BATON ROUGE – Candidates for East Baton Rouge mayor-president had the chance to share their visions and plans for the city if they were to be elected at a mayoral forum held on Southern University’s campus Tuesday evening. They were asked about their plans in improving the city’s infrastructure, such as what improvements need to be worked on and how they plan to act on it. ”We have to fix the smaller structures that are going on. We have metro-council people who are not taking care of their areas,” William “Champagne” Roundtree (I) said. ”We recently broke ground for the bus rapid transport system, which is going to start on Airline Highway and come down Plank Road,” Mayor-president Sharon Weston Broome said.They shared their strategies to improve the quality of education and keep the youth from moving out of the city.”The retaining of our graduates and keeping them here in the capitol city is not going to happen until we clean up the city. It’s not going to happen until we get a handle on crime,” Sid Edwards (R) said. ”We have to address quality of life too. Those young people want to see more excitement downtown,” Ted James (D) said.The moderator also asked about how they will bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community. One candidate felt there needs to be more community events to bring people together. Another felt that officers need to be more involved in the communities. ”There’s no community policing. So imagine if we had another 75 to 100 new, great officers on the streets that can do true community policing,” Edwards said. ”There’s certain things, I would like such as picnics in the park where everybody’s invited, get to know who’s actually policing your community,” Ryan “Badd Bidness” Carter (I) said. The candidates also shared how they are preparing for the role of mayor-president.”I’ve spoken to the citizens, I’ve seen what you want, I’ve heard your requests, I know what you need,” Roundtree said.”In preparing for this, it’s monitoring city council meetings and I’ve worked with members of the council and both of our current and previous mayoral initiatives. And studying the budget,” James said.Permalink| Comments
BATON ROUGE – Candidates for East Baton Rouge mayor-president had the chance to share their visions and plans for the city if they were to be elected at a mayoral forum held on Southern University’s campus Tuesday evening.
They were asked about their plans in improving the city’s infrastructure, such as what improvements need to be worked on and how they plan to act on it.
“We have to fix the smaller structures that are going on. We have metro-council people who are not taking care of their areas,” William “Champagne” Roundtree (I) said.
“We recently broke ground for the bus rapid transport system, which is going to start on Airline Highway and come down Plank Road,” Mayor-president Sharon Weston Broome said.
They shared their strategies to improve the quality of education and keep the youth from moving out of the city.
“The retaining of our graduates and keeping them here in the capitol city is not going to happen until we clean up the city. It’s not going to happen until we get a handle on crime,” Sid Edwards (R) said.
“We have to address quality of life too. Those young people want to see more excitement downtown,” Ted James (D) said.
The moderator also asked about how they will bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community. One candidate felt there needs to be more community events to bring people together. Another felt that officers need to be more involved in the communities.
“There’s no community policing. So imagine if we had another 75 to 100 new, great officers on the streets that can do true community policing,” Edwards said.
“There’s certain things, I would like such as picnics in the park where everybody’s invited, get to know who’s actually policing your community,” Ryan “Badd Bidness” Carter (I) said.
The candidates also shared how they are preparing for the role of mayor-president.
“I’ve spoken to the citizens, I’ve seen what you want, I’ve heard your requests, I know what you need,” Roundtree said.
“In preparing for this, it’s monitoring city council meetings and I’ve worked with members of the council and both of our current and previous mayoral initiatives. And studying the budget,” James said.