While all of us who seek elected office pledge to streamline services and make government more efficient, the reality is that for many years the City has been cutting positions and doing more with less. Absent a more effective development plan for Milwaukee which increases the value of central city homes in particular, the rest of us, especially those on the East Side and many parts of Riverwest will continue to pay more than our fair share.

The City needs a common plan to address these and related problems - a plan that unites the City government as well as other levels of government along with community groups, residents, businesses and labor around a more satisfying and effective model of community development.

As your next alderman, I am committed to assisting residents in formulating such a plan, mobilizing support for it, and working over the next several years, implementing it. The following proposals are offered as first steps of the kind of ideas that have already surfaced at the doors, which would benefit from broader community feedback and comment.

While this is not a comprehensive list, it does offer specific actions which we should take together to build upon what makes the 3rd District unique. It includes specific recommendations on the policies, practices and institutions we need to sustain our families and neighborhoods, and leave an improved community for those from whom we now borrow power and responsibility - our children.