Q&A: Carrboro Town Council candidate Isaac Woolsey talks accessibility, transit

The Daily Tar Heel's Joseph Cole spoke with Carrboro Town Council special election candidate Isaac Woolsey about his experience and aspirations for the role. His opponent in the race is Cristóbal Palmer. 

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Daily Tar Heel: In your opinion, what makes Carrboro a special place?

Isaac Woolsey: It's one of the few towns in the country that has reliable public transit and resources to help out disabled people like me who can't get around because they can't drive. 

DTH: Is there a specific issue or moment that inspired you to run for the town council?

IW: The fact that before the pandemic, the buses could run until 11 p.m., and I could actually enjoy the nightlife around Carrboro and Chapel Hill — I can't do that anymore. So that's one of the reasons why I'm running, and because nobody would listen to me when I was picketing with my signs made out of old pizza boxes. I would write letters to various press organizations — even The Daily Tar Heel — and no one would really pick up because I was a nobody. So I decided to run as a way to be a bully pulpit for disability rights, and I think I'm the only candidate locally that's talking about disability rights and transit issues that isn't just saying we need to put more bicycles and and electric vehicles on the road.

DTH: How do your personal experiences shape your vision for this community?

IW: In Carrboro, they're building more and more parking lots and parking garages, but they're trying to cater more to people with a privately-owned vehicle than they are to people who just take public transit. ... I'm all for people riding bikes and sharing the road, but you don't do that at the expense of buses. And there's also problems with affordable housing. Affordable housing is a main issue. 

DTH: How have your professional experiences shaped your vision?

IW: Most places in Carrboro wouldn't hire me because I was disabled. I've actually been turned down at a lot of jobs because they think I wouldn’t have reliable transportation.

I've gotten a few raises at some jobs and some jobs they just put me at at basic level. They just want us as token mascots. That's why, if you ever go to a Walmart, you'll see someone in a wheelchair being a store greeter, but you never see them in a management position. 

DTH: What are the top priorities you plan to address if elected, and how will you tackle them?

IW: My first thing is to solve the public transit issue with Chapel Hill Transit. I'll work with the UNC student government, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and to a small extent GoTriangle to try to make Chapel Hill Transit more accessible, and bring it back to its ordinary, normal operating hours.

The second one is affordable housing. My grant program idea, which I'm going to call the Accessible Town Affordability Project or Program, otherwise known as ATAP. Let's say there's a $600,000 property for new homebuyers, we're going to pay $350,000 while they pay $250,000 and they sign a contract that says they can't for five years make it an Airbnb, VRBO or one of those sketchy rentals. ... I think this will be the best way to get the the marginalized people in our community a chance of getting a home and also deal with inequities about minority-owned homes.

The third thing is for job security and job opportunities for disabled people, which I'm going to do by giving some more incentives for job creation and job development. This may be a far stretch, but five or 10 years in the future, I want to see more big franchise brand names in Carrboro, not just hoity-toity, upscale eating establishments or stores that don't really hire the people in the community. 

DTH: What is your long-term vision for the town, and what specific policies or initiatives will you push to achieve that vision?

IW: I want one word: accessibility. I want Carrboro to be more accessible to people who are low-income, people who are disabled, people who are immigrants, people who are minority homeowners or business owners. I want it to be accessible for all.

@DTHCityState | city@dailytarheel.com