My wife and I have lived in downtown Middleton for 35 years, we raised our family here. In making the commitment to restoring a dilapidated Victorian house, we served as a catalyst for reviving our neighborhood, an area deemed at that time by the city to be “blighted.” We have been very involved in helping to maintain the character and quality of life in the neighborhood and hope to see those efforts continue to thrive. Middleton is a vibrant and diverse city and I feel that my 33+ years of active residency has given me both the knowledge and desire to help sustain and guide our city so that we continue both to cherish what we have and strive collectively to create and enact a vision for what we hope to become.

My goal is to help maintain the quality of life and home for of our diverse neighborhoods and citizenry, particularly in light of the need for additional housing within the confines of an ever-decreasing availability of developable properties, particularly rejecting a “one size fits all” approach to city planning. I want to continue the strong legacies of citizen interaction, public access, and neighborhood quality and diversity promoted by my predecessors. I feel we are at a crossroad regarding our ability to grow and maintain our already outstanding public park and conservancy infrastructure, and need to encourage developers to think more broadly as to how their projects can address these concerns. I believe our city needs to develop and promote appropriate zoning laws encouraging diversity for all housing projects, including multi- and single-family developments and take into account the need for low-income and subsidized housing throughout the city. I will continue to encourage developers to consider access to public transportation and necessary retail access that reduce the need for auto traffic, while enhancing other means of conveyance. We need to strive for accessible quality public transportation options, including adequate well-designed and maintained infrastructure for bikes, pedestrian, and disabled residents. I feel it is very important that we maintain an adequately-staffed public service sector, including sufficient law enforcement, fire protection, and emergency medical personnel. And, we need to supplement this with adequate street lighting, parking facilities, and safe pedestrian access, especially in heavily trafficked areas. For our children and families, we need to continue promoting safe and accessible playgrounds and park facilities for supervised use and enjoyment by all residents, and we must continue to support and grow our necessary family services and resources, such as our library, senior center, athletic programs, student services, etc.

Rather than speak about my opponent, I can say that I have a long history with the city and have spent many hundreds of hours working and volunteering to make Middleton a great place to live. I am committed to the people who are physically and metaphorically my neighbors across the entire city. I feel that my professional and volunteer work give me a broad and useful skill set that will aid greatly in helping to move the city forward into a bright future, one that respects our history and diversity while also acknowledging our need to grow. I hope to be part of the processes of embracing both of these principles in guiding the city forward.

I think the city has done a very commendable job of managing our growth over the past three decades. The city has long relied on volunteer citizen committees to help guide policy, and seems open to constructive intervention. I believe that we maintain a very high level of competence in our city workforce, and manage better than could be expected given our limited staffing. If there is a down side, I sometimes feel that the city is not always acutely tuned into the diversity of our various neighborhoods. Often, these issues are part of the reasoning behind where we choose to live and should be acknowledged and better valued for what they are.