(Published in St. Louis American 3/8/17)
The 15th Ward, which encompasses Tower Grove South, had the second highest voter turnout in St. Louis city with 36.7 percent – compared to the St. Louis city’s overall participation of 28.4 percent in the March 7 primary election.
Incumbent Megan Green, a progressive candidate, won the 15th Ward race with 66 percent of the vote, beating former alderwoman Jennifer Florida, a more conservative Democrat.
Green said her win was proof that “progressive politics” can work in the city.
“We are not this conservative city that everybody makes us out to be,” Green said. “We really are a progressive-minded city.”
Green endorsed Tishaura Jones for mayor and attended Jones’ watch party on Tuesday night. Shortly after she received news of her win (which came early in the night), The St. Louis American sat down with Green for this Q&A.
The American: Congratulations on your victory: Is there something you have in store now that you’ve been re-elected?
Green: We have a few things in the works. I think the biggest one is getting a city-wide ordinance for community benefit agreements so that we can begin to develop in a responsible way.
The American: What do you see as the future of the 15th Ward business district?
Green: The goal is to extend that south. I’ve spent a lot of my time focusing on the area we all call “the wedge,” which has the highest crime rates and the highest poverty rates. Being able to move southward to Chippewa will do a lot for that community to build it upward.
The American: You talked about a progressive future in this city. How would you characterize that movement?
Green: I see a lot of people throw around the word progressive, but for me it means you have a commitment to racial and economic justice when you make your decisions. We’ve made a lot of excuses for why we can’t be progressive minded, but the population here is ready for that. Now we need leadership that pushes us in that direction to force us to put racial and economic equity as the center pieces of the policy that we pass in the city.
The American: How are you going to make sure citizens stay involved and keep the energy that is here tonight?
Green: I think participatory budgeting needs to go city-wide. Folks who have said we never had our voice heard before now have that voice. We need to look for creative ways to find funding so this can be a city-wide initiative.
The American: What’s the plan in the board of aldermen to resist if the status quo as mayor continues?
Green: It’s contingent on who wins tonight among these contested seats. We have somewhere between 9 and 13 people who have been willing to vote in order to block the status quo. Getting a few more seats could get us into a position where others feel more comfortable taking hard stances. Even if we don’t find that we have a progressive mayor in the seat, at least we have a Board of Aldermen that would be able to provide those checks and balances that we need to. We have to be evaluating every policy on a city-wide basis; we can’t just let things go. Otherwise we end up where we’ve lost out on $700 million in tax revenues over the last 15 years.”
Clark Randall 