The two candidates vying to serve as Wake Forest’s mayor for the next four years – incumbent Vivian Jones and Commissioner Jim Thompson – were asked the same questions as the five commissioner candidates: What are the problems or difficulties that town residents are telling you they think the town is facing? Are they the problems you see? If not, what do you think the challenges will be for the town in the next four years?
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Vivian Jones: The one challenge I hear most from residents is traffic congestion. I agree there are times of the day when it can be a challenge to get around town easily! We will be updating our transportation plan next year and everyone will have an opportunity to give us their ideas about how to make the traffic flow better. Getting the appropriate connections made to allow more ways to get from one place to another makes a big difference and that is one thing we are continually working on. As I have said before, turning Capital Blvd. into a freeway will make a huge difference and it will allow us to have a network of access roads that will allow local traffic to stay off Capital. We just last Saturday opened 3.7 miles of greenway that could be a way for kids to walk to school instead of parents driving them. We are building sidewalk connections that will give opportunity for walking instead of driving. Increasing our commercial/office development will give people more opportunity to work here and not have to drive.
The other two things I hear the most are that we allow too many trees to be cut down and that there is too much trash on the roadsides. We cannot do anything about people who do not care what the town looks like–you have to actually see them throwing trash out to ticket them. The town employees have adopted Calvin Jones Highway and clean it up once a quarter, but people still throw out their trash. I think we should have another session of public service announcements encouraging people to be more considerate–we did that on couple of years ago and I think it helped a little. As far as trees being cut, we do have a tree ordinance, we take care of trees in the right of way, we require tree save areas in some developments depending on the size of trees, we require planting of trees in development.
All of these challenges are the result of growth and growth is a good thing. Growth brings opportunities we would not have without it. I believe we can continue to work on our plans, work with NCDOT, work with developers and we will continue to be a great place to live, work and play.
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Jim Thompson: Not too long after I announced that I was running for mayor, I posed two questions on all of the various social media platforms in Wake Forest. The questions I asked were related to the strengths and opportunities of our town. Here is a link to the responses – https://www.electjimthompson.com/community-feedback.
I realize your question was related to problems and challenges, but I like to refer to those as opportunities.
Based on the feedback I received, I don’t believe that the citizen input is much different than my own assessment. So, what opportunities do we have as a town?
Managing Growth — I touched on this in the previous question, so I won’t go into great detail here, but we certainly have an opportunity to manage our growth more responsibly. One area I didn’t focus on is that of our downtown. We have an incredible opportunity to grow our downtown and there are several ways we can accelerate this process. We have the opportunity with some new development on White Street to complete the streetscape project from Elm all the way to Holding. We have to show developers that we are serious about redeveloping our downtown. This would go a long way to increasing property values along that corridor. We have the opportunity to completely streamline our planning and inspection process to make it considerably easier (and affordable) to invest in our downtown. This is just the beginning.
Infrastructure — While we have relied on development to provide for our transportation needs (and that has been helpful), we need to be more proactive about making some of these connections. Again, when it comes to development, sometimes we have to take the much needed steps as a municipality to show that we are open for business. We also have to show to our citizens that we want them to feel like we are concerned with the overall community. We have developed so quickly and it has created a disconnected community. As a current commissioner I have voted for numerous projects that increase our connectivity, but we need to accelerate that process. When it comes to infrastructure, we need to think more globally when it comes to how we secure funding. While it’s great that our current mayor has great relationships with Wake County leadership, the funding for most of our transportation projects come from state funding. One thing that sets me apart is the fact that I have built relationships with many of our state leaders and can tap into those resources to advocate for increased support for our transportation needs. Additionally, I have a great relationship with our NC legislative leaders from Wake Forest and can tap into that.
Most of the opportunities for making our town even better are things that have been discussed for years. This proves to me that Wake Forest needs new leadership and a Mayor who can Bring the Future to Wake Forest TODAY. Please vote Jim Thompson – Wake Forest Mayor – on Tues. Nov. 7. For more information, visit www.ElectJimThompson.com.
4 Responses
Completely agree with Brian. The idea that kids will walk to school using the greenway is absolutely ridiculous. Who would send their kids alone along a greenway in 2017? Additionally, the complacency of town leadership is frustrating: the lack of development around downtown, allowing the incompetent company RST Fiber to install gigabit internet which was a complete fail, no major employers have relocated to WF regardless of multiple reports claiming the town leadership is prepping sites and courting potential companies, the insane amount of time taken to start an economic development program. Not to mention the amount of wasted dollars due to purely bad judgment – the insane amount of money spent to repair the “state of the art” Town Hall due to selecting a incompetent general contractor. All we see is TAX DOLLARS spent on consultants and no progress. WF needs leadership that actually knows what they are doing and has an ACTUAL vision for the community. Wake Forest has become an incredible community over the past 20 years, but the town mayor is directly responsible for almost none of it. It is DEFINITELY time for new leadership.
Commissioner Thompson has a clearly stated vision towards moving the city forward. He has built consensus and most importantly remains engaged and accessible. The city of Wake Forest has a tremendous opportunity to take what is good and make it great. Jim Thompson is that person and I encourage you to support his candidacy.
Just playing a different role and insight to the prior comment.
1. Mayor Jones actually is representative of the folks in the town. Check out census data, the town is not made up of mostly working class, the demographic is older, that’s a fact.
2. The mayor is the chair the city council, but lacks any special legislative powers. Yes, the bulk of decisions come from the commissioners, if someone wants to complain, it should be on who has been in the commissioner seat, not the mayor.
3. Attend local meetings and you will discover the town has almost zero input on traffic. Everything has to do with the NCDOT and they will not do anything until after a need has been demonstrated (plan on you want, it’s meaningless).
4. While I graduated with Jim, and the same demographic, you would think I”m all about progress and infrastructure. No, many are like me and moved to Wake Forest for the small town; Raleigh already screwed up through poor planning and letting developers talk and walk; Wake Forest has a chance to remain calm in the storm. If someone moves in expecting things to be like where they came from…well you know my answer, the road goes both ways.
5. Finally, it is good to hear points from everyone, that’s why public sessions are pivotal. Ask Jim, he agrees, the council is supposed to be regular Jills and Joes, not experts (but one could argue that’s also part of the problem).
Vivian is so out of touch and her response demonstrates it.
What we don’t need is a public session to give “our ideas how to make traffic flow better”. We aren’t the experts or town leaders. You are. At least you are supposed to be.
Perhaps this is why the town is in the terrible shape it is from a traffic standpoint – you’ve been the Mayor for all of it.
Your opponent is so much more representative of the average citizen of Wake Forest, who navigate the streets daily. Your response again demonstrates how out of touch you are. There are times where it can be challenging? How about every day all over town all hours of the day!!!
What I don’t hear from you is any plan at all about how to change things which isn’t surprising since you’ve sat there in your position for nearly 20 years.
Time for new leadership and a new proactive vision.