On the ballot: Mayoral race -- Myelle Thompson
By From staff reports
Published in News on November 2, 2015 1:46 PM
Myelle Thompson
Q: What do you feel is the biggest issue facing our community?
A: Crime, education and jobs. If I have nothing to do as a young fellow, or if I don't have an education, it becomes now where I have to commit a crime. It all works together. If I don't have an education, I don't get a job, so now I've got to commit a crime to get by. We've got to find something that allows us to get them an education, and then they can get a good paying job and prevent them from going into committing crimes.
Q: Describe, with specific examples, what you would do to expand and improve Goldsboro's economy.
A: Again, back to improving education, I would work to bring jobs to Goldsboro and also ensure the safety of our community. We need jobs. We don't need no more restaurants. I would want to just present a proposal, or partner with some of the businesses here. Instead of hiring outside people, hire some inside people. As far as even when we have something going on downtown, we should be hiring some of the youth or someone to help out.
Q: What do you think should be done about Goldsboro's panhandling problem?
A: Like I tell anyone, I don't mind giving it because at the end of the day it's up to them what they do with the money. It scares some people. When someone just walks up to you and you're off-guard, you don't know if they're going to rob you or something. So I think we should limit panhandling and cut it out. If we see you do it, we'll give you a citation, and if you repeatedly do it, we'll lock you up. My thing is, I think everybody needs help. If you don't ask, you don't get help. I wouldn't say it's a hot topic for me, it's just everyone needs help and I don't mind giving someone a dollar. I never pass by anyone (panhandling) without giving them something. If I see someone on the road, I'll give them a dollar. If they go and buy themselves a beer, hey, that's on them. I gave them a dollar, that's my deed.
Q: The council has designated four major issues it intends to tackle in the coming years. Where do you stand on these issues?
* Greenways and pathways around the city, both maintenance of existing systems and bringing new ones to Goldsboro.
I'm for it. All day long, I'm for that.
* Continue to invest in downtown
It's fine to keep investing in downtown. We can invest in downtown all day long, we can make it look beautiful, but when you go to the outskirts of Goldsboro, what is done there? We have to realize that there's more than downtown. There's people who have got to live in houses in other areas of Goldsboro. We could be building houses, or we could be supporting the education system. It leads back to we can make downtown look beautiful, no doubt, and I think they're doing an awesome job, and we can continue to make downtown look beautiful, but we also need to expand into other areas to make them beautiful, too.
* Develop the city's parks and recreation department
I think everybody needs sports. I'm not a sports player, but I love watching sports. But at the end of the day, basketball is great but sports and fitness don't guarantee you a future. You can be the best basketball player in your high school, but that doesn't mean you're going to be able to go to college and complete your degree and get good grades.
* Combat blight throughout the city
I think we have to fix that. Let's fix it. My thing, as a grant-writer myself, is that I think we'll find different grants to help people get in those (dilapidated) homes and fix them up. I think we can fix up the houses and move people in, and then that brings more tax revenue to the city. Paying rent is fine because whoever does own the property is paying taxes on it, but we are the fifth poorest city in the country. We need to do something. This is Goldsboro. Let's make it live. We need something new.
Q: If elected mayor, what do you think you can do to lower Goldsboro's crime rate and stop the shootings in our city?
A: We're not going to stop everything. There's no possible way. I think we have great police officers, but they don't have all the proper equipment to do their job. They don't have all the training. I think we need more training in the system. I think they're doing an awesome job, but we still need to spend our money on training and giving them (officers) updates on information and laws to keep them abreast of everything. In speaking with some of the officers, they've said nine times out of 10 they don't even see their chief. The chief probably doesn't even know their names. So we need to make sure we cover all our bases. We also have to connect our community with our police force.
Q: The new 70 bypass will be completed and opened during the new mayor's first year in office. If elected, what do you think you can do to lessen the potentially negative impact a bypass could have on our community?
A: The bypass does bring in more people that have to stop for gas. When truckers come through, they may want to stop and stay in a hotel and buy food from us. We can make money doing that. The bypass is there. We can't move it. So business will just have to deal with it. I'm not saying that in a bad way, but again it's just at the end of the day we have to realize that it's there and it's going to probably help us. Could it help? Yes. Could it not help? Yes. It just depends on how we adapt and what we do in Goldsboro, and we have to bring something in before somebody will want to stop here.