Durham BPAC Application
I grew up in Durham from 1992 through 2009, went to college in Chapel Hill, spent time in London, in Austin, then lived in San Francisco for six years. From my experience, a local government’s strongest tool to solve problems related to housing, unemployment, health, and sustainability is that government’s ability to design its urban centers and transportation systems. Making a city more walkable, bikeable, and pedestrian friendly makes the city better for everyone.
After returning to Durham last year, I have seen our need for improvements to public transit. During Durham Planning Commission meetings, congestion and access are consistently cited as reasons to avoid building housing. Having organized volunteers to drive Durham residents who needed a ride to vote on Election Day, I have seen how the underprivileged suffer the most from inaccessible transit. I have seen many in our community write off our local bus system.
I have also seen how much Durham has changed: downtown has become a place where people want to walk and bike. Growing up in Woodcroft, I waited eagerly for the American Tobacco Trail pedestrian bridge to Southpoint, at the time the best walkable area for a teenager that I knew of in Durham. Now, as we see growth in various parts of the city, it is a critical and wonderful opportunity to double down on the tenets of walkability, bikeability, and accessible, useful public transit.
For the last few years, I have been researching urban planning and transportation policy in an effort to prepare for a future graduate degree in urban design. In Durham, I am hoping to build on the work being done by multiple local organizations and push for a transit data gathering task force (akin to the effort of the Transit Alliance in Miami). The goal is to gather actionable data, update it consistently, and make it clear and accessible for the public. This will help policy makers extract next steps for improving our transit infrastructure and increase public engagement in our public transit.
I am hopeful that the revenue put aside for the canceled Durham-Orange Light Rail Project can be spent efficiently to continue expanding our existing system. I believe that transit systems can focus on growing choice ridership while still serving the population that relies on it. This goes hand-in-hand with reducing congestion for drivers and building better bike and pedestrian friendly routes and urban centers. With proper investment, Durham will show that bus systems can make for great transit systems on their own.
While I know that affecting change in a city is never easy, I trust that there are instances where efficient solutions exist and incentives all align for residents, businesses, the city, and the county. Perhaps that means focusing on one bus route or on one parking policy change, but big change happens one step at a time. I am eager to learn quickly and advocate for the people of Durham.
Through Bull City Votes, I have also worked with members of the Bull City United organization, a group focused on integrating with members of at-risk communities in Durham to reduce violence. It is vital to work with all members of the community to build safe and comfortable forms of transit and public spaces, and I expect to continue working with Bull City United to help make sure we are building a healthier and safer Durham for all its citizens, regardless of income, race, or gender.
From 2014 to 2020, I was the manager of consumer products at Hive, an AI start-up based in San Francisco. From this experience I have guided the development of multiple products that have reached millions of users. This involves building software and managing teams, but also involves designing interfaces, running experiments, conducting user studies, and understanding how real people interact with a product or a service. I believe this type of user-driven design approach is equally essential for any work done in transportation and urban design.