LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Colin Hardin is a Democratic candidate for Louisville mayor. His website is hardinforlouisville.com.
Q: Why are you running for mayor?
I am running for mayor because I have seen that we have done things the wrong way for too long. Our city administration at this moment has been failing our city, people are not happy nor hopeful. We have so much of this city struggling to get by or wondering when they will face a crisis that will put them in that situation. The worst part about this is that it doesn’t seem like our “leaders” care. I have always sat on the sidelines when it comes to politics, but I cannot sit by any longer. I hold myself personally accountable for our failures, so I am taking this into my own hands. I am running for mayor for a better way for our city and our people.
Q: What separates you from the other candidates in your primary, and in the race overall?
I am very different from the others in this race. I am not a business owner with a lot of money to devote to this election, I am not a life-time activist who sees this as a way to push an agenda for one specific group, and I am also not a career politician who sees this as the next step in getting more power. I am a common man, I work in the service industry, I have spent my life serving people and I am still doing so while running in this race. I am among the working class, and I want to bring those experiences to the office of the mayor. I am not in this for money, unlike how others may be. I have already pledged to donate up to 50% of my salary to Louisville based non-profits and charities. I am here to make Louisville strong.
Q: Louisville has experienced record homicides in recent years and an increase in shootings overall. What are your priorities for improving public safety?
We need to make sure that our police are focused on actually solving these violent crimes happening across the city. Right now too much of our police’s resources are focused on a failed war on drugs. We need to pull much of these resources and devote them to hunting down dangerous murderers, violent criminals, and rapists harming people across the county. We need to make sure that our police are funded and supported, but we need to also change our department’s culture to be more focused on service and protection, with a dedication to our constitutional rights. If we want to make sure that our police are protected and that they respect our rights, then we need to bring in new officers who come from our community and don’t see normal people as threats or “the other side."
Q: What is your top priority for the Louisville Metro Police Department? Would you retain Erika Shields as chief?
My priority with the LMPD would be to get rid of the “Thin Blue Line” mentality. We need to bring in new diverse backgrounds into the police department, not just diversity of race and gender, but also of class. We need to bring in people who will place a higher value on our constitutional rights while redistributing police funding towards tackling violent crime. We want to pass laws that allow for police whistleblowers who will help get the “bad apples” out of the police force and make Louisville’s police department a strong uniform group that will fulfill their honorable goal of protecting and serving our community.
We would not retain Erika Shields as Chief of Police. My campaign is currently in talks with former Marine veteran and former unit commander of the Baltimore Police Department, Dr. Michael Wood Jr., who would take up the mantle of police chief.
Q: After several deaths in recent months, how do you plan to ensure the safety and health of people incarcerated at Metro Corrections?
The primary issue with Metro Corrections is its inability to retain qualified staff who can deal with the constant stress and issues prevalent within our system. We would take steps to make a huge hiring push within Metro Corrections to get qualified people new jobs with great benefits and pay, which we will guarantee to all employees of the city, but especially to those within Metro Corrections. We also need to work to improve the quality of our living conditions within our jails, people who are held before their hearings are innocent until proven guilty, and thus we need to make sure that their constitutional rights are protected.
Q: The pandemic brought increased awareness of mental health and addiction concerns. What should Metro government’s role be in addressing these issues? How would your administration approach these challenges?
Mental health is one of the greatest pressures and concerns on the people of Louisville right now. Just earlier in the race we saw the tragedy of one of my fellow candidates be targeted by an attempted assassin who is suffering from immense mental health issues. We need to take steps to tackle these problems before they grow to violence. We need to offer qualified professional help to our citizens and take intervention when necessary to protect people from hopelessness and despair. It is our responsibility to protect our people, even further when issues like suicides claim such promising young men and women. Reports show that up to 60% of gun deaths are from suicides; if we want to end an epidemic of gun violence, we need to tackle mental health as a true epidemic.
Q: How do you plan to support the recovery of downtown Louisville for businesses, residents and visitors?
My administration would place a high focus on remaking downtown Louisville into a shining example of the future of cities. We would take steps to encourage business development in downtown while also devoting resources to both increase safety in cooperation with the police and making it more walkable with higher research into innovative public transportation options. We also want to take steps to make the city greener, reducing overall heat during the summer by increasing tree coverage downtown. We want to tackle the huge challenges that have come with our previous mistakes in the past with our city’s development. We can only do so with new innovative ideas.
Q: How would your administration approach economic development and business growth? What specific changes, programs or initiatives would you support to make Louisville retain businesses, add jobs and be more competitive regionally?
We need to take a new stance to our economic development. While many leaders across the United States focus on the supply side part of economics that encourages strict business development, we want to try our hand at the demand side. If people do not have the money to buy things with then no matter how much money we pump into our businesses, no one will be able to actually make use of that. My administration would want to put a focus onto normal business investment into entrepreneurs and established businesses, but also attempt to run a Basic Income Trial in parts of the city most distressed by poverty. This would be privately funded, so city resources would not directly be sacrificed for this research, but we would attempt to see if money in the hands of the people equate to improved economic situations for our city.
Q: Public incentives such as tax increment financing have been used in recent years to support development projects across Louisville. What role do you believe public incentives play? Are there incentives you would seek to limit or curb? Please explain.
Public incentives are far better options for development projects than any attempt to punish the people for not cooperating with the city government. We need to take whatever steps we can to improve the overall quality of the city through projects, of which much would likely be paid for with a majority of public incentives. On top of ideas such as this, we also want to implement new tax cuts for citizens for cooperation with city mandates, such as property tax credits for the implementation and upkeep of solar panels on private property across Jefferson County. These ideas would allow for the city to bring in new businesses, find revenue for renovation projects, and to also limit overall stress on ordinary citizens when we try to improve the quality of life for the entirety of Louisville.
Q: How would your administration work to address homelessness in Louisville?
Homelessness is a major issue within our city. You can hardly drive to any part of Jefferson County without seeing people living under our highways or begging for help in the streets. We need to take major steps to provide immediate safe housing options to people while we work on the long-term solutions. One of the first choices we can make is to set up housing lots where we build temporary cheap individual housing units such as “Tiny House Prefabs”. We could set them up quickly and allow for safe places to sleep and store items, it could provide a manner of stability which also would include resources to get people jobs and assistance finding more permanent housing solutions.
Q: There is a shortage of available and affordable housing for lower income households and an overall ‘affordability gap’ for residents. How would you address these longstanding housing issues?
For permanent housing, my administration has another innovative idea, the Urban Agriculture Initiative. We hope to buy up abandoned and vacant buildings and lots across Jefferson County and hire the unemployed to renovate those properties. Half of the land would be devoted to affordable housing, of which priority housing would be given to those who worked on the project. The other half, mixed in with the housing, would be urban farms. We want to provide immediate access to healthy food to many parts of the city that ordinarily exist in food deserts. Not only would we be creating jobs, but we would increase affordable housing in the city, increasing access to food, and increasing overall land value with the inclusion of green infrastructure in these neighborhoods.
Q: What steps do you believe your administration could take to help improve academic outcomes for young people in Louisville?
My administration would work immediately with JCPS to require senior level classes for all high-school students devoted to the ideas of basic law, financing and taxes, and home economics. We need our young men and women to have the skills necessary to invest in themselves and their futures. Personal accountability needs to be focus for our young generations, only we can make the differences we want to see in the world, we cannot depend on others to make that change for us. Additionally, we want to encourage people to go into trade schools and community colleges to reduce overall debt that our young generations have to take upon seeking higher education. On top of all of this, we seek to create HOPE organizations in our schools to encourage people to find hope in the future rather than becoming burnt out and apathetic with the state of the world.
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