St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones Wants to Tackle Poverty and Crime Together

JACQUI GERMAIN | Teen Vogue

“Since making history earlier this year as St. Louis’s first Black woman mayor, Tishaura Jones has been busy trying to live up to her reputation as “the people’s mayor.”

In Jones’s first three months, her administration enacted a city budget that cut police funding by $4 million and eliminated all funding for the city’s notorious medium-security prison. The facility has been the focus of years of protests, lawsuits, and organizing as part of the Close the Workhouse campaign, an initiative to permanently close the prison, backed by a coalition of local community organizations that Jones has worked with in the past. Jones also joined the Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity coalition and announced her proposal to direct the city’s first $80 million in relief funding from the American Rescue Plan toward the city’s most vulnerable populations. It would earmark support for needs like increased vaccination infrastructure, housing and utility assistance, and violence prevention programs.

Born and raised in North St. Louis, Jones attributes her political commitment to her deep roots in the city. Rather than targeting already affluent areas for economic development, she is opting to shift energy and investment to habitually under-resourced neighborhoods and community solutions. “Because I’m part of the community and I’m of the community, I’m for the community,” she says. “I’m always thinking first about how my decisions affect those who are most marginalized and those who have been flat-out ignored by their government for far too long.”