A handful of candidates up for election in November, visited Eckerd on Sept. 14 to share their messages and answer questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
St. Petersburg Mayor Kenneth Welch and City Council candidates Gabriel Hament (District 2), Linsey Grove and Trevor Mallory (both District 6) drew a large crowd to Fox Hall. The candidate forum was organized by ECOS and St. Petersburg Young Professionals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Incumbent Welch is a third-generation St. Petersburg resident and the city\u2019s first African American Mayor. His re-election campaign runs on five main pillars. Those pillars are education and youth opportunities, equitable development and art, neighborhood health and safety, housing opportunities for all and environment and resilient infrastructure. He also mentioned that the past six years have been the most difficult for the city of St. Petersburg due to COVID-19, followed by hurricanes that caused devastating flooding, outages, and expensive, city-wide damage to homes and businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Welch\u2019s opponent, former Florida governor Charlie Crist, was not at the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hament is an assistant public defender in Hillsborough County and stated that \u201cI am standing next to the most vulnerable members of our community at what is likely their lowest moment in their life to ensure their constitutional rights are protected.\u201d<\/p>\n
He talked about working with young people who are at a disadvantage and how to help them. He runs on a focus of climate fixes paired with resilience, promised to lower the cost of living, strengthen District 2 and promised civil rights for everyone. He said he prides himself on running as an openly gay candidate and wants to work with the city and state towards a more inclusive community.<\/p>\n
Grove is the CEO of the Hypatia Collective, which she describes as \u201ca for-profit that actually helps nonprofits with their back office fees,\u201d and was a staff member at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grove\u2019s main focus is a larger workforce in hand with livable wages. She also calls for a more connected community and wants everyone to know their neighbor and be able to talk to them. She wants to protect and fund current cost-efficient housing to keep it affordable. She is also focused on rebuilding current infrastructure to protect St. Petersburg against climate change, while still protecting the current natural areas that are already in place.<\/p>\n
Mallory said he is focused on moving forward as a community. He is the CEO of Neighborhood Home Solutions, which provides safety and assistance to homeowners and can help first-time homeowners with their first down payment on their homes.<\/p>\n
When the candidates were asked how they plan on lowering the cost of living in St. Petersburg, there were similar answers all around. Creating new housing using government and other funding to ensure that the rent\/payments will be affordable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In District 2, which encompasses the northeast part of the city, Hament wants to look into open land and give an in-depth review of what can be turned from an asphalt desert into a housing-dense area. He also wants to look into public transit, asking why there is only the SunRunner, which runs east to west, and why there is no north-to-south public transit line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grove is looking to make St. Pete streets safer for bikes, scooters and other modes of transport that are not motorized vehicles. She is also looking into increasing public transit options. Grove and Mallory are running to represent District 6 which includes downtown St. Petersburg.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mallory is worried about the cost of living crisis and is trying to end the length of time the elderly work so that they can finally retire and so that the younger generation can get a start on finding jobs.<\/p>\n
The candidates were also asked about what projects they look forward to that do not get enough attention. Both Welch and Mallory mentioned the Historic Gas Plant, which they called on all Eckerd students to take time to research and study before the upcoming elections. The Historic Gas Plant is the historically African American residential district of the city that was torn down in the 1980s to build Tropicana Field where the Tampa Bay Rays play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hament mentioned the St. Pete innovative district, which includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Florida Fish and Wildlife and the Hub, a community counseling center which offers support to those in need, as well as friendship and a sense of togetherness. These, according to Hament, are economic drivers in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grove gave insight into her local area and mentioned a local coffee shop that is being built in a building that has sat vacant for many years. She also mentioned the Bartlett Pump Station, which would help reduce flooding by a significant amount and introduce a park in that area.<\/p>\n
The candidates were then asked how they plan on preserving wetlands. Though Welch and Mallory avoided a direct answer, Hament and Grove gave solutions that worked around the idea of investing in the already existing areas to ensure that they are protected and stay protected.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hament knows that rezoning someone\u2019s land and making it protected land is expensive, so he instead wants to invest in making more green space and creating community areas. Grove wants to add restrictions to current wetlands so people can not build on them and also rethink how valuable wetlands are. She wants to invest in more native planting and wants to look into ocean-friendly gardens.<\/p>\n