Draheim Running for EL City Council

In our continuing series introducing the candidates for City Council, our next candidate is Shanna Draheim. Draheim first lived here as an MSU student, and is now a homeowner living with her husband and three children.

An environmental and community planning consultant with more than twenty years of experience, Draheim works on public policies issues for federal and state agencies and private sector consulting firms. She also volunteers in the East Lansing public schools and in the community, and has served or is serving on the East Lansing Commission on the Environment, the Michigan Economic Developers Association, the Michigan Environmental Council, and as a Fellow on the Michigan State University Climate Change Leadership Program.

When asked what she sees as the greatest challenges to the City of East Lansing, Draheim replied "continuing our community's quality of life, promoting healthy, sustainable and environmentally sound development, continuing to provide quality police, fire, emergency, parks, recreation and library services." She believes that the City must work to keep our neighborhoods healthy, and that doing so means providing safe sidewalks, streets, water/sewer infrastructure, and maintaining and enhancing neighborhood parks and trails. She adds that for our neighborhoods to remain viable and in-demand, we also need to maintain “great schools and a thriving downtown.”

Draheim believes that it is time to make downtown East Lansing "a proud focal point of community life and an economic engine that helps East Lansing address its fiscal challenges." To accomplish this, she says, the City must begin by seeing the blighted areas downtown as an "opportunity to offer a renewed mix of first-class amenities that will make downtown more desirable for everyone. It means be willing to say ‘yes’ to high-quality, high-character development, while driving strong bargains so building projects downtown benefit all of East Lansing."

Asked how, if elected to Council, she can help the City meet its challenges, Draheim promises to use the same skill set she uses in her work, "build[ing] collaborations to bring about positive change." She provided an example of how she has done this in her work: "I have been working with communities in a six-county region in southeast Michigan to identify and prioritize strategies for growing talent and improving their transportation systems. The work has involved bringing together community, government, education, and business stakeholders to evaluate data on the region’s demographics and industry strengths, research and review models of other successful regional partnerships, and identify regional economic prosperity goals. With my help, the region is collaborating to implement projects that support their regional quality of life goals, such as aligning workforce programs and supporting multi-modal transportation options. I will take this inclusive, problem-solving approach to addressing city challenges, utilizing our talented and involved citizenry as a vital resource."

Draheim further states: "I am excited to work at the intersection of environmental planning and urban development," and will apply "a thoughtful, unbiased, and rigorous style to addressing city policy issues. These have been the key elements in my own career, and I believe this experience base would be an asset to the Council."