ROANOKE, Va. – Roanoke Police and city staff hosted a community forum on Wednesday evening in Downtown Roanoke for community members to express their concerns about happenings in the city.
Many downtown residents and business owners went to the forum to express some of their concerns.
Even people living outside downtown, like Faye Wood who lives in NW Roanoke, attended the forum.
“I came because I’m really concerned about events in our community. The violence, the killings, the guns and I’m just really concerned,” Wood said.
A wide range of topics were discussed such as homelessness, violence, drugs, and even the scooter situation.
Captain Andy Pulley said it’s important to hear all concerns, not just one’s pertaining to violence.
“We didn’t want to just focus on that. We wanted to see what was important to the citizens to make sure we weren’t focused on one thing and missing two or three things that were on the side,” Pulley said.
Vice-Mayor of Roanoke, Joe Cobb, planned on just listening into the meeting. He found himself answering a few questions because the police are not the sole entity responsible for addressing issues.
“What tonight really revealed was how so much of all of this intersects with the other. It’s not just what the police can do. It’s also what can local government do, what can faith communities do, what can businesses do, what can residents do,” Cobb said.
Several residents asked the question, “What can we do to help?”
“I want to see what we can do, what I can do as a citizen. We all have to work together. This is our community and we have to work to improve our community,” Wood said.