Community Safety
A physician sees safety differently, not just as the absence of crime but as the presence of conditions that keep people healthy, mobile, and connected. We need urgent action on traffic calming, wildfire preparedness, and public safety reform. These proposals address each of those gaps with proven models and a clear commitment to results.
Safe Routes, Pedestrian Safety & Healthy Mobility
Establish a District 4 Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program. This is modeled on Dublin’s ‘Project Slow Zone’, the strongest traffic calming model in the Bay Area. The program allows residents to petition for engineering solutions on their streets: speed tables, traffic circles, bulb-outs, painted intersections, and signage. Projects are selected by data, not politics. For example, Morello Avenue has a speeding and shade problem, so adding trees to a median would naturally slow traffic while introducing shade to the community.
Prioritize Measure K funds for what voters intended: safer streets, not budget shortfalls. Measure K was approved with a promise for improved infrastructure. District 4 has some of the most pressing unmet needs in the city: poor road conditions (poor PCI index of 38 and 46), streets without sidewalks, intersections without protected crosswalks, and bike corridors with dangerous gaps. I will push to direct Measure K funding toward improving road conditions, traffic calming, protected bike lanes, and sidewalk gap closures that District 4 residents were promised, not toward offsetting structural budget deficits. For our schools specifically, I will implement a Safe Routes to School program with targeted infrastructure improvements including flashing crosswalk beacons, high-visibility striping, traffic calming near school entrances, and improved signage. No child in District 4 should have to walk to school on a street without a sidewalk or cross a major thoroughfare without a protected crosswalk. The goal is straightforward: a district where getting around without a car is safe and natural.
Expand Healthy Aging senior transportation. We can support independence by ensuring seniors can reach medical appointments, grocery stores, and community events without depending on others. Isolation is a documented public health crisis for older adults and transportation is often the only barrier. I will expand operations of the PH Senior Van and partner for paratransit options through CCTA. I would also advocate for bringing mobile video telehealth equipment to tech challenged seniors in collaboration with local health entities. I would encourage concierge ridesharing, like GoGoGrandparent, Uber Health, Lyft Concierge or Mobility Matters like they have available in Walnut Creek.
Aggressively pursue grant funding to accelerate Pleasant Hill's bike and pedestrian infrastructure on a realistic timeline. The City's adopted Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan calls for 67 total miles of bike facilities, but with only 28 miles completed as of 2024 and approximately 1 mile added per year, the remaining 39 miles will take four decades at the current pace. CCTA has secured more than $77 million in federal active transportation funding for Contra Costa County in recent years, yet Pleasant Hill was not among the six cities in the most recent SS4A implementation grant. I will actively advocate for Pleasant Hill's designation as a CCTA Vision Zero partner city, and pursue all of the available grant funding to accelerate pedestrian and bike facility buildout. All major thoroughfares including Taylor Boulevard, Morello Avenue, and Paso Nogal Road should have updated sidewalks and protected crosswalks. I will implement a Safe Routes to School program ensuring safe pedestrian and bike connections. And I will add bike repair stations at all District 4 park facilities.
Wildfire Preparedness
Partner with the Diablo Fire Safe Council to bring their Cost-Share Defensible Space Program to District 4 residents. This would include cost-sharing fund assistance for fuel reduction and defensible space work, using licensed contractors. This program is funded and operational now. What is missing is active city promotion and outreach so that District 4 residents know it exists and how to access it.
Advocate for District 4 projects to be included in the Regional Priority Plan. This is being actively developed by the Diablo Fire Safe Council for Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. This planning tool identifies the highest-priority fuel reduction, water access, and evacuation route projects across the region. Getting District 4 projects on this plan now means access to future grant funding as it becomes available.
Support funding for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. Oppose any cuts to fire station coverage or staffing in or near District 4. Fire response times are directly tied to outcomes. The recent expansion of the Rodeo-Hercules district into CCCFPD shows that consolidation can be done but only when it strengthens, not weakens, coverage.
Public Safety
Support investment in Crisis Intervention Teams. I will work to expand the availability of trained mental health professionals who co-respond with or in place of officers to non-violent mental health crises, welfare calls, and substance use situations. This model produces better outcomes for individuals, reduces repeat calls, and lets our well-trained officers focus where law enforcement skills are actually needed. I will work to strengthen the Pleasant Hill-Martinez Homeless CORE team by expanding hours to reflect that crises can happen at any time, and to advocate for a layer of case management and housing navigation that other Cities provide that Pleasant Hill does not.
Make our Community Police Advisory Commission genuinely effective. Right now, the Community Police Advisory Commission lacks any authority. An effective commission protects residents by ensuring concerns are heard and addressed. It protects our dedicated officers by providing a transparent, credible process for resolving complaints fairly. And it protects the City by building the kind of community trust that makes law enforcement more effective. I will push to give our volunteer commission the tools and authority it needs to better serve the Police Department and this community well.