Jenn Hernandez

I moved to Duvall from Austin, Texas ten years ago. At first it was because I had friends here I could couch surf with while I found work, but after finding it, I had a choice: Stay in Duvall, or move to Redmond. I stayed in Duvall. Why? It’s a great town. Five minutes from mountainous forests. Five minutes from urban conveniences. And a nice little down home downtown, full of locally owned businesses and some amazing art. As a cartoonist and writer myself, the art scene appealed to me, and was one of the reasons I not only stayed, but I became the chair of the Duvall Cultural Commission.

That’s not to say that living here has been easy. As a single woman, finding affordable housing here has been more luck than anything. Whether it’s a lack of starter homes, or rental availability, finding housing here when you’re not a dual income family can be rough. That means that families looking for homes, won’t be coming to Duvall. Or that families where the kids have moved out, don’t have homes to downsize to. We lose long time residents, and potential newer ones as well. One of the things I am dedicated to is finding ways to make sure that housing becomes more affordable throughout the city. Likely by asking for the building of smaller homes along side our larger ones.

For now, our city continues to grow, with an influx of residents looking to live here because of the conveniences I’d mentioned before, the rural foothills and the urban conveniences. We’ve had many housing usit open up on our southern and east end, and more are likely to be built. One of the concerns I hear from residents is that with all these new residential area, there’s a risk of diluting its character. One of the goals of the Duvall Cultural Commission was to determine the towns character and I believe that we can have the best of both worlds. A growing prosperous city, with many parks, natural areas, historical areas created, marked or protected that all reflect the history and character of our town.

One of those characteristics is Duvall as an “art town.” From the Duvall Trolls, to our carved planks on downtown, the town has a history of being a center for the arts. As Chair of the Cultural Commission, we’ve worked hard to begin refreshing, restoring and creating new art pieces for our town. The quirky trolls on the Woodinville-Duvall bridge has been restored, the wooden planks on Main Street are being refreshed with new planks, and we have murals, statues and even performances coming down the line. All to keep the city’s cultural arts thriving and alive, one of it’s core characteristics.

My goals are to keep Duvall a prosperous town, safe and affordable for everyone who’d like to be here, maintaining it’s character as it grows, and to keeps the arts alive and thriving. I’d like your support in doing that. Thank you for voting.