NORTH ADAMS — At a recent meet and greet at State Food and Drink, 10 of 13 City Council candidates chatted with residents about their vision for the city.

During that time, The Eagle asked each candidate a question: What is something that you could propose to the council to address a current issue?

The answers ranged from finding ways to support affordable housing, updating the city website and drafting a general plan of goals for the council's term. In a few sentences, this is what each candidate said.

Challenger Alexa MacDonald said that the city can't attract outside investors if its website doesn't invite them. She'd want to work on creating a more interactive website that caters to partners the city wants to bring in. A good place to start, she said, would be getting the housing trust on the website and updating that as they receive funding.

"I've heard from community members that if cities don't have an investors tab on their website, they don't look further," MacDonald said.

Council President Bryan Sapienza suggested the council pays closer attention to city ordinances that need to be updated. From public safety to infrastructure, Sapienza wants to "look at the bones of the city" to make sure ordinances are working properly.

"We need to pay attention to what's happening in the city and if we can identify things that need attention, and try to be proactive not reactive," he said.

Councilor Andrew Fitch said he'd push for a full-time director of tourism — the current director serves a dual role as the mayor's executive assistant and tourism director.

"From downtown celebration to community events, we can do so much," Fitch said. "What I don't currently see is us creating a brand that is North Adams and sharing that brand with the outside world."

Challenger Carrie Crews proposed building city-community partnerships to tackle small issues, like fixing the nonworking handicap button on the front door of the senior center.

"We have this amazing tech school at McCann, can we reach out to them and see if the shops can do an internship to fix this or something like that?" she said.

Councilor Lisa Blackmer said she'd put more focus on visually organizing the city's capital plan, mapping out each project's steps and making access to the plan easier.

"Most of our projects are grant-funded, so we need to lay out each step and see where we are, instead of having this one big document," Blackmer said. "It should be a document that is more than a wishlist, it's a plan."

Challenger Aprilyn Carsno said she would advocate that the city revive something similar to the "own your own home" program that once allowed first-time home buyers and low-income residents to buy fixed-up homes for low mortgage rates.

"They took houses the city had taken in back taxes or abandoned property and students [at McCann] redid them," she said.

Challenger Lillian Zavatsky said she wants to get a better sense of the quality of its vacant housing. Inspired by Springfield's vacant housing program, Zavatsky said she would explore what options North Adams has to do something similar. She'd also want to further categorize the vacant housing inventory and determine what needs to be fixed in order to turn it over to developers.

"Can we replicate it?" she said. "The state has made it easier with code violations to turn property over to developers, but we need money and developers ready to go."

Councilor Keith Bona wants to encourage the administration to sell off properties he says are taking away money and resources from necessary road and infrastructure improvements. Bona gave examples of selling Heritage State Park, the Mohawk Theater and the airport, which he said "maybe 1 percent of residents use."

"At some point, it is going to fall on the administration to put a bunch of money in these buildings before it gets rotted," he said.

Challenger Virginia Riehl, a member of the Planning Board, said the City Council should draft an annual plan for the work it will do. The plan should start with goals that the council wants to address each term. Some of the goals Riehl suggested included improving the capital budget process and implementing an already-passed ordinance that grants seniors property tax reductions.

"Senior taxes are burdensome, and we need to take a look at it because we need to do something to lift the weight off seniors," she said.

Challenger Marie McCarron said she wants to use her background as a teacher to ask questions and learn where she can help where it's needed. She said she wants to work with the city to find ways to directly support residents who need help staying in their home or finding a job.

"I know this is a process, and I am going to do my due diligence and ask questions," she said. "I want to be a part of change, more opportunities less challenges, not the other way around."

All candidates were invited to attend the event, although incumbents Pete Breen, Pete Oleskiewicz and Ashley Shade were not in attendance.

Election Day is Tuesday and all nine at-large seats are up for reelection.