Political stories from The Roanoke Times-Grandstand 2006: Roanoke City Council

Many of my fellow Firefighters have asked about the upcoming Roanoke City Council Election. The Roanoke Times has an ongoing interactive column they will run until May 2nd. Below is the recent column. The candidates answer a question posed by Bill McClure. Let me know what you think.

Political stories from The Roanoke Times-Grandstand 2006: Roanoke City Council:

Grandstand 2006: Roanoke City Council

From now until the May 2 Election Day, candidates will respond to readers who submitted questions on the upcoming election for Roanoke City Council. The candidates' replies appear below in alphabetical order. To see a specific candidate's response, click on the name below.

David Bowers | Carl Cooper | Alfred Dowe | Bill Lockard | Granger Macfarlane
Gwen Mason | Mark McConnel | Stuart Revercomb | David Trinkle | William White

This week's topic: Addressing citizen flight

For six two-year election cycles, candidates like you have been telling citizens in Roanoke that they would fix the “flight” of citizens from Roanoke. Many have identified the poor schools, lack of real economic development and good jobs, and the interrelationship of these two factors. To date no candidate has specifically addressed a solution, and the “flight” of citizens continues. What would you do specifically to address the school problems, and economic development problems? By specific, I mean specific in-depth solutions, i.e., do we abandon magnet schools for neighborhood schools? Or do we put tax incentive dollars in new tech jobs versus supermarket jobs? Merely identifying the problem, or acknowledging it, does not solve it, as past candidates have shown.

— Bill McClure, Southwest Roanoke

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