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, Morrello 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 District 4 pedestrian and bike infrastructure including protected lanes, sidewalk gap closures, and accessible connections between neighborhoods, schools, parks, and commercial corridors. Implement a Safe Routes to School program in District 4 with specific infrastructure on corridors to local schools: flashing crosswalk beacons, high-visibility striping, traffic calming near school entrances, and improved signage. The goal is 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.
Pursue grant funding through California’s Proposition 68, the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, and CCTA’s active transportation programs by advocating for District 4’s inclusion in CCTA’s Vision Zero and Safe Streets funding pipeline. CCTA recently secured a $28.9 million federal award for bike and pedestrian safety projects across Contra Costa County. District 4 should be actively competing for its share. Construction of bike facilities in our city has been slow with 24 miles of completed bike facilities in 2020, with only 4 additional miles by 2023, averaging about 1 mile per year. The City has an ambitious plan to build out 67 total miles, so the city has 39 more miles to build that would take 4 decades at the rate the City is going. I would aggressively pursue funding to complete the remainder of the projects on an accelerated time line. To promote biking, I would add bike repair stations at all park facilities. For pedestrians, all major thoroughfares including Taylor, Morello, and Paso Nogal, should have sidewalks and protected crosswalks.
Wildfire & Fire Preparedness
Partner with the Diablo Fire Safe Council to bring their Cost-Share Defensible Space Program to District 4 residents. This would include funds for fuel reduction and defensible space work, using licensed contractors. This program is funded and available now; what is missing is active city promotion and outreach.
Advocate for District 4 residents input in the Regional Priority Plan. This is being 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
Make our Community Police Advisory Commission genuinely effective. Right now Pleasant Hill's police advisory commission lacks the authority to investigate concerns, publish findings, or require responses from the department. An effective commission protects residents by ensuring concerns are heard and addressed. It protects 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 serve this community well.
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 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.