One week after members of the Downtown Arlington Heights Business Alliance (DAHBA) hosted a forum for the Arlington Heights trustee candidates, they drew an even bigger crowd — more than 300 — at Tuesday’s forum for the mayoral candidates.
Candidate Jon Ridler answers a question.
Jon Ridler, executive director of the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce, Tom Schwingbeck, in his second term as a village trustee, and Jim Tinaglia, who is wrapping up his third term as a trustee, all took the stage at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre to share their positions.
Audience members included Mayor Tom Hayes, as well as several former trustees and most of the eight candidates currently running for village trustee. But the vast majority were local residents — of all ages — interested to see the three candidates go toe to toe. In fact, there was so much interest in the mayoral contest, that the forum drew television news cameras from CBS 2 and WGN channel 9.
“It was great to have a near capacity crowd join us to hear the competing visions of our candidates for the next four years in Arlington Heights,” said attorney Ernie Rose, a member of the business alliance, who not only welcomed the crowd and thanked the Metropolis for hosting the event, but he served as timekeeper, limiting responses to three minutes or less.
Candidate Jim Tinaglia answers a question.
“The crowd was engaged and the discussion was lively,” Rose added “DAHBA is proud to have participated in increasing voter education and hopefully voter turnout.”
Once again, local realtor and entrepreneur Amy Philpott served as the moderator. Questions ran the gamut from their thoughts about the downtown business district, the possibility of video gaming in restaurants and more dispensaries, and of course, the development of the Arlington Park property.
“DAHBA was proud to highlight our association, the incredible Metropolis Theatre, and the dedicated candidates stepping up to serve our community,” Philpott said. “As moderator, I was truly inspired by the engagement of our residents and candidates alike. Please remember to vote — your participation is vital to local democracy!”
With the goal of keeping the evening under two hours, Philpott did not take questions from the audience. Instead, she had the chance to follow-up with the candidates on some of the questions. One that prompted some discussion was her follow-up to the question about affordable housing, by asking the candidates about affordable housing for persons with disabilities.
Candidate Tom Schwingbeck
All three backed more group homes and encouraged residents to welcome them into their neighborhoods.
The two successive candidate forums affirmed the impact of the new Downtown Arlington Heights Business Alliance. Its 50 members incorporated last year with a goal of creating events year round as a way to draw more people to the central business district.
“It ended up being a great night overall,” Philpott said, adding that election day is April 1 but early voting begins on March 17.
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