The OC Voice is a portion of the OC Report newsletter where local residents may have a platform to talk about local issues they care about. Allison De Marco is an advanced research scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and adjunct faculty at the School of Social Work at UNC.
We are deep into early voting here in Orange County. Although the presidential primary gets the most attention, we have important county-level races to vote on, too! I want to tell you a little bit about why I’m voting to reelect Commissioner Mark Dorosin to the Orange County Board of Commissioners.
As both a civil rights lawyer and a county commissioner, Mark Dorosin has shown himself to be a champion for inclusion, social justice and racial equity. He is deeply committed to quality education and champion for equitable funding for our two school districts. In addition, over the past decade, he has represented individual students and the Charlotte NAACP in the fight for educational equity in North Carolina, “a sound basic education for all children,” as part of the Leandro case.
Moreover, highlighting that students spend far more time in their homes and neighborhoods, Mark is committed to supporting affordable housing and responding to displacement. He fought to make sure funds for affordable housing were included in the 2016 county bond. He fought for the county to develop a program to help neighbors living in mobile home communities threatened with displacement by redevelopment.
He remains committed to working with neighbors and other governing boards to develop mixed-income housing on the publicly owned Greene Tract, one of our best opportunities for addressing our county’s housing crisis. Mark has worked alongside the Rogers Road community for years to overcome historic oppression to bring access to basic public amenities, including long-overdue access to water and sewer service.
Finally, I am grateful that he and his firm took up the cause that our students have been leading for decades and represented students in the challenge to the UNC settlement to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Their work led to the overturning of the $2.5 milllion settlement to a white supremacist organization. His steadfast focus on working in concert with historically marginalized communities to confront structural racism is why I want him to continue serving us on the Board of County Commissioners.
If you live in Orange County and want to make your voice heard on something you care about locally, email city@dailytarheel.com.
