The 6 biggest issues in this fall’s local election

Charlotte’s top mayoral candidates will be on stage this evening at the Axios Charlotte’s Mayoral Forum to discuss their visions for the city.

It’s too late to snag a ticket, but you can still follow along with a livestream on the Agenda’s social media accounts.

Here are some of the issues that are sure to come up in the mayor’s race and in the campaigns for Charlotte’s 11 city council seats.

1) How do we address the affordable housing crisis?

With rent prices skyrocketing and wages staying stagnant, nearly half of Charlotte is paying more for housing than they can comfortably afford.

And the problem is only growing worse: Older, cheaper properties are continually being torn down to accommodate nicer, more expensive apartments. City staff estimate that there’s currently a shortfall of 34,000 affordable homes across Charlotte. Mecklenburg County ranks near the bottom of large metro areas with homes available to extremely low-income families.

This disparity is only thrown in starker relief as the apartment market booms. The mix of housing types in Charlotte is majorly out of sync with national trends. Nearly half of all apartments in the city are now luxury and high-priced, compared with about 22 percent across the country.

The City Council has committed to accelerating the construction or preservation of 5,000 affordable housing units over the next three years. But few concrete plans have been put forward to put a real dent in the need.

2) How do we control and shape Charlotte’s growth?

As cranes go up across Uptown and development pushes farther and farther out from the center city, there has yet to be a true conversation about what we want our city to look like. Individual projects get voted up or down by the City Council with little overarching strategy about what we consider good versus bad development.

The boom appears poised to continue for at least a while longer. Who can articulate a vision for how our neighborhoods should look, and who will hold developers accountable?

3) How will we get around?

We continue to live in a car-dominated city. While there have been major strides forward in the city’s greenway network, and we’re starting to see enthusiasm around bike lanes, there are still conversations to be had around the future of transit.

The streetcar versus light rail debate has largely come to a halt. The streetcar line is being built, and we’ll find out in time whether it will spur the development it was intended to.

Charlotte Area Transit System chief John Lewis has proposed a bold $6 billion vision for a city with mass transit in every main corridor. Will the city embrace it?

4) Are we doing the right things to fight crime?

Charlotte is headed toward another year with a historically high number of homicides, and the size of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has not kept pace with the city’s growth.

The City Council has slowly and grudgingly increased the size of the police force, but there have been no substantive answers on how to stem violent crime.

Several candidates have proposed adding new officers. But a lingering distrust of the police force in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott last fall remains an unresolved issue.

[Agenda story: Rising death toll pushes crime to the top of Charlotte’s agenda]

5) Are we doing enough to create jobs?

Back in 2011, as Charlotte’s financial industry was ravaged by the recession, local elected officials talked incessantly about jobs — creating them, luring them, protecting them.

As the economy has improved, this issue has taken on less prominance. But there’s plenty of evidence that it’s still a significant need.

Big companies are increasingly finding the pastures greener on the southern side of the state line. And there are still barriers to access of opportunity for wide swaths of the community.

[Agenda story: Charlotte is trying to open job opportunities to people overcoming troubled pasts]

6) Should local leaders play on the national stage?

The back and forth over LGBT protections and House Bill 2 put Charlotte in the national dialogue last year — and also raised the question of whether a mayor’s role is better spent taking a stand on national issues or staying focused on municipal affairs.

Mayor Jennifer Roberts has often focused her campaign on standing up to Donald Trump and Republicans in Raleigh. It’s helped her to a significant fundraising advantage, but also opened her to criticism from opponents who say she’s focused on building her personal brand rather than representing the city.

[Agenda story: Mayoral hopefuls sense a weak Jennifer Roberts]

The primary election on the Democratic side could end up being a referendum on priorities.