Lisa Forssell is running for the Palo Alto City Council.
Forssell has served on the PTA executive boards at Walter Hays, Duveneck, and Greene Elementary Schools and has been on Palo Alto’s Utilities Advisory Commission for six years. She is currently a human interface design producer at Apple and has worked in technical and supervisory roles in the software industry for 20 years.
“I love the power that local government has to affect change on issues that matter to me,” Forssell said. “I now want to go from being an advisory commission to an actual vote on the council.”
Housing
Forssell wants to streamline the house-building process by reimagining the city’s current multi-family and affordable housing policies.
“We need housing options of all kinds for all generations,” Forssell said. “I want to revisit our existing policies, especially around multi-family housing. I’m all about finding a path to ‘yes’ to get really great sustainable development with different sizes of housing.”
She said she also wants to create green space, parks and pedestrian and bicycle paths alongside housing so that the city keeps the characteristics that make it “a wonderful place to live.”
City services
The council decided to discontinue Palo Alto’s Crosstown Shuttle in May 2020, a service that provided free transportation for residents along designated routes. Forssell said she wants to reopen the program and supports the current council’s decision to pilot an on-demand transit service.
“We’re lucky to live in an age of really great innovation in transportation,” Forssell said. “I want [Palo Alto] to have better ties with reasonable transit.”
Environment
Forssell supports the city’s move to make the city’s electric utilities carbon-neutral and said she will continue to push for environmental sustainability by electrifying buildings in Palo Alto.
“Palo Alto has such an opportunity to be a leader,” Forsell said. “It really matters what Palo Alto does to reduce our carbon footprint because there are all these ripple effects [in other cities] as we set a template for what other communities can do.”
Community inclusivity
In a time where many people shop online, Forssell said that increasing housing will help local businesses get more customers.
To learn more about Forssell, visit her website here.
