After interviewing over 15 candidates in 7 days we have our favorites

If we had a pick nine candidates to endorse based on survey response and interviews, the following nine would be our candidates. BUT, we are not an organization that is run solely by our board. We will use a weighted scale to determine who is endorsed by CincyPAC. And there is no guarantee that we are going to endorse nine, we'll endorse at least 5.

Pat Fischer was perhaps the most polished and innovative non-incumbent candidate that we interviewed. He has an incredible record as a community leader and former community council president and has demonstrated follow through on extremely innovative ideas - including lower cost crime prevention strategies like pinpoint policing. He supports the implementation of a streetcar and would like to see phase one include Uptown.

Chris Bortz was unanimously supported for his polished and proactive style as well as the fact that he leads most of our initiatives already, including the streetcar initiative and GO Cincinnati. Chris has some very creative green ideas like free parking for hybrid vehicles, the green streets pilot project, and green rooftops. In the last budget cycle, Chris worked to triple the funding for the arts. He was referenced by several other candidates as someone they enjoy working with.

Jeff Berding is a huge supporter for the YP voice and has dug into the trenches for local community councils, including Columbia Tusculum. We like the fact that he's a councilman that gets the job done. Jeff has some very creative ideas for funding options for the streetcar and the arts. We'd like to see more support for environmental issues from Jeff in the future.

John Cranley has played a key role in making the city more developer-friendly by leading the effort for One Stop and establishing the economic development department at the city. John would like to see downtown become a 24/7 destination. He supports the streetcar and offered several creative funding options. He also offered an innovative health care solution to lower health care costs for small businesses in the city.

Laketa Cole wrote the LEED incentive legislation to promote green building practices in the city. As the person who has been at City Hall the longest (she was an aide to a couple of council members before being appointed and becoming elected as a city council member herself) we were pleasantly surprised by her collaborative and approachable demeanor. Laketa is in touch with the local neighborhoods and holds community meetings once a month. She supports the smaller arts programs as well as local entrepreneurs. Laketa was positively referenced by other candidates as well.

Roxanne Qualls impressed us with her deep knowledge of current issues and was strongly recommended by other candidates as someone who knows council and can get things done. She's a student of policy and is well versed in the best practices used in other cities. Roxanne is a strong supporter of the streetcar and would like to see Phase I include Uptown.

David Crowley was one of the most professional candidates we interviewed and followed through on all of our information requests. He was extremely approachable and receptive to our agenda and impressed us with his practical style and his focus on inclusion. He was positively referenced by other candidates. While many of his priorities were not aimed at YP's, we hope to inform him of more YP agenda items in this upcoming term and feel that he would be receptive in supporting issues important to us.

Greg Harris was very well-informed on city statistics and had innovative ideas to tackle many of the items on our agenda. Some of his more creative ideas included spurring compact development - starting with the 95 acres of parking lots in the CBD. He proposed a culture tax to help build an endowment for the local arts and a national African American theater festival to leverage existing heritage programs. Greg also informed us of a $30 million dollar TANF surplus that could be used to create a 6-9 week career pathway program. He proposed a performance audit to make the city more approachable and supports vegetative rooftops.

Chris Monzel impressed us with his forward thinking solutions to greening the city, including innovative energy technologies like gasification. He believes the city should be a trend-setter in technology, including projects like Lily Pad wireless hot spots and the streetcar. In his interview, Chris discussed the importance of connecting east to west when contemplating new transportation initiatives. He also sees an opportunity to build a better brand for the city - like he's been able to do with his own neighborhood. Chris seemed to be a strong advocate for neighborhoods and we hope he will apply just as much focus on the downtown neighborhood in this upcoming term.

Let us know in our comments section, your opinion of the candidates and issues that are important to you, that have been supported by the candidates listed above.