Tyler Hamilton
Name: Tyler Hamilton
Public Office Sought: Maplewood City Council
Email: TylerHamiltonMN@gmail.com
Phone: 612-594-0685
Website: http://TylerHamiltonMN.com/
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/TylerHamiltonMN (@TylerHamiltonMN)
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TylerHamiltonMinnesota/
Candidate Bio
I've lived here for over 20 years, since I was a baby and my parents moved here from Duluth in search of more opportunity. Having lived near White Bear Ave while attending Maplewood schools, I've seen and experienced the impact of the many challenges our community faces.
Things like our seniors losing their independence, the lack of easily-accessible community-oriented amenities in much of our city, economic insecurity, crime and police profiling, the high cost of education and healthcare, discrimination, unsafe roads and unreasonable commutes, marginalized populations (like our neighbors with disabilities) having to rely on our poor or nonexistent sidewalks and transit to get around, and more.
Not all of these can be reasonably addressed by local government, though we can fix many of them at relatively little cost. Beyond just experiencing what needs to be fixed, most importantly, I have the vision, values, and policy solutions to actually fix them after years of involvement with local activism fighting for our quality of life. It's not just about what you've done, it's about what you'll do if elected and the future you want. I want Maplewood to be a great place for my future family, and for all of us.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
How would you characterize the business climate in Maplewood and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
The business climate in Maplewood could be a lot better than it is today, though we have seen some improvements. New housing and commercial space is getting built, but overall our commercial and housing stock is aging, and it hasn't been enough to keep up with depreciation. The Maplewood Mall is in rough shape. Due to COVID-19 and a lack of leadership from numerous parts of our society’s government, the rest of our economy is, too.
Traditionally businesses have not been the best equipped to cost-effectively improve quality of life issues in the community. The biggest contribution they can offer is jobs, economic vitality, and being responsible in the ways they conduct business. That last point means they should treat their workers and customers well, and avoid creating negative external impacts on the community such as pollution.
The purpose of government entities such as the city of Maplewood is precisely to improve our quality of life. That is why we have the policy levers and assets to fix many of our problems, but only if we have the know-how and political will to do so.
What role do you think the City should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and what steps would you take to solicit new businesses to, and retain existing businesses in, Maplewood?
I believe the City of Maplewood needs to simplify and streamline some parts of the permitting process for new business and development, particularly our zoning code. In the majority of our city, because of our zoning code, any new development or business would be illegal without action from the City Council (spot rezonings).
Because small and medium-sized businesses don't have as much expertise and experience navigating the rezoning process, and can't afford the political risk embedded in our current zoning permit process, larger developers and businesses have an advantage investing in Maplewood. Unfortunately, many larger developers usually gravitate towards areas with more/better amenities than Maplewood, which is why we have to open ourselves up with by-right zoning in our commercial areas to help small and medium-sized businesses.
Beyond zoning, maintaining and improving the quality of life for our residents (who are both workers and customers for Maplewood's businesses) is important in order to keep turnover low. I am against the use of tools like TIF wherever possible, and prefer to levy for a large project ahead of time (and over a period of many years), unless interest rates are low enough to offset the opportunity costs of bonding.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Maplewood (such as minimum wage, sick time, or mandatory scheduling notice)? If so, what steps would you take to understand the impact of an ordinance on the many types of businesses in Maplewood and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I support increasing the minimum wage. I think a phase-in period is a must for consistency, given how minimum wage increases have always been implemented, and to give businesses time to adjust to higher wages. We should attempt to synchronize it with neighboring juristictions.
I do not support a tip credit because it is difficult to enforce and leads to negative equity outcomes. The largest is that 90% of women working in the restaurant industry have experienced sexual harassment, and 50% experience it at least weekly, a huge and disproportionate number, which is directly related to their reliance on tips to make ends meet. There are similar discrepancies between how much servers of color, as an example, get tipped vs white workers, which is unacceptable.
I am generally supportive of the working families agenda. I think some objections to specific employment-related policies have merit, and some policies would be difficult for a city the size of Maplewood to successfully implement. As an example I think it will be more effective and realistic for smaller businesses to have the state or federal government (or perhaps even Ramsey County) pay for guaranteed sick/family leave, instead of mandating businesses must pay for required sick/family leave.
We could potentially mandate businesses above a certain size provide sick & family time and pay for it, while smaller businesses would be exempt only from paying for it (until a higher governing body appropriates funding for it), and maybe fully exempt from providing and paying for it if it's a very small business. Where exactly those boundaries would fall would require input from businesses and the community.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
I am a strong believer in the philosophy that the best solution to crime is to prevent it from happening in the first place. And to do that, we must address the socio-economic causes of crime. While a city government can't conduct an anti-poverty campaign like the state or federal government can, our housing policy can determine whether we live in a segregated or integrated society.
The worst areas for crime and public safety have always occurred in segregated metros, where public policy has concentrated public and affordable housing into already poor neighborhoods, instead of spreading them around and including them in higher-opportunity neighborhoods. When society can stick most marginalized people together in the same areas, it allows society to divest and swindle them even harder. We can no longer allow that to happen.
Using affordable housing tools like inclusionary zoning and land trusts in a targeted manner to desegregate our society can go a long way to prevent crime. Cleaning up environmental pollutants such as lead, which have been shown to strongly increase rates of violence and crime, reduces crime significantly. We should also invest in our local pedestrian, cycling, and bus transportation networks to reduce the effects of segregation and poverty.
As far as direct public safety policy goes, making sure our police department is a part of our community in a humanizing way is key, instead of them being an occupying force. There must be proper procedures to hold officers accountable for their actions. The stanek amendment must be repealed at the state-level, and we should phase in incentives and rules to encourage (and eventually require) officers to live within Maplewood, or a certain distance from Maplewood. There should be a larger emphasis on service than punishment. Instead of pulling someone over for a burnt-out tail light and ticketing them, the police officer should help them change their light! That is real public safety. Their day-to-day job should involve more community-building and charity.
Providing proper hiring-practices, resources, and training to handle whatever comes their way on-duty is important, though not enough on its own.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Maintenance, strategic infrastructure investments, and increasing revenue (tax base) are my top three priorities for the City budget (all at once, and not in any given order).
Maintenance isn't a sexy word, but it saves money over the long-term, and thus should be one of our top priorities. Additionally, strategic investments in infrastructure that allow us to increase our tax base (above and beyond the cost of said infrastructure) need to be made. Raising revenue by increasing our tax base is self-explanatory.
What will you do to expand Maplewood’s tax base?
While I have touched on this elsewhere, The biggest things we can do are to simplify and liberalize our zoning code, while building (in cooperation with other local governments) the basic level of infrastructure (local bus service and sidewalk coverage) to sustain new growth.
Commercial areas (White Bear Ave, the Maplewood Mall, and Highway 61) should allow new development with minimal restrictions on height, FARs (Floor Area Ratios), setbacks (beyond what is needed for future infrastructure), and parking. All areas of the city should allow context-appropriate mixed-use development.
As an example, low density residential neighborhood interiors should allow smaller neighborhood oriented retail by-right. Meanwhile, White Bear Ave should allow at least 6 floor buildings with whatever mix of hotel/office/residential/commercial space works for any given location.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
As a 2015 Alumni of North High School, with friends and family members who have also recently attended (or are still attending) our public schools, there are several improvements we can make to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce. The city council has a limited ability to impact school district policy relative to the school board, though we can use the bully pulpit and community organizing to achieve change.
Fixing racial disparities in our school system is the biggest way we can ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce. When children in our community face barriers due to their race or identity, they cannot reach their full potential, and will have less to contribute to our workforce as adults. It's a complicated topic to unravel, but we have many racial disparities to address such as with school discipline, access to advanced classes, school completion rates, school readiness, and the racial composition of our school staff.
Working with our k-12 and post-secondary institutions we should:
Other ways we can make sure our region retains an educated workforce:
The 2 biggest factors that lead to Minnesota's amazing retention rate for businesses/workers are a high quality of life and a relatively low cost of living. We can preserve both of those factors by keeping the price of housing down (by increasing the supply of housing!) and continuing to invest in the amenities that improve our quality of life (parks, schools, transportation, ect.)
Are there any services currently provided by the city that you believe should be cut back or eliminated? Are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
For most local governments, there aren't many areas to find savings left at this point after decades of budget problems and cutbacks. The most effective way we can save money moving forward is to use our fixed infrastructure to the greatest reasonable extent we can. Ultimately by having more walkable and dense neighborhoods, more people can choose to live in areas with less infrastructure & service costs per-capita, keeping property taxes down. I would support giving our police budget a second look, as it is a huge part of our budget, and historically police departments have not been held fiscally-responsible in the ways every other part of local governments have been.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Maplewood?
While the city does not currently play much of a role in supporting minority- and women-owned businesses, there is a large opportunity for us to improve our community by doing so. People of color and women are just as likely as white people and men to come up with good business ideas. Ideas that can provide needed jobs and in-demand amenities for our community. They must deal with gender-related and race-related barriers that white men like myself do not, which prevent them from successfully building new businesses at the same rate.
There are a variety of things we can do to foster more minority- and women-owned businesses, each of which will do some good on their own, though we will want to implement as many of them as possible to have the best effect. These following policies I think will have the largest impact.
I support preserving naturally occurring affordable commercial spaces (NOACS), and encouraging the construction of new affordable commercial spaces. I think zoning requirements/bonuses would be an effective way to promote smaller commercial spaces, which are better-suited to small businesses and new businesses due to their lower cost. We can also use grants and potentially commercial rent-control to protect small businesses and start ups in areas experiencing growth and new development in Maplewood. We should encourage the construction of more housing and density to provide more potential customers and employees for our small businesses.
While improving access to affordable commercial spaces and employees/customers will help all small businesses, pairing those policies with a grant program to provide capital for small businesses owned by marginalized groups will give us the maximum impact, encouraging the creation of new businesses by women and POC. A lack of startup capital is the biggest barrier to starting a business, and historical injustices that have denied women and POC equal opportunity to earn money for the majority of our history means they have less access to capital today.
If we can partner with Ramsey County to have them directly run the program, while we pioneer and spearhead it, then once it is proven a success, other cities/suburbs in Ramsey County could buy into the program, spreading our policy success to our neighbors.
What further policies can Maplewood adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
The most important policies that we can adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic are policies that help end the pandemic. The longer we allow this disease to ravage our community, the greater the economic toll will be. I am wholly opposed to premature efforts to reopen our economy.
Other countries have successfully squeezed their outbreaks down to levels which are manageable with contact tracing and basic preventative measures like wearing masks and following social distancing rules. Until we reach that point, consumers and employees will not be safe and will not feel safe participating in our economy. Until our community regains that confidence, we cannot recover from COVID-19. Not even by ending pandemic restrictions on businesses entirely, and spending my generation into bankruptcy.
Working at Amazon for the entirety of this pandemic has given me numerous helpful insights into what does and doesn't work for keeping people safe. We can absolutely provide safety recommendations and support to our institutions and businesses to ensure we keep our community as safe as possible. This disaster will be prolonged, and with proper safety precautions some things can be reopened. We should mandate and enforce some measures such as wearing masks in public. I also support hiring inspectors to help enforce COVID-19 safety requirements.
We do not have enough resources to provide direct aid to businesses, though we certainly can connect and advise our businesses with existing sources of aid set up by the state and federal government.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Most local politicians only collect feedback for new policies after they're elected based on vague value statements. When meetings at city hall are the main way to gather feedback, usually only a small and unrepresentative slice of our community can show up (most of us have families, jobs, and other responsibilities to tend to).
One reason I'm running for city council with a platform of tangible policy goals is so that I can bring the process of governing to the people of Maplewood, and directly get your thoughts and feedback on our policies. You shouldn’t have to spend your evenings at meetings in City Hall to get yourself heard.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, or would like to talk or meet over some coffee. Texting my phone number above with a brief introduction is the best way to reach me.
~ Tyler Hamilton
Public Office Sought: Maplewood City Council
Email: TylerHamiltonMN@gmail.com
Phone: 612-594-0685
Website: http://TylerHamiltonMN.com/
Twitter handle: https://twitter.com/TylerHamiltonMN (@TylerHamiltonMN)
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TylerHamiltonMinnesota/
Candidate Bio
I've lived here for over 20 years, since I was a baby and my parents moved here from Duluth in search of more opportunity. Having lived near White Bear Ave while attending Maplewood schools, I've seen and experienced the impact of the many challenges our community faces.
Things like our seniors losing their independence, the lack of easily-accessible community-oriented amenities in much of our city, economic insecurity, crime and police profiling, the high cost of education and healthcare, discrimination, unsafe roads and unreasonable commutes, marginalized populations (like our neighbors with disabilities) having to rely on our poor or nonexistent sidewalks and transit to get around, and more.
Not all of these can be reasonably addressed by local government, though we can fix many of them at relatively little cost. Beyond just experiencing what needs to be fixed, most importantly, I have the vision, values, and policy solutions to actually fix them after years of involvement with local activism fighting for our quality of life. It's not just about what you've done, it's about what you'll do if elected and the future you want. I want Maplewood to be a great place for my future family, and for all of us.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
- Working towards Racial and Economic justice through criminal justice reform and other policy measures
- Reforming our Zoning code to allow equitable growth with a form-based code.
- Reforming our transportation policy to emphasize multi-modal transportation via a complete streets policy.
How would you characterize the business climate in Maplewood and what is the role of businesses supporting quality of life issues in the community?
The business climate in Maplewood could be a lot better than it is today, though we have seen some improvements. New housing and commercial space is getting built, but overall our commercial and housing stock is aging, and it hasn't been enough to keep up with depreciation. The Maplewood Mall is in rough shape. Due to COVID-19 and a lack of leadership from numerous parts of our society’s government, the rest of our economy is, too.
Traditionally businesses have not been the best equipped to cost-effectively improve quality of life issues in the community. The biggest contribution they can offer is jobs, economic vitality, and being responsible in the ways they conduct business. That last point means they should treat their workers and customers well, and avoid creating negative external impacts on the community such as pollution.
The purpose of government entities such as the city of Maplewood is precisely to improve our quality of life. That is why we have the policy levers and assets to fix many of our problems, but only if we have the know-how and political will to do so.
What role do you think the City should have in attracting and retaining jobs, and what steps would you take to solicit new businesses to, and retain existing businesses in, Maplewood?
I believe the City of Maplewood needs to simplify and streamline some parts of the permitting process for new business and development, particularly our zoning code. In the majority of our city, because of our zoning code, any new development or business would be illegal without action from the City Council (spot rezonings).
Because small and medium-sized businesses don't have as much expertise and experience navigating the rezoning process, and can't afford the political risk embedded in our current zoning permit process, larger developers and businesses have an advantage investing in Maplewood. Unfortunately, many larger developers usually gravitate towards areas with more/better amenities than Maplewood, which is why we have to open ourselves up with by-right zoning in our commercial areas to help small and medium-sized businesses.
Beyond zoning, maintaining and improving the quality of life for our residents (who are both workers and customers for Maplewood's businesses) is important in order to keep turnover low. I am against the use of tools like TIF wherever possible, and prefer to levy for a large project ahead of time (and over a period of many years), unless interest rates are low enough to offset the opportunity costs of bonding.
Do you support any other specific employment-related proposals in Maplewood (such as minimum wage, sick time, or mandatory scheduling notice)? If so, what steps would you take to understand the impact of an ordinance on the many types of businesses in Maplewood and how would you define any exceptions to those policies?
I support increasing the minimum wage. I think a phase-in period is a must for consistency, given how minimum wage increases have always been implemented, and to give businesses time to adjust to higher wages. We should attempt to synchronize it with neighboring juristictions.
I do not support a tip credit because it is difficult to enforce and leads to negative equity outcomes. The largest is that 90% of women working in the restaurant industry have experienced sexual harassment, and 50% experience it at least weekly, a huge and disproportionate number, which is directly related to their reliance on tips to make ends meet. There are similar discrepancies between how much servers of color, as an example, get tipped vs white workers, which is unacceptable.
I am generally supportive of the working families agenda. I think some objections to specific employment-related policies have merit, and some policies would be difficult for a city the size of Maplewood to successfully implement. As an example I think it will be more effective and realistic for smaller businesses to have the state or federal government (or perhaps even Ramsey County) pay for guaranteed sick/family leave, instead of mandating businesses must pay for required sick/family leave.
We could potentially mandate businesses above a certain size provide sick & family time and pay for it, while smaller businesses would be exempt only from paying for it (until a higher governing body appropriates funding for it), and maybe fully exempt from providing and paying for it if it's a very small business. Where exactly those boundaries would fall would require input from businesses and the community.
What are your strategies to address public safety, housing, and transportation issues facing your community?
I am a strong believer in the philosophy that the best solution to crime is to prevent it from happening in the first place. And to do that, we must address the socio-economic causes of crime. While a city government can't conduct an anti-poverty campaign like the state or federal government can, our housing policy can determine whether we live in a segregated or integrated society.
The worst areas for crime and public safety have always occurred in segregated metros, where public policy has concentrated public and affordable housing into already poor neighborhoods, instead of spreading them around and including them in higher-opportunity neighborhoods. When society can stick most marginalized people together in the same areas, it allows society to divest and swindle them even harder. We can no longer allow that to happen.
Using affordable housing tools like inclusionary zoning and land trusts in a targeted manner to desegregate our society can go a long way to prevent crime. Cleaning up environmental pollutants such as lead, which have been shown to strongly increase rates of violence and crime, reduces crime significantly. We should also invest in our local pedestrian, cycling, and bus transportation networks to reduce the effects of segregation and poverty.
As far as direct public safety policy goes, making sure our police department is a part of our community in a humanizing way is key, instead of them being an occupying force. There must be proper procedures to hold officers accountable for their actions. The stanek amendment must be repealed at the state-level, and we should phase in incentives and rules to encourage (and eventually require) officers to live within Maplewood, or a certain distance from Maplewood. There should be a larger emphasis on service than punishment. Instead of pulling someone over for a burnt-out tail light and ticketing them, the police officer should help them change their light! That is real public safety. Their day-to-day job should involve more community-building and charity.
Providing proper hiring-practices, resources, and training to handle whatever comes their way on-duty is important, though not enough on its own.
What are your priorities for the City’s budget?
Maintenance, strategic infrastructure investments, and increasing revenue (tax base) are my top three priorities for the City budget (all at once, and not in any given order).
Maintenance isn't a sexy word, but it saves money over the long-term, and thus should be one of our top priorities. Additionally, strategic investments in infrastructure that allow us to increase our tax base (above and beyond the cost of said infrastructure) need to be made. Raising revenue by increasing our tax base is self-explanatory.
What will you do to expand Maplewood’s tax base?
While I have touched on this elsewhere, The biggest things we can do are to simplify and liberalize our zoning code, while building (in cooperation with other local governments) the basic level of infrastructure (local bus service and sidewalk coverage) to sustain new growth.
Commercial areas (White Bear Ave, the Maplewood Mall, and Highway 61) should allow new development with minimal restrictions on height, FARs (Floor Area Ratios), setbacks (beyond what is needed for future infrastructure), and parking. All areas of the city should allow context-appropriate mixed-use development.
As an example, low density residential neighborhood interiors should allow smaller neighborhood oriented retail by-right. Meanwhile, White Bear Ave should allow at least 6 floor buildings with whatever mix of hotel/office/residential/commercial space works for any given location.
How will you work with K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and businesses to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce?
As a 2015 Alumni of North High School, with friends and family members who have also recently attended (or are still attending) our public schools, there are several improvements we can make to ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce. The city council has a limited ability to impact school district policy relative to the school board, though we can use the bully pulpit and community organizing to achieve change.
Fixing racial disparities in our school system is the biggest way we can ensure our region develops and retains an educated workforce. When children in our community face barriers due to their race or identity, they cannot reach their full potential, and will have less to contribute to our workforce as adults. It's a complicated topic to unravel, but we have many racial disparities to address such as with school discipline, access to advanced classes, school completion rates, school readiness, and the racial composition of our school staff.
Working with our k-12 and post-secondary institutions we should:
- Retain and expand access and offerings to college-level courses like AP, CIS, and PSEO.
- Offer second-language classes at earlier grade-levels. I had the opportunity to start taking german classes in 8th grade at John Glenn. The earlier we start learning a second language, the easier it is to learn and retain. Studies have also shown learning additional languages improves overall academic performance.
- As much as we can while governed by state and federal law, give our teachers more independence to teach as they find most effective! Throughout my entire experience in our school system, teachers have been frustrated that they have to “teach to the tests” (for good reason). In one of my little sister's classes, because of how the curriculum that the tests test for diverged from the curriculum present in our aging textbooks, the teacher had to abandon using the textbook and use a test prep book to guide the curriculum. Frustrations like this are common.
- We need more and more highly qualified teachers. The amount and qualifications of our teachers limits both the quality and scope of classes we can offer. Our current teachers are at their limit in terms of what they can accomplish with their time and energy. We need more teachers to reduce the workload per teacher. Any current or new teachers that do not have degrees in both education and the specific subject matter they teach, could benefit from a grant program to help them get the other degree they are lacking.
Other ways we can make sure our region retains an educated workforce:
The 2 biggest factors that lead to Minnesota's amazing retention rate for businesses/workers are a high quality of life and a relatively low cost of living. We can preserve both of those factors by keeping the price of housing down (by increasing the supply of housing!) and continuing to invest in the amenities that improve our quality of life (parks, schools, transportation, ect.)
Are there any services currently provided by the city that you believe should be cut back or eliminated? Are there new opportunities to share services with other entities?
For most local governments, there aren't many areas to find savings left at this point after decades of budget problems and cutbacks. The most effective way we can save money moving forward is to use our fixed infrastructure to the greatest reasonable extent we can. Ultimately by having more walkable and dense neighborhoods, more people can choose to live in areas with less infrastructure & service costs per-capita, keeping property taxes down. I would support giving our police budget a second look, as it is a huge part of our budget, and historically police departments have not been held fiscally-responsible in the ways every other part of local governments have been.
What is the role of the City Council in fostering increased minority- and women-owned businesses in Maplewood?
While the city does not currently play much of a role in supporting minority- and women-owned businesses, there is a large opportunity for us to improve our community by doing so. People of color and women are just as likely as white people and men to come up with good business ideas. Ideas that can provide needed jobs and in-demand amenities for our community. They must deal with gender-related and race-related barriers that white men like myself do not, which prevent them from successfully building new businesses at the same rate.
There are a variety of things we can do to foster more minority- and women-owned businesses, each of which will do some good on their own, though we will want to implement as many of them as possible to have the best effect. These following policies I think will have the largest impact.
I support preserving naturally occurring affordable commercial spaces (NOACS), and encouraging the construction of new affordable commercial spaces. I think zoning requirements/bonuses would be an effective way to promote smaller commercial spaces, which are better-suited to small businesses and new businesses due to their lower cost. We can also use grants and potentially commercial rent-control to protect small businesses and start ups in areas experiencing growth and new development in Maplewood. We should encourage the construction of more housing and density to provide more potential customers and employees for our small businesses.
While improving access to affordable commercial spaces and employees/customers will help all small businesses, pairing those policies with a grant program to provide capital for small businesses owned by marginalized groups will give us the maximum impact, encouraging the creation of new businesses by women and POC. A lack of startup capital is the biggest barrier to starting a business, and historical injustices that have denied women and POC equal opportunity to earn money for the majority of our history means they have less access to capital today.
If we can partner with Ramsey County to have them directly run the program, while we pioneer and spearhead it, then once it is proven a success, other cities/suburbs in Ramsey County could buy into the program, spreading our policy success to our neighbors.
What further policies can Maplewood adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?
The most important policies that we can adopt to help the business community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic are policies that help end the pandemic. The longer we allow this disease to ravage our community, the greater the economic toll will be. I am wholly opposed to premature efforts to reopen our economy.
Other countries have successfully squeezed their outbreaks down to levels which are manageable with contact tracing and basic preventative measures like wearing masks and following social distancing rules. Until we reach that point, consumers and employees will not be safe and will not feel safe participating in our economy. Until our community regains that confidence, we cannot recover from COVID-19. Not even by ending pandemic restrictions on businesses entirely, and spending my generation into bankruptcy.
Working at Amazon for the entirety of this pandemic has given me numerous helpful insights into what does and doesn't work for keeping people safe. We can absolutely provide safety recommendations and support to our institutions and businesses to ensure we keep our community as safe as possible. This disaster will be prolonged, and with proper safety precautions some things can be reopened. We should mandate and enforce some measures such as wearing masks in public. I also support hiring inspectors to help enforce COVID-19 safety requirements.
We do not have enough resources to provide direct aid to businesses, though we certainly can connect and advise our businesses with existing sources of aid set up by the state and federal government.
Is there anything else you would like to share with voters not covered above?
Most local politicians only collect feedback for new policies after they're elected based on vague value statements. When meetings at city hall are the main way to gather feedback, usually only a small and unrepresentative slice of our community can show up (most of us have families, jobs, and other responsibilities to tend to).
One reason I'm running for city council with a platform of tangible policy goals is so that I can bring the process of governing to the people of Maplewood, and directly get your thoughts and feedback on our policies. You shouldn’t have to spend your evenings at meetings in City Hall to get yourself heard.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, or would like to talk or meet over some coffee. Texting my phone number above with a brief introduction is the best way to reach me.
~ Tyler Hamilton