NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The four candidates running to become the mayor of Newport News came together Thursday at Christopher Newport University for a debate involving various topics.
One of the questions covered gun violence in the city, and how it should be curbed. Here are the candidates' responses:
“We have the grant money for grassroots organizations fighting gun violence, we put $1.7 million in 19 different community organizations, attacking gun violence in a number of ways,” said candidate Dave Jenkins.
“What can we do to have a witness protection program for the city of Newport News? That means when people come and they prosecute crimes, witnesses are able to testify and they feel safe in their communities,” said candidate Phillip Jones.
“To be able to do a holistic approach and look at our areas where we have the highest crime, what can we do to infuse dollars whether it comes from our general fund dollars or some type of grant,” said candidate Tina Vick.
“For public safety, those are a few things with our law enforcement, with our CNR projects, economic development, and growth, especially with the transformation of downtown, and then to work with our CARES unit for the city of Newport News,” said candidate Saundra Cherry.
Another question posed by News 3's Ellen Ice surrounded the availability of affordable housing in Newport News. Here are the candidates' responses:
“One of my big things is to get government out of the way sometimes and allow the private sector to come in and work with people to solve the problem, I don’t want affordable housing where people are renting the rest of their lives, I want affordable housing where they can own their home and they can build value and build wealth,” said Jenkins.
“Newport News is nearly 95% developed, we need to look at redevelopment, we have a lot of space along Jefferson and see what can actually be turned into affordable housing,” said Jones.
“We really do have a lot of affordable housing as far as subsidized housing, but I think the real issue is, and being a real estate broker how can we find areas to build more single-family homes,” said Vick.
“We’re building new apartments on 27th and 28th Street which we consider to be affordable housing, but it will also be market-rate housing as well, so where can people afford to live,” said Cherry.
The recovery efforts of the COVID-19 pandemic were also discussed at the forum. Here are the candidates' responses:
“You have to really think about the devastation about being a small business owner and COVID came and you had to close, so we want to continue with that funding to supply support and working with our small business coordinator to be able to provide support,” said Vick.
“What we desperately need to do is get back to some sense of normal, we need to restore the public gatherings, the interaction that we had prior to COVID,” said Jenkins.
“Every single pandemic in the history of time great things have come out of it, this is a time where you can rebuild, this is a time where you can reset, and it’s a time where you can say what is going to be the vision coming out of this,” said Jones.
“I think one of the things that I think is critical is that we have better relationships with our school board, and have those meetings on a regular basis to hear what is the need of our children,” said Cherry.
Other topics included funding city schools, the future of the Williamsburg Newport News Airport, and the current breakdown of districts for the city council.
