These three things are inextricably linked. Our ability to grow and continue our economic diversification depends upon our ability to meet the infrastructure needs of the 21st century.

We’ve worked with UNR to connect the university with downtown, and, thereby, the whole city. We have new industries and small businesses popping up every single day. When everyone was staying home to stay safe, we shut down whole streets to speed up improvement projects. Now that we’ve opened back up, places like Midtown are entirely open for business, and looking so, so good. We must continue to focus on infrastructure that sustains our small businesses, our environment, and our whole community.

The sustainable Truckee Meadows that I envision also includes more public transit, more local food, composting commercial food waste, an extensive river coalition between all jurisdictions, greater electric vehicle options and usage, more micromobility options and adoption (everything from protected bike lanes to scooter rentals), more trees and fewer random, useless grass strips, more green energy production, and more protected areas for outdoor recreation.

I’m proud of what we’ve done to support small businesses by cleaning up neighborhoods and improving walkability and accessibility. I’m also proud of the work we did to support small businesses in every way we could during the pandemic, whether through grants, changing take-out requirements to help restaurants and bars serve customers, or finding every way we could support safe business operation during an uncharted global health crisis.