"Local government should be a means for citizens to build the city we want to live, work, and play in."

Making public information available to the public... through the internet. Troy is a city built by passionate citizens working together to build the city we want to live in. As a citizen of Troy, I have worked for the past several years to open up the halls of government to this collective genius through working groups, public events and online discussion. As a council person, I will empower citizen experts to use the tools of local governance to intelligently address our every day needs, and our progress towards the future.

Modern thinking about our infrastructureI believe that the core goal of local government should be to raise the quality of life, while lowering the cost of living for people here. We accomplish this by providing top-notch services that are easy to work with and responsive to the needs of citizens. I studied user centered design at RPI, a practice of deeply working with people to understand what is needed, and design systems to accomplish those goals. One of many things I learned is that we have to think about integrations, about how systems interact and how we can best impact the whole.

Modern civilization faces many concerning challenges that threaten the continued progress of our country and our world. From resource constraints as the population grows, to climate change disrupting weather patterns and food systems, to vast inequality of opportunity that continues to divide our culture and undermine our economy. However, I believe that we cannot and should not sit back and wait for these problems to be solved at the national and global levels. In fact, they are best addressed by local communities, where citizens can work together to build a better world in their own neighborhoods.

I love dark chocolate, and promote the consumption and enjoyment of chocolate in all forms. It is healthy, tastes delicious, cures the effects of dementors, and makes everything better.