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28 Platform sections

Affordable Housing & Homelessness Solutions

Eskamani proposes converting underused buildings, allowing more housing types, reducing parking mandates, and offering affordability incentives. She also proposes a local tenant purchase policy, eviction assistance, home-repair and weatherization aid, Housing First and treatment expansion, and more shelter and drop-in capacity. In describing her legislative record, she cites opposing state preemption of local rent stabilization, but she does not separately promise an Orlando rent-control ordinance.

The strongest parts are missing-middle zoning, parking reform, selected adaptive reuse, eviction counsel, and targeted Housing First work.

Authority
City Council approval required: 9 · Another authority must act: 2 · State-law change required: 1
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 6 · Mixed evidence: 2 · Not enough information: 4

Economic Prosperity & Anti-Poverty Solutions

Eskamani proposes neighborhood financial counseling, rental and utility assistance, an income pilot, living-wage designations, worker legal aid, employment supports, education-to-employer pathways, first-time-buyer assistance, shared-equity ownership, and community-benefit conditions on incentives. She also calls for support for worker organizing, investment in small community-based businesses, and work with historic neighborhoods to prevent displacement.

The strongest proposals build on operating financial-counseling, workforce, buyer-assistance, and shared-equity models, although each still needs a funded Orlando scale.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 1 · City Council approval required: 5 · Another authority must act: 4 · State-law change required: 1
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 4 · Mixed evidence: 2 · Not enough information: 5

Public Transit Expansion, Walkability & Traffic Relief

Eskamani proposes more pedestrian-safety spending, separated bike lanes coordinated with road work, crosswalk and sidewalk improvements, longer and more frequent LYNX and SunRail service, a discounted transit-pass pilot, new Main Street routes, a one-stop transit app, worker fares and local stops on the proposed Sunshine Corridor, and dedicated transportation revenue through broader Tourist Development Tax authority and regional funding.

The strongest parts use established street-safety tools and build on Orlando programs already underway.

Authority
City Council approval required: 3 · Another authority must act: 7 · State-law change required: 1
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 3 · Mixed evidence: 1 · Not enough information: 7

Small Business Support & Empowerment

Eskamani proposes faster city approvals, disruption aid, microgrants, technical assistance, language access, markets and mobile vending, low-cost storefronts, local purchasing and hiring, cooperative ownership, and living-wage recognition.

The strongest parts are measurable approval reform, targeted provider capacity, language access, and lawful vendor access.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 3 · City Council approval required: 4 · Another authority must act: 4
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 2 · Mixed evidence: 2 · Not enough information: 7

Diversifying Orlando's Economy

Eskamani proposes city investment in emerging industries, college and employer talent pipelines, startup organizations, an Innovation & Industry Council, neighborhood programs, broader procurement access, Job Growth Zones, apprenticeships and reentry training, and maker hubs.

The platform identifies real diversification tools, but most promises do not specify what Orlando would fund, change, or measure.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 1 · City Council approval required: 4 · Another authority must act: 4
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 1 · Mixed evidence: 2 · Not enough information: 6

Reimagining & Revitalizing Downtown Orlando

Eskamani proposes downtown housing and affordability, round-the-clock outreach and homelessness services, a flexible activation fund, an innovation corridor, safer walking and bicycling, stronger regional transit and a circulator study, cultural funding and easier event permits, and project benefits intended to limit displacement.

The platform combines useful city tools with outcomes Orlando cannot guarantee.

Authority
City Council approval required: 6 · Another authority must act: 6
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 1 · Mixed evidence: 2 · Not enough information: 9

Community Safety, Crime Prevention, & Gun Violence Prevention

Eskamani proposes a public-health safety framework built around community and hospital violence intervention, non-police crisis response, youth jobs and services, voluntary firearm-safety actions, risk-order enforcement, police oversight and training, immigrant-serving partnerships, a first-responder advisory council, and first-responder staffing and retirement commitments.

The platform combines several useful tools with sharply different evidence and authority.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 3 · City Council approval required: 5 · Another authority must act: 6
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 3 · Mixed evidence: 2 · Weak evidence: 1 · Not enough information: 8

Preventing Sexual Violence, Intimate Partner Abuse & Human Trafficking

Eskamani proposes stronger anti-harassment systems for city employees, consent and healthy-relationship education, expanded shelter, legal-aid and counseling access, non-police crisis options, long-term survivor housing, coordinated anti-trafficking operations, safe-exit services, and recurring training for frontline workers.

The platform combines one directly controlled city-employer reform with seven commitments that require Council funding and outside institutions.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 1 · Another authority must act: 7
Effectiveness
Mixed evidence: 1 · Not enough information: 7

Strong Public Schools & Early Education

Eskamani proposes expanded afterschool and summer learning, more Community Partnership Schools, full-time school nursing or licensed counseling coverage, upgraded crossing guards and Safe Routes projects, school-linked violence intervention, broader early education and pre-K access, simpler city processes for childcare providers, neighborhood early-learning centers and worker support, and a City-School Partnership Task Force.

The platform contains useful municipal tools, but it treats a city partnership role as though it were control of a school and early-learning system.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 1 · City Council approval required: 2 · Another authority must act: 7
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 1 · Mixed evidence: 4 · Not enough information: 5

Universal Childcare & Support for Families

Eskamani proposes universal access to affordable, high-quality childcare and a citywide network of Family Resource Hubs. The hubs would offer multilingual parenting classes, diapers, formula and hygiene supplies, prenatal and postpartum referrals, senior and caregiver assistance, support to help families age in place, legal aid and family reunification help, job-readiness and career navigation, workshops on budgeting, tenant rights and credit building, SNAP, WIC, Medicaid and childcare-subsidy navigation, and mental-health support across family services.

The platform combines one major childcare-system promise with nine different hub services.

Authority
City Council approval required: 3 · Another authority must act: 7
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 1 · Mixed evidence: 1 · Not enough information: 8

Public Health & Disability Services

Eskamani proposes mobile health units and screenings, maternal and infant health work, school-nurse support, grants for trauma-informed therapy, crisis intervention, and peer support, a larger provider network, mental-health support across city initiatives, non-police crisis response, disability-service coordination, broader accessibility work, inclusive recreation, housing and workforce programs, fresh-food initiatives, naloxone and treatment access, emergency infrastructure, and resilience hubs. The same platform also commits to city-employee mental-health training, elopement-prevention policies with public safety and schools, universal-access design across city initiatives, decriminalizing undefined survival-based behaviors, and multilingual and accessible emergency communications; those five commitments are preserved below as unscored context and are excluded from the fourteen-promise distributions.

The platform contains useful municipal tools but spans health care, school staffing, disability access, food systems, transit, and emergency resilience across different controllers.

Authority
Another authority must act: 11 · City Council approval required: 3
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 3 · Not enough information: 11

Supporting Orlando's Seniors & Aging in Place with Dignity

Eskamani proposes expanding home repairs and accessibility retrofits, senior-priority pedestrian and transit infrastructure, affordable supportive housing, senior centers and intergenerational hubs, home-based care coordination, wellness checks, meals and rides, caregiver respite and training, emergency supplies and medical-device power, and multilingual accessible evacuation alerts.

The platform combines useful municipal tools with services already governed by Florida’s aging network, regional transit, housing partners, Orange County emergency management, utilities, and licensed providers.

Authority
City Council approval required: 2 · Another authority must act: 7
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 1 · Mixed evidence: 1 · Not enough information: 7

Preventing Displacement & Gentrification

Eskamani proposes eviction counsel, a rental registry, emergency rental aid, community land trusts and cooperative housing, deeply affordable housing on city land, housing on empty commercial lots, homeowner tax, repair and heirs’ property support, inclusionary zoning, density bonuses, affordability covenants, limits on speculative acquisition, early multilingual planning and community-benefit agreements, a displacement-risk dashboard, and historic-neighborhood preservation.

The platform contains several useful tools, but it treats unlike mechanisms as one anti-displacement package.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 1 · City Council approval required: 9 · Another authority must act: 3 · No delivery path identified: 1
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 3 · Mixed evidence: 3 · Not enough information: 8

Protecting Orlando's Natural Beauty & Climate Future

Eskamani says Orlando should protect its natural resources, become climate-resilient, and ensure access to clean air, clean water, and green space. The section presents these as guiding outcomes and points to separate clean-energy, resilience, and zero-waste sections for more specific proposals.

The platform states legitimate environmental goals but does not yet supply three auditable policies.

Authority
Another authority must act: 3
Effectiveness
Not enough information: 3

Clean Energy & Electrification

Eskamani proposes pursuing Orlando's existing clean-energy goals, expanding solar and city-building efficiency, using the mayor's OUC board role to accelerate the utility's fossil-fuel transition and grid work, launching household assistance and efficiency programs, building more electric-vehicle charging, electrifying the municipal fleet, and offering voluntary incentives for homes and workplaces.

The platform combines several credible municipal tools with broad utility and private-market outcomes that a mayor cannot promise alone.

Authority
City Council approval required: 3 · Another authority must act: 7
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 3 · Not enough information: 7

Climate Resilience, Smart Growth & Water Protection

Eskamani proposes green stormwater infrastructure, drainage upgrades, greenways, permeable surfaces, natural flood buffers, low-impact development, sustainable-design incentives, smart growth, community input, updated neighborhood risk planning, a resilience task force, stronger water protections, septic-to-sewer conversion, conservation, and reclaimed-water expansion. She separately promises stronger protection for Orlando’s lakes, trees, and wildlife corridors and equitable access to clean water for all communities.

The platform combines credible tools with an undefined delivery program.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 2 · City Council approval required: 6 · Another authority must act: 5
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 6 · Mixed evidence: 1 · Not enough information: 6

Zero Waste, Circular Economy & Environmental Justice

Eskamani proposes expanding organic-waste collection, food recovery, and composting; exploring repair workshops and clothing swaps; limiting plastics at city events; helping businesses move away from disposables; continuing cleanup partnerships; and prioritizing Black, Brown, and low-income communities in environmental investment.

The platform combines valid waste-reduction goals with three different realities.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 3 · City Council approval required: 2 · Another authority must act: 3
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 1 · Mixed evidence: 2 · Not enough information: 5

Recreation & Parks: Investing in Joy, Health & Community

Eskamani proposes universal ten-minute access to safe and accessible parks, new pocket parks and gardens, renewed play spaces, more affordable recreation and youth jobs, community-led amenity design, stronger lighting and upkeep, broader disability and cultural access, expanded tree canopy and restored natural areas, better trail connections, and locally shaped public art.

Parks are a strong municipal delivery lane, but direct authority does not convert this thirteen-part platform into a funded program.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 1 · City Council approval required: 9 · Another authority must act: 3
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 4 · Mixed evidence: 3 · Not enough information: 6

Hurricane Preparedness and Response

Eskamani proposes investing in emergency-response systems and critical infrastructure, coordinating across governments, improving evacuation routes and inclusive shelter capacity, expanding household education and multilingual outreach, and building post-storm systems for supplies, utilities, debris and recovery.

Hurricane preparedness is a core public responsibility, but the platform describes outcomes without an operating plan.

Authority
City Council approval required: 3 · Another authority must act: 5
Effectiveness
Not enough information: 8

Trade, Travel, & Economic Development

Eskamani proposes growing international business, trade-association, and sister-city partnerships; creating small-business trade delegations; improving airport infrastructure, routes, facilities, and ground links; investing in trade-linked workforce training; and helping small and minority-owned firms reach supply chains and capital.

This topic contains one direct city lane, three Council-funded program lanes, and four airport lanes controlled materially by GOAA, airlines, federal aviation rules, and regional transportation bodies.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 1 · City Council approval required: 3 · Another authority must act: 4
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 1 · Not enough information: 7

Equality, Inclusion & Protecting Civil Rights

Eskamani proposes stronger enforcement of Orlando’s nondiscrimination rules, LGBTQ+ health and community support, immigration legal aid, reentry services, citywide language and disability access, a more representative workforce and boards, employee resource groups, staff training, multilingual listening, and participatory budgeting. Beyond the thirteen promises reviewed and scored on this page, the platform separately promises community-accountability pathways, investment in grassroots organizing, and equity across every city policy, budget, and action; those three commitments are preserved below as unscored context and are excluded from the topic distributions.

This topic combines enforceable city duties, fundable services, shared systems, and six promises that conflict with or require narrowing under Florida’s 2027 local-government restrictions.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 1 · City Council approval required: 4 · Another authority must act: 2 · State-law change required: 6
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 1 · Mixed evidence: 2 · Not enough information: 10

Reimagining the Tourism Development Tax for Orlando's Future

Eskamani proposes state and local reforms to broaden Tourism Development Tax uses, including affordable housing near job centers, public transportation, climate-resilient infrastructure, and community-benefit agreements for public tourism investment.

The platform identifies real choices about who benefits from tourism revenue, but it is not yet a spending plan.

Authority
Another authority must act: 3 · State-law change required: 2
Effectiveness
Weak evidence: 1 · Not enough information: 4

Arts & Athletics: Elevating Orlando's Cultural and Recreational Life

Eskamani proposes expanding public investment in artists and cultural institutions, adding public art, building arts education and career partnerships, reviving film and media production, streamlining film permits, investing in parks and athletic facilities, growing youth sports, supporting adult and senior recreation, and pursuing major sporting events.

This platform combines legitimate city services with five materially shared delivery lanes.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 1 · City Council approval required: 3 · Another authority must act: 5
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 2 · Mixed evidence: 1 · Not enough information: 6

Animal Welfare & Compassionate Communities

Eskamani proposes stronger rescue partnerships, expanded low-cost spay and neuter and trap-neuter-return services, cooperation with Orange County on shelter outcomes, more adoption and fostering, stronger cruelty education and enforcement, pet-inclusive survivor housing, wildlife-conscious development, more dog parks and hydration stations, and pet-accommodating disaster shelters.

The strongest city role is to purchase defined additional capacity through Council-approved contracts, grants, facilities, or interlocal agreements and publish the result.

Authority
City Council approval required: 6 · Another authority must act: 4
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 1 · Not enough information: 9

Government Accountability, Transparency & Term Limits

Eskamani proposes expanded meeting access, department goals and dashboards, later Council meetings, district participatory budgeting, digital tools, community input and civic education, stronger ethics oversight, term limits, aligned elections, and a new civic-engagement office.

This platform combines legitimate administrative upgrades with Council-controlled rules, a voter-controlled charter change, a state-authorized election ordinance, major technology procurements, and an undefined oversight system.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 4 · City Council approval required: 9 · Another authority must act: 1
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 3 · Weak evidence: 1 · Not enough information: 10

Volunteerism & City Engagement: Powering Change Through People

Eskamani proposes a One Orlando Civic Corps with training, flexible participation, and recognition; a mayoral volunteer-support department; nonprofit resource sharing; civic-skills workshops; a volunteer portal; interpretation, child-care, and transportation support; institutional partnerships; an annual week of service; employee service days; and neighborhood cleanups and town halls.

Orlando has authority and existing infrastructure to expand volunteer service, and the strongest evidence supports narrow programs with committed hosts, professional management, participant support, and measured projects.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 2 · City Council approval required: 7 · Another authority must act: 2
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 4 · Not enough information: 7

Supporting Public Employees

Eskamani proposes higher frontline wages, paid parental leave, pension protection, enhanced health coverage, modern HR systems, career and education support, expanded mental-health resources, employee feedback, consistent remote-work opportunities, monthly labor meetings, a workforce-equity audit, and connections to housing, transportation, and child care.

This platform combines three direct management actions with ten funded, negotiated, fiduciary, technical, or provider-dependent commitments.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 3 · City Council approval required: 3 · Another authority must act: 7
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 3 · Not enough information: 10

Data-Driven Governance & Measuring Success

Eskamani proposes measurable goals for every department, public benchmarks and timelines, real-time mobile dashboards, community feedback, a Community Impact Scorecard, disaggregated service data, a Mayor's Office of Performance and Innovation, civic-tech partnerships, staff training, open-data investment, and results-based budgeting.

This platform contains useful management tools, but measurement must be connected to decisions, program evaluation, and service outcomes.

Authority
Orlando can act directly: 5 · City Council approval required: 5 · Another authority must act: 1
Effectiveness
Promising but limited: 2 · Mixed evidence: 3 · Not enough information: 6