Running for Alderman

I, Joe Cohen, became a citizen of this country on the 9th of May 2009, and I have registered to run for the office of Alderman in the great city of Frederick, MD on the first of June 2009.

Fredericks Great, Together we can make it even better!

I, Joe Cohen, am running for the office of alderman in our city of Frederick. I have resided in Frederick for a decade and have a successful business downtown that has been open for 11 years. My successful business is a product of my loyal customers; many have become good friends, as much as it is from hard work from my staff and me. During my years of living in Frederick, I have come to appreciate and value the warm and welcoming regard that the people of Frederick have shown to me and one another it. I have always publicly spoken my opinion on politics and concerns that affect all of us living and working in Frederick. Sometimes my support on topics has been successful in making changes and sometimes not, but I have always openly expressed my views with zeal and have been willing to take a stand on the issues I believe would best serve us citizens of Frederick. On May 9th of this year I proudly became a citizen of these United States of America, giving me the opportunity to hold office and vote. On that day, David Grey County Commissioner in his speech evoked the founding fathers of this magnificent country and said we should all follow in his footsteps and contribute to this country by attaining an office to do so, And I think, if you vote for me to become your alderman, your voice in the city, I will make you proud as alderman, by using my skills and knowledge. I am looking forward to this opportunity to do more for Frederick. Here I am David, thanks.

Some of the things on my mind:

Safety and security:
From the Supreme Court down this countries government has been charged with keeping its citizens safe and secure even here in GROWING Frederick. The Police and the Sheriffs dept do a fine job but I feel the police need a new HQ fitting to the needs of the citizens. I would like to see more visible law enforcement presence, on our streets, especially in the high crime areas. Let’s see to it that law enforcement officers who are putting their lives on the line and keeping us safe are adequately compensated.

City Workers and Infrastructure:
We should bear in mind the city workers who do a fine job in keeping the sewage, water and other infrastructure running. We should see to it that more trees are put up but also repair and replace some parts of the infrastructure to help maintain the quality of Frederick.

Parking:
We are all proud to call Frederick one of the best American main streets in the USA. We have won a prize for that. It’s a different story however, when people come to visit Frederick and park Downtown. The two hour limit on parking meters at the exorbitant rate of a quarter for 15 minutes stops many visitors from taking full advantage of all the attractions that downtown Frederick has to offer. With the limited time they must choose between either eating or shopping. A parking ticket deters the visitor from coming again or recommending Frederick to others. It should be noted that during the month of December when parking is free on Saturday’s the shops do more business and pay more taxes which we all benefit from.

ECONOMIC Development:

Why do a lot of Frederick shoppers either shop on line or go down to Montgomery County to shop? We are losing a lot of money to other counties. If we could use our vision and ingenuity together with the Downtown building owners; developers and Frederick City we could expand our tax base by attracting viable businesses to all of Market Street from the south end up to the fountain at seventh and Market Street. Then we could take on route 40 which as everyone knows has been neglected. I would like to see the shopping center’s revamped and become a safe people friendly attraction for shoppers. Also we need to look into the immigration problems in this area. I would love to help all those people who like me went thru the INS to become a citizen, and help those also who have green cards like I had. We should be able to offer them education, good jobs and fair housing so that they will become vested in our community and increase the future tax base. Also to increase the tax base and make Frederick more attractive to businesses we should make The Airport a hub for affordable commercial traffic, IT cannot be hard to do. Even from Hagerstown You can fly to Florida from $69. And would encourage all sorts of businesses to settle here.

Trash:
I am very pleased that we now have big blue recycling garbage cans. Let us not stop there. Let us stream line the garbage by educating people on what can be recycled. Let’s give our residents a place where they can recycle all there garden, kitchen and lawn waste, perhaps a communal compost area to offer to the residents for use in their gardens. With this residential trash need only be picked up once a week which would save money.