BY BRANDI ENGEMAN
White Rock

I have heard several candidates discuss their issues in a variety of forums and I want to understand a couple of points.

For Gary Stradling: you’ve made housing your single issue. Everything is housing housing and more housing. I agree housing is an issue I want (and see being) addressed. That said, what about the other things you’ll need to be informed on during your time, if elected to council. When constituents ask you questions about social issues, small business, transparency, or anything that isn’t somehow related to housing, where do you stand? Because you won’t get to just “fix housing” for four years and you shouldn’t be elected just because you’re making wild claims that you’ve got a magic bullet no one before you has had.

So what else matters to you? What other issues will you take on in the downtime when housing isn’t on the agenda for the night? What are your thoughts on other inequities in our community? How will you work to make our town a place all types of people want to live, even those whose lifestyles you’ve berated and belittled?

For James Wernicke: I have heard you say that you think we need more kid friendly activities in town. What else do you think we need? On any given day or weekend you can toss a dart and hit something that’s been planned with children in mind. We have outdoor and indoor activities, a thriving library system, multiple small businesses geared towards kids, county contracted non-profits supporting kids, parks, a teen center. What else do we need? Do we need a mall? A bowling alley? More movie theaters? When I hear you say “more” I’d like to know what you mean because Los Alamos is already a decent place to raise kids (unless you want to start a convo about the pressure we raise them under, but I’ll save that for the school board meetings for now).

I have other questions, about minimum wage, health care and social program and the various candidates stances, but this letter is a start.

Thank you for your time.