HOUSTON – Houston crime survivors and members of the community most affected by gun violence got the chance to ask mayoral candidates how they would tackle issues plaguing the city if elected.
This happened at a forum held at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church on Thursday as the race heats up.
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The two front runners, Senator John Whitmire and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee were absent, but KPRC 2 asked several candidates who were there and stayed till the end, what they felt the most serious issues in the city are and how they plan to address them.
“I think the most important thing was issues related to victim rights…and that was emotional. I saw the video that they had they talked about the trauma recovery center and I think we all are in support of wonderful things like that, you’ve got to find a way to prioritize the expenses of the city between the sort of things we’d like to have and the things we’d want to have, and the want to have has to prioritize people and things like trauma recovery centers,” said candidate Gilbert Garcia.
“If I’m elected as the mayor of Houston, I want to take out more power for the mayor. I want to create a city manager that way we can give more power to the city council, one, and two, I want the city council to move their office to their community. So, they can have their district so they can serve people,” said candidate Naoufal Houjami.
“The most important issue for the city is public safety. The issues we discussed here unfortunately the city is not equipped to address them as a city. Our budgets are too small and it’s going to continue to be limited for a while,” said candidate Lee Kaplan.
“I believe it’s crime and allowing the survivors to speak. Oftentimes times we continue to revictimize individuals by calling them victims. If they overcome it, then they are survivors. We must continue to call victims of sexual assault, human trafficking survivors. That empowers them to continue the mission and help the next person,” said candidate Robin Williams.
“I’m a survivor of gang rape, I’m a survivor of domestic violence. The reason why that’s important, is because once you’re a survivor, the more survivors you meet, you understand it’s not just one incident…having limited resources allows this pattern to keep happening. Same thing within and out of jail. We cannot talk about reentry if there’s no housing,” said candidate Dr. Kathy L. Tatum.
Early voting is already underway. Election day is Nov. 7. For information about polling centers, click here.