Cara Spencer’s victory in April’s mayoral election left a vacancy in the 8th Ward at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen.
The ward stretches from Bellerive Park to the south to the abandoned Cotton Belt Freight Depot on the riverfront to the north. It includes the historic Benton Park, Soulard and Lafayette Square neighborhoods and shares the downtown business district with the 14th Ward.
Five candidates filed to replace Spencer. Shedrick Kelley is the official nominee of the Democratic Party, while Cam McCarty got the nod for the city’s Libertarian Party. The three others gathered signatures to get on the ballot as independents.
Despite the partisan nominations, the ballot does not include party affiliations. The city’s Democratic Central Committee unsuccessfully sued to force labels to be added.
The candidates are listed below in the order they appear on the ballot
Cam McCarty
McCarty, a wireless network engineer and member of the Missouri Air National Guard, called the special election “a great opportunity for me to show the city what I can do.”
“I don't think that there's any harm or anything the city would be losing by giving me a shot,” he said.
As a Libertarian, McCarty sees a limited role for government at any level.
“I think infrastructure and police are the two fundamental things that government should provide to its citizens,” he said, adding that it was no shock that public safety and roads have been the two most important issues in the campaign.
McCarty wants to use the position to empower the 13 neighborhoods wholly or partially in the 8th Ward to meet their own needs.
“Our ward is a perfect example of the successes that can be had,” he said. “Whatever they can't get done, they could report to me, and I'll take care of it at the city level and work with other aldermen so that they can do the same thing.”
The failure of a deal over the spending of Rams settlement money in April showed a split among members as to how much the city should focus its investment in downtown. For McCarty, more attention to the business district is better.
“Downtown needs the biggest focus if we want to revitalize it and bring it back to how it was when I was a kid,” he said. “Downtown is not really the epicenter of St. Louis anymore. And I think that's a shame.”
But he said the city should not plan to spend all $294 million available at once.
“It’s just like budgeting your checkbook at home,” he said. “You save for retirement. I don’t think we need to be blowing this money on random projects.”
Jim Dallas
Dallas, a retired insurance executive, is running a campaign that sounds familiar themes.
“The main issue is getting back to basics,” he said. “Start with the small things – getting the potholes filled, make sure that the trash collection is picked up consistently across the ward. There's also a lot of drag racing that goes on.”
Dallas and his wife lived in St. Louis in the 1980s and '90s, then moved back to Soulard in 2018. He became involved with the Soulard Restoration Group, serving a term as its president and now chairing its fundraising committee.
“I'm very strong in digging into details and problem-solving,” he said.
Dallas, who spent 10 years going to a downtown office in the '80s, said the days of walking around at lunch and going to a variety of places are gone.
“The southern edge of downtown is like that. But once you move farther north, we need to address some safety [issues], put in some more businesses in there and make sure that everybody's comfortable walking throughout the entire part of downtown,” he said.
Dallas said he is glad the city has wrested control of the Railway Exchange building from an out-of-state owner, saying it will help the city move development north.
Dallas also wants the city to dole out the Rams money over time, rather than spend it all at once.
“We need to spread it out over five or six years and keep setting aside for emergencies or budget shortfalls,” he said.
Jami Cox Antwi
Cox Antwi has been in the political arena since she was 15, when she helped found the University City Youth Society.
Now 29, she enters the race for the 8th Ward having run unsuccessfully for state representative.
“I think our local elected officials are more important than they've ever been before, and I think the context of what we're seeing at the federal and state level only emphasizes that,” she said.
The ward, she said, is the most important in the city.
“It has not only our downtown core, but a lot of our historic neighborhoods. And for me, those issues look like making sure that people are able to live and thrive in some of our most historic neighborhoods,” she said.
At U.S. Bancorp, Cox Antwi helps put together financing for community projects like low-income housing or new market tax credits. Working in that space, she said, has made it clear that the city needs to think differently about development, especially around affordable housing.
“St. Louis has been too focused on doing things the way they've always done it. And I think we need someone that can come into City Hall and start advocating for change,” she said.
Like other candidates in the race, Cox Antwi understands the importance of downtown to the health of the city. But any development, she said, must keep the community in mind.
“I think it's really important, when the city has resources available, that they work on projects that can be holistically beneficial to the neighborhoods around it,” she said.
And while she gets the appeal of the Rams money as a “big attractive pool we can use for long-term investments,” Cox Antwi said the city needs to honor the findings of a survey that showed residents want the money spent on things like streets and higher salaries for city workers.
Shedrick Kelley
Shedrick Kelley was the first candidate in the race, calling it a duty to run for the board a third time.
“I am now the Democratic committeeman, and just doing more work with voter registration and things like that in and around the city, I just felt like it was only right that I continued that work at City Hall,” he said.
Kelley is a business analyst and rapper using the stage name Nato Caliph. He and his wife are raising their children in McKinley Heights. The issues that are important to the 8th Ward, he said, are no different than they are in the rest of the city – crime, city services and speeding.
“But a lot of times now, when you go into different pockets in different neighborhoods, they have specific issues that they want addressed,” he said. “I’m the best because I listen to people.”
Kelley acknowledged that downtown has needs that are different from the city’s other 78 neighborhoods, because of the building density and limited green space. But, he said, reinvesting in downtown means treating it like more than just the city’s business center.
“Overall, it’s still about the people and helping each other,” he said. “Like – there’s a business here. How do we get people to know that this business exists? How do we support it?”
Kelley agrees that some of the Rams settlement money should be invested in downtown. But he wants the needs of the city’s youth to be a part of the conversation as well.
“I don’t mean go build a new amusement park, but just something simple – programs that would get them involved, like learning some computer programming or things like that,” he said.
Alecia Hoyt
Hoyt is a photographer and lifelong activist who has spent decades advocating for various causes.
“And while all of that mattered and was worthwhile, I found that I wasn't able to effect the kind of hyperlocal change within my own neighborhood that was missing,” she said. “And so when this race was announced, I thought, ‘This is how I can do the things that I think our neighborhoods and our city desperately needs.’”
Hoyt is focused on issues of pedestrian safety and traffic calming. She lives in Benton Park with her mother, husband and child but said she doesn’t feel safe walking to the neighboring McKinley Heights.
“We're bisected by Gravois, and it's not safe to walk across Gravois,” she said. “People need to feel safe walking their kids down the street to the park or the ice cream shop.”
Although the May 16 tornado has upended the conversation about the use of the Rams settlement funding, Hoyt said the city needs to honor the results of a survey that showed support for street and water main repair, subsidized child care and higher pay for city workers.
And while she also understands the importance of downtown to the city, she said everyone needs to be aware of what its other neighborhoods offer as well.
In addition to her day job, Hoyt is an intern with the Missouri Master Naturalist program. As the city rebuilds from the May 16 tornado, she said equitable access to nature needs to be a part of the conversation.
“If you look at O'Fallon Park and you look at Carondelet Park, they're the exact same design and layout, but they have not been stewarded the same,” she said. “The amount of trees and green space that are available for actual recreation are not the same.”
Early voting is underway. The election is Tuesday. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
