Connect our city and invest in quality of life: Our family loves the Tweetsie Trail, where we regularly walk, run, bike, and birdwatch. The Tweetsie fosters connections between neighbors and community members. We need more of this!
An affordable city isn’t just a place with lower bills, but a place where people can get to work, reach essential services, enjoy their neighborhoods, and participate in community life without everything requiring a car or costing money. Johnson City should invest in the everyday infrastructure and public spaces that make that possible across the city, while prioritizing communities where those connections and amenities are missing today.
What I’ll push for:
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Build a connected sidewalk network, prioritizing missing links that connect residents to jobs, schools, grocery stores, healthcare, parks, bus stops, city services, and other essential destinations — especially for people who don’t have a car.
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Build safe, useful bike connections, linking neighborhoods with downtown, schools, parks, trails, employment centers, and other destinations rather than creating isolated stretches of bike lanes.
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Expand Johnson City Transit, improving routes, frequency, hours, and connections so public transportation becomes a practical option for more residents.
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Modernize our transit fleet responsibly, pursuing state and federal funding and transitioning toward electric buses as vehicles reach the end of their useful lives and the necessary infrastructure can be put in place.
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Explore fare-free transit on Election Day, so transportation isn’t an obstacle to exercising the right to vote.
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Invest in parks and recreation where they’re needed most, improving neighborhood parks, trails, recreation opportunities, and connections to them, with particular attention to South Johnson City and other historically underinvested communities.
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Create dedicated funding for public art, including a line item in the City budget for murals, installations, performances, and placemaking throughout Johnson City, with community input, responsible planning for long-term maintenance and stewardship, and grants, partnerships, and private funding used to make public dollars go further.
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Explore a percent-for-art program for appropriate City capital projects and select development, creating a sustainable way to incorporate art and local identity into the public spaces and infrastructure we’re already building.
Sidewalks, transit, bike connections, parks, recreation, and public art make everyday life better — and make more of Johnson City accessible to everyone.
