What is your goal for downtown

redevelopment?

Incumbent Mayor Elaine Walker

One of the main goals in Bowling Green’s comprehensive plan is connecting Western to downtown, and this redevelopment is the perfect vehicle to make that happen, Walker said. “Our goal is to create a 24/7 downtown,” she said.

Mayoral Candidate Brian Strow

Raising more than $2 million of investment by 2014 is the most important goal in the downtown redevelopment project, Strow said. This money will allow taxpayers to be repaid for their investment. Strow said he will actively recruit businesses from outside the city to move to downtown and raise the investment.

Do you support either the Uniform

or substantial equivalency?

Walker

She said she supports both URLTA and substantial equivalency. Her goal is to bring landlords, tenants and other residents together to solve the problem of fair housing in Bowling Green, she said.

Strow

He doesn’t support URLTA or substantial equivalency. He said the measures would result in an extra burden on landlords that would ultimately increase the cost of rental housing.

What issue will have the biggest impact on Western students in the upcoming years?

Walker

Adopting a landlord tenant act and creating jobs for Western graduates are the most crucial issues for Western students, Walker said. Since January 2007, Walker helped bring in 1,600 new jobs with an average income level of $30,000 a year, she said.

Strow

“The biggest issue for students is whether or not Bowling Green can turn itself into a community that can provide college education-level job opportunities,” Strow said. Strow said the commission spends the majority of economic development funds on providing manufacturing jobs, and he will actively recruit business and professional jobs.

What are your environmental goals

for the city of Bowling Green?

Walker

She said she wants to ensure the city is building green and encouraging city residents to build green. She is also part of the rethinking transportation task force that evaluates how to use roads more effectively. “If we modify behavior, we fix congestion, reduce our carbon footprint and reduce oil use,” Walker said.

Strow

Providing better sidewalks and greenways is Strow’s major environmental goal for Bowling Green, he said. He started the current sidewalk program that began building sidewalks near schools and parks, he said.

Do you support a clean air policy, which would ban smoking in Bowling Green?

Walker

She said she supports a clean air policy in Bowling Green. Bowling Green is the only significant city in the state without a clean air ordinance, and workers are paying the price, she said. “We are exposing our workers to unhealthy environments under the guise that government can’t intervene,” she said.

Strow

He said he isn’t in support of a clean air policy that applies to all business. Certain business, such as tobacco shops and bowling alleys, may suffer great loses if such ordinance exists, he said. He doesn’t want to see government action force business owners to lose their operations.

Reach Mandy Simpson at news@chherald.com.