Priorities

Denver should be a city where working people can build a good life, not just struggle to keep up. Melissa believes in fighting to make everyday life more affordable from child care, groceries, utilities, and transportation to the cost of starting a family, raising kids, and growing old here. That means standing up to powerful interests that profit while Denver families fall further behind, investing in public services that save people money, supporting good union careers and higher wages, and making sure working people get a fair return for the taxes they pay. Melissa will stand with unions, protect workers’ right to organize, raise standards for jobs created with public dollars, and fight for family-sustaining wages, strong benefits, and pathways into good union careers. Melissa is fighting for a Denver where a good life isn’t reserved for the wealthy but one where the people who make this city run can afford to stay, thrive, and imagine a future here.

Denver doesn't just need more units. It needs housing that's safe, stable, and built for how people actually live, including multigenerational and non-traditional families, with real pathways to ownership and real support for people transitioning out of housing instability. Melissa has spent her career on exactly this: leading the 2024 overhaul of Colorado's warranty of habitability, one of the strongest for-cause eviction protections in the country, a ban on unfair occupancy limits, and the first statutory definition of anti-displacement in state law. On Denver's Planning Board, she reviewed the rezonings and land use decisions that will determine what gets built next - and for whom. Taking on the housing crisis will require using the full scope of tools at our disposal- from strong tenant protections to creating pathways for homeownership.

Denver is no place for hyperscale data centers. We don’t have the water, we don’t have the energy, we don’t have the utility infrastructure, we don’t have the budget to give tech billionaires tax breaks, and we shouldn’t sacrifice our clean air, our communities, our civil liberties, or our climate.

Hyperscale data centers come with false promises of jobs and wealth, along with the claim that their growth is somehow ‘inevitable.’ But Denver does not have to accept harmful development simply because corporations tell us we have no choice. Our responsibility is to the future of our city and to the people who call Denver home. And Denverites have spoken loud and clear: our water, our energy, our neighborhoods, and our climate are not for sale.

We also reject the idea that Denver has to choose between protecting our environment and creating good jobs. We can and should create good-paying union jobs by investing in clean energy, resilient infrastructure, energy-efficient homes and buildings, public transit, and the work necessary to prepare our neighborhoods for a rapidly changing climate.

In order to secure a livable future for Denver, and justice for environmental justice communities, Denver must tackle the climate crisis at the comprehensive scale it requires. We need policies that create a future where Denverites can live safe, affordable lives in a city with stable water resources, resiliency against the harmful effects of deadly and worsening heat waves, a reliable energy grid that doesn’t pass off costs to ratepayers, a green union jobs transition plan, and a reprioritization of community over pollutive industry. The city’s current climate mitigation efforts are not aligned to accomplish Denver’s climate goals that would require transformative policy (as is highlighted in the 2025 auditors report of CASR). Denver needs climate justice and green jobs transition policies that train and put Denverites to work making our city resilient, bringing down costs, and improving our health.

Third spaces, local businesses, and the informal social infrastructure that used to hold neighborhoods together has been eroded by rapid development and displacement. Melissa's approach centers rebuilding that infrastructure directly: supporting local businesses and community organizations, not just adding street-level retail as an afterthought to new development. Melissa believes that we need to invest in the people that make Denver great and support the diversity of business that make up its unique character by creating and expanding programs for technical support, startup funds, culturally relevant businesses, and commercial rental protections. Denver’s policies can and should ensure that organizations serving the community on the ground have the resources they need to maintain longevity, access to low cost operating space, and the ability to get the word out about their work. Denver has the tools to ensure that businesses are prospering instead of corporate chains, the city just needs bold leaders like Melissa who are unafraid to use them. A Denver Where Every Resident Can Thrive

Denver's leadership on immigrant protections is something to be proud of, and something to strengthen, not walk back, especially as Donald Trump and ICE agents continue to attack our communities. Dignity and civil rights for everyone who calls Denver home isn't a negotiable position. Melissa is committed to defending and expanding the protections that let every Denverite, regardless of where they were born, build a life here.This means ensuring City officials are not coordinating with ICE, investing in programs like the Immigrant Defense Fund, and supporting on the ground community groups providing guidance and navigation services to new arrivals.

Every Denverite deserves to feel safe in their neighborhood, on their way to work, at school, at the park, and on our streets and transit. Melissa believes real public safety means responding effectively when harm happens and doing far more to prevent it in the first place. That means investing in young people, mental health and crisis response, violence prevention, safe public spaces, and strong neighborhood organizations that know their communities best. It also means making sure first responders have the resources and training to do their jobs well, while demanding transparency, accountability, and trust from the institutions responsible for keeping us safe. Melissa will work toward a Denver where we address the root causes of violence without ignoring its consequences, where victims and survivors are supported, and where every neighborhood has the resources it needs to be safe, connected, and thriving.

Running at large means answering to every neighborhood and every Denverite. Melissa believes citywide representation comes with a responsibility to listen beyond the loudest voices at City Hall, show up in communities across Denver, and understand how decisions affect people differently from one neighborhood to the next. She will bring residents, workers, labor unions, small businesses, and community organizations into the decisions that shape their lives and fight to make sure city resources and opportunities reach every corner of Denver. For Melissa, being an at-large councilmember means seeing the whole city, connecting its communities, and never forgetting who City Council is supposed to serve.