LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — The November election is just a few weeks away— and one closely watched race will be the one for Little Rock mayor.
On Wednesday, October 5, the mayoral candidates met and spoke at a forum in southwest Little Rock.
This came after a busy week in the city after one of Mayor Scott's biggest ideas for the return of a music festival was shut down.
In the past couple of days, the City of Little Rock and Mayor Frank Scott Jr. has been under a lot of pressure with questions surrounding transparency and the now-canceled LITFest.
Mayor Frank Scott Junior's biggest takeaway from the forum was his promise for continued growth in the city if he is re-elected.
He said that he has a 7-step plan for that, which will include violence reduction, building infrastructure, and investing in community schools.
"Great work is being done. Why? Because we've been very intentional with our economic development south of 630 east of 530," said Mayor Scott.
Creator of Rock City Eats' Greg Henderson focused on building relationships between city government and the people.
He emphasized that jobs will come when we have a great place to live... which will also include reducing crime.
"When police roll up in a neighborhood, people aren't worried about getting arrested. They have a relationship with LRPD, they have a relationship with the Chief," said Henderson.
Glen Schwarz, a former candidate in the Little Rock mayor's race in 2018, has three priorities he wants to see if he's elected: work on global warming, legalize marijuana, and create a space program.
"I said I would bring a space program, the first step to bring a space program in Little Rock would be to build a world-class observatory in the south of Little Rock," said Schwarz.
Steve Landers was invited, but event organizer Kimberly Lee told the audience that while he was scheduled to come as of last week, he did not respond to their requests to confirm on the day of.
A representative of Landers' campaign told us that he was unable to attend due to a prior engagement he couldn't miss.
On election day, if none of the candidates get more than 40% of the vote in the general election it will lead to a runoff between the two with the highest vote totals.