Raleigh's District A growth spurs uncertainty

Age: 55

Occupation: Political appointee and recent full-time student

Education: Bachelor's degree, human services, Peace College

Political party: Endorsed by the Wake County Republican Party

Activities and affiliations: Raleigh Human Relations Commission; Wake County Commission for Women; state coalition director for two presidential campaigns; appointee, Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and the White House Office Of National AIDS Policy; PTA president, Faith Lutheran School; Institute of Political Leadership; N.C. Center for Women in Public Service

What should the future of Dix property be? The consensus is the same. It's a magnificent facility. I think it would be a great park. Keep it as-is. Let people know now the history of Dorothea Dix.

What next steps would you support when it comes to a possible public safety center? We know how important it is for our police or our fire department, but I don't recall those facilities being together for quite some time. Because of the current state of the economy, we don't need that now, especially with it being $200 million. We should find some type of facility. If we're going to find one, let's just scrap it and start over.

Do you support the transit bond issue? I haven't made a decision on it yet. But right now, I would probably tell you 'no.' I know that we need transit, but transit for me would be in the form of the CAT bus system. I think the CAT bus should be more effective. Light rail is so far removed at this time.

Do you support the affordable housing bond issue? There's so many add-ons. You're talking about so many other factors. There's things in there I like, but they've added so much on.

What are the best- and worst-case scenarios for Falls Lake? I don't know enough about Falls Lake. That's actually my opponent's area.

What would you do to relieve traffic congestion? I used to live in Washington, D.C., and people laugh at this traffic. Raleigh does a great job. We've got Six Forks Road, Falls of Neuse, Lead Mine and all kinds of different roads to take. We can get to our destination.

What else needs to be fixed in your district and how would you fix it? I'm concerned about crime, but so often, because we live in North Raleigh, people tend not to be concerned about it. We have motor vehicle larcenies. We have breaking and entering. We need to be making sure we address gang activity. I think we should engage faith-based entities and community organizations, making sure there is prevention information.

Contact: galemwilkins.com, 206 Royal Kings Lane, Raleigh, NC 27615; 919-870-0214

Age: 51

Occupation: A retired U.S. Army colonel; National Security consultant

Education: Bachelor's in history, University of Missouri-Rolla; master's in Soviet and East European studies, University of Kansas; master's in national security strategy, National War College

Political party: Unaffiliated

Civic activities and other affiliations: Raleigh Storm Drain Marking Volunteer Program, Grey stone Lake Clean Up, N.C. Museum of Art, N.C. Museum of Life and Science, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Wounded Warrior Foundation, Military Officers Association of America, Truman National Security Project

What should the future of the Dix property be? It needs to be our Central Park. There needs to be a good plan for development around the park. It would be great if instead of folks just kind of going at it piecemeal, we have a comprehensive effort to evolve as a park.

What next steps would you support when it comes to a possible public safety center? I want to take a look at the assumptions that went into the original plan and caused a bit of a flap, and especially how things worked for our emergency workers when we had the tornadoes in April. I want to look at what our real-world needs are.

Do you support the transit bond issue? Yes. Absolutely. It's pretty much about our quality of life. This is a very modest bond. The roads up here in District A were built when we were at 200,000. We're just over capacity.

Do you support the affordable housing bond issue? The idea that we do a public-private with this makes a lot of good sense. These things have kind of paid for themselves. Initially, the taxpayers in Raleigh front the bill, but they tend to pay themselves off.

What are the best- and worst-case scenarios for Falls Lake? The best is we continue to buy up buffers at the upper end of that thing. Even better, we can get Durham to be even more conscious of the fact they are putting in a lot of the silt and phosphates and nitrates. Worst, we have to accelerate upgrading Johnson and we have to go get additional holding capacity. The quick answer would be damming up the Little River. That's the last thing I want to do.

What would you do to relieve traffic congestion? We need smarter roads. We've got an engineering campus downtown. We've got all these high-tech folks here. We can certainly come to some solutions. Three years ago, I-540 was your own personal interstate. That's not the case anymore. Also, most of our bus shelters are signs on a post. There's no bench. On Capital Boulevard, they've not only got benches and a shelter, they've also got a digital display. We could certainly spread those out more. Also, rail. Probably because of the cost, the commuter rail is what we can do first.

What else needs to be fixed in your district and how would you fix it? We have a great deal of office space here and so we're kind of turn-key-ready. Raleigh has obviously been well-situated. We haven't been hit quite as severely as our neighbors. When things turn around, North Raleigh is well-situated between RTP and downtown.

Contact: randystagner.com; 919-889-8822