KUOW asks: What is your top issue for Seattle's mayoral candidates?

Seattleites are voting for a new mayor this year. We're asking all the 2021 primary candidates how they would address a range of issues facing the city.

We are also posing those same questions to our KUOW audience.

This week is a little different. Everybody has an issue that they focus on more than others. What is yours?

QUESTION: Every candidate has an issue they're passionate about. What’s one thing you’d do differently to tackle ___________?

Read the candidates' responses here.

KUOW readers who responded on Instagram had two primary issues: Safety and homelessness.

Listeners who wrote in to KUOW shared those sentiments.

"One word: Homelessness," one person wrote.

"For me, the most important thing is the homeless/heroin crisis," Rebecca wrote in. "We need to find cities that have solved it more successfully and do whatever they did, ASAP."

Others commented on the homelessness crisis being their top issue, but a few other topics did come up.

AJ wrote in to say: "Though not really under the mayor's purview, education is the most important issue. I would change the funding formulas and reimagine education programs to truly move children to a learning model of inquiry and problem solving."

And another listener said that Seattle could use some sprucing up.

"Let's clean up the town for everyone. Let's bring back an anti-littering campaign in schools, and in Seattle Parks and Rec activities. Put back the public trash cans so people easily can see where the trash belongs, and empty the garbage more frequently. The streets are ugly with trash. Volunteer park put garbage cans every 200 feet along the main road, and the park looks great!"