District D and the city of New Orleans have to reimagine whats possible for our community, or risk continuing to slide backwards.
Our citys leaders of the past have allowed our infrastructure to fall into disrepair, violent crime to rise, and funding for critical city services to be slashed. Its time for the next generation of leaders to step up and answer the call to serve.
I was raised in the Calliope Housing Projects and graduated from McDonogh 35 High School. I am the father of an eleven year old daughter, a two year old son, and a newborn, so I am cautiously aware of the need for a change in the status quo for our community.
At only 25 years old, I became the youngest-ever president of the St. Roch Neighborhood Association. Prior to that, I had been faced with many of the same challenges that our citys youth are faced with each day.
I used those experiences to build coalitions to help pass juvenile justice reform legislation at the Louisiana legislature, host gun buybacks as a neighborhood leader, and now to help to employ formerly incarcerated individuals who are eliminating blight and cutting overgrown lots.
Now more than ever, there is an ever-growing need for leadership that can build coalitions to knock down the age-old barriers that have impacted District D and our city for so long. We cannot keep doing the same thing and expecting different results.
District D is where I live, where I became a homeowner, and where Id like to see economic, community, and cultural development emphasized, encouraged, and improved. However, thats just not happening right now.
I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that community leaders and organizations have been propping up our community more and more as the city government provides less and less.
Too many of our neighbors are sick and tired of the same old thing. They want to know that their Councilmember understands the challenges they face everyday–lack of safety, shameful streets, and unreliable services. I know that people work hard and want to see their tax dollars at work on the streets they live on.
The vision to move our community forward is not one of just one person, it is one shared by many community leaders and residents who have been boots on the ground doing the work to keep each other afloat for so long.
The question in this race goes beyond whether or not we will seize an opportunity to finally deliver safer neighborhoods, better streets, and more reliable city services. It is a chance to flip the script and chart a path towards a brighter future for District D by electing someone who represents the grassroots majority of our community that has been doing the hard work of our citys leadership for so long.
The choice in this race could not be clearer–our neighbors could select more of the same or a new leader who has delivered on the things we care about.
To learn more about Troy Glover and his campaign for City Council District D, visit votetroyglover.com.
