Jackie Biskupski, on November 17, 2015, became Salt Lake City’s new mayor elect. She is Utah’s first lesbian mayor and has very different plans from her opponent and the city’s current Mayor, Ralph Becker.
She’s an ally and supports women’s issues and the LGBT community.
Not just because she is a member of both of the communities, but because of what she has done in the past and plans on doing in her term(s) as mayor in the future. She has helped raise money for YWCA, Alliance House, Crossroads and other local organizations that also aid both communities; as well as publically standing with Planned Parenthood. She also plans to talk with LDS leaders about altering their policies on LGBT people/children and praises them for their strides so far. In addition to that, she also plans on trying to make our city as inclusive as possible.
She plans to put more money in to education….
Specifically, Pre-K education. On her campaign website she mentions how Utah is one of only two states who does not fund Pre-K education and stresses the importance and how it is the foundation for all education in the future. She also wants to re-fund after-school education, emphasizing the arts.
She wants to initiate a Transit Master Plan.
She believes Salt Lake City is moving toward a diverse transit system and would like to have them all coordinate to make it easier for residents. This includes UTA, school districts, and the University of Utah. She also wants to make our city more bike friendly in order to incentivize people to bike to work/school.
She believes in improving our air quality and bettering the environment.
She recognizes that this is a very nuanced issue, however, one of her main plans to combat it is by using business and economic solutions. These include giving incentives for buliding greener buildings, like tax breaks, and trying to brand businesses in positive lights for being green friendly. She also believes that by improving public transportation, air quality will inevitably improve.
Overall, she focuses more on social issues than economic or political.
Jackie’s campaign website was full of social issues. This included homelessness, women’s issues, LGBT, protecting neighborhoods on the West Side, and even more obscure issues like golf and dogs, but what she lacked was extensive information on how she would handle economic or political issues. This is not to say that social issues are not extremely important or that she does not have a plan, but so far, it maps out what her political term will look like in the future so far.