| Courtesy of Costello for Mayor

University of Houston graduate and engineer Steven Costello will be one of the candidates on the ballot this November for Houston mayor.

His campaign, “Move Houston Forward,” is fueled by his drive to improve the chronic status the city of Houston faces in its infrastructure from its crumbling roads to cleanliness in construction.

“First of all, I’m a graduate from the University of Houston,” Costello said. “I have a MBA from the Clear Lake campus, and obviously I want to focus on the public safety of the campus and improving the quality of life, and there are some infrastructure issues related to the campus I’d like to implement.”

Through his firsthand experience, Costello advocates the idea of easing Houston’s traffic congestion by strengthening and improving Houstonian’s other transit options.

“City leaders build the purple line, the rail line and services for the (UH) students and the employees…we need to continue to work with reducing traffic in the city,” Costello said. “I hope students are exploring these options and taking advantage of what we would call ‘masstran’ because I think it is the future of the city.”

Costello will address Houstonians concern with the city’s infrastructure in three ways: fix the roads, prioritize public safety and protect taxpayer’s money.

“Initially, I will focus on responding to the maintenance of the streets specifically the potholes and getting the ‘ReBuild Houston’ in order,” Costello said. “Then, I will focus on the financial options for the coming budget crisis.”

ReBuild Houston is a program that Costello partook in establishing during Mayor Annise Parker’s term. Costello feels that “the administration (during Parker’s term) hasn’t been commencing the ‘ReBuild Houston’ program and I want to continue to focus on that program.”

As potential mayor and using his engineering and councilman expertise, Costello would like to refine it to continue to provide “a more responsible and conservative way to fund road reconstruction and drainage improvements across our entire city” as Houston’s crumbling infrastructure continues to be an issue.

“Most of my opponents are lawyers,” Costello said. “You don’t call lawyers to fix potholes or rebuild streets, you call engineers.”

In addition, Costello would like to continue Parker’s ideals in regards to sustainability but take it a step further to improve Houstonian’s overall quality of life.

“I will continue to advance the initial work Mayor Parker has done in lowering the carbon footprint in the city obviously through more efficient buildings standards which is what we’ve been doing in modernizing our fleet for cleaner fuel,” Costello said.

As potential mayor, Costello wishes to further Houston’s performance in every field and use its assets to the city’s advantage.

“I always tell (people) Houston is the greatest city in America but obviously we can do better. I think the city’s diversity is really an asset and as a council member and also as the next (potential) mayor I will continue to advocate for the best quality for the city.”

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“Candidate profile: Costello ‘moves Houston forward’ through sustainability approach” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar