CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — City Council candidate Chuck Arnett has been a familiar face at Clarksburg City Council meetings since he moved back to the area in 2010 to work for the Clarksburg Mission.
“I got to see all the old buildings and was wondering why is everything so dilapidated and run down,” he said. “Why are people tearing these buildings down? So, I started going to City Council meetings and learning and asking questions.”
Arnett, who grew up in Philippi, said it was during this period of time that he became interested in how the most successful cities function and how they serve their residents.
“They help, in more than any other way, for people to grow, in contentment, in personal life,” he said. “They give you everything you need right there at your fingertips.”
That’s not exactly how he’d currently describe Clarksburg, but it’s his vision for what the city could become.
“I think that cities spread the cost of infrastructure amongst a lot higher number of people,” Arnett said. “They are very, very dense.”
While that’s a perk, that idea touches on a number of issues currently impacting Clarksburg and the region as a whole: job opportunity, economic health, population health, and downtown vibrancy.
Arnett based a lot of his own personal research into downtown vibrancy on the success of older cities–particularly medieval cities that were based around a town square. In the U.S., that town square is usually replaced by a Main Street.
“You have this idea of everything being together and high density allowing it to take place and allowing people to function and to grow,” he said. “Nothing is left out. The spiritual is not left out. The education is not left out. The police aren’t left out. No one is left out. Whereas in a suburb, you have everything oriented around a car, and things can be left out.”
Arnett also said something most politicians won’t say during his interview on “The Gary Bowden Show” Tuesday morning: he’s not–at least in his mind–more or less qualified than any other candidate.
“I don’t think that I’m more qualified than anyone else necessary, but I do think I bring a different voice thinking about things and asking questions that perhaps other might not ask,” he said.
The election is June 6. Early voting begins May 24.
You can read previews of other candidates in the links included at the bottom of this story.
Previously Interviewed:
- Tom Saunders (challenger)
- Margaret Bailey (challenger)
- Marshall Goff (challenger)
- Robert Kaplan (incumbent)
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