CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – A group that believes the City of Charleston’s West Side has been left behind unveiled its plans today.
The group says if the members it is backing are elected to Charleston’s city council, “The West Side Can’t Wait Plan” would create a West Side Community Development Authority, which would be a place for job training and where local businesses could be promoted.
Group members also say they want to open a 24-hour trauma-informed healing center where people can go when they need help and have specific plans for Charleston’s youth to create after school opportunities and reduce gun violence.
“Time and again, West Side residents have borne the city’s burdens. Racial Segregation and redlining. Long overdue reforms to CURA, Black Charlestonians arrested at more than twice the rate of whites,” The group said. “This community remains in a very vulnerable place with the rise of addiction in our communities, houselessness, and the gun violence that is claiming the lives of our youth. West Side kids are still waiting on street lights and afterschool opportunities.”
The group says they also want to work toward making sure the West Side meets the national recommended ratio of school counselors to students and want to develop a $2 million dollar annual youth development fund they say would be led by a representative youth council to support training, mentoring, treatment and other opportunities.
The West Side Can’t Wait group also says if their members are elected, they hope to shift city resources, zoning laws and other benefits to support small, locally owned businesses rather than out-of-state corporations. They say this would include allotting $1 million per year in new business development funding that would go exclusively to small, locally-owned businesses and the creation of 10 small business residencies to promote sustainable industries such as the arts, tech, renewable energy and more.
