2025_YSNElectionGuide

8 OC T OB E R 3 , 2 0 2 5 H H H 2025 E L E C T I ON GU I DE H H H Y E L L OW S P R I NG S N EWS BRIAN HOUSH* TOP PRIORI T I ES: Improving infrastructure, fostering af fordability, economic development As the only incumbent candidate for Vil- lage Council on the ticket, Brian Housh said the experience of his last 12 years with the group will serve him well if reelected. Poised to continue fighting for more affordable housing; advocating for down- town businesses; improving municipal infrastructure; and fostering collaborative relationships between himself, his elected colleagues, other governmental bodies and his constituents, Housh holds a vision for making Yellow Springs more “diverse and welcome” for years to come. “We need to sustain our creative commu- nity and follow our Village values,” he said. By supporting the construction of more workforce and affordable housing, Housh said he aims to attract more Yellow Springs residents who, in his view, can help offset rising costs-of-living in town, as well as patro- nize struggling downtown businesses. “I strongly feel that if you work here, you should be able to live here,” he said. “I also believe that with more housing stock, we are going to lower the costs of housing overall. It’s problematic that the average home is around $450,000.” He continued: “We’re now going down this path of getting more rentals and more multifamily homes. Getting those things can be difficult, and I think this is where knowing how to do legal speak, understan- ding the financial aspects of housing and, in general, being bold and willing to stand up for these things is important.” As a former businessperson and a fre- quent patron of Yellow Springs businesses, Housh said he’s become increasingly con- cerned about the local business community. “I maintain relationships with local busi- ness owners, and I listen to their ideas about howwe can make things better,” Housh said. He added: “Without a doubt, we need to attract more businesses like Cresco and YSI, so that we have good-paying jobs, so people can work in town without commuting from other places. We have some good oppor- tunities with the Center for Business and Education, and I also love what’s happening at Millworks.” Housh returns to the ticket with a legal background — specifically with degrees in environmental and public interest law, as well as having practiced for several years in Louisiana — and as an ardent supporter of local affordable housing nonprofit Home, Inc. During his 13 years living in Yellow Springs, Housh has also worked with the Yellow Springs Arts Council, Little Art Thea- tre, the local speech and debate team, as well as Yellow Springs Kids Playhouse. “It’s been an amazing ride here, these last 13 years,” he said. “I’ve gotten exposure to almost all the different groups in the village.” While on Council, Housh has worked closely with the Chamber of Commerce, several Village commissions, the Yellow Springs Development Corporation, and for the last eight years, he has represented the Village on the Miami Valley Regional Plan- ning Commission — collaborative, and often inter-governmental bodies that have shown him the value of engaging with groups and people beyond the Council dais, he said. “I thought [last year’s] joint meetings between the township, school board and Council were super powerful,” Housh said. “Council members need to be engaged with those other bodies — keeping each other informed.” Beyond working with other organizational groups and elected bodies, Housh said he’s primarily beholden to his village community. “It’s important that Council members are authentic,” he said. “Conflict isn’t a negative word in my mind. If we’re going to make meaningful decisions and do the hard stuff, there’s naturally going to be some level of conflict. That doesn’t mean it needs to be nasty or have our conversations filled with mis- or disinformation.” He continued: “Regardless of our diffe- rences, I see a great deal of collaboration and collegiality among Council members. At the same time, we need to make sure we are engaging effectively with community mem- bers and making sure there’s a good balance between Village staff and Council.” ANGIE HSU TOP PRIORI T I ES: Collaborative leadership, economic vitality, more af fordable housing Angie Hsu quickly established herself in Yellow Springs when she moved to town in 2018. Not long after arriving, she joined the boards of YS Home, Inc. and the YS Com- munity Foundation — two organizations Hsu said allowed her to better understand “the diversity of needs” in Yellow Springs, as well as what resources, or lack thereof, are available to address those needs. Through her involvement with the foun- dation, Hsu co-established YSEQUITY, a local program that serves more than two dozen families in the village and township who are at or below 300% of the federal pover ty threshold by guaranteeing a monthly income of $300 for two years. Helping the disenfranchised in Yellow Springs has been a throughline in Hsu’s last six years in town. At her downtown restaurant, MAZU, she and her husband share theirspace, at no charge, with the local soup kitchen “Who’s Hungry?” which serves free meals twice a week. Her bid for a Council seat follows that ethos. “We were really lucky to have the oppor- tunity to live here, and I feel the responsi- bility to ensure that others have that same chance,” she said. To that end, Hsu said she, if elected, wants to focus on expanding others’ access to housing in Yellow Springs. “I support using innovative, proactive approaches to housing access to serve not just those who already live here, but also those community members who have been priced out,” Hsu said. “Through my time with Home, Inc. and being a part of MAZU, I’ve met so many people who invest in the community, but who can’t afford to live here.” As a business owner, Hsu also wants to improve the local economy and provide material support to struggling businesses. “Having independent ‘mom and pop’ shops is so much a part of our identity, and seeing what’s happening makes it clear that we have to fight to keep them here,” she said. “We can’t be passive about it.We’re up against capi- talism and consumerism and big box stores. We must be intentional if we want to keep our businesses—businesses that serve residents and create opportunities for workers—here.” To do that, Hsu said she’s keen to work collaboratively with local, regional and state decision-makers and legislators to get Yellow Springs the resources it needs to thrive. She’s no stranger to that kind of petitioning: When she first moved to Ohio, she did state-level advocacy for Columbus- based Asian American Community Servi- ces, for which Hsu worked as an interpreter and lent her voice to support exploited Chi- nese women in the tri-state region. “We have to remember that, while yes, Yellow Springs is unique from a lot of places, we are still a part of these bigger systems,” Hsu explained. She added: “I’m ready to engage, have the tough conversations, and do the hard work. People love this place, and that’s something that should be at the base of every single one of our discussions.” SCOTT OSTERHOLM TOP PRIORI T I ES: More apartments, better infrastructure, strategic growth Scott Osterholm unabashedly loves Yellow Springs. Aside from some few-year stints away from town, repairing stained glass and driving trucks, Osterholm never strayed too far from the village he first called home in 1987. “There’s just always been something pul- ling me back,” he said. When he moved back for good in 2014, he really dug in. Osterholm presently serves on the Board of Zoning Appeals and Planning Commission. In the past, he’s been on the search committees for a new village mana- ger and police chief, as well as the Human Relations Committee. In the summer, you can reliably spot him in the Gaunt Park dugouts, enthusiastically coaching his adult softball rec team. Osterholm takes his civic engagement seriously. He relishes continually learning “how the sausage gets made,” as he put it, and working closely with his fellow public servants and community members to shape the Yellow Springs of tomorrow. “A lot of what we’re dealing with on Plan- ning Commission are decisions with effects that may not come to total fruition until many decades down the road,” Osterholm said. “So, we really have to look down the road.” Building more workforce and affordable housing — namely apartments — has been one of Osterholm’s chief preoccupations since getting involved in local government. Most recently, as a Planning Commissio- ner, he gave ardent approval for the preli- minary plans to build apartments in decom- missioned Antioch College buildings. Osterholm said he wants to see the population of Yellow Springs — currently around 3,800 — to go up by several hund- red people, but not enough to push the vil- lage into the threshold of becoming a city at 5,000 residents. “I think if we could bring more families with children to town, it’d really help our schools,” he said, adding that a slightly larger local population would also help out struggling downtown businesses. If elected, Osterholm said he’d also focus on solving the village’s tedious parking- related problems, working closely with Village staff to continue improving muni- cipal infrastructure and the reliability of utilities, attracting another employer to the Center for Business and Education, as well as fostering greater collaboration between Yellow Springs and the powers that be in Greene County. Osterholm’s approach to governance is straight-forward: His decisions are based on the simple principle of helping the gre- atest number of people, though he under- stands one can never please everyone. “The Windsor project is a good example of that,” he said. “There was some push- back from the surrounding neighborhood, but there were also people all over town who have been asking for more apart- ments for a really long time. So, I did what I thought was best for the whole com- munity.” Conflict resolution is difficult, but not impossible, Osterholm said. By eschewing the “my way or the highway” attitude he’s observed in national politics, and by lear- ning how to compromise with one another, he said that he’s always keen to listen and learn from his constituents. “Here in Yellow Springs, we have to be able to compromise if we’re going to sur- vive,” he said. “Conflict resolution can be difficult, but it’s definitely not impossible.”