District 2 Ald. Brenda Konkel faced off against three of the four rivals competing for her seat Thursday at Lapham Elementary School.
Adam Walsh, Sherman Hackbarth and Bridget Maniaci are all hoping to replace Konkel, who has held the spot since 2001 and is running for her fifth term.
Most of the debate was centered on the redevelopment of District 2 and how each candidate would face such challenges.
We are at a crossroads in this district,"" Walsh said. ""As the students begin to migrate closer to campus, we are left with an old housing stock '¦ and we need to begin to transition our neighborhood completely.""
Maniaci seemed to echo Walsh's sentiments when she said she wanted to put the neighborhood first, emphasizing that there are major housing issues to be worked on, as well as issues regarding safety and run-down infrastructure.
Hackbarth said a lot of new business would be brought to the neighborhood via the East Washington Street corridor.
""I think this is the red carpet between the downtown and east side,"" he said. ""It's been a target area of the city. Our community needs to be developed as a whole.""
In addition to redevelopment, all four contenders disapproved of increasing the Madison Metro bus fare.
""We cut back routes and we cut back services available and we cut back hours,"" Konkel said. ""We cut, cut, cut and then raise fares, and it's the wrong thing to do with the transit system.""
Maniaci had similar thoughts on the issue and suggested having buses run in conjunction with flights arriving at the Madison airport.
Many of the audience members present at the debate were also District 2 residents who hoped to become more educated about their own local government.
Brett Phillips, a District 2 resident, said he wanted to be well-informed before he cast his vote.
""I'm not just going to elect anyone,"" he said. ""I became very critical of people responding to questions in verbose non-answers.""
Konkel's fourth rival, Dennis Denure, was not present at Thursday's debate.
