Mayoral Profile: Lyda Krewson

| Staff Writer

In the next month, the Forum section will be profiling the upcoming mayoral race in St. Louis, the first election for the position in 16 years not featuring an incumbent. Before the primary, we will be profiling how the leading candidates plan to help repair and grow our city in certain areas: education, crime and economic growth.

Lyda Krewson is the alderman for the 28th Ward of St. Louis, which covers much of Forest Park and the Central West End. She entered the mayoral race in June of 2016, and has led a valiant front. Her campaign budget is nearly twice that of the candidate with the second highest cash flow, totaling nearly $600,000. This large supply of cash, along with endorsements from the current Mayor Francis Slay, the St. Louis Police Officer’s Association and the Collector of Revenue Gregory Daly, put her in a comfortable spot in the race—she has consistently polled higher than all of her opponents.

Krewson runs on a platform of neighborhood safety, which stems from the tragic death of her husband in a carjacking incident, and economic growth, which comes from her years within the private sector. But while her intentions seem clear and firm, her policy is weak—many of her goals are vague and lack actionable items. She may have convinced the general public to get behind her, but she has a lot of work to do before she proves her capability to lead this city effectively.

Education

Lyda Krewson’s policy on education is lackluster to say the least. Since she is so adamant on crime and economic development, her policy on education has been very minimally discussed. In one interview with St. Louis Public Radio, she mentioned that to tackle crime, the root causes of crime should be addressed—including a lack of early childhood education.

Other than this mention, we are basically left with nothing. Her website lists the various focus areas that fall under “children’s issues,” including “Quality Education for Every Child,” but there are no concrete actionable items to actually carry out that goal. It indicates that this is a throw-away subject for her, where she doesn’t have concrete plans but has to include anyway.

Crime

Public safety is the priority of Krewson’s campaign. Due to her personal connection to crime, she has committed to improving neighborhood safety. Her most significant policy proposal is to bolster the police department by hiring 200 new officers, raising the pay of current officers and investing in new equipment. This powerful stance has garnered Krewson an endorsement from the local police union, the St. Louis Police Officers’ Association. Although she has some support in this area, she has also received criticism from fellow mayoral candidates. Antonio French claims that, “Lyda has no intention of working to repair the broken relationship between the police and the black community.” Given that Lyda is the only prominent white candidate, this criticism carries significant weight in a city where nearly half of the voting population is black.

Economic Growth and City Finances

While crime is Lyda Krewson’s main focus, finance is what she does best. She is a Certified Public Accountant and the Chief Financial Officer of Peckham Guyton Albers & Viets, Inc. (PGAV). When Krewson first announced her campaign, she pledged to work with the St. Louis Economic Partnership to create jobs, coupling with her proposal to reduce crime. She believes that by creating jobs, homelessness will be reduced, and crime will follow suit.

However, she has been criticized for an ordinance passed in 2008 that criminalized panhandling. She spearheaded an initiative that called for the implementation of metered parking that was designed to raise funds for homeless people in the city. While she publicized her initiative, the criminalization of panhandling included in the bill, was lesser known. She continues to claim that homelessness was reduced as a result of her metered-parking initiative. However, the more likely situation is that the new law on panhandling reduced visibility of the homeless population.

Krewson has also been criticized for her tax abatement programs. Opponents have commented that she grants tax abatement proposals, which are basically property tax reductions, for areas that don’t need it, thereby leaving money in areas that are already thriving instead of redistributing to regions or departments that lack resources.

Final Thoughts

Lyda Krewson is a career politician, and she appears to be relying too much on that experience instead of actual policy proposals. On paper, her policies look admirable and concise, but if you dig deeper you see that many of her programs are problematic and do not look to solve the severe racial tensions that beleaguer the city of St. Louis. If Krewson hopes to see success as mayor, she’ll need to finesse her plans, come up with some actionable items and work with the community to resolve the issues with her policy.

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