Eritha “Akile” Cainion, a 20-year-old activist who works as a cashier at a local shoe store, launched her campaign for St. Pete City Council's District 6 seat on March 6 in front of the recently shuttered Midtown Walmart Neighborhood Market.
Jesse Nevel, the national chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement — a group of white activists that supports the efforts of the African People's Socialist Party (a.k.a. the Uhurus) — entered the race for mayor, on March 8, 2017, standing in front of Tropicana Field.
Both sites are meaningful for the African-American community living in south St. Petersburg, Florida and the candidates were hoping to make a point about poverty and gentrification. The first one represented urban food deserts and disparities among minorities neighborhoods around the country and the other, a former site of the Gas Plant community that demolished in the early 1980s to make way for the baseball stadium.
This is the first run for public office for each, and both candidates are hoping to change the conversation and focus on improving fairness and quality of life for the city's African American residents.
During a campaign rally on April 9, at the Uhuru House, the candidates laid out their plans for how to create a more level playing field for the city's minorities.
Radical solutions
Cainion began her campaign with a platform of 10 points that includes economic development, public safety, single-member elections, gentrification and affordable housing, among others.
She said that during her lifetime the cityhas done nothing but work against the black community.
“This city has washed over the history of this dome. The history of destroying an entire African community called the Gas Plant,” Cainion said. “A prosperous community with schools, night clubs, restaurants, churches, groceries stores, and homes. This city bulldozed over an entire community, displaced the people who lived there and left the black community jobless and economically starving and in despair.”
That dome sits in a graveyard, of black businesses, homes, and memories, she continued, and vowed to fight to return it to the black community if elected.
“It's not the city’s decision. It's not Kriseman decision. It's a decision of the black community. The option is to give the land back to the black community,” Cainion said. “When we take back the dome, we’re going to put houses back on that land. Creating an abundance of affordable housing for the black community as a step to solve the crisis of homelessness and gentrification in the black community.”
She added that rent prices in St. Pete are making the struggle in even harder for locals.
“Forty percent of white renters' income goes to their rent and 54 percent [of income] for black renters in the city [goes toward rent]. People are saying that they don’t see a future living here because there’s no relief in the cost of rent,” the candidate said.
Akile is running against local NAACP president Maria Scruggs; Lakewood Terrace activist and South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area advisory board member Corey Givens; activist Sharon Russ; former Pinellas County School Board candidate James Jackson; research administrator John Johnson and Justin Bean, a member of the Pier Uplands Selection Committee.
Environmental advocate James Scott will launch his campaign for St. Petersburg City Council District 6, on April 18, making him the eighth candidate in the race for an area that stretches from Midtown through downtown into Old Northeast and South to Bahama Shores.
The councilman currently occupying the seat, Karl Nurse, is leaving due to term limits.
If the Uhuru-aligned candidates have any success at the polls, they will do so unconventionally, as they lack the big-money support donors have put up for their opponents.
On her March financial report, Cainion presented a total of $488.48 monetary contributions to date. Givens, meanwhile, pulled in 8,574.37, Scruggs raised $3,755 and Jackson raised $100. The city’s financial portal had no information available for John Johnson and Sharon Russ.
Reparations
At first view, Nevel would only stand out among the other candidates, incumbent Mayor Rick Kriseman, newcomer Anthony Cates III and perennial candidate Paul Congemi, thanks to Nevel's youthful appearance. However, there is something different about his plan. He is a Jewish white man who says he hoes to unite the city with a policy of reparations to the black community and to fight against big real estate developers and corrupt politicians.
The Tropicana represents a core part of his proposal, he said.
“That land must go back to the black community. I will be the next mayor because the people of this city want to unite. We want to break the isolation experienced by the neighborhoods in this city. We don’t want to live through another 40 years of divisive, racist injustice, gentrification, police murder and corruption,” Nevel said.
Another point during his speech was that he plans to open an investigation into Mayor Rick Kriseman “mishandling and cover-up of repeatedly releasing over 256 million gallons of raw, untreated sewage into Clam Bayou and the Tampa Bay,” which he said was a serious threat to public health and the local environmental.
The candidate also addressed the rumors of Republican former mayor Rick Baker jumping into the race. They said Baker is Kriseman with a mustache.
“I’m not even worried for Baker or Kriseman because they’re going to both be competing for the same big money supporters. Meanwhile, we have to do work to get out and organize people of the city who have no interest in Baker or Kriseman. They’re raising all that money because people hate them,” Nevel said.
On his March financial report, Nevel reported a total of $622.04 in monetary contributions to date; Kriseman reported a total of $149,980.85 and Anthony Cates III pulled in $385. Paul Cogemi did not report activity on his campaign report.
The primary is scheduled for Aug. 29, and the general election is Nov. 7.
This article appears in Apr 13-20, 2017.