Focusing on 3 goals: Heal, Strengthen, and Build Aurora.

Heal: (The 3 C's: Children, C.O.P.S and Community.)

• Children: “Investing in our children with safe streets, good schools, improved education, plentiful recreational opportunities, and strong role models in the community.”
• C.O.P.S.:“Using community oriented policing tactics and standards, return to the “beat cop” and have police in the neighborhoods partnering with community groups, encouraging residents and children to become more involved with police in positive settings. Police officers need to be deployed proportionate to our priorities and we must make sure we have adequate support personnel.”
• Community: “Working in partnerships with our police, administration, legislators, citizen and neighborhood groups, religious, social, health, schools, civic and business organizations, we will address community issues and create community solutions. Addressing quality of life issues from housing standards to safe water, we will have ongoing efforts to improve our community and provide the community with a transparent and responsive city administration that will aggressively seek to implement the best ideas. The community will see its city visible and communicate effectively with its diverse population.”

Strengthen:

• Centralized and Strong Downtown - take action to create a true vibrant downtown environment and culture that is safe for people to work, live and enjoy. Aggressively pursue all tools to find constructive solutions to chronic problems.
• Neighborhoods - address issues of parking, infrastructure, vacant or deteriorating properties and delegate resources to create solutions, improve aesthetics and quality of life and consistently communicate with neighborhoods to prevent problems in a proactive manner.
• Facilities, Infrastructure and Gateways - enhance use of existing facilities and focal points such as libraries, parks, sports and recreation to provide opportunities for our youth while addressing our infrastructure improvements to correct problems and plan ahead for the future. Make sure our gateways and key points of travel throughout the city are attractive for our residents and visitors as well as to send a message to everyone the entire community cares and takes pride in its city.

Build:

• Recruit and keep large businesses, high-tech, industrial, retail, all sectors. Diversify tax base, make sure that the ratio of residential to commercial properties does not exceed 80-20. Foster home ownerships and investments in our communities and neighborhoods. Work with banks for home improvement and fa�ade loans. Take advantage of our infrastructure of train, bus, and air service to attract the best businesses and employers.
• Convention Center - Make the dream a reality- strike a public/private partnership
• Riverfront - Better utilize our valuable riverfront- condos, offices, restaurants, public space, etc.
• Downtown housing - Improve and build upon downtown housing options- more people living downtown, more income for businesses and better tax base
• Taller buildings - Take advantage of aesthetic views of river and bring more businesses and residences into smaller spaces without negatively impacting green space
• Quality of Life - We must address all quality of life issues. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York City believed in the “broken window” style of law enforcement. If we tolerate a single broken window in an abandoned building, then criminals will see that people don't care, and they'll break out the rest of the windows and infest that building with drugs and other forms of crime.

News Articles: From Irvin's website: (http://www.oneaurora.com/inthenews.htm)

• Beacon-News | March 7, 2005 | By Mike Cetera: “Criticism Flies in First Forum After Primary”
  • “Irvin answered several questions by first criticizing his opponent and focused nearly all of his opening remarks on questioning Weisner's 17-year tenure at City Hall and his departure last year during the city's water crisis. Irvin called on voters to make character an issue in the campaign and compared Weisner quiting his job to a soldier going AWOL in the middle of war.”
• Beacon-News | February 8, 2005 | By David Garbe “Petka Cites Crime Concerns in Endorsement of Irvin”
  • “Petka, a Plainfield Republican whose Senate district includes Aurora's near-East and near-West sides, said this is the first time he has ever endorsed a mayoral candidate anywhere in his district since taking office in 1993.”
• AURORA BEACON-NEWS June 17, 2004 - By Dave Parro “Irvin Puts Emphasis on Reusing Old Assets ”
  • “Aurora mayoral candidate (Irvin) wants to employ eminent domain downtown.”
  • “Using the dilapidated 1923 structure and the surrounding 17 acres as an example of wasted opportunities, Irvin promised to aggressively pursue development of the site and similar properties throughout Aurora. The old train station was abandoned in 1986 when the downtown commuter station was moved to the Aurora Transportation Center on North Broadway. “We've got to use properties like this spread through the city that are remnants of Aurora's greatness,” Irvin said.”
  • “One of the main elements of Irvin's plan, and perhaps the most crucial to its success, is forcing owners who sit on vacant property to develop or sell the eyesores. If they won't comply, the city should take the property through eminent domain and turn it over to a developer who is willing to invest in it, he said.”
  • “Eminent domain is commonly used for taking property for public uses, such as roads, but confiscating land for private development could be more difficult to prove to a judge as a higher and better public use.”
  • “Other elements of Irvin's economic development plan announced Wednesday include forming an economic development advisory committee, forming an education committee for work force development and building better relationships with county and other nearby governments.”

NOTE: No (working) links were given for the actual articles mentioned above.

From Google News:

• La Raza 03-29-2005 “Weisner gains Obama's endorsement.” (http://www.laraza.com/news.php?nid=21093)
  • “Dan Shomon, Obama's political director, said the freshman senator is backing Weisner because he's a progressive Democrat who supported Obama in November and has a lifelong record of community and public service.”
• La Raza 03-23-2005 “Post-primary cash flows in for candidates” (http://www.laraza.com/news.php?nid=20969)
• La Raza 03-25-2005 ” Irvin's anti-Weisner flier incorrect” (http://www.laraza.com/news.php?nid=21020)
  • Mayoral candidate Richard Irvin apologized Thursday for a mailer sent out by his campaign that claims his opponent Tom Weisner was responsible for the contamination of the city's water supply last year that led to a 10-day boil order. Irvin admitted the information contained in the flier is wrong and blamed the mistake on his printing company. He called Weisner to apologize Thursday morning after the piece started arriving in the mail.”
  • On a mailer Weiser sent out he “said Irvin supports charging $30 to $40 for city vehicle stickers. ” Irvin says ”(he) proposed stickers for households that have more than two cars parked on a city street, not for every car.”
• Suburban Chicago News 3/26/05 “Mayor candidates: Enough is enough” (http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/top/a26view2.htm)
  • “The fliers distributed Thursday by Irvin's campaign might have been the lowest blow in the prize fight so far, but it isn't the only one. Both sides have taken some cheap shots along the way, and both sides need to take responsibility for turning this campaign back onto the high road.”
• ABC News 3/19/2005 “Aurora mayoral candidate says parents of gang members should be fined” (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/031805_ns_gang_fines.html)
  • ” If elected, Weisner wants to see an ordinance that would allow police to extract a financial penalty from parents of kids 16 and under known to associate with gangs. Parents would receive one warning. If it's proven their kids are still running with a gang, fines would escalate – starting at $100 and maxing out at $500.”
  • ” “To what end are we working toward? To take money away from children and families? Money they would use to pay the rent or buy food? We should be working with parents to keep kids out of gangs,” said Richard Irvin, Aurora mayoral candidate.”
• Chicago Sun-Times 03/12/2005 “Why isn't GOP backing Aurora candidate?”
  • ”(Irvin) was discovered by state Rep. Tom Cross (R-Oswego), the House Republican leader, a prodigious supporter of young talent (like 23-year-old Rep. Aaron Schock of Peoria). Cross has crusaded for Irvin, who is conservative and pro-life.”
  • “Weisner's list of donors includes David Wilhelm, who is Mayor Daley's former campaign manager, Bill Clinton's chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Gov. Blagojevich's close pal, as well as a number of Chicago Democrats who are interested in how the mayoralty turns out in Aurora. The big question is: Why aren't Republicans?”