Ackerly is the owner of local ad firm Ackerley Advertising, and is running for mayor for the second time. Romero is finishing up her first term as mayor, and previously represented Ward 1 on the city council. She began her political career working as an aid in that same office. Wittenbraker has worked in a variety of jobs, ranging from building and fire inspector to contracts administration, and is running for city office for the first time.
Listen to longer interviews below. Note, the interview with Regina Romero lasts longer due to traffic issues.
Ed Ackerly
Janet ‘JL’ Wittenbraker
Regina Romero
Roads
All of the candidates made reference to Proposition 411, a voter-approved initiative that aims to repave all streets in the city within 10 years.
Ackerly called the idea of the project unrealistic and said it should stick to major thoroughfares first.
“And part of it is it’s a little different here in Tucson than another places because of the way the roads were laid down on raw dirt with asphalt,” he said. “You get one little crack in it during a monsoon and all of a sudden you’ve got a pothole the size of a small VW, and it’s just very difficult to keep the roads in shape.”
Romero said that Tucson is playing catch-up from decades of disinvestment in our infrastructure.
“As mayor, I’ve had the opportunity to lead on passing Proposition411, which invests $600 million into every residential road in the City of Tucson and $150 million into park and pedestrian safety. We’re killing way too many pedestrians and cyclists in our roads. So it is a historic investment, we’ve never seen this type of investment.”
Wittenbraker said the money is there to fix the issue, thanks to Proposition 411 and general fund money.
“We need to seriously look at the budget and reallocate funds as necessary to fully and adequately fund or transportation department so they can actually rebuild roads. Resurfacing is important where it’s going to improve the longevity of the road, but if the road is destroyed, we just need to dig it up and put it back down. The City of Tucson is spending an awful lot of money on patches, and pothole patches have a short lifespan. They often pop out shortly after they’re installed because the water gets underneath.”
Tucson’s unhoused population
Ackerly said Tucson is not alone, and many communities across the sun belt and up the Pacific coast are dealing with increased homelessness.
“I think Tucson could send a message pretty quickly that we are not going to be a haven for lawless people that come to Tucson to take advantage of us. Now, the person that has economic difficulties or even mental problems and needs some help, We’re Tucsonans and we’re going to help those people. But Tucson has a reputation of giving away free services. That’s a Portland attitude, an attitude that belongs on the coasts.”
Romero said she thinks that her program that stresses getting people sheltered before providing services that can help them better care for themselves is part of a solution to help Tucson’s unhoused.
