Full City Staffing
Many of the nuisances we see in Richmond -- everything from dumping to weeds to long waits for services -- could be addressed if we fill the vacant city positions. I will work with the city manager and other staff to recruit and retain more city workers.
Development Without Displacement
Families who have lived for generations in Richmond should not be pushed out by rising costs. We need to build more housing, especially affordable housing, and maintain the rent control and just cause eviction protections we already have.
Fiscal Responsibility
We can keep our city budget balanced without cutting services to residents. This means looking closely at Richmond’s spending habits. City leaders must also insist that corporations pay their fair share of city taxes. And there are no shortcuts—we have to resist risky maneuvers like bond swaps.
Expanded Public Safety
I believe a city safety program must include well-engineered road safety solutions; wildfire prevention; food security, especially for children; summer jobs for youth; and making sure people are stably housed or on a path from the streets to housing. Making all Richmond truly safe requires a multi-faceted approach and the effort of many departments.
Environmental Justice
Our children deserve clean air. We must keep pushing corporate polluters to clean up the mess they make in our city and to prevent them from doing further damage to our air, water, and soil. Together, we can make Richmond a hub of the new green economy.
I’m the only mayoral candidate who does not take money from corporations, developers, lobbyists, or professional associations. Not $2,500, or $500, or even $10.
Why is this important? Because there’s too much corporate influence in our politics, at every level of government. It’s not just about direct campaign contributions, but also corporate PAC money.
By refusing all corporate money, my campaign leaves tens of thousands of dollars on the table. My support comes from working people who feel that I will represent them, not a billion dollar company. And that’s something to be really proud of.
Refusing corporate contributions communicates a clear value: corporate money does not have a place in making decisions for people. It’s about an allegiance to the people who work, live, and play in our city.
Traffic safety is a key part of my public safety platform. As with all public safety issues in Richmond, my plan is prevention. We can make it impossible to drive recklessly on our streets.
And Richmond’s newly completed traffic safety analysis tells us that road safety is the worst around our schools. So traffic calming is a safety issue, and it’s an equity issue for neighborhoods of color and young people.
This is done through engineered solutions and infrastructure investments on our roads, such as roundabouts and Botts Dots. We know these work, because they’ve worked in Oakland and Berkeley.
This infrastructure creates long term benefits for the city, pedestrians, and commuters that are less expensive than having a police officer on every corner would be, and that prevent reckless driving rather than responding after the fact.
People become homeless because they can’t afford housing. And recent data shows no one living on minimum wage can afford a 1-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States. Rents are too high. Our children can't imagine owning a basic home to start a family in.
My approach is development without displacement. Young people should be able to afford to stay in the city they grew up in, and young families should be able to secure stable housing.
Under my mayorship, housing projects in Richmond will:
By providing affordable housing and renter protections, we can ensure stability for our communities and prevent displacement and homelessness.
I believe my campaign has the boldest vision for economic development in Richmond. You will hear my opponents say, “We need to attract businesses,” and that means the normal song and dance of cutting taxes.
But I will advocate for true economic development in Richmond. This means growing green jobs, increasing affordable housing stock, and supporting our small businesses. This also means improving our public transportation infrastructure— both so people can easily commute, and so increased economic activity doesn’t hugely impact our residential neighborhoods.
Progressive economic development also means pairing economic growth with climate change resilience. By increasing public transit and making our cities more pedestrian-friendly, we support working people and small businesses, and also curb greenhouse emissions from traffic.
I'll also continue investment in public youth jobs programs, such as in YouthWorks, and establishing skilled union pre-apprenticeship training programs, to make sure the young people most affected by environmental injustice have support to build and lead the local green transition.
One job should be enough. Our residents shouldn’t have to rely on gig work to make ends meet. Teachers shouldn’t have to drive Uber after their school day ends to afford living here. So my vision for Richmond is not just to grow available jobs, but to offer people careers.
Filling our city staff vacancies is so important. In addition to making our city services better, filling those jobs means getting residents a local, stable career with good union pay and benefits.
Developing our young workforce is another major reason I voted to increase funding to YouthWorks, the city department that provides job training and placement to Richmond youth. By helping youth build their resume and earn income, this program helps young people begin careers AND supports our crime prevention efforts in Richmond.
Finally, we know our climate is changing. And we have over 170 toxic waste sites around our city. Part of my public safety platform is climate change resilience, and that means new, skilled jobs in the green economy that will make our city safer.
Because Eduardo has pledged to take no contributions from corporations or developers, he depends on small contributions from people like you. If you are able to contribute at any level, please donate online via ActBlue.
You can also make out a check to "Eduardo Martinez for Richmond Mayor 2022" and mail it to PO Box 5028, Richmond, CA 94805.
