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.