Time to Think About Running for Office
In less than a year the City of St Louis will have elections for half the Board of Aldermen — the 14 odd numbered seats. If you’d like to see some change in how the city is managed now is the perfect time to begin planning your campaign. I ran for the 25th back in 2005 and it was a very rewarding experience.
At this point you must already live in the ward in which you’d run in. Not sure what ward you live in? Then you probably shouldn’t run for office.
Those seats up for grabs next year are (existing Alderman):
- 1st Ward (gas allowance Troupe)
- 3rd Ward (raze the whole ward Bosley)
- 5th Ward (use zoning as leverage Ford-Griffin)
- 7th Ward (suburbanize the city Young)
- 9th Ward (Patterson just stirs the pot Ortmann)
- 11th Ward (Isn’t Loughborough Commons just great Villa)
- 13th Ward (Thank God Patterson is no longer my constituent Wessels)
- 15th Ward (Thank God Patterson didn’t move to the 15th ward Florida)
- 17th Ward (lease Forest Park Roddy)
- 19th Ward (
I’m on the Preservation Board but I’ll vote to raze it KennedyDavis) - 21st Ward (a bit of suburbia named for me Jones King)
- 23rd Ward (the mayor is moving out of the ward Hanrahan)
- 25th Ward (Thank God Patterson moved Kirner)
- 27th Ward (Carter)
If someone were to run for office, what would they do any differently than the current people holding these seats?
I am returning to St. Louis…so whats the word on the 26th ward and Frank Williamson?
Williamson is a super-sized, rather imposing, soft spoken, affable alderman. He’s easy going and seems well liked. He’s the sort of fellow who looks like he might have played offensive line for Clemson. Word.
A correction – Alderman Kennedy(my current alderman) is ward 18, not 19 as listed.
Living in the loft district now, will you be running for a seat or other positions to help the downtown urban lifestyle continue to grow?
We sure hope Phyllis Young runs again. She has never turned down anybody intent on serving their own interests to the detriment of the community. A combo of sweet talk and intimidation gets old Phyllis to eat out of anybody’s dirty hand, including the hand of Mayor Slay. Ain’t Mardi Gras grand, not to mention the swill brought into the Soulard neighborhood by the masses of liquor licenses?
The Recorder of Deeds had over for a meet-and-greet (and weed-out??) the four parties interested in upsetting the current alderperson. Old school anyone?
Swiss Miss, moving to the island and then complaining there are too many saloons is a lot like moving next to an airport and then complaining about the noise. Other than some landlords waking up in a rather surely mood to the conservation district reality and a handful of people upset because the recycling pilot project isn’t on their block, I don’t hear much discontent in Soulard with the alderwoman. Sure, people blow off steam from time to time about something they think Phyllis did or didn’t do but they usually end the rant saying something nice about her on another matter. She’s a very smart, hardworking, honest, friendly, accessible person deeply commited to to her constituents. They should all be like that. If someone files against her, some of you here will get excited but it will all be much ado about nothing and she will win re-election handily.
What’s the deal with Kirner? I haven’t seen a single thing happen in my ward since I moved down here in 2006. I’m starting to think that a wild goat could do just as good a job running this ward as Kirner is. Living in DT/South, I see abandoned buildings, building hazard notices, constant loitering (which makes sense, since there’s nothing for kids to do around her besides start a fight club at Cleveland Academy), and the more-than-occasional police car.
But oddly enough, I’ve never seen a single postcard, note, or anything from Kirner.
At least the goat wouldn’t have to be paid that $32,000 salary.