Wright hopes to represent District 3 with a focus on housing and community engagement
By MADELEINE YOUNG — city@theaggie.org
On Jan. 25, Francesca Wright formally declared her candidacy for Davis City Council. Wright is campaigning to fill the District 3 seat recently vacated by Lucas Frerichs, who left the council after his successful election into the Yolo County Board of Supervisors.
The special election will take place on May 2 with mail-in voting. Davis residents who reside in District 3 will be mailed their ballots in April.
Wright, who is the cofounder and coordinator of Yolo People Power and a founding member of Women in Leadership Davis, will focus her campaign on housing, climate change, city services and community engagement.
“One of my core focuses is basic city services,” Wright said. “Our roads are just really needing repair and people expect good quality services from this city and we’ve been having staffing issues. I want to make sure we can get back to the right size staff and planning and building department”
Wright has also been adamant about prioritizing dealing with the housing shortage in Davis which significantly affects students and staff at UC Davis.
“I think the biggest crisis that Davis faces is the housing shortage, and we’ve had a large expansion of students on campus and the university has made some progress in additional housing, but it’s still inadequate for the demand,” Wright said. “We have more land than any of the UCs in the state and I hope to be able to work with the university to get more housing in line for production”.
Cynthia Rodriguez, a defense attorney of 40 years and former candidate for Yolo County District Attorney, has endorsed Wright’s candidacy for the District 3 seat.
“I am so proud to endorse Francesca Wright for City Council,” Rodriguez said. “Her vast knowledge of local, state and federal government and politics and her capacity for seeing reasonable success and workable resolutions to the issues facing communities today is remarkable and a gift to our local needs and functioning. Francesca Wright should be recognized as a strong, hard-working and singularly perceptive thinker who would well represent us all.”
Wright discussed how she plans to work with fellow council members to continue improving the lives of workers and local farmers if elected.
“I look forward to working with my fellow council members to examine how we can support startup small farmers in the periphery,” Wright said. “Where we have land that we’ve acquired […] so that we can actually benefit, not only preserve our beautiful farmland but make it available to our young people who are studying sustainable agriculture at UC Davis.”
After announcing her campaign, Wright has been canvassing throughout Davis to garner support. Wright talked about the people she’s met on the campaign trail so far and what she’s taken away from going door to door.
“I’m finding that we have neighbors who care about neighbors,” Wright said. “We have people who really want to do the right thing and I’m just impressed with how every neighborhood I go to, there’s people who ask really good questions.”
Written by: Madeleine Young — city@theaggie.org
