Tim Spies for Salisbury

Salisbury has a problem. A very large problem. That problem is crime.

Crime keeps away business. Crime keeps away jobs and opportunities. Crime devours our limited resources. Crime raises our taxes, our insurance rates, our rents. Crime seriously erodes property values and lowers buyer interest and confidence. It leads to neighborhood degradation, then to decay, attracting more crime and more criminals along the way. Crime has us fearful in our own homes. Fearful of what might happen when we leave. Fearful of what might happen when we stay. The problem is growing and spreading. Open drug deals within sight of grade, middle and high schools, public sex acts in plain view of family homes. Murders, rapes, armed robberies, burglaries and other serious crimes, all in numbers too high to believe: over a thousand in just over five months. A thousand...

It doesn't have to be like this.

Salisbury's city council needs to move on, past the pandering, politicking and underhandedness that has characterized it for over a decade. A council that follows its own rules, makes open, reasoned, well-informed decisions and that truly looks out for its citizens is the council that we need. Ask yourself: Is that the council we have now, or had before this one, or before that? Many would say not.

Salisbury's health is long past being at risk. It is severely compromised. In a healthy city, the health and well-being of all within it become easier to achieve and maintain. Salisbury's health needs to be restored, step by measured step. The first step: Address crime. Aggressively, systematically and comprehensively. We need to be direct and unwavering. We need proven, all-inclusive measures and strategies, not disjointed efforts with already failed tools and an agenda that conveniently ignores some of crime's root causes and actually encourages criminals to continue their business on our streets. Band-aids will not stop the bleeding of an arterial wound.

I care about Salisbury and all that Salisbury can and should be. I seek a seat on Salisbury's City Council. I want and need your votes in the March primary and April election. My goals: to break the council-mayor deadlock that has cursed our city for years and to set and keep the task of crime control where it should be: at the forefront of both council and city business.

I am not a politician. I have no hidden agenda. I have no ties to any special interests. I know that Salisbury must become safer to survive. Only the right city council can make that happen.

Whether Salisbury is called home, workplace, place of business or alma mater, the unique quality of life that a healthy Salisbury can offer is one of its most important assets. It must be healed. It must be protected and nurtured. I believe this. I think that you do, too.