Two St. Louis Democrats are vying for a shot at President of the Board of Aldermen after former President Lewis Reed resigned amid a bribery scandal.
15th ward Alderwoman Megan Green is running against 7th ward Alderman Jack Coatar, who joined KMOX earlier in the month. Megan Green joined in-studio to talk about what she sees as the most important issues facing the city, and what she’d do if elected to fix them.
Green started out by discussing the shooting that took place at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis just over a week ago. She said it sent “shockwaves” through her community. Many of her constituents, she said, send their kids to school at CVPA.
“It's one of those things that you always hope that it's never going to happen anywhere, but you especially hope it's never going to happen in your own community in your own backyard,” she said.
Green called for the state legislature to implement red flag laws, which would ensure that people suffering from mental illnesses who are a threat to themselves or others do not have access to guns.
“What we saw is that the parents called the police and said, ‘Please take this weapon away.’ And the police said, ‘Unfortunately, we don't have the legal authority to be able to remove the weapon from the household,’” Green explained. “And, you know, we are preempted locally from being able to enact any kind of gun laws.”
As for other issues, Green said that crime is her number one issue, though she said it’s linked to other issues like homelessness and poverty.
“We know that poverty is the father of crime, right? And so when people are hurting, when they are struggling with addiction, or mental illness, or housing instability, we know that that can be precursors to crime,” she said. “And what we have not been good at doing in the city of St. Louis is investing in those root causes and those social supports that we know actually prevent crime.”
Green pointed to a program in Richmond, California — previously known as the homicide capital of the country — called the Operation Peacemaker fellowship program. She said the city identified people who were at risk for committing crimes, and gave them housing, childcare, mental health support, or other resources they needed.
“They found that in the first year, their violent crime rate dropped by 33%. In over five years, it dropped by 55%. Now, those are the types of investments that I think we need to be making in St. Louis, they get at the heart of what's happening here,” she said. “Because otherwise, we just keep arresting folks and letting them out and arresting them and letting them out. And we never actually break that cycle of violence.”
As for police, Green pointed out that St. Louis has one of the highest-staffed police departments per capita in the country. She said what she wants to focus on is how we allocate police resources.
“We need to be looking at how we create a leadership structure that doesn't take boots off the street. But we also need to recognize that over 50% of the calls that go into 911 right now are not police matters,” Green said. “Yet we're asking police to show up to them because social workers don't exist, because homeless outreach coordinators don't exist, because substance abuse professionals don't exist.”
Alderwoman Megan Green also talked about ARPA funds, her relationship with Mayor Jones, and population loss. Listen to the full interview:
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