Ellen Smith for Oak Ridge
Why Am I Running?
I am running because I think Oak Ridge is an extraordinary city. I want
it to stay that way -- and improve. I believe that many Oak Ridgers
share this perspective, and I think we deserve more of a voice in city
affairs. I want to serve on City Council in order to be that voice.We have tremendous assets -- our natural setting, our historic heritage, our scientific and technical resources, and talented people who are thoroughly engaged in community affairs. Oak Ridge can thrive if we maintain those assets and build upon them.
I would like City government to increase its focus on serving the real needs and interests of the people who live and do business here, and on preserving and enhancing our many positive assets.
We should expand our efforts to revitalize the city’s established neighborhoods -- including but not limited to Highland View -- by helping property owners make improvements, maintaining and upgrading public facilities, addressing crime, and by promoting and celebrating the positive qualities of these neighborhoods. Recent city efforts are laudable, but I believe that the need is growing faster than the City’s efforts to address it. Heritage tourism is an exciting area that should be encouraged, not only by promoting the city to outsiders but also by being proactive about maintaining the historic heart of our city.
Our natural setting and extensive public lands are another positive asset that should be appreciated and promoted as a major contributor to quality of life and another tourist attraction for the future.
In recent years our civic leadership has often seemed preoccupied with pursuing economic development initiatives and has made some bad investment decisions that we are now stuck paying for. Too often, these initiatives have destroyed features of our city that people valued (such as Pine Ridge and the last Manhattan Project dormitories). Also, by greatly expanding the municipal service area, they continue to increase the city’s cost of providing services. I would like to redirect the city’s attention away from expansion and toward enhancing the city we have now. Indeed, I believe that a strategy of enhancing the community will encourage economic growth by helping to make our city a place where people want to be -- and a place where people want to invest for the future.
Some past actions that I think of as bad investments are:
- embracing Crown American as a mall developer back in the 1980s -- we ended up with a white elephant of mall that failed because it was too big and too expensive for the market
- the Parcel A development scheme
- giving away the old senior center facility
- allowing the destructive “topping” of Pine Ridge for a poorly conceived development plan
- subsidies to extend infrastructure and city services to a residential development (Rarity Ridge) that is miles from the rest of the city (and that was boosted from the start by the federal government's sale of publicly owned lakefront land at the bargain price of $54 per acre)
I believe in the institution of government. We need local government to do the things that we cannot do for ourselves -- provide police and fire protection, maintain the streets, educate our children, help provide a "social safety net," etc. Economic development is important, but local government's first priority must be to the people in the community. Government should establish and maintain needed infrastructure and services that support public safety and quality of life for residents and businesses. Oak Ridge will have to continue to pay for some expensive mistakes of the past, but we must not let the high costs of past mistakes prevent us from supporting those services and new initiatives that are needed by the people who live or do business here. We need adequate police patrols, we need to plow our streets when it snows, we need to keep the American Museum of Science and Energy as an attraction for visitors and a source of pride for residents, and we need to see the mall transformed into a thriving retail center that will meet residents' shopping needs and contribute tax revenues.
I do not believe that the solution to nearly every local problem is to acquire more DOE land for private developers. Experience shows that these transactions cost the community more than it gains -- both in the short-term costs of subsidizing expensive projects and in the long-term costs of losing valuable public resources.
I believe I have the background and experience to be an effective Council member and that I would bring Council an independent perspective that has not been well-represented. If elected, I will do my best to be fair and honest (I represent no business interests), to listen to all views, and to try to uphold the community’s interests as I see them.
Please look around the rest of this website. Read about my background and views on the issues, visit my blog to read my observations on current issues and events (and add your comments), and offer your financial and volunteer support.
