After severing for several years as an advocate for the Northwest area of Auburn, Lindburgh B. Jackson has decided to bring his cause to the mayor’s office.
He’s decided to run for mayor of Auburn.
Jackson worked for the city of Auburn for most of his life. He now identifies as semi-retired, as he works to better the city he was born in.
Northwest Auburn
The majority of the reason why Jackson decided to run, he said, was because of the injustices he has seen in town toward the Northwest Auburn area.
“I’m very concerned with the fact that we have a lack of inclusion, a lack of diversity, a lack of transparency and certainly a like of people unequally distributing the facilities throughout the city, imparticular in Northwest Auburn,” Jackson said.
The Northwest Auburn area has received much focus from the City, including the City Council, after many years of inaction in this part of the city.
When the plans were being created for the area over the last few years, Jackson said, the residents of the Northwest Auburn area were minimally consulted.
He said he does not believe the new plans reflect the views, wants and needs of the citizens of Northwest Auburn.
“Because of the lack of involvement of the planning commission and the planning department, [they] have taken it upon themselves to do a land use plan,” Jackson said. “The people totally disagree with it because they don’t understand it. The involvement of the citizens of Northwest Auburn has not been accurate in terms of the way they portray it.”
Improvement Plans
To combat this, Jackson wants to involve all of the citizens as much as he can. He plans to host more town hall meetings so he can hear from all citizens.
He wants to sit down and listen to what people think and what they want so he can be better equipped to make decisions for all of Auburn, Jackson said.
“Mainly bringing the people of Auburn together to work toward a common goal,” Jackson said.
When Jackson refers to all citizens, he also includes students.
To Jackson, the students are important because of what they bring to the community, therefore they should be included when it comes to creating plans.
Jackson considers the students to be a “life-blood” for the community and wants to involve them as much as he can.
Another step in Jackson’s improvement plans is to create another library in Auburn and he has the perfect spot, Northwest Auburn.
“I’m concerned with having libraries and a satellite library in the Northwest Auburn region and making it more accessible,” Jackson said.
Transportation is another concern of Jackson’s. He wants to look at a mass transit system and use that to get citizens all around Auburn, especially into and out of Northwest Auburn.
He also wants to create several, small retail areas in Auburn. These can serve as competition to Tigertown in hopes of bringing more sales tax revenue to Auburn.
Experience
These plans come from years of knowledge about small town government, Jackson said.
After working for the city and several businesses, Jackson feels prepared to take on the task of mayor.
“My knowledge about how small-town government works from the inner parts, over the last 40 years is what I believe strongly in,” Jackson said. “The job of the mayor is not the same as the city manager. I will be leaning heavily upon him to lead and direct the staff. But I would also be leaning on the citizens too.”
He won’t be going it alone. Jackson gives the credit for his ideas and willingness to lead to God.
“Primarily my Lord and my Savior Jesus Christ leading me and guiding me to those people that are experts,” Jackson said when asked what experience he has that will help him if elected. “Like any other leader, you surround yourself with people that are experts in their particular fields.”
For Jackson, being mayor is about serving all of the citizens of Auburn as best and as equally as he can.
“I just want to see people treated fairly for their tax paying dollars,” Jackson said. “I want to see people given equal representation for their tax dollars.”
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
