MLive/Ann Arbor News

April 15, 2020, 9:22 pm

At: https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/04/ward-4-ann-arbor-council-candidates-discuss-coronavirus-outbreak-sustainability-in-forum.html

[Reporting on Dr. Mozhgan Savabieasfahani’s remarks is excerpted below:]

ANN ARBOR, MI — The coronavirus outbreak and the resulting economic crises were at the top of Ann Arbor voters’ minds during a live-streamed candidate forum for the 4th Ward on Tuesday.

Three Democrats are running for Ann Arbor City Council’s Ward 4 seat in the Aug. 4 primary: incumbent Jack Eaton, former journalist Jen Eyer and environmentalist Mozhgan Savabieasfahani. The winner will represent southwest Ann Arbor…

…The coronavirus crisis has highlighted racial and housing disparities in the community, Savabieasfahani said. Affordable housing is not enough to address the affordability issues that plagued Ann Arbor even before the virus outbreak.

“This didn’t happen by accident,” she said. “This is a culmination of decades of laws and public policies that have pushed the most vulnerable to the edges of the safety nets. We have peeled off multiple layers of protection: jobs, better health, better housing. They are deprived of that through the public policies and racist laws that we have.”

She said she supports public housing and encouraging a $15 per hour minimum wage to lift vulnerable populations and help more people to live in the city…

…Savabieasfahani said while the carbon-neutral measures are necessary, they won’t address all the word’s environmental crises because greenhouse gases and other pollutants are deposited into the environment by large organizations such as the U.S. Department of Defense. 

“I want us to pay attention to the fact that that will actually be a Band-Aid on a gushing wound,” Savabieasfahani said.

Mozhgan indicates that she’s running for City Council on her own dime and therefore has to answer only to her own conscience. 

Dr.  Savabieasfahani’s campaign video: https://youtu.be/4kYdnvS6aQI