St. Pete mayoral candidate Jesse Nevel hit the streets campaigning and signing up voters Saturday. His platform is unity through reparations.
- 5th candidate to join St. Pete mayoral race
- Jesse Nevel running on 'unity through reparations'
- Hopes to redevelopment South side in St. Pete
"Reparations means righting the wrongs of the past and also taking responsibility to rectify the conditions that we see today,” Nevel said. “And it means funding genuine economic development for the black community that is in the interest of and controlled by the black working class of this city."
Nevel said reparations would include things like turning the land under Tropicana Field back to the black community so it can be used to rebuild economic development and affordable housing.
He said development of the South side is something everyone, regardless of their skin color, will benefit from.
"All of us are going to be priced out of this neighborhood and priced out of this city as these condos and high rises pop up around us,” Nevel said.
Nevel said the current economic injustice goes hand and hand with the state of the school system. He said the city needs to get involved to help create some short term solutions.
"We have to push the county to put more funding towards these schools and we also have to support independent provisional black community controlled educational institutions and programs,” Nevel said.
And when it comes to the city’s water woes, Nevel said he would look into re-opening the Albert Whitted treatment facility and give more power to city workers.
“They warned the city about certain things and they were ignored and threatened for doing that,” Nevel said. “So I would establish worker councils that would actually have power and authority over operating water resources and other departments in the city.”
Nevel is running against Rick Kriseman, Rick Baker, Anthony Cates and Paul Congemi. The primary election is August 29th.