Sustainability That Starts at Home
Trần believes Far Southwest Denver can lead the city in practical, community-driven climate action that improves daily life for residents while preparing neighborhoods for long-term environmental change. As a city councilmember, her role is not to set abstract climate goals, but to ensure city policies, budgets, and projects deliver tangible benefits at the neighborhood level. In District 2, sustainability means reducing household costs, protecting health, strengthening local economies, and building resilience block by block—starting at home.
Trần will prioritize neighborhood-scale green infrastructure as a realistic and effective way to address climate impacts residents already feel. By directing city investments toward expanding the urban tree canopy, repairing and shading sidewalks, improving drainage, and installing rain gardens and permeable surfaces, she will help reduce urban heat, manage stormwater, and improve air quality in residential areas and along neighborhood corridors. These projects can be integrated into routine street and sidewalk upgrades, ensuring sustainability is embedded in everyday capital investments rather than treated as a separate initiative. By working with city agencies to prioritize underserved areas, Trần will ensure that environmental benefits reach the neighborhoods that have historically received the fewest resources.
Reducing energy costs for residents will be another key focus. Trần will advocate for expanded access to energy efficiency and renewable energy programs that help households lower utility bills while reducing emissions. This includes supporting city partnerships that bring solar, weatherization, and efficiency upgrades to single-family homes, ADUs, and small multifamily buildings, as well as ensuring renters and low-income households can benefit from these programs. As a councilmember, she will push for clearer outreach, simplified applications, and neighborhood-based enrollment so residents can actually access incentives that already exist—and shape new pilot programs where gaps remain.
Protecting and maintaining District 2’s parks, waterways, and open spaces will remain central to Trần’s sustainability agenda. She will work to ensure that Bear Creek, the South Platte River corridor, and neighborhood parks receive consistent maintenance, climate-resilient improvements, and safe, accessible amenities. This includes investing in tree cover, shade structures, water-wise landscaping, and flood mitigation, while supporting environmental education and stewardship efforts that connect residents—especially youth and seniors—to the natural spaces in their neighborhoods. As development pressures grow, Trần will advocate for land-use decisions that protect open space and preserve environmental assets as essential community infrastructure.
Trần also recognizes that lasting climate solutions require community leadership and practical support. She will use her platform to strengthen partnerships with neighborhood organizations, schools, small businesses, and community groups to advance locally driven efforts such as composting, water conservation, tree stewardship, and clean-up initiatives. By aligning city resources with community priorities, she will help residents take action without placing the burden solely on individuals. Sustainability, in her approach, is something the city enables and supports—not something residents are left to figure out on their own.
Finally, Trần will connect sustainability directly to neighborhood vitality and economic opportunity. By supporting policies that encourage walkable streets, neighborhood-serving businesses, and home-based microenterprises with low environmental impact, she will help reduce car dependence while keeping wealth local. Investments in green infrastructure, safe pedestrian routes, and community gardens will make neighborhoods healthier and more livable, while reinforcing the idea that environmental responsibility and economic stability go hand in hand. These are changes a councilmember can advance through zoning, budget priorities, and coordination across city departments.
Trần’s vision is a Far Southwest Denver where sustainability is practical, visible, and rooted in everyday life—where cleaner air, lower utility bills, shaded streets, protected parks, and resilient infrastructure are part of what residents can expect from their city. By focusing on realistic, neighborhood-centered action, sustainability will start at home and strengthen District 2 for generations to come.