the impacts of climate change affect disadvantaged communities the hardest and often immediately, in part because they often are not given the investments to offer mitigation and public amenities in response. Policies promoting equity in storm water infrastructure as well as access to clean water must be implemented in these communities. 

Finally, I do not believe the Delta tunnel project is the solution for California's water supply problem, as it does not create the necessary balance between habitat protection and water supply. In its place, my legislative efforts would be directed more toward supporting water infrastructure funds to water recycling, local projects, capture and local storage, and other projects. 

The climate crisis is just that—a crisis. If we continue sit around and wait for someone else to act, then the change we need will never come. I plan to stand up in Sacramento and fight to protect the enviornment, as well as for all of those who have already been adversely affected by worsening conditions. If elected, I will push the following solutions:

• Develop a statewide Climate Action Plan with enforceable measures to ensure targets are met, and that local CAPs are supported and congruous with statewide efforts
• Support reductions of greenhouse gas emissions through transportation investments and local planning efforts that lower distances travelled, provide for more efficient fuel use, reduce congestion and prioritize mass transit, and support zero emission vehicle utilization
• Support green energy source development with good labor standards that implement tenets of a Green New Deal for California. Incentivize manufacturing and export of technology and product to help other countries transition to green energy faster and keep our job base strong
• Oppose new drilling; immediately begin phase out of existing drilling consistent with escalation of new like-for-like green energy production and labor training
• Invest in forest and open space management practices to stem the increased frequency and intensity of wildfires that threaten Californians each year
• Shift our buildings to more efficient, all-electric contributors to a sustainable environment in harmony with transforming our energy to cleaner sources, away from natural gas.
• Invest in conservation and recycling, and secure our water rights for San Diego
• Divest all state public investments from industries which extract fossil fuels and require local divestment policy as a condition of state grant funding
• Limit the creation of single use plastics and ensure the life cycle of existing products does not include landfills or our natural environment to protect our oceans, rivers, and marine life and promote human health

There are a multitude of ways that the California Assembly can approach the question of how to best bring about justice. In regards to policiing, it's clear to me that when we as policymakers wrestle with police-community relations, we have to equally consider the weight of responsibility that we grant law enforcement, and the weight of very real fear in too many communities that a simple misunderstanding can lead to death. Restoring a feeling of mutual trust to these relationships is of critical importance.

In order to arrive at a place where police and communities trust one another, bold action must be taken: I support ending cash bail, and even sponsored a successful Council resolution in 2018 backing state and federal legislation to achieve that end. I've also spent time on City Council working with impacted communities to develop a cannabis equity program in San Diego to ensure that the benefits of recently legalized cannabis go to addressing the impacts of over-policing in previous decades. These issues, among many others, need to be brought up to the state level as well, and I would be honored to do exactly that.