Current challenges with opioid use got significant attention during Wednesday night’s mayoral forum in downtown Lexington.
If elected, Linda Gorton said she would turn her attention first to the drug addiction issue. The former vice mayor believes collaboration is the key. “We will have addiction experts, we’ll have public safety folks at the table, mental health experts, faith community, pharmacy reps. And we will go forward together,” said Gorton.
Former Lexington Police Chief Ronnie Bastin says the human toll of opioid overdose deaths is seen in family heartaches, but also drug addiction affects workforce production. And then there’s violence. “It’s causing violent crime to go up. The homocides are rising because of the drug trade, not gangs,” responded Bastin.
The Lexington Young Professionals Association sponsored the forum.
The program also included discussion on downtown housing. Bastin says many millennials want to work and live downtown, and that means more housing. “One thing I think we have to start looking at is how high we build in our downtown core. I think we need to look at going up a bit so we can provide more housing within that core where people are going to want to live in the future,” suggested Bastin.
Gorton says affordable housing is something sought by millennials, senior citizens, and low income residents. “We need to keep our fund in place and look at the types of demographics where we need to focus and perhaps look at some of the things that are being successful in other communities,” added Gorton.
Gorton and Bastin have met in numerous candidate forums this fall. Two more remain. One at UK Friday and the concluding forum Monday night at Transylvania University.
