The June 10 primary elections are still a few days away, but local attorney Stephen Wukela said he’s already looking forward to them.
Wukela announced his candidacy for mayor of the City of Florence in March and has been concentrating on three basic themes: leadership, openness, and change.
Wukela said there are a lot of serious problems in the community, including crime-related issues such as gangs and drugs.
“Particularly in the northern area of Florence, a lot of folks have told me they’re prisoners in their own homes. They’ve got gates around their houses with padlocks. They fear for the drug dealers that hang out in front of their houses and fire off weapons. They have abandoned houses in their neighborhoods that the drugs and the crime operate out of. We’ve got a growing gang problem. That is something that needs to be addressed first and foremost,” said Wukela.
When it comes to the issue of jobs, Wukela said Florence needs more development to draw economics into the area.
“You talk to some of these major developers and they tell you they want to know what kind of education we have in our community, what kind of schools we have, and they want to know what kind of culture we have. We’ve got to make our community attractive to those sorts of folks to bring those sorts of jobs.”
Wukela added that downtown redevelopment was one of the centers of his campaign.
“Although we’ve talked a lot about downtown redevelopment, none of it has seemed to find its way north of Cheves Street. We’ve got to concentrate on Evans Street and Dargan Street and we’ve got to bring real development downtown,” said Wukela.
Wukela will oppose incumbent Frank Willis on June 10.
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