Common Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Welcome to Madison City Channels Know Your Candidates interviews co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Dayne County. I'm your interviewer, Andrea Kaminsky, and I would like to introduce Kate Blood, who is uh running for alder in District 14. Welcome.

Thank you so much for inviting me here. As we begin, please give an opening statement about the educational, vocational, and civic experience that you have which um qualifies you for this office and why you're running for alder.

Thank you so much for that question because I feel that that is really probably the most important question that I can answer for the uh position. So, I am running for this position because I felt as if the uh all of the needs of the the district were not being addressed. Very good job with addressing the needs of some of the residents, but not all. And I wanted to see that all of the residents were being addressed. I have extensive background in affordable housing. I went through the UW school of business, the master's program in real estate and urban land economics, then went to work for WEDA and also DOA. So I was one of a team that helped create um actually thousands of affordable rental housing units across the state. I also am uh deeply involved in a lot of the um areas that I think are very pertinent to the district in terms of uh diversionary programs. I'm one of the peacemakers for community restorative court and that for me is a uh incredibly important program. So, anything that can reduce the pipeline from the streets uh to the jails to the prisons is a high priority for me. I've also gone into a lot of the prisons and the jails both to teach mindfulness and also to run a recovery program which we do weekly in the jail. Um, currently, uh, once I retired from affordable housing, I became a chaplain. I work as a chaplain in a care center on

a part-time basis. And so the ability to be able to listen, listen deeply, and be able to hear what the concerns are and then to be able to bring my expertise into the arena to be able to work together with the residents in terms of finding solutions, I think is a strength I have. Okay. Now, you've already touched on this a little bit, but um how would you evaluate the city's current efforts to address homelessness and uh increase the amount of affordable housing?

I think the city has made a uh concerted effort to be able to address this. I think we need to expand both in terms of how we address homelessness and the types of services that we provide. I'm very much for the uh harm reduction and the housing first model. Milwaukee has one of the best records uh really in the country in terms of reducing homelessness with that model. We need to do more in that um area in terms of increasing affordable housing. That's a huge issue right now for the city. And one of the things that I think that we need to do more of is to explore how we can um create more flexibility in the zoning so that we can have accessory dwelling units or what are called in-law units in single family neighborhoods and be able to increase them in terms of duplexes, triplexes so that we can increase the supply because as we increase the supply obviously that will help meet the demand and also keep uh prices in check. Uh I think we also need to be realistic and understand that we're going to have to have high density uh housing in some of the particular areas that are around transit hubs and also employment hubs. So I think that we're doing a good job. I think we need to do more.

Okay. And what actions or programs would you support to enhance community safety in Madison?

I love that question. I love the CARES program. The CARES program was one that I think is being used around the country and is being used here again to stem the the flow into the pipeline to jails and prisons. And so I think uh the beauty of the CARES program is that it puts together both social workers from Journey Mental Health as well as EMTs from the fire department. The uh people the teams that go out are not in uniform and so they don't come across as being authoritarian or um combative. So there's a sense, I think, of being able to deescalate, which I think is incredibly important when you have mental health and substance abuse crisis on the streets. I also think diversionary programs like community restorative court and uh the violence interruptors. I mean we need to put a lot more emphasis on being able to deescalate situations and then be able to offer programs so that people can figure out a way of being able to take accountability for their actions. be able to acknowledge mistakes they made and then be able to uh with other people in the program be able to come up with means of being able to repair the harm.

Okay. And how should Madison balance the need for development with other concerns such as traffic, historic preservation, and conservation of natural areas? it. That's going to be such a uh interesting needle to thread, I think, because all of those areas are um areas that deserve a lot of respect and a lot of preservation. I think there's going to have to be a balance in terms of where we go with development in terms of housing and make sure that uh we provide a stability for residents who have been here for a long time and actually gave us this city and its uh vibrancy and its diversity. At the same time, of course, we need businesses in order to be able to um have a good tax base in order to be able to collect the funds in order to fund a lot of the the programs that we need for the safety, especially along Park Street where we just had a fatality. It was devastating. And I think we need to be very cognizant of how we go about addressing that in terms of we need to maintain the safety for pedestrians and bikers. So, uh really looking at whether or not left-hand turns, especially around the Burough Oaks area, is appropriate. We also need to make sure for our businesses that we leave some on street parking. We have a number of small businesses on Park Street that need that parking in order to be able to accommodate their customers. So green space is absolutely essential. Um we need that obviously for environmental

reasons. We also need it just for our own um sense of well-being because it gives us that sense of being obviously grounded again and part of something bigger than ourselves. So it's going to be a um a nuanced approach and I think we have to take it slowly and deliberately. Okay. When faced with making difficult, controversial uh decisions, how will you ensure that you're getting input from residents with a broad range of perspectives?

I think that is probably one of the most critical uh issues that I've heard from the residents of District 14 as I've talked to them. I was just at a meet and greet with um the other candidate Noah on Tuesday and one of the things that came up over and over again from the people who attended was how do we first get our input to the city and then how do we make sure it's heard, understood, and acted on. One of the things that I want to do is to be able to collaborate with the residents. I I feel like I'm would be a spokesperson, but I really feel like the real engine for uh any actions that I take will come from being able to meet with the residents, find out their concerns, and then be able to come up with ideas with them, crafted with the the rest of the common council. But I absolutely think that it has to be an ongoing process. Thank you. Uh what are the most critical issues that we haven't addressed yet that you see facing the people of your district and what would you propose to address these?

Well, one of the reasons that I got into the race was I did not feel like my uh Latino neighbors were being um advocated for the way I feel like they should be. and especially now given what's going on in the country and with uh as we've seen in Minnesota, I feel that one of the primary issues right now is how do we protect our our immigrant neighbors? Um to that end, I went to the training with Fossis de la Fantaa. I have become a rapid response verifier and one of the things that I feel is very important is when the time is right and vosas feels that the uh the need is there that we set up patrols so that for instance the people in the trailer park who are across the street from me as well as the childc care facility just down the street from me with a lot of Latino children that we make sure that we are there as the allies to be able to protect them. I also think that it's very important that Madison police take the position that they will do crowd control. That I think is is part of their job and I think they're very good at it, but not collaborate with ICE. I think that we need to stand strong and I think Minnesota has given us a beautiful example of how to do that in a way that is both peaceful and at the same time deeply impactful uh not only for their immigrant neighbors but also just for the rest of the country in terms of how to do this.

Okay. Well, now what would you like to say to the viewing audience as we complete this interview? Well, first I want to say thank you um to everybody who has uh shown up for meetings um who has uh talked to me, told me what their concerns are. What I would like to say is that um embarking on this I am not uh going to be a career politician. uh that's my role as I see it is that I have a deep experience in most of the very pertinent issues and they're personally important to me and I am passionate about that and I make the commitment that I will show up and I will listen and I will solicit input from them in a way hopefully that they feel represents what their interests are. And I want to say that whether people vote or not or whether they vote and don't vote for me, I want to represent everybody. Whether you can vote or not, whether or not you choose me, I want people to know that I am here for everybody.

Thank you. Well, I want to thank Kate Blood for speaking with us and I want to thank the viewing audience for taking the time to know your candidates. I want to remind everyone that the election is Tuesday, April 7th. Every election is important. Please vote. On behalf of Madison City Channel and the League of Women Voters of Dayne County, I thank you for joining us.