Building a Brighter East Lansing
Initiatives to create a healthy, vibrant community.
Securing Our Community’s Financial Future
City debt
City fund balance
OPEB prefunding
Credit rating
Balanced budget without compromising services
Advocate for investment in public goods
Nathan
Promoting Smart Growth and Sustainable Development
Nathan has worked to promote neighborhood stability and make East Lansing a great place to live, work, and raise a family.
Nathan has been an advocate for balanced and diverse housing options that will meet the needs of every East Lansing community member—from students to seniors.
Nathan supports diversifying East Lansing’s downtown with housing, retail, restaurants, and entertainment options for everyone.
Nathan has worked to improve the walkability and bikeability of East Lansing, expand access to high-quality public transit, and increase resident access to cultural and recreational amenities.
Nathan championed East Lansing’s first-in-Michigan “Green Building Policy,” which requires development projects that receive city incentives to use sustainable building practices. He also fought to pass a “Green Fleet Policy” that will save energy and reduce emissions by transitioning city vehicles to clean alternative fuels.
Protecting City Services and Our Quality of Life
Nathan has helped successfully steer East Lansing through the budgetary turmoil of the Great Recession while protecting the essential services residents expect and deserve.
Nathan has been a been a strong steward of taxpayer dollars, earning the City of East Lansing the highest possible credit rating, AAA.
Nathan has fought to protect state funding for the services East Lansing residents depend on, like police and fire protection, sanitation, parks and recreation, clean water and recycling.
Nathan authored East Lansing’s “Local Preference Purchasing Policy” to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent with local firms and local workers whenever possible.
Fostering Positive University-Community Relations and Regional Cooperation
Nathan has been a leader is pursuing sensible opportunities for greater regional collaboration.
Nathan has worked tirelessly to build a strong relationship between the City of East Lansing and Michigan State University.
Nathan understands the importance of building bridges between student residents and permanent residents. He is a strong supporter of the Community Relations Coalition and numerous MSU student organizations.
Building a Welcoming Community for All
Nathan has long been recognized as a leader in the fight for civil and human rights.
Nathan has been a champion for LGBT equality. He authored East Lansing’s “Other Eligible Individuals (OEI) Benefits Policy” to ensure that the partners of city employees had access to equal benefits despite Michigan’s discriminatory ban on marriage equality. He fought to pass an “Equal Benefits Ordinance” to prohibit the city from doing business with contractors that discriminate against their LGBT employees by failing to offer equal benefits. When U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman struck down Michigan’s ban on marriage equality, Nathan used his authority as Mayor to marry loving same-sex couples who had been denied that right for far too long.
Nathan’s efforts to advance LGBT equality have stretched far beyond East Lansing. He organized Local Electeds Against Discrimination (LEAD), a coalition of over 350 local elected officials committed to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Nathan also helped launch and coordinate One Capital Region, a campaign to pass inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances in four urbanized townships surrounding East Lansing.
Nathan has worked to make East Lansing a model community for welcoming international students and scholars, refugees and immigrants. He worked to ensure that translation services were available at all points of contact between residents and city staff. He began the process of translating valuable city resources to make them accessible to residents and visitors, regardless of their national origin or first language. He worked to make East Lansing an official partner with Welcoming America’s Welcoming Cities and Counties program—one of only four communities in Michigan with that distinction.
Nathan has fought to promote civic engagement and break down barriers to voter participation. He authored a first-in-Michigan ordinance mandating that landlords distribute voter registration forms and information to tenants in East Lansing.