Letter to City Council
Dear Mayor Ross and Arlington City Council Members,
Thank you for the opportunity to continue the important work of the Arlington Unity Council. Since its inception in 2020 and its resulting Report of Recommendations in 2021, the Unity Council has remained both diligent and intentional in efforts to mitigate disparities amongst racial and ethnic groups throughout Arlington. Additionally, the Unity Council has served as both an operational model and conduit for bringing the diverse voices of the city together for the common purpose of engendering greater inclusivity, understanding and unity amongst all Arlington residents and stakeholders.
Our collective efforts have been denoted by substantial progress in many areas. For example, the recommendation for the City to create and hire a Chief Equity Officer has been fulfilled.
As a result of this hiring, the City has brought a much keener focus to the equitable implementation of the 57 recommendations set forth in our original report. Of those recommendations, all 57 have either been fully addressed or initiated to varying degrees.
With respect to other highlights of progress, we can point to several specific achievements of the Unity Council and the City’ s dedicated staff. In the area of public safety, the recommendations set forth by the Unity Council have been largely implemented by the Arlington Police Department. With respect to housing patterns throughout the city, the data demonstrates that the city’ s neighborhoods continue to become more diverse, particularly when correlated with the increasing levels of academic achievement amongst minorities in those same areas. Considerations of equity and diminishing barriers to resources and opportunity are being made across all aspects of city government and our residents are benefiting. Most significantly, many of the city’ s traditionally disenfranchised populations are being engaged and given voice through the establishment of community-focused coalitions like the Arlington Latino Resource Coalition.
Unity Council Report 2023 4