Last Thursday, October 6, 2011, there was a candidates forum held in downtown Raleigh at Babylon restaurant that included all three mayoral candidates. Nancy McFarlane, Billie Redmond, and Randall Williams answered questions from moderator Bonner Gaylord. Each candidate had 15 minutes to answer questions, most of which came from Twitter using the hashtag #ralmayor.
The full stream of the forum was broadcast live by WRAL. In full disclosure, one of my questions was taken live. Nancy McFarlane answered my question on how we can improve communications between City Government and citizens. Watch the full stream to learn more about each candidate and make an informed vote on October 11, 2011, if you haven’t already voted early.
Jeff Tippett made the introduction for the forum. Then, David Diaz, from the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, laid out the importance of investing in Raleigh’s downtown. “Downtown is an investment center for the City of Raleigh. That’s really what it is. For every dollar the City invested in the past 10 years, there’s been an additional five dollars of private sector investment that has followed.” Watch the full stream from WRAL.