City Councilor Dave Norris, who is currently mayor, announced today that he will run for a second term in an interview with C-VILLE.
“It can be a rather thankless job,” said Norris. “It’s a lot of work for a little pay, and you have to develop a pretty thick skin in this job. However, I enjoy the challenges of the job. I enjoy learning about a wide variety of subjects, trying to bring people together, trying to come up with some creative ideas to address the whole panoply of issues that are thrown at us in any given month.
“So at the end of the day, I decided that it’s something I want to try to give a few more years to, and it’s up to the voters to decide if I’ve earned the right to be in this seat for four more years.”
When he was first elected in 2006, Norris ran on a four-pronged campaign: environmental issues, affordable housing, youth opportunities and poverty and race issues.
Dave Norris has opted to try for a second term.
If elected for another term, Norris told C-VILLE that he would like to see the city change direction on transportation and the water supply plan.
“I think we haven’t done nearly enough on the issue of alternative transportation,” said Norris. “We’re about to pave over our largest city park in order to build a new road [the Meadowcreek Parkway] to encourage more suburban sprawl that’s going to make Downtown a congested thoroughfare for commuter vehicles that are going from one part of the county to another part of the county. I’ve lost that debate. But regardless of that particular project, I think the general thrust should be of changing the paradigm and moving away” from single-occupancy vehicles.
“On the water supply issue, I’m convinced that we need to put efficiency and conservation front and center, where as right now, it’s sort of been an afterthought,” said Norris, who recently proposed an alternative water supply plan. “And so, there’s going to be some really difficult conversations ahead both within the city and with our regional partners about to what extent we can be more bold on conservation and efficiency.”