On Friday’s St. Louis on the Air, Tyrone Austin, an independent candidate for mayor of St. Louis, joined host Don Marsh to discuss his platform ahead of the general municipal election on April 4.
Austin, a businessman, is making his second run for mayor. His first was in 2013.
We spoke with Republican candidate Andrew Jones on March 27 and with Democratic candidate Lyda Krewson on March 22. In addition to our conversation with Austin on Friday, we’ll also hear from the Libertarian candidate for mayor, the Green candidate for mayor and one other independent candidate for mayor.
Listen to the full conversation here:
On his qualifications to be the next mayor of the City of St. Louis:
"A lot of people don't know that I influenced a lot of changes in a lot of people in the world. For example, I influenced Matt Blunt with a letter to help him change the way to handle child support cases in the city, instead of just locking them up and holding them. ... I sent that letter to him after a child support incident that destroyed my family structure until we had to build everything back up for a kid I no longer had custody over. I was down there 9 months and I got charged $1750 to get out of jail after the issue was resolved with the child's mother."
On his platform for mayor:
"Creating a secondary revenue for the City of St. Louis with a self-tax system with a hydrogen car fender. It is a tank that is hollow and creates hydrogen gas on demand, and it cuts your gasoline use in half. The Post Office should jump on it first because most drivers fill up those tanks twice a week at $60 or $70 a wop. We're just going to offer these tanks as a crowd-funding solution for cheaper gas and more savings to Americans all over the country and St. Louis would tax every tank in the country that would get refilled and we would make $30 million every thirty days. In order for this to work, I have to be mayor to get us those tax breaks.
"... I have a program based on part-time employment that if we take all 22 vacant schools, I can take all of them and convert them into sleeping centers and at three-year intervals we would take people out to build homes on vacant lots with the money that they would save.
"... I have a program so that if a house stays vacant more than three years in your community and you have $10,000 in the bank, you can apply to fix that house up and manage it until the owners come to their senses or financially come to grips with this property to rehab, manage it, until you get labor and material out of that property by collecting rent."
To read more of Austin's platform, you can visit his website here:http://www.fatttrixx.com/austin4mayor.html.
St. Louis on the Air brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh and producers Mary Edwards, Alex Heuer and Kelly Moffitt give you the information you need to make informed decisions and stay in touch with our diverse and vibrant St. Louis region.