Both current Lancaster City mayor Rick Gray and his predecessor Charlie Smithgall have spent two terms in office and are competing for the opportunity for a third term.
Last week, NewsLanc posed two questions to both of the candidates. Smithgall responded within a day.
When no response was forthcomoing from Gray, a second request was sent and followed up with a phone call to his office. His aide, Bernice Buckholder, promised to pass along our request to the mayor and remind him of our Wednesday evening deadline for publishing our weekly newsletter.
The questions are:
1) What were your six most important achievements during your terms as mayor? (Answers to be published this week.)
2) What achievements do you seek to accomplish if elected to another term? (Answers to be published next week.)
Smithgall volunteered eight major achievements:
1. Clipper Stadium
2. First Friday & Artist District
3. Binn’s Park
4. Convention Center
5. Neighborhood Policing
6. Bus Terminal
7. Police Station
8. Increased acreage of parks.
If Mayor Gray responds before next week’s deadline, we will publish his answers to both questions.
While I can’t disagree too much with the items that were listed; I would hesitate to rank the Convention Center as #4.
While it undoubtedly has brought profits to PSP through the Marriott Hotel, I fail to see a significant impact on downtown businesses or the over-all hotel trade. Most days that I drive through center city, albeit there aren’t that many times I have occasion to, the Convention Center and downtown seems as desultory as ever and pretty much bereft of pedestrian traffic.
A good question to pose to both candidates would be what is their respective proposal to address the financial strain that the Convention Center is experiencing; and how would they create a more favorable cash-flow WITHOUT impacting taxpayers or the hoteliers.