For more than 15 years, Commissioner Daisy W. Lynum has dedicated herself to improving the quality of life for the residents of District 5 and in Orlando by using her extensive leadership and experience in uniting community resources.
Last week, Commissioner Lynum officially kicked off her re-election campaign with the continued promise to voters to bring additional improvements and rebuilding efforts.
“I am proud to serve District 5 and I’m proud of everything we have accomplished together. I have supported the voters who have elected me to better their streets, their neighborhoods, and their way of life,” said Commissioner Daisy W. Lynum. “I thought about not running again, but we are beginning to turn our community around, and I know we can accomplish much more collectively.”
Commissioner Lynum is running on a solid platform of successful rebuilding in her district and across the city of Orlando. In addition to her duties as City Commissioner, she has remained active on several local boards, community projects, voter registration drives, and school activities for over 40 years.
As the long-serving Orlando City Council member, Commissioner Lynum has been very visible in community outreach meetings, hosting hundreds and hundreds of community meetings. These meetings allowed for residents to give and receive feedback on issues which are important to them, such as assistance with the rehabilitation of their homes, traffic control, streets, community centers, parks and streets.
She has hosted some 49 neighborhood meetings, including special events, associated with the Community Venues, including the construction of the Amway Center, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and the Florida Citrus Bowl reconstruction. These meetings have focused on notifications of street closures, upgrades at the community center, streetscapes and on and on. Tangible results from these neighborhood meetings have resulted in initiatives such as the Church Street Streetscape, numerous sidewalk and park beautification and road improvements specifically from feedback and suggestions submitted by residents and business owners.
Commissioner Lynum initiated the city’s BLUEPRINT Employment Office more than six years ago to help successfully train and employ residents of Parramore, ex-felons and the homeless to become financially secure and independent. Today, 1,110 targeted residents have been placed into jobs at business throughout Central Florida and with the Community Venues projects.
She has also spearheaded community revitalization projects across Orlando, including adding several new parks and a new recreation center. As past chair of Metroplan Orlando – the region’s transportation planning agency – Commissioner Lynum pushed to have the multi-purpose, coast-to-coast trails completed and the Florida legislature appropriated $50 million for the project. Despite a veto by Florida Governor Rick Scott, Commissioner Lynum continues to lobby for the project and is hopeful that the project will pass and be approved by the governor this year.
She has also represented the interest of her district in Tallahassee and lobbied for the addition of FAMU Law School in Parramore and developed thriving office and condo space with the City View project.
“I have continually supported and recommended new programs and funding for the citizens of Parramore,” said Commissioner Lynum. “District 5 is coming back today — a community that was left neglected and forgotten decades ago. I’m here to continue my legacy of rebuilding, revitalizing and renourishing this community and helping all of its citizens.”
This past year, Commissioner Lynum initiated and led her most ambitious project in his district to date: the Orlando Medical Careers Partnership program to invest in the city’s next generation of skilled workers – from entry-level health care workers to medical doctors – from Parramore and other disadvantaged areas.
The program, regarded as the first of its kind in the nation, takes a comprehensive approach to engage low-income residents from elementary school through adulthood, with a four-tier system designed to educate, train and employ people who might not get a chance to work in the healthcare field, and take advantage of opportunities where they are needed most.
Commissioner Lynum formed partnerships with several area agencies to educate, train and provide assistance to students. Those partners include the City’s BLUEPRINT Employment Office, Orlando Housing Authority, Lynx, Workforce Central Florida, Orange County Public Schools, Jones High School, the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, FSU College of Medicine, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Adventist University of Health Services, Orlando Health, Orlando Tech, Valencia College, and the Orlando VA Medical Center.
“I have dedicated my career to making Parramore a good place to live and work,” she says. “I am committed to making a difference in every citizen’s life, to make living here better, and give District 5 and Parramore the recognition it deserves. My work has only just begun.”
This article should read, “I have dedicated my entire political career to the gentrification and destruction of Parramore and I have sold out my community at every opportunity possible to appease Mayor Dyer and the rich white people who run Orlando.” – Daisy Lynum
In fact, that’s how WON always describes her service on the Orlando City Council over the years too. How much did Daisy pay to have this published on the site?
I was born in our Rock Lake home and remember the times my mother would show my brother and I where in Parramore she lived, as we drove to and from Shiloh Baptist Church. I can only imagine buying property across OBT at Rock Lake was moving up like the Jeffersons. Development projects that my mother supported allowed folks like my brother Sean, who was born in Parramore, to return and buy a new redeveloped home on Concord St. Developments like City View and the FAMU College of Law has literally allowed my brothers and sisters to return to a better Parramore. The complexion has not changed much. Not to mention the footprint of redevelopment the Orlando Housing Authority and other Habitat of Humanity housing projects have had over recent years.
I don’t want to live in the Parramore where my mother and brother once lived. I want the Concord St. dream of home ownership near downtown amenities. I don’t want a Publix like Thornton Park but a Neighborhood Walmart would do. So, any gentrification or ‘return to middle class’ in Parramore is what my generation believes is compatible and is looking forward to the return. But I know my mother’s heart is, and has been, focused on protecting and sustaining the residents of Parramore from this perceived displacement that simply is not happening. I hope this campaign allows her to share how even the lowest of income workers in Parramore are benefiting from the Blueprint Project, housing opportunities, medical careers partnership program, and reduced crime. As she said, she’s just getting started.
WON sure has warmed up to Commissioner Lynum