Our Platform

Cincinnati is a renter-majority city, yet we continue to struggle substantially with affordable housing for residents in our city. Our city has a nearly 55,000 unit deficit in affordable housing, and the overwhelming majority of low income tenants do not have access to affordable housing. In addition, tenants are incredibly vulnerable to poor maintenance on behalf of landlords, as well as unjust evictions. Cincinnati must continue to prioritize affordable housing development to solve this crisis, and we must establish a Tenants’ Bill of Rights to protect tenants in our city.

A metropolitan area the size of Cincinnati needs fast and free transit that ensures no one needs a personal vehicle to reliably and safely make their way across town. To accomplish this, Cincinnati needs to raise the revenue needed to cover the cost of transit fares, while also working to expand our bus fleet and routes in the city. We also need to expand bike lanes across the city so anyone can safely and reliably commute using a bicycle. Not only will it help working class people save time and money, but it will significantly lower our carbon footprint, helping to deliver a Green New Deal for the city.

Cincinnati has to be a city that prioritizes the rights of working class people in their workplaces, and ensures that unions can stay strong in our city. The city of Cincinnati should prioritize union labor and partners for any major development or labor projects in our region, and expect businesses that take contracts with the city to respect the labor and bargaining rights of their workers. The city of Cincinnati should also partner with local unions to do education sessions with high school students at Cincinnati Public Schools on their labor rights and how to unionize, before they enter the workforce.

Cincinnati has to be a sanctuary city for queer people, especially queer and trans youth who are incredibly vulnerable under the current presidential administration. The city must stand firmly by public institutions that support queer and trans youth and ensure their families’ right to make medical choices with their doctors are not infringed upon by right wing political agendas. We must also ensure people have free access to birth control and menstrual products, as well as ensuring no one in Cincinnati’s right to an abortion is infringed upon. Finally, we should invest city resources in public reproductive and gender-affirming care.

So long as Palestinian people are subjected to occupation, apartheid, and genocide, we have an obligation at all levels of US government to do what we can to pressure for the freedom and human rights of Palestinians. Cincinnati should join the ongoing efforts across the United States to divest from Israel in support of the human rights and self-determination of Palestinian people.

Childcare is one of the hugest costs for new parents in our society today, and in Cincinnati parents are particularly struggling. Previous efforts to relieve the costs of childcare in Cincinnati have been substantial, but are still not enough. We must ensure childcare is free for all parents in the city of Cincinnati from cradle to college. Additionally, the city should deliver baby baskets to new families to provide essentials of baby care to every family in the city.

Cincinnati residents still face substantial risks to our health. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic our city’s hospitals are still underfunded. We need to invest in community clinics, especially in underserved areas, fully fund our hospital system, and make sure that all residents of Cincy have access to affordable healthcare, especially given the fact that Trump’s brutal cuts to Medicaid will begin in 2027.

Our school system is increasingly underfunded and we simply lack sufficient community public spaces for everyone, particularly young people, in our city. We need to raise revenues for schools, while also ending tax abatements that take away money from schools so we can ensure that CPS has the funds they need to prepare our students for the future. We also need to ensure that we have well funded community and after school programs for youth across our city, and expand the public school bus fleet to ensure that all CPS students at all grade levels have access to school buses to take them to and from school.

For too long we’ve relied on increasing police budgets to address public safety instead of addressing the root causes of crime. We need to invest in city owned grocery stores to lower costs for working families, and set up a Department of Community Safety that will invest in community-centered mediation and solutions to conflict.

To this day, Cincinnati is still considered one of the most segregated cities in the Midwest, with sharp divides between Black and white neighborhoods as well as wealthy and poor ones. Meanwhile, our immigrant friends, family and neighbors currently live under fear of attack from the Trump administration. We have to pursue construction and development policies that help us to desegregate our city. We must make sure everyone in our city, no matter their neighborhood, has access to strong public schools, public transit, and social support. Additionally, the city must take every step it can to ensure that no immigrant residents in our city have to live in fear of being picked up by ICE.

Homelessness has continued to rise in our city, and the public response to this has not been enough. Unhoused people are not a nuisance to be managed and moved around to avoid harm to property values-they are people who need social support and services. Cincinnati must aggressively pursue expanded shelters, increased numbers of public restrooms and facilities, and resources to ensure anyone without a home is safe, while continuing to pursue policies to ensure people can in the long term find permanent housing.

Cincinnati loses substantial amounts of its tax revenue to tax abatement programs throughout the city. While intended to encourage development, this loss in revenue has harmed public programs and funding. Cincinnati must cut back on unfair tax abatements for developers and corporations and ensure that anyone who wants to build in our city is investing in our public and our students.