Entrepreneur Eugene Myrick is running for Raleigh mayor.

Incumbent Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin is not seeking reelection.

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Myrick, who is self-employed, is one of five candidates in the non-partisan race to replace Baldwin. The others are:

The others are:

Myrick co-founded the Save Our Shaw Coalition. The 1994 graduate of Shaw University said the group hopes to "support modernization without commercialization, while preventing the potential displacement of long-time residents."

WRAL News spoke with each candidate about their views before Election Day on Nov. 5.

Note: WRAL News’ questions in bold and candidate responses follow

Affordable housing is a huge issue in Raleigh. What's your plan to fix the affordable housing issue in Raleigh?

Well, [in] my time in New York, I did work with a city councilman, and the focus was 100% affordable housing. And that's something that can be achieved in Raleigh.

Right now, affordable housing is based off of [the] area median income. The area median income is $108,000. So 30% of that is around $2,600 a month.

I'm saying that we can focus more on an individual’s income. For example, where I live, Biltmore Hills Apartments, was just sold. But if we focus on a neighborhood median income, like let's get the income of those folks that live there now to ensure that before they move out, they have a place to live.

So, I'm more focused on a neighborhood median income. I don't know how you can base affordability off of somebody else's income.

You mentioned your time in Brooklyn, so is this something you're bringing in from another city?

I'm fortunate. Once I graduated from Shaw [University], I did work in the Wake County School System for a while, but I also taught in the New York City school system, and then, I got into broadcast radio, which took me from NY, LA [and] Chicago, but I've always come back to North Carolina.

Some of the things I see happening here, they're happening in real time. Like, when I look at what they consider Skid Row in Los Angeles, and now I'm here in Raleigh, it's like every exit that you come off, there's a homeless encampment.

So, we have a bunch of small Skid Rows here. So, I'm using from what I’ve seen in other cities and what I'm seeing happening in real time, and I'm saying some of these things can be prevented if we get a handle on them right now.

Your website says you want a non-negotiable, mixed-housing policy. Can you explain what that looks like?

Right now, [the] city council, I feel like they pass the buck. I feel like they say, “Well, we can’t tell a developer what to do, but you can tell them ‘no.’” They come before [the] city council with these ideas and they say “no.”

But at the same time, the city owns land. The city has real estate that we can build on.

And if we used city-owned land to create affordable housing, once again it's based off of individual’s income not the area median income.

So, as of right now, a police officer starts with $55,000 a year. They can't afford $2,600 a month. That's at least half their salary. So, we want teachers to be able to live here. We want the police [and] the firefighters able to live here.

We shouldn't want our civil servants to have to live in the outskirts to travel to Raleigh. The quality of life and affordability is something that I'm focused on.

Speaking of civil servants, you want to support the police officers. What does that look like to you? Does that mean raising their wages? Does that mean getting more police officers?

You know when I hear folks say defund the police, I say that's really not realistic. You have no police, there will be anarchy.

In all honesty, my brother and my sister-in-law are retired NYPD and corrections (officers) from New York. So, I understand.

Part of the issue that we have with police here is that they are underpaid, but at the same time, you can offer incentives.

Once again, just having the experience of living somewhere else, like in New York they have programs like the Officer Next Door and the Teacher Next Door.

I took advantage of the Teacher Next Door program. It's an incentive where you can, if a house is, say, $200,000, you give them the downpayment, you also give them funds to make improvements to the home, and then you're required to live in that home for five years.

There are incentives for [the] Raleigh [Police Department]. Although Wake County controls the teachers, but I'm saying the city can get involved where we want our teachers to be able to live here in Raleigh.

So, we could come up with incentives like Officer Next Door, Teacher Next Door, programs where you can incentivize. So, salary is one thing, but if I can help you afford a down payment as well as some funds to improve the home to the way you want it, that may be an incentive.

It's an interesting idea. I'm curious where you get the funding for that to work? Do you see certain areas where you think there could be efficiencies and reduction of cost in other areas of the city budget?

I'm focused. I have four core principles: Leadership, empathy, accountability and diversity. Leadership and accountability are most important.

Accountability is like the city just spent $100,000 on a dog park downtown. And it's literally a gate with some mulch. There's no adventure park for the dogs. That's not utilizing people's money properly.

Additionally, the city created a problem when they did Sip n' Stroll. Now, you can leave a bar with your drink, you can leave a club with your drink. And now, that there's more violence happening downtown, instead of revoking that, they say, “Well, let's pay a private police force.” So now, they pay the private police force $3.2 million to help alleviate a problem that the city created.

So, me on the other hand, I would have taken that $3.2 million, and I would have split it in three: I would have said let's immediately do a small recruitment class. We could have gotten 10 new officers with $1 million. We could have spent $1 million on the ACORNS unit, which is a non-emergency police unit to help. And then, we could have spent $1 million to alleviate the homeless population off the streets.

So, just being a little bit more accountable with the people's money is something I'm looking forward to. And then, when we asked, I can see when the folks of Raleigh are asked like a parks bond or something to that effect, they come up with the dough, so it's like Raleigh put up money for a parks bond and even that's not being properly executed.

One-third of that -- $275 million I think it is -- is being spent between Chavis Park and Dix Park, but the entire city put in for that money.

It's about being more accountable with the dollars that the people put in.

You mention downtown, so I want to talk about downtown revitalization. What would you like to do? What's your vision of a city that has energy throughout, that has places to go throughout and not just through pockets?

See, I beg to differ because the whole story is not being told. There are neighborhoods, part of downtown that was considered Black Wall Street.

A lot of Black history is literally being erased from downtown. So, when I travel to say like Atlanta, I might go to Atlanta to a basketball game or a football game, to go to some of the cultural [events], the King Center and things like that. Every time I go to Atlanta, I always manage to end up at Ebenezer Church or Dr. King's home, like that entire block has been preserved.

It's not like you're going to see Dr. King's house and it's next to a 20-story building. Things like that bring culture, they bring tourism, so we're not utilizing what we have.

The fact that you have Shaw University there with Estey Hall, the first with Black women in the entire country. You have Leonard Medical School right there, the first four-year medical school in the country. Not at a Black School or a white school, the first four-year medical school.

If something like that was to be properly promoted, then, this can bring a type of tourism that folks go to the King Center to see. Like [the] Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. It started on Shaw's campus with Ella Baker.

So, there's a lot of history that's not being properly told. And unfortunately, at the rapid rate of development, some of these things will be wiped out, like the Lightner Funeral Home. It caught fire, they tore it down. There wasn't even a brick. By the time I went back to see what happened, there wasn't even a brick. Turns out, that's one of the places that should have been on the national registry with a few other buildings.

We have a lot of history in Raleigh that's just getting wiped out. And things are moving at such a rapid pace, we're not actually capturing that picture for the world to see.

You were a leader in the effort against rezoning part of Shaw's downtown campus. What did that experience teach you?

In all honesty, it taught me that some folks really don't care about culture and history. I came to Shaw in 1990. It's ironic that, I came during my freshman year this was when Spike Lee “Do the Right Thing” and those types of movies came out. I came down I had an X hat, it had an X on it, and I'll never forget my roommate was like, “Why do you have an X on your hat? and I was like, “Well, Malcolm X,” and he didn't know anything about that. He was like, “All we learned about was Dr. King and Rosa Parks.”

[At] Shaw University, the history is so rich. I recently came across black-and-white photos. There was a time I think the state government was talking about merging HBCUs back then. It was this huge march with tens of thousands of Black college students that converged on Shaw's campus. That's some of the history that hasn't been told.

I came across black-and-white photos of Stevie Wonder at Shaw's homecoming in Chavis Park. Dr. King on Shaw's campus.

Folks are going to Atlanta. They're skipping over Raleigh, going to Greensboro, but there's a lot of history and culture in Raleigh.

And I'm not one of those folks. I don't just want it to be a picture on a wall. It's easy to put a plaque there, but we can salvage some of those buildings and make them actual tourist attractions to help with Raleigh.

Alright, so [if] you're elected. Day 1, what's your first priority?

My first priority is to expand city council. I think that Raleigh is growing at such a rapid rate that you actually need at least 10 city council members, and I would do it based off of population not geographical location.

Because if you did it off of population areas like District C would end up with three or four city council members based off population. And once again, it's not really expensive.

I did see one city council member say, “Well, I don't know where we'd get the money to pay. City council members are making $29,000.”

First of all, that's ridiculous. To make $29,000 a year and to make billion-dollar decisions defies logic. But I would expand to 10 city council members and give them offices to have meetings in the district. Right now, to meet with your city council member, they're having community hours at a coffee shop.

Take my neighborhood in Biltmore Hills. Our property taxes have gone up, so I feel kind of crazy sitting in a coffee shop to talk to my city councilman while I have to deal with all this laughing and joking, while folks are having a cappuccino.

And then, the city council has reduced the time you have to speak. It's gone from three minutes to two minutes to one minute.

I think you give the people access and this way, we can actually hear what's affecting the people on a daily basis instead of once a month or every two weeks for one minute at [a] city council [meeting].

So, my first priority would be to expand city council.

It goes back to one of your key things that you talk about which is community engagement.

Exactly. We have, currently city council has community engagement, they have the van that goes out.

But when they bring information back to [the] city council, it's ignored.

One of the things that the people asked for was they wanted to stick with two-year terms. And they wanted to expand the city council.

But [the] council voted to go to four-year terms and not expand [the] city council. So, they did exactly the opposite of what the people voted for, or what the people asked for rather.

So yeah, that's where I'm at, more community engagement.