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Vote Shammas Malik for Akron Mayor May 2, 2023

Safer Together

A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO PUBLIC SAFETY

Safety is the most basic building block of a strong community. Yet, in many neighborhoods in Akron, folks don’t feel safe. Our campaign is rooted in a comprehensive approach to public safety, in which we all work together to create a safer Akron.

BUILDING TRUST AND ACCOUNTABILITY

We can’t have safety without trust between the police and our community. From the murder of George Floyd, to the killing of Jayland Walker, and too many other tragedies we’ve seen, there is a deep need for policy and culture change in how our public systems (including policing) interact with Black residents. Shammas helped lead the charge for Issue 10 – an independent citizen’s advisory board approved by voters in November 2022, as one step toward building trust and strengthening accountability. Our Safer Together plan will make sure Issue 10 is thoughtfully implemented and will take further steps, like providing more funding for training, requiring body cams for officers on SWAT detail and off-duty jobs, and working with APD to review practices around traffic stops, police chases, and more.

ENSURING EFFECTIVENESS FOR APD

Our Akron police officers respond to roughly 250,000 calls for service each year and are stretched way too thin. Our Safer Together plan will make sure our APD has adequate staffing and resources by attracting and retaining officers with fair pay and by improving support programs for officers. We will not defund the police. We will also take action on the deteriorating police station building. Within six months of becoming mayor, Shammas will decide on a permanent path forward for the Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center – either fully renovating the building or selecting a new location.

INVESTING STRATEGICALLY IN YOUTH VIOLENCE PREVENTION

A real strategy for creating safe neighborhoods requires investing resources in upstream issues that lead to violence. By the time a young person fires a gun at someone, they have walked too far down a tragic path. In 2018 and 2019, our community came together to create a Youth Violence Prevention Strategic Plan, but implementation has struggled. Our Safer Together plan will be based on working collaboratively with community organizations, neighborhood groups, and schools to make long-term, meaningful investments in youth recreation and arts, job training and career exploration programs, mentorship and peer outreach, and mental health supports, as well as reentry supports and other specific interventions for youth involved in violence.

COMMITTING FULLY TO COMMUNITY POLICING

For decades, Akron residents have asked for community policing strategies (like foot patrols and bike patrols) to engage with and get to know officers in a proactive way. This tested model, used throughout the country, has proven to help build trust and resolve neighborhood issues before they lead to crime. Right now in Akron, we place that responsibility on 12 Neighborhood Response Team officers. Our Safer Together plan will ensure that every one of our patrol officers has the bandwidth to devote some of their time to these proactive approaches. We also will pilot at least one police substation to support community policing efforts.

TESTING INNOVATIVE, COLLABORATIVE RESPONSE PROGRAMS

Often, we ask officers to respond to calls that do not require an armed police response. Our Safer Together plan will include developing a program in which mental health workers and social workers respond to low-risk, non-violent calls alongside officers, when it is safe and effective to do so. These programs, tested in places like Dayton and Denver, are proven to improve emergency response outcomes and free up valuable officer time. As Mayor, Shammas will take this step to improve emergency response outcomes and more effectively use our resources.

Join the conversation

What you see here is just the start. We want to spend the next few months talking about safety, getting your feedback, and releasing more details about how we’re going to transform these ideas into action. Your input will help inform the final detailed plans the campaign will release.

Ways to engage

 

Working Together

REBUILDING AKRON’S ECONOMY

Every Akron resident deserves economic opportunity as a path to a prosperous life. Our city is an amazing place, but we have to be honest about where we’re headed economically. For more than 50 years, we’ve lost population and jobs, and that trend continues today, with folks moving to the suburbs for safety and better schools, and young people who grow up here seeing more opportunity in Cleveland, Columbus, and beyond. So the question for our city’s economic future is – what are we going to do differently?

For too many people, safety, education, and housing are barriers to economic empowerment, which means we need a strategic focus on youth violence prevention, preschool for all our children, and more. For that reason, our Safer Together, Learning Together, and Living Together plans all are essential pieces of our overall economic development strategy. Our goal is to tackle these underlying issues, stabilize our population, and build a new economy rooted in our unique strengths and work that is already underway.

Leading with a strategic and modern city government

It starts with the basics. Everyone seeking to do business in Akron should have an easy, welcoming, and efficient experience working with city hall, no matter if they know who to call or not. Our Working Together plan will modernize our outdated city website, ensure language accessibility, and streamline permitting and contracting processes, so that we avoid miscommunication, bottlenecks, and delays.

We will double down on the collaborative work of Elevate Greater Akron, making sure that resources and staff time are focused on the city’s key role in driving progress on equitable economic opportunities, the future of downtown, and neighborhood-based workforce solutions, while also seeking to bring the University of Akron into the core Elevate Greater Akron team.

Building a downtown that works for everyone

Downtown Akron has faced a lot of challenges recently, from years of construction, to office vacancies caused by the pandemic, to lingering concerns about safety. At the same time, there is so much opportunity – beautiful public spaces and infrastructure along Main Street, new vibrancy from residential housing, and amazing programming with arts, music, and more.

We will work alongside all downtown partners to staff and fund a downtown Community Development Corporation to coordinate real estate development activities. Through our Working Together plan, we will ensure downtown residents and workers have access to basic amenities like fresh groceries and childcare, find innovative, financially-sustainable re-uses for historic buildings and vacant office space, and partner with Downtown Akron Partnership and our small and large businesses to improve the perception of downtown.

Anchoring economic opportunity in our neighborhoods

Akron is a city of neighborhoods. But many neighborhoods – especially on the East side – have never recovered from the loss of rubber jobs, creating intergenerational poverty. This has hit our Black residents hardest, as shown in the 2019 Elevate Greater Akron report. These gaps are beginning to be addressed through resources at the Bounce Innovation Hub, improvements to minority supply chain and procurement practices, and the city’s Great Streets program, which seeks to boost neighborhood business districts.

What we need now is a city-wide commitment to economic and workforce development that harnesses the strength of our neighborhood networks. Our Working Together plan will work with Akron Public Schools to truly open up our Community Learning Centers on evenings and weekends, so that every Akronite is within walking distance of an in-demand certificate or skills training program. In addition, we will build deeper partnerships with all our neighborhood Community Development Corporations, where we’re seeing exciting innovation right now.

Removing barriers to work

Across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered longstanding obstacles to employment, from accessible and affordable childcare, to transportation, broadband access, safe housing, and healthcare access. And as with so many other social trends, we see these issues impacting low-income workers and communities of color at a disproportionate rate. Our Working Together plan will innovate ways to remove these barriers for workers, including creating affordable childcare options downtown and in our neighborhoods that are easily accessible through public transportation, and alternative transportation models like rideshare programs to locations not on the bus route. We also will commit to joining Summit Connects to ensure the County’s fiber project reaches all homes in Akron, removing internet connectivity as a barrier to both workers and students. Through programs like these, we will build a worker-friendly community that is attractive not only to the next generation of Akron workers, but also to folks in other states and other countries, and will help put us on the path to growing our city’s dwindling population.

Building the economy of the future

Akron has a long history of leading the way in innovation, and by working together, we can do it again. We will prioritize investments in the economy of the future – especially our local polymer and advanced materials industry, as well as supply chain infrastructure for the Central Ohio Intel microchip plant, and green energy jobs. We will aggressively seek funding at the regional, state, and national level, in partnership with private industry, to support local research and development.

Join the conversation

What you see here is just the start. We want to spend the next few months talking about safety, getting your feedback, and releasing more details about how we’re going to transform these ideas into action. Your input will help inform the final detailed plans the campaign will release.

WAYS TO ENGAGE

 Living Together

Everyone deserves to live a fulfilling life, and that starts at home. Our health, our housing, and the environment in which we live are critical parts of our lives. Akron has struggled with these basic conditions for decades, including a housing crisis that leaves many families without stable homes each year, a lack of strategy toward an environmentally-sustainable future, and racial health inequities worsened by the pandemic.

Our Living Together plan will build from Shammas’ leadership on these issues on City Council. We will provide bold, swift action for improving the health and lives of all Akron residents, built on the values of equity and transparency.

Tackling our housing crisis with new tools

Many Akronites struggle to find a safe, stable, affordable place to live, as evidenced by our city leading Ohio in eviction rates, a problem that disproportionately impacts minority and low-income residents. City Hall has a critical role to play in addressing this crisis. Our Living Together plan will implement the Right To Counsel program that Shammas has championed on City Council, so that tenants facing eviction have legal representation, reducing homelessness and saving taxpayer funds for social services. We will partner with the Akron Municipal Court to improve the current housing mediation program. We will also modernize how we enforce housing code violations, moving away from pen-and-paper inspections and restarting the city’s mandatory inspection plan to hold irresponsible housing providers accountable for unresolved, egregious living conditions.

Homelessness is a dangerous and disempowering situation for those experiencing it, and it is clear that our community needs more shelter options. We will work with the Continuum of Care coalition to thoughtfully consider new options, like additional emergency shelters and tiny homes. We also must recognize that folks facing homelessness deserve dignity and respect, including when mental health crises and safety concerns are a factor.

Creating an equitable path for development and redevelopment

Akron needs a strong housing market where everyone has decent options in order to strengthen homeownership. That means thoughtful development and redevelopment, whether building new housing or commercial spaces, or rehabbing old buildings. Yet, our neighborhoods are dotted by vacant parcels owned by the city and often struggle with transiency, violence, and blight.

Our Working Together plan will prioritize rebuilding our neighborhoods by testing better financial tools like gap financing and loan guarantee funds so that residents can directly access private loans to rehab older homes or build new infill construction on vacant lots. Our Community Development Corporations will be key partners in revitalizing our neighborhoods.

Many homeowners see the 15-year, 100% property tax abatement as unfair, largely subsidizing high-end developments in stable neighborhoods. Our Working Together plan will revise this policy so it better meets the needs of each neighborhood and doesn’t leave money on the table.

Often, big housing developments become controversial, divisive topics at City Hall. Our Working Together plan will prioritize public engagement at the beginning of the development process, so that residents’ ideas and concerns are heard before projects are finalized between city staff and developers. We will pursue strategic development in every neighborhood, while also ensuring that the people who live in our neighborhoods have a voice in deciding the future of their community.

Moving forward on overdue environmental action

In 2023, it’s clear that climate change is an existential threat to our planet. Our society’s future is increasingly linked to clean, renewable energy and other forms of environmental sustainability. More than a decade ago, Akron’s city government put together a bold environmental action plan, but since then, we’ve lacked strategic direction on this issue.

Our Living Together plan will get us back on track by joining Power a Clean Future Ohio, a coalition of statewide, nonpartisan organizations that is currently working with every other major Ohio city, providing free services to advance clean energy and the environment. We also will hire a cabinet-level staff member focused on environmental sustainability who will coordinate efforts across city government, from electrifying our fleet of city vehicles, to improving our recycling process, reversing the loss of our tree canopy, creating green building standards for new development, examining Akron’s land use policies and regulations, and finally, tracking our city government emissions and setting a goal for reductions. Additionally, through our Working Together plan, we will prioritize green energy jobs as a key component of building our economy of the future.

Improving outcomes in health and well-being

Community health has dominated public attention since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the growing awareness around health disparities for low-income communities and communities of color. Our Living Together plan will continue the important work of improving Black maternal and infant vitality through education and community support. We also will partner with local healthcare institutions and non-profit organizations to emphasize preventative health measures, fight chronic diseases, and implement the Age Friendly Akron plan to make sure our aging adults feel fully supported. These steps will improve life expectancy and quality of life for all Akronites.

A healthy community means meeting the physical and mental health needs of residents. With rising incidences of violence in the past few years and deeply entrenched poverty within our city, Akron needs a community-wide commitment to supporting the mental well-being of all our residents. Our Living Together plan will prioritize bringing a trauma-informed approach to the work of city government, whether it be targeted programs for youth violence prevention or simply responding to citizen requests.

Join the conversation

What you see here is just the start. We want to spend the next few months talking about safety, getting your feedback, and releasing more details about how we’re going to transform these ideas into action. Your input will help inform the final detailed plans the campaign will release.

WAYS TO ENGAGE

 

Learning Together

Great schools help our children get a strong start in life. In Akron, our schools are filled with educators and staff who go above and beyond, as well as promising initiatives like the College and Career Academies. But the issues facing our kids in our neighborhoods - poverty, housing instability, violence, and more - are spilling into the classroom, and vice versa. To improve both the reality and perception of our schools, we need strong collaboration between our city government and school leaders to create a fully supportive environment for our youth. Our Learning Together plan sets out three main priorities that our entire community should rally around to stabilize our schools and create thriving communities.

Charting a path to universal pre-K

The challenges facing our kids these days are complex, but one thing is pretty straightforward - the earlier a child starts to learn, the better their educational outcomes. Quality pre-K and early learning programs can also help address behavioral challenges that lead down a road to violence. And COVID showed us that affordable childcare can make a huge difference in whether and where a parent is able to work.

Across Akron, we have many great organizations providing childcare and pre-K, but many folks can’t access it and the different programs lack coordination. As a community, we must make citywide, universal pre-K our collective goal - to support families and give kids the strong academic start they deserve. It is a moral imperative and an economic necessity. As Mayor, Shammas will work to build a permanent, sustainable partnership to get this done.

Fulfilling the promise of our community learning centers

Akron has a unique strength - we built community learning centers (CLCs) throughout our city with the promise that they would be schools by day and community centers on evenings and weekends. There have been a lot of obstacles to this goal - insurance, staffing, funding, and bureaucracy. But more than ever, we know that children and families need more support - from after-school programming, mentoring, and summer job opportunities, to health and legal clinics, and more.

Our Learning Together plan pledges to partner with Akron Public Schools to finally fulfill the promise of the CLCs as neighborhood centers outside of school hours, building on the lessons of the United Way Family Resource Centers and the I Promise School. And as discussed in our Working Together plan, our CLCs should also be neighborhood hubs for workforce programs, so that every Akronite is within walking distance of an in-demand certificate or skills training program.

Lifting up the University of Akron as an engine of economic growth

Shammas grew up on the University of Akron campus, watching his Mom teach, and he knows that both UA and Stark State College can be engines of economic growth in our city. In recent years, the University of Akron has seen turbulent times, with budget cuts and falling student enrollment mirroring the same issues we see with our city and our overall population.

With new leadership and faculty support, we are seeing a lot of positive signs from UA. Our Learning Together plan seeks to prioritize our city government’s relationship with UA and Stark State. We will seek to make off-campus and downtown a safe and inviting area for students by prioritizing foot patrols and other community policing strategies (as reflected in our Safer Together plan), advocate for seamless transitions between APS, Stark State, and UA, and make sure that the university’s academic priorities are helping drive our community’s economic development strategy, and vice versa (as reflected in our Working Together plan). Together, we can ensure that Akronites will benefit from the transformative impact of our higher education institutions for years to come.

Join the conversation

What you see here is just the start. We want to spend the next few months talking about safety, getting your feedback, and releasing more details about how we’re going to transform these ideas into action. Your input will help inform the final detailed plans the campaign will release.

WAYS TO ENGAGE