Ami Chen Mills
Candidate for Mayor, Santa Cruz
Ami Chen Mills is an educator, writer, and activist who moved to Santa Cruz in the early 1990s after the Loma Prieta earthquake. The daughter of an immigrant Chinese mother and an Anglo father, she began working at age 14 to help her single parent pay rent, and worked her way through Northwestern University as a cafeteria manager, waitress, SAT/LSAT tutor, caterer, and house cleaner. After college she created the first teen program for the Los Altos and Mountain View school districts. In Santa Cruz she became Ecology Action's first Master Composter Trainer and a staff writer for Metro Santa Cruz, later working as an investigative journalist for Metro San Jose. She completed mediation training at the Conflict Resolution Center and directed the National Community Resiliency Project. She teaches a resiliency class at UC Santa Cruz, co-founded the nonprofit Center for Sustainable Change, hosted the podcast 'Moment of Truth with Ami Chen Mills,' and founded the 'Get the Flock Out' campaign opposing automated license plate readers in Santa Cruz. She serves as an elected member of the Santa Cruz County Democratic Central Committee and previously ran for county supervisor in 2022.
Positions in brief
Chen Mills's platform centers on expanding public participation in city government through neighborhood town halls, building affordable and workforce housing while restoring local control over development, protecting resident privacy from surveillance technology, and shifting local funding toward taxing wealth rather than working people.
Chen Mills's campaign site calls for increased dialogue, listening, transparency and democracy, including town halls rotating through council districts and a public forum ahead of each Tuesday council meeting. On housing, she prioritizes affordable and workforce housing and tenants' rights, wants existing housing commitments enforced, favors local-resident prioritization, and would explore height limits downtown while building on less-impactful sites and converting buildings to condominiums to expand homeownership. She founded 'Get the Flock Out' opposing automated license plate readers and says she opposes data centers, ICE operations, mass surveillance, and cashless-only businesses. On the environment, she wants to protect biodiversity, water, trees and wildlife, including restoring salmon to the headwaters of the San Lorenzo River. On homelessness, she wants to restore services lost when the Mental Health Client Action Network, Downtown Streets Team, and Housing Matters day services closed, emphasizing solutions developed with unhoused residents rather than imposed on them. She supports strengthening labor power and taxing wealth rather than working people, and wants to support local businesses and revitalize downtown and the city's commercial corridors. Her campaign says it accepts no real estate or big tech money, capping individual contributions at $450.
On the issues
Wants monthly town halls rotating through each city council district and a public forum before each Tuesday council meeting so residents can ask questions about the agenda, as part of a broader push for more dialogue and transparency in city government.
“Monday community meetings ahead of Tuesday council meetings”
Source →Prioritizes affordable and workforce housing and tenants' rights, with enforcement of existing housing commitments and local-resident prioritization; supports height limits downtown while building on less-impactful sites, and explores condominium conversions to expand homeownership.
“affordable and work force housing and tenants' rights”
Source →Opposes automated license plate readers, data centers, and mass surveillance in Santa Cruz, and wants the city to restrict data brokers and protect resident privacy, including requiring local businesses to accept cash.
Source →Opposes ICE operations and local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Source →Advocates protecting biodiversity, water, trees and wildlife, including restoring salmon to the headwaters of the San Lorenzo River.
“restoring salmon to the headwaters of the San Lorenzo River”
Source →Wants to restore services lost when the Mental Health Client Action Network, Downtown Streets Team, and Housing Matters day services closed, and emphasizes developing solutions with unhoused community members rather than imposing them.
Source →Supports strengthening labor power and taxing wealth rather than working people to fund city priorities.
“taxing wealth, not the working people”
Source →Prioritizes supporting local businesses and revitalizing downtown and the city's commercial corridors.
“supporting local businesses, a revitalized downtown and all city commercial corridors”
Source →
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