Candidate blog series: Ward 2 candidate Gordon Williams (D)

My name is Gordon Williams and I'm running as the Democratic Candidate for Norwood Council in Ward 2. The question that I have been asked a lot is why am I running? One of the reasons that I chose to run, is that in the neighborhood I grew up in (Regent Ave), there has always been problems between Xavier students and the residents. But it has gotten worse in the past two years.

To give you an example on Friday September 25, 2009 at the corner of Regent and Wayland two doors up from the house I grew up in (My brother still lives there), Xavier students that live there had a block party that got out of hand. You had people throwing beer bottles across the street (almost hitting some of the residents’ cars) and 15 to 20 people urinating outside. At one point, a bus from Xavier brought students to the party. I will give credit to our police force because when they were called, they broke the party up in about 10 minutes. The problem I have is that we are reacting to the problem, and I would like to be proactive to these problems.

I have already had a meeting with James McShane Senator, Xavier Student Government Association and Kathryn Rosenbaum Editor-in-Chief Xavier Newswire on this subject, and we are working on solutions to resolve these types of issues.

If I'm elected to council, these are some of things that I will address for the residents of Ward 2.

Gordon Williams