SALISBURY — City Council candidate Todd Paris says Salisbury has “a lot of problems.”

But he said three stand above the rest: public safety, Fibrant and race relations.

Paris said that because he has been a defense attorney for most of his law career, he knows more about public safety than any other candidate running for a council seat.

“We have to do something about crime in this community, but at the same time we can’t run roughshod right over people’s rights and violate their constitutional civil rights to do it,” Paris said. “And there are a lot of people who think those two things are diametrically opposed, but they’re not. They can be accomplished at the same time.”

He said that as a writer for the online publication Rowan Free Press and a member of a NAACP legal team, he knows more about Fibrant and race relations than almost any other candidate.

“Race relations is a big issue. I have good connections with a majority of the black community. And when I say that, I’m not talking about the older reverend, deacon, bishop folks in their 70s. I have connections with, you know, the younger generation,” Paris said. “Race relations solutions that are 50 years old, that are thought up by people in their 70s, are just not working. There has to be a new level of respect and cooperation between all races in this city.”

Paris also said that jobs are a serious concern of his because he has heard that many young people who leave Salisbury for college do not come back because of a lack of opportunities.

“We just lost (DuraFiber) Industries, or whatever it’s become now. We’ve lost another plant here in town recently as well. I don’t think that we’ve done a very good job in recruiting jobs that pay a living wage,” Paris said.

Paris, 53, has been practicing law in Salisbury for 30 years. He attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for his undergraduate degree and UNC-Chapel Hill for law school. 

Contact reporter Jessica Coates at 704-797-4222.