It’s a historic day for St. Louis politics, as three women sit in some of the most influential offices in the city. Democratic Alderwoman Megan Green won the election for President of the Board of Aldermen on Tuesday, and she joined “The Show” on KMOX to talk about what the next few months will look like.
“In the short term, we really have to get down to work preparing for the spring elections,” she said. “As many folks are aware, the Board of Aldermen is reducing from 28 boards to 14 boards this spring. Very little work has been done to prepare us for that, from just a structural and staffing point of view at the Board of Aldermen.”
Green is finishing out Lewis Reed’s term, who stepped down earlier this year after being indicted for fraud. Green said because of the scandals with Reed and two other Aldermen who were also indicted, it’s important to her to restore trust in the Board of Aldermen. Plus, she said, she wants the Board to start meeting in person again.
Green echoes the sentiments of many other local leaders when it comes to the top issue in the city. She knows crime is the main issue people want resolved.
“We have to start with crime, particularly investments in crime prevention. Prevention is the place that we have made cuts over the years when it comes to funding to our health department and for affordable housing,” she said. “And I want to see greater investments going in there. Second thing we got to get to work on — and this bill was already introduced — but it's spending some of the ARPA money for traffic calming throughout the city.”
St. Louis has seen a disproportionately high number of traffic deaths this year, as KMOX has reported. Green said it was one of the main complaints she heard from constituents when she was running. As for getting it solved, she said policing isn’t the only answer.
“Traffic engineers will tell you that you cannot police your way out of an engineering problem. We have so many roads in our streets that are in our city that were built for trolleys. They are incredibly wide which incentivizes speeding,” Green said. “We need to look at adding different safety improvements, whether it's bump outs or speed humps or other types of traffic planning that will help to slow down traffic and curb some of the erratic driving that we see in the city.”
If that has to be coupled with law enforcement, she said, she wants to create a separate division outside of the Police Department located in the Streets Department that focuses on traffic violations specifically.
As for crime, Green has been outspoken about her aversion to simply hiring more police to reduce crime. Instead, she points to things like Operation Peacemaker, a program that was used in California that focused on providing resources to people who were likely to be en route to committing more crimes.
“That program, when it was implemented, reduced their violent crime rate by 33% in their first year, and 55% over five years,” she said. “So I mean, it really doesn't take that long. Once you make the investment you start to see some significant returns from these programs.”
Hear more from Aldermanic President-Elect Megan Green on her plans for the city over the next few months:
Copyright 2022 KMOX (Audacy). All Rights Reserved.
Follow KMOX | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Listen on the free Audacy app.
Tell your smart speaker to play K M O X.