Southside Will Not Be a Sacrifice Zone. Southside Is Home.

This is what remains of the pre-2024 People’s Park landscape.
For decades, this area held mature trees and roughly 30 years of living topsoil shaped by community stewardship, gardening, and daily public life. Southside deserves development that respects both housing needs and the environmental history of the land.

Southside is changing fast. Too often, the people making decisions are not the people who carry the cost.

I am running for Berkeley City Council District 7 because the people who live here, work here, study here, run small businesses here, and keep showing up here deserve a real voice in what comes next.

District 7 includes Southside, Telegraph, and the UC Berkeley campus area. It is a renter-majority district. Many residents are students, workers, elders, small business owners, artists, and neighbors who are trying to stay rooted while housing costs rise, storefronts sit vacant, and basic street repairs go unfinished.

I have lived in Berkeley for nearly 10 years. I came here as a transfer student, and I stayed because I believe in this community. I have worked in Berkeley, organized in Berkeley, served on the Homeless Commission, and stood with neighbors through some of the hardest moments this district has faced.

People’s Park matters. The loss is real. The next council member will help decide what comes next there: whether the community gets meaningful benefits, accessible public space, restrooms, real accountability from UC Berkeley, and a process that includes the people most affected.

Telegraph matters too. Local businesses should not be treated as temporary placeholders until the next development deal. They need a council member who will listen, show up, and fight for clean streets, repaired sidewalks, lighting, safety at night, and a district where small businesses can survive.

My priorities are practical:

• A 72-hour repair window for urgent street, sidewalk, lighting, and cleanliness issues.

• A Southside stability program focused on renters, small businesses, public space, and basic services.

• Public housing, community land trusts, and deeply affordable housing that serves the people who already live here.

• Real public safety that protects privacy, supports emergency readiness, and does not rely on fear-driven surveillance.

• Open, accountable government where residents know what is coming before decisions are already made.

I am a clinical health worker, an SEIU-UHW member, and a former Vice Chair of the Berkeley Homeless Commission. I work with complex patients every day. I know what happens when systems are hard to navigate, when people fall through the cracks, and when prevention is treated as optional.

Berkeley needs steady leadership. District 7 requires someone who will stay grounded, do the work, and keep listening after Election Day.

Southside is not a sacrifice zone.

It is home.