Name as it appears on the ballot: Jacqueline “Jackie” Wagstaff
Age: 60
Party affiliation: Democrat
Campaign website: https://www.facebook.com/Jackie4Durham/
Occupation & employer: Community Organizer/ Retired
Years lived in Durham: 38 years
1) Given the direction of Durham government, would you say things are on the right course? If not, for what specific changes will you advocate if elected?
In terms of the black community, Durham City government is making progress after the election of Sheriff Birkhead and DA Deberry but we need to be more intentional about addressing issues in the black community. Addressing the inequality gaps facing the overlooked and underserved. Protect and preserve the current affordable housing stock as it currently exists with goals to help the black community will also help all of Durham.
2) Please identify the three most pressing issues you believe the city faces and how you believe the city should address them.
Affordable housing for fixed income, seniors and people with disabilities
Sustainable Jobs we need to invest in more middle-skill Jobs
Safety and Justice develop support for neighborhoods that experience violence.
3) What in your record as a public official or other experience demonstrates your ability to be effective as a member of the city council and as an advocate for the issues that you believe are important?
Jacqueline (Jackie) Wagstaff has more than 20 years of experience organizing and engaging communities in Durham. She has worked on the grassroots and executive levels, advocating with and for residents around issues such as affordable housing, safety, jobs, environmental justice, education, criminal justice reform and more.
Jackie previously served on the Durham City Council and Durham Public Schools Board of Education where she was a fierce advocate for often overlooked and underserved constituencies. In addition to her years of elected service, Ms. Wagstaff has served in various roles within numerous civic and political organizations, including the Democratic Party, Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People (DCABP), and Durham County Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board, where she has collaborated with residents, advocates, business leaders, elected officials and other stakeholders to improve the lives and conditions of poor and working families and communities throughout Durham. The most important role I have played in my community is being the mother to three sons and the “Glam“ mother to seven grandchildren.
4) In your view, what’s the best or most important thing the city council has done in the past year? Alternatively, name a decision you believe the council got wrong or an issue you believe the city should have handled differently. Please explain your answer.
Light rail was the most important decision in the past year. Light rail should have been handled differently by involving the whole community in the beginning of the process instead of at the end to force Duke University’s participation.
5) This year, the city has since an uptick in gun homicides compared to 2018, recently including the tragic death of a nine-year-old boy. Gun violence is obviously a multifaceted problem with no simple solutions. But, in your view, what can or should the city be doing to stem the tide of violence that it isn’t doing now?
Gun violence and homicides affect people. And until we start viewing gun violence as a people issue and not a numbers game we will continue talking about rising homicide rates and police mistrust instead of finding solutions.
Economics is the #1 driving force in criminal behavior. If the city would focus on bringing middle-skill jobs to justice-involved, low-income, unserved and overlooked Durham residents people will be less likely to be involved in criminal behavior. We need solutions that engage the community and law enforcement in a positive partnership rather than the adversarial relationship that currently exists. The residents of Durham are our customers and our customers deserve better.
6) In recent elections, residents have supported leaders who have embraced criminal justice reforms, including reducing or eliminating cash bail and court fines and fees. Advocacy groups have argued—in our view, rightly—for more systemic solutions to violent crime than incarceration. But some of these solutions, which aim to reshape disadvantaged communities, will take time to bear fruit, whereas gun violence is causing harm right now. What do you say to residents who want more immediate answers to crime problems in their neighborhoods? In what ways can the city help them?
We need to:
Listen to the communities experiencing gun violence. More and more neighborhoods are experiencing gun violence than ever before.
Address contributing factors that contribute to criminal activity i.e. abandoned housing, bad lighting, bad sidewalks and bus shelters
Reinvest in the Durham Partners Against Crime (PAC) system. Encourage communities and neighborhoods to engage in regular dialogue with their local law enforcement and city staff.
7) Earlier this year, the council declined the police chief’s request for additional officers. Do you believe this was a wise decision? Why or why not?
I believe it was a one-sided decision that did not incorporate the voices of people affected by gun violence especially the black mothers that burying their young children at an alarming rate.
8) This year, the Durham-Orange Light Rail project collapsed over a route dispute with Duke University and other complications. Tell us how you envision what Durham’s approach to public transportation and mass transit should look like going forward. Where should the city focus its resources?
Now that we have moved passed the light rail project renewed focus needs to shift resources towards regional planning and a regional transportation system including buses, bikes, sidewalks and commuter service.
We should work towards 100% renewable energy transportation model.
9) Much of the city’s affordable housing strategy has been planned in conjunction with light rail, and as recently as last year, Durham Housing Authority CEO Anthony Scott called light rail “critical” to his agency’s goals for low-income housing. In what ways does light rail’s demise affect the city’s strategy? How should the city alter its approach, if at all?
Affordable housing should be for the people that need affordability the most. The City will need to cast a wider net to include other areas for development outside of downtown. We need diversity of developers and financing to increase housing opportunities and options for low and fixed income residents.
10) In November, Durham will ask residents to vote on a $95 million bond to support affordable housing, a key part of a larger strategy to build or preserve more than twenty-five hundred affordable units and move at least seventeen hundred homeless households into housing, as well as create new homeownership opportunities and help those facing eviction. We’d like to ask a few questions about the bond:
· Do you support the bond, including the property tax hike that will be required to implement it?
No I do not support the Housing Bond as it is proposed. The city needs to devote more attention, energy and funding to affordable housing. Continually borrowing money on the backs of residents is not the right way. Bonds increase property taxes and inevitably fees for city services, overlooked and underserved residents like seniors, underemployed, youth, low wage workers cannot afford this. We need a more equitable solution that brings some creative thought to this issue. Other communities in the country use a tax policy called Tax Increment Financing to fund affordable housing and curb gentrification. The areas that are growing and where we want to make sure affordable housing gets built (like downtown) can borrow against future tax revenues to get projects in place today. It is like a bond but makes just one neighborhood repay the loan rather than the whole city. This is a far more equitable solution that would fit Durham. Tax increment financing is legal in North Carolina; it just takes elected leaders who are willing to push for something creative.
· If you support the bond, what would be your argument to homeowners who have seen their property taxes rise over the last several years for why they should support the bond? How will it benefit them? Why is this bond so vital? NA
· About $60 million of the bond would go to the DHA to redevelop its downtown properties, a project that is already in motion. Tell us how you’d like to see the city spend the rest? In what ways can the city promote affordable housing most effectively? NA
11) Given the influx of people and money, Durham has seen in recent years, gentrification has become a major concern, in East Durham but also in other neighborhoods close to downtown. In what ways can or should the city intervene?
Given the recent vote on the Expanded Housing Choices (EHC), it is becoming increasingly difficult to even address gentrification. EHC makes it easier for wealthy homeowners and developers to make more money. It doesn’t address our need for more affordable housing and will probably increase gentrification. There is a very real homeownership and wealth gap for blacks in Durham which continues to grow and EHC does not fully address the need to create affordable housing options for Durham’s poorest residents.
12) Durham’s downtown is ringed by low-density neighborhoods, which has contributed to rising home values in the urban core. Earlier this year, the city proposed a plan called Expanded Housing Choices, which would allow for more—and more kinds—of housing near downtown. It met with pushback and has been delayed for months. (EHC is scheduled to come back before the council on September 3.) Disputes that seem to turn on the question of density vs. neighborhood protection seem to be emerging all over the country, including in Raleigh. What are your thoughts on the city’s approach to EHC? Is it adequately considering the desires of neighborhoods? Is it being aggressive enough in adding density in the urban core? Is it handling the situation just right?
EHC is not aggressive enough and will not address affordability with the underserved and overlooked populations experiencing gentrification and that are at risk for homelessness and displacement. This should not be rushed through, EHC should be included in the comprehensive plan next year.
13) As of 2017, nearly half of Durham residents living in poverty were black. The city’s overall economy has improved markedly over the last two decades. What are your ideas for making its renaissance more equitable?
Black prosperity has to be planned. In the OEWDShared Economic Prosperity Plan black prosperity was missing. If the City wanted to increase prosperity for black people there has to be a planned investments like middle-skill jobs, entrepreneurship, preservation and homeownership etc. that will ensure prosperity opportunities for Black people in and from Durham. Equity is not just terminology used to convince progressives term about wealth.
14) Because of state law, municipalities have a number of restrictions placed on them by the legislature: they can’t, for instance, be a sanctuary city, impose a citywide minimum wage, enact an antidiscrimination ordinance that includes LGBTQ residents, or enforce inclusionary zoning. Under what circumstances should elected officials push back against the legislature?
In instances of discrimination, human rights violations, economic injustices and disparative treatment such as over-incarceration of overlooked and underserved people and working wages the City should push back when possible on the state legislature.
15) If there are other issues you want to discuss, please do so here.
Durham residents are our customers and I believe our customers deserve better.
