My Conversation With City Council Candidate Coby Owens

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on December 11, 2019

Coby Owens is running for Wilmington City Council in the 1st District.  Many of you know him from his work on Kerri Harris’ campaign and from his community activities. He is a community organizer, a civil rights activist, and a member of the Democratic State Committee. He has committed to accepting no corporate donations to his campaign.

Coby has lived virtually his entire life on 36th Street in Wilmington. Raised by a single mother, he graduated from Sallies and, until recently, he was the CEO for the Youth Caucus of America. He resigned the position to campaign full-time for office.  He is running on a platform of ‘Real Change Can’t Wait’.  During our recent conversation, he cited the families who have been hit hard by crime, and the challenges that people face in being able to stay in their homes.

What perhaps impressed me most during our interview was his ability to be a mediator and conciliator.  He really has that demeanor and those inclinations, something I’ve never had. He has strong progressive ideals, and I think he has the skills to work with council members of disparate factions to implement some of them. He strikes me as someone able to help find common ground without sacrificing his principles.

He talked about using the budgetary process to ensure that priorities are enacted. He cited the recent resolution from Council lamenting the lack of diversity in police recruitment, and pointed out that specifying in the budget language the steps that the City must follow to ensure diversity would be much more effective than an ‘after-the-fact’ resolution. He pledged to take that approach to make sure that there was no ‘rubber-stamp’ of the mayor’s priorities.

He said that the budget process should have been used to ensure that federal funds earmarked for housing for the poor did not instead go to Buccini/Pollin for center city high rises.  In Dover, we call it Epilog Language. The City Council Budget Committee has that same opportunity.

He pushed for changes in how Council operates to ensure that the public has a greater opportunity to participate, including child care services for those attending council and/or committee hearings, ensuring that hearings are scheduled when the public can attend, even turning the Council Meeting Room into a toy room for children who accompany their parents.

He also stated that Council needs to address people’s needs as opposed to self-dealing for their own benefit. “This can’t be a ‘zeroes and ones’ type of legislative body.”

He’s been deeply involved in the gun violence issue, and says that one reason why that N. Market Street corridor is the site of so many shootings is largely the result of a ‘three-way gang battle’ that has been exacerbated by decreased police presence under the current mayor.  He also says that unsuspecting delivery drivers are being lured to vacant properties, and then robbed. He says that, while the city has a list of these properties, they have not shared them with local merchants, etc., and that is something he is working to change.

He discussed how to help seniors to stay in their homes. He pointed out that a Walgreen’s in the district recently closed, that the district is basically a food desert, which leaves seniors, especially those without cars, scrambling to address their basic daily needs. He pledged to work to address those needs.

We spent the last few minutes talking about insurgent progressivism in Delaware.  He said that Trump has been the catalyst for a lot of the new activism we’ve seen from young people in the city and throughout the state.

At 24 years of age, Coby is wise beyond his years.  I think he would help to turn City Council into what it should be–an advocate for the people of Wilmington.

Here’s his website, complete with a ‘Donate’ button.

Check him out.

About the Author ()

Comments (16)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. RE Vanella says:

    Coby is a real one. Fully endorse. Many look at city council as a laughingstock. They are not necessarily wrong about that either. If you want to change it, Coby is a huge first step to do that. Absolute community workhorse with 100% grassroots support.

  2. Nancy Willing says:

    I like Coby a LOT but the 1st District now has a phenomenal rep. in Linda Gray. I would not want to make that choice, myself. She has been a champion of the public interest. Can’t he run for an at large seat?

    • It’s not very clear whether Linda will run again. She was appointed by Council to fill out Nnamdi’s term.

      • Nancy Willing says:

        We need Linda in office somewhere because she is that good. Maybe they can figure it out.

        • She is real good. We just don’t know if running for office is something she wants to do.

          • Nancy Willing says:

            She has the trust of the residents and is an amazing presence on council. You use the word “we” so I will ask you all to try to keep her in the works in some way. She is a true leader who does her homework and has gotten up to speed on how things go in this government and how to counter the worst of impulses and intentions from the PTB.

  3. RE Vanella says:

    Linda Gray stan. Ok.

  4. One more thing. At no point in my piece do I raise questions about other candidates.

    The purpose of this interview and, I hope, more throughout the election year, is to give progressive candidates the opportunity to introduce themselves to our readers.

    As it happens, Coby Owens is running and, as of now, no one else is. Should Linda Gray or another viable progressive run in this district, I could also interview them as well, should they wish.

    But we shouldn’t in any way be telling Coby or any other progressive to ‘wait their turn’ or to wait until someone else has decided what they’re going to do. I hope that that stuff’s over for good. It’s been going on for far too long. Progressives should make their own timelines, not depend on others to determine what those timelines should be.

  5. RE Vanella says:

    I ain’t mad at Linda, but this is weird as fuck. We have a person who was appointed early this year after a total farcical process trying to fill a vacancy. Council has accomplished nearly zero. (The recent fines/fees was a nice little victory.)

    But the gushing praise for this hero over multiple comments? Strange stuff.

    • I THINK she was a Legislative Fellow in Dover when I worked there.

      Other than that, I don’t know her. Although she’s clearly better than anybody from the Potter clan. I do worry about a challenge from that group of miscreants.

  6. Nancy Willing says:

    It is not strange to appreciate Gray if you’ve watched meetings of council and actions taken to corral Hanifa’s agenda aligned with BPG and the mayor.

    I was dismayed to hear Coby was running for the seat she holds because I have witnessed her in action against the flunkies.

    No one is encouraging a ‘wait your turn’ thingie here. Don’t try to read a bunch of crap into my words that isn’t there, ‘kay?

    if I was taking such a position I would actually have had to know the lady and have some idea of her possible wish to continue.

  7. RE Vanella says:

    I wasn’t reading anything into it. I was saying that yes Linda has been fine. But given the context the glowing praise is at least premature if not over-the-top. She hasn’t won an election. She was not even the first person they tried to install. She’s been seated like 9 months. She’s part of a coalition/caucus that is a check on Purzycki and BPG. Ok, good.

    You’re talking about her as an indispensable hero and you were “dismayed” that Coby is running. That’s strange.

    Also, show me specifically where I implied a wait your turn “thingie”. I don’t believe I did.

    Do you think I don’t follow city politics closely?

  8. El Somnambulo says:

    I wrote about the ‘wait your turn’ thingie. Had nothing to do with Linda, has everything to do with the way things have worked forever in ‘The Delaware Way’.

    I agree with you that Linda Gray is hardly indispensable. She’s been an appointed councilperson for something like a year. She’s done a solid job. If she wants to run again, she has every right to do so. As does Coby, who should not step aside if she decides to run for the first time for the seat. Let the voters decide who they want to represent them.

    Not sure where Nancy is coming from with the Second Coming stuff. But if Linda is as good as she says she is, then we’ve got a ‘win-win’ situation.

    That’s your problem, REV. You’re too…conciliatory.