Raleigh’s Next Mayor: Meet candidate Paul Fitts, who has an ambitious vision for the city [Video]

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Paul Fitts, the sole Republican candidate in Raleigh’s non-partisan mayoral race, is driving his campaign with ambitious plans for the city’s future, including a potentially controversial proposal for a downtown casino and a major expansion of the police force.

For ABC11’s election year series Raleigh’s Next Mayor, Fitts, a 55-year-old mortgage lender, shared his vision while touring downtown Raleigh. Expressing skepticism about the Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s new revitalization plans, he dismissed them as “a band-aid on a broken limb.”

“First we have to go back and we have to build owner-occupied housing to bring back downtown people who want to be downtown,” Fitts said, outlining a strategy he said will help fix the city’s affordable housing problem.

One of his most dramatic proposals involves relocating Central Prison and the …