The past 12 months have put Baltimore at the center of a tense national conversation over police accountability and the consequences of deeply rooted racial disparity. After Gray’s death, the city was gripped by protests that turned violent at times. Some of the problems that plague Baltimore have grown worse since then. Crime spiked following the unrest, earning 2015 the ominous distinction of being the deadliest year (on a per-capita basis) in the city’s history.

Following backlash over the way the city responded to the protests, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced she would not run for reelection. A crowded field of candidates stepped forward to fill the void. Each has sketched out a vision for the way forward, a set of ideas that have met with a mixture of apathy, distrust, and optimism. The candidate who wins the Democratic primary is expected to eventually become mayor in the overwhelmingly Democratic city. What happens next in Baltimore could shed light on the complex challenge of how to rebuild a fractured city—or how not to.

In the wake of Gray’s fatal encounter with the police, subsequent tumultuous protests, a mistrial for one of the officers charged in connection with Gray’s death, and a crime spike, Baltimore, for better or worse, has become a poster child for government failure. So it might seem odd that two of the candidates who have topped the polls during the mayoral race are widely talked about as veteran political insiders. Catherine Pugh and Sheila Dixon might not describe themselves that way, but Pugh is a Maryland state senator and Dixon is the city’s former mayor. Dixon’s time in city hall came to an abrupt end when she stepped down not long after a jury convicted her of stealing gift cards intended to be set aside for needy families.

Of course, things often look different at the ground level than from the outside looking in. Supporters of the candidates don’t see them as part of a broken system as much as they view them as individuals with deep ties to the community, politicians with a track record of achievement in city government, and people who have been there for Baltimore. “I’m certainly not a part of the problem; I’ve been more a part of the solution,” Pugh told me at the block party, where she arrived to make the rounds and, when asked, to shake hands, take selfies, and give hugs. “I stood on the corners every single day during the unrest to keep the peace in our streets and to let people know that there are people in this city that care.”

Dixon also kept a relatively high-profile after Gray’s death, and even received a standing ovation at his funeral. Her pitch to Baltimore rests, in part, on reminding the city of what she achieved in office, including a decision to transition away from a zero-tolerance policing strategy and a decline in violent crime. Dixon is still haunted by her past, however. “I made a mistake. I paid for that mistake,” she said at a recent mayoral debate, adding: “I also know that that does not define the greatness of how I was as a mayor and as an elected official.” Many Baltimore voters seem to have forgiven her already. “I don’t hold that against her as much as politics is a dirty game. Far more worse crimes happen,” Kwame Rose, a well-known Baltimore activist, said of Dixon. Sitting at a table at a local Starbucks, Rose nevertheless said he believes Pugh is the best candidate. “The right step that Baltimore needs now is someone who has been a politician, but has also been a strong community leader that has the political power to actually make change in Baltimore happen,” he said. As he talked about the future of the city, however, Rose suggested that one day he’d like to see “a grassroots candidate” take office.