candidate for
There are many beautiful and historic buildings in our city and while the desire to save everything that can be saved is noble, that is not realistic. We need to take a hard look at the budget and deal with how we address blight and dilapidated structures from a fiscally conservative position. Every dime of spending City Council approves is the taxpayers dime, all of it. The government earns no money on its own and can only spend other people's hard earned dollar. My approach to this, no matter if it's dealing with dilapidated structures, or another city issue, will be to recognize that I am spending somebody else's money. I will not pour tax dollars into a money pit, no matter the pressure to do so. My stance is that the city needs to spend an appropriate amount of funds on affordable and necessary projects to clean up blight and maintain that clean up.
My answer to this is short and sweet, there is not a housing shorting in Hopkinsville. We have plenty of empty homes and apartments throughout the city and the county. Further, several new development projects have already broken ground. The real issues are financial literacy and working with the public to educate individuals on how to achieve home ownership and make sound financial/investment decisions.
There are many areas where government, business, and nonprofit leaders can focus to promote economic growth in Hopkinsville. A sustainable economic future needs to not just be about investments in physical infrastructure but also investing in creative infrastructure. We need to foster an environment where people want to do business, where we champion entrepreneurs and give them every chance to succeed. To be a successful community, we need to understand that growth will be dependent on strong human capital, education, and new innovations. These are the keys to our economic success. Our community needs to do more than just build spec buildings. We need to engage residents and create a way for community members to be a part of crafting and implementing a long-term economic vision. Growth is for the community as a whole, not just those who have pet projects and corporate connections. We need to stop neglecting small, local business owners to court big corporations that do not have roots in our community.
Gun violence stems from the fact that we have a crime problem. Crime is NOT down in Hopkinsville, despite claims by town leaders and influencers. We need to address the rapid rise of crime in our city. Supporting and empowering our law enforcement officers to be able to do their jobs, and do them well, is of utmost importance. We need to make sure that when criminals are arrested and locked up, they stay off the streets. Catch and release is a major problem in cities and towns across the nation. It must be stopped. It is hurting innocent citizens and allowing those who break the law to continue to do so with impunity. The question needs to be reworded to ask how I would prioritize the reduction of crime in Hopkinsville. I understand that this question is a harder sell because throwing guns into the mix is an easy way to deflect from the real issue. Fighting over the 2nd Amendment is more politically popular then calling out the elephant in the room. Law enforcement needs to be increased, catch and release needs to go away, consequences for criminal behavior need to be swift and clear, city budgets need to reflect a clear support of law enforcement as a priority. This is more important then planting flowers and building bridges to nowhere.
Economic growth is vital to the health of the town. We need it and I believe the citizens want it. However, before we can even get to the issue of revitalization, we need to talk about cleaning up downtown. Business are not going to want to invest in that area if we don't address the homeless wandering the streets. The first step to revitalizing downtown is cleaning it up, enforcing the laws, not allowing citizens to be harassed by pan handlers and vagrants. I find it interesting how many of these questions tie into one another with the answers. Each issue piggybacks on the others. To revitalize the downtown, we need a safe downtown. To have a safe downtown, we need law enforcement and crime reduction. To deal with blight, we need to make fiscally sound decisions that are sustainable within the towns budget. As to the next step in revitalization (after we create a safe and clean downtown), I would take a look at the how we can encourage private businesses to invest in the area, how we can promote a positive tax structure for these ventures. I do not believe it is within the purview of the city to spend taxpayer dollars on this issue (that would be subsidizing and I am generally against that) but the city can promote and encourage businesses to invest and work to keep taxes low. Further, we need to have businesses downtown that draw people there. To put it simply, we need to make it fun. We have some fantastic restaurants and destinations there already, The Local, The Mixer, and the Hopkinsville Brewing Company make downtown a better place. We need more of that. We need places for families to go. It benefits Hopkinsville to have our residents spend their money here in town, to support our city, as opposed to other cities and towns close by. Parking needs to be readily available to support the commercial investments of downtown merchants. Let's work on continuing to promote endeavors like the Farmers Market and the events held there. I am a big believer in looking at what is being done already and growing that, as opposed to what is often the default, throwing money at shiny new projects. We need to work with what we have first, with an eye towards growing from there.
