-The Mission-
Welcome!! My name is Iman-Utopia Layjou Bah and I am running as an independent to represent District 3 on the Pima County Board of Supervisors. Apart from maintaining our roads and infrastructure, attracting jobs and investment, and responding to the requests, concerns, and needs of our people, I have three main priorities: alleviating hunger, cleaning up our neighborhoods, and ending the scourge of meth, heroine, and fentanyl that is wreaking havoc on our families and devastating our communities.
For me, when we talk about fighting hunger, not only are we talking about addressing our most basic of needs as human beings, but we must bear in mind that no one can be the best version of themselves while hungry, and that no child can perform his or her best academically while on an empty stomach; to let hunger persist is to limit our collective potential.
As it concerns cleaning up our neighborhoods, I see it as a simple and straightforward way to promote peace and prosperity. Cleanliness inspires hope, attracts investment, and boosts property values, while filth and grime diminish wealth and attract criminal activity. Of course, going hand in hand with cleaning up and beautifying our neighborhoods is freeing them of hard drugs. We cannot be sure what it will cost for us to do so, but we can be sure such costs will pale in comparison to the costs of letting the problem continue as is. Apart from the immeasurable human costs we bear in terms of death, suffering, misery, and despair, there remains the profound economic costs of having people panhandle instead of working and contributing to the community, having our cars broken into and our neighborhoods littered, and businesses having products stolen right out of their stores. We MUST hire and train enough undercover cops to bust those flooding our communities with fentanyl and other deadly drugs.
Now, needless to say, still remains the glaring and far reaching issue of homelessness. Indeed, it is a complex, multilayered issue encompassing housing affordability and mental health among other things and we cannot expect for it to be easy to solve. However, we can be certain that if there were more places for the hungry to access food, less money would we have to give to panhandlers on the street, and we can be certain that the less drugs we have on the streets, the less people who will become homeless in the first place. What is more, with a robust and creative approach to cleaning up and beautifying our communities, we can be certain that the county can find a non profit partner to hire some of our homeless brothers and sisters to help in those efforts that they may transition back into gainful employment and self-reliance. We believe in Pima County, we love Pima County, and there is no doubt we will do an excellent job in serving and uplifting the county, we just need your help. If you believe in what we are trying to do, please volunteer with us, donate to us, and cast your ballot for us this November!!