Welcome to Mayoral Mondays! Five candidates are running to be Austin’s mayor, so for the next month, we’re sharing our interviews with them all. Get informed before you vote, y’all!
Carmen Llanes Pulido is on the City Cast Austin podcast today making her pitch to be Austin’s next mayor. Here’s a snippet of our interview:
Who are you?
“I am a born and raised Austinite. I'm a community organizer. That's really been my life's work. I'm a non-profit leader. I'm a land use scholar, and I'm a former city commissioner. I spent 10 years on three different city boards and commissions, and I've done community organizing work in four different non-profits. I've also served as an election judge (and) an election worker for about a decade.”
What makes you qualified to be mayor?
“I will go toe to toe with just about any other candidate in this race for having the most municipal knowledge. I've organized and worked in coalition with people on a number of issues from local to global, but most of my work has been at the hyper local level.
So what is happening inside of Austin's city limits? What's happening in Austin's local government that impacts that and is impacted by people's lives in Austin? I have gone to AISD schools, kindergarten through 12th grade.”
What should the next mayor’s top priority be?
“The first thing, honestly this might surprise people — because I talk a lot about affordability and I could talk all day about housing and land use — but the number one thing, I actually think, is critical infrastructure.
Whether your water runs clean, what your sidewalks and local roads look like, whether there's a bulldozer next to you, whether your apartment is getting redeveloped or not, you know, all those things are decided at the local level.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For the full conversation, listen to the episode below.
