why.
851 words, a 3 minute and 35 second read
Pretty much everyone’s first question is: ‘Why are you running for council?’.
My answer is a little bit tough for folks at first as it is not what people are used to hearing. It goes like this:
The reason is that the job of councilor in our form of government is to be the best conduit between the general public (you, and whoever is asking) and the City Manager.
That’s it. That’s the whole thing.
Running for office with that very objective truth as #1 goal and reason really is a little tough to explain. I have no issue (obviously, if you’ve been reading along) giving examples of things that I care about, and ideas that I have to make Oshkosh better. I understand that those things ARE important when folks are deciding who to vote for. However, at the end of the day, the opinions and wishes of the folks you elect for this office should not matter.
Only yours do.
The job is to work in your (literally YOU) best interest and to find a path through complicated items when not everyone agrees.
There should be no ego in this. And for me, there truly is not.
At the end of the day, the real goal is the best possible representation for you.
The picture above is Waugoo Ave. 200 block, taken 3.21.24.
As you can tell from the heavy equipment, it is set to start reconstruction any day.
This is the very best example as analogy that I have come up with to illustrate why I am running to represent you on your city council.
A handful of months ago it was brought to my (very unelected) attention that Waugoo reconstruction called for all of those lovely utility poles above to be taken down…and then put back up. The property owner who brought it to my attention had strong (and correct) feelings that in our central city, near new and important development, that those utilities should be moved underground. They were told ‘no’. That it would be ‘too expensive’ and that it was ‘too late’ to make any changes to the plan.
(On a different day I would LOVE to discuss more the merits of undergrounding utilities as I do think it is very important and an attainable goal, however, that is not the subject of this post…so for later. Start here if you’d like a good read though).
I reached out to other property owners nearby here, and they agreed with this sentiment, reached out to the city, and were given the same answers.
I brought this to the attention of the Downtown Oshkosh BID as I am a board member, and this area is in the BID so very much in our purview. The BID board voted to pass along a request to our City Manager and public works Dept. to consider underground utilities at this location (for all the same reasons mentioned above), and we were also told ‘no’, ‘too late’ etc.
SO… what will happen on Waugoo is the poles will all get taken down, and then all put back up. It will look like it does above when finished. And in 30-40 years we might get a chance to revisit the conversation.
As much as I believe and know that all utilities should be moved underground in any city where the opportunity arises, that is not what makes this the perfect analogy for why I want to represent you on city council. As I mentioned above, my opinions on any given subject matter WAY less than yours.
Waugoo is the perfect answer to why I am running
because nobody asked.
Nobody asked current council if public works should consider moving utilities underground. Nobody asked the property owners there. Nobody asked the developer working on the project on the right-hand side of that picture. Nobody asked any homeowner on these few blocks if the option to move to (safer, and over time cheaper as well as infinitely better looking) underground utilities would be something they would maybe prefer.
Nobody asked.
What we did was what we always do and always have done. And when folks DID ask, the answer was ‘no’, ‘too expensive’, and ‘too late’.
Please do not read any blame in that statement toward the city or toward council. I am not saying this is the fault of anyone at all, as it truly is not.
What I am saying is this:
You (and I do not mean that metaphorically…I mean literally, YOU) deserve better representation than that.
I know that not all things will be easy, but if we are to grow, and improve, and move forward as a community that folks are proud live in and want to move to, at the very least we must consider what the folks who live here would like to see happen.
And THAT is what I think I can do for you.
As always, thanks for reading…and if you agree with these notes, please pass them along (this is the only way to get the word out!)
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