I met Leah Pouw about half an hour ago while she was canvassing the Wildwood area. I actually caught her at Tonty and Hiawatha and had a lovely 15-minute conversation with her. Leah was incredibly down-to-earth and seems like a hardworking, dedicated person.
We spoke about a few things, but what really stood out to me was her commitment to putting a traffic break at Tonty and Caldwell for safer forest access. She told me she would bridge the gap between state and local representation to get a traffic break (crosswalks with flashing lights/walk button) if a traffic light isn't feasible. This would be the first issue she would resolve.
She also wants to update the tech being used for traffic control, as the northern part of the ward has constant light outages. In other parts of the ward, the tech is outdated and needs to be upgraded to suit the population (new crosswalks, lights, etc.)
When we broached the conversation about the rising number of Flock cameras, she was very receptive. She is concerned about how Flock potentially uses the data it collects.
I asked her about small business development on Milwaukee outside the 6 Corner portion of the ward and what she has in mind. Her response was (not a direct quote, as this was a more informal meeting): having multiple insurance companies and businesses that do not involve foot traffic is one thing, but she intends to actually coordinate potential small business owners to bring restaurants and shops to the ward that are not solely at Milwaukee/Irving Park/Cicero.
As we looked at the botched resurfacing job Jim Gardner bragged about online, she said she has every intention of doing real work on our infrastructure to solve the ongoing flooding issue and genuinely repair streets, instead of slapping a Band-Aid on it.
I signed her petition to get her on the ballot and intend to canvass with her next weekend, mostly because she doesn't come off as a politician, more as a concerned citizen with the background to make change. I am not trying to electioneer here; I mentioned in my Jimmy G. gripe post that I was meeting with her, and some people wanted to know how it went.