GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Grand Rapids mayoral candidates David LaGrand and Senita Lenear debated Monday night inside the Wealthy Theatre just about two weeks out from Election Day.
The candidates were asked about transportation, housing, parking, student absenteeism, people who are unhoused, crime and more in front of dozens of attendees.
Formal questions stemmed from a community survey, like how to improve transportation to support equity throughout neighborhoods.
Lenear responded, "I do believe that one of the solutions really is diversifying our modes of transportation," and, "I think that we should look at shuttles that shuttle people from within neighborhood business districts downtown, and people who are downtown into the neighborhood business districts."
LaGrand said, "this whole conversation really comes down to wealth building in the community among the people who have the least amount of money," and, "I'm excited by the idea of actually moving us a lot further forward on making Grand Rapids cycling friendly and pedestrian friendly."
The two were also asked about how the city should help unhoused people living on the streets.
LaGrand said, "We're underspending, and that's partly because we're not willing to articulate the reality which is about 80% of the money we spend with to help the unhoused has to be spent on programming, it has to be spent on support services."
Meanwhile, Lenear responded, "nonprofit accountability, in Grand Rapids, we are program rich and impact poor," and, "and so there's something broken in the systems that we have in place to address some of these issues."
Later on, they answered how the city should more effectively cut down on violent crime while building trust and confidence in policing.
Lenear explained, "to this day I'm still a part of, is the Safe Alliances For Everyone task force," adding, "is made up of the police department as well as the prosecutor's office, and then grassroot nonprofit and nonprofit organizations as well as commissioners, all sitting at the table to find solutions to address violent acts."
LaGrand said, "there are lots of ways in which we can better triage and better respond to incidents."
Members of the audience also asked questions of the candidates.
The Grand Rapids Media Center hosted the debate. To watch more from the debate, you can find it on their website here.