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OPINION — I am proud to support Ashley Harder for Phoenix City Council. Ashley was my landlord for 15 years, but that description does not come close to explaining what she meant to Revival Art Collective or to me as a small-business owner.
In 2012, I was trying to find a home for Revival in Downtown Phoenix. I had looked at space after space, heard “no” more times than I can remember, and was starting to wonder whether I was going to make it work. Then I met Ashley.
She listened. She understood what I was trying to build, why it mattered to me, and why I believed so strongly in Downtown Phoenix and Arizona’s creative community. More importantly, she took a chance on me when others would not.
Over the next 15 years, there were plenty of difficult moments. Running a small business is never easy, and COVID-19 brought challenges none of us could have imagined. Ashley was there through those moments. She listened, worked through problems with me and tried to find solutions that were fair and realistic.
I do not say this lightly: Revival might not have survived some of its hardest periods without her support.
What I came to know over those years is that Ashley is smart, practical, compassionate and honest. She understands business, but she also understands the people behind the business. She knows that a storefront is not just real estate. It can represent someone’s livelihood, dream and years of hard work.
I know Ashley from real life, not from campaign mail or political ads. I have seen how she treats people when things are difficult and when no one is watching.
That experience tells me a lot about the kind of person she is and the kind of public servant she would be.
Chris “CJ” Johns is a Phoenix-based creative professional, award-winning tattoo artist, small-business owner and marketing strategist. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
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