News / Here is the Citizens’ Agenda for the 2025 St. Louis mayoral race

Here is the Citizens’ Agenda for the 2025 St. Louis mayoral race

Nine PBS and SLM talked to voters about what matters to them—and tonight, you’ll hear from the candidates on the issues.

Trash and potholes. 

Not enough attention to downtown. 

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Too many studies, not enough follow through. 

Not enough urgency around public safety and safer streets.

We asked people who care about St. Louis to share what’s on their minds going into this mayoral race, and we didn’t need to ask twice. Through focus groups and online feedback, St. Louisans gave us an earful on the issues that matter most to them—and the questions they wanted to hear the mayoral candidates answer. And then we took those issues, and questions, directly to the candidates.

Tonight, you can hear their answers. Race for Mayor: The St. Louis Citizens’ Agenda debuts tonight at 7 p.m. on Nine PBS. You can tune in via the airwaves or streaming; individual segments are also posted on YouTube.

We sat down with all four candidates and gave them a chance to explain their plan on the five issues identified by residents as most critical to them:

  • Transparency and accountability
  • City services
  • Public safety and policing
  • Revitalizing downtown
  • A vision for the city

You can watch the special on TV tonight or throughout the coming weeks online. And throughout the coming week, we’ll also be digging into the issues identified by participants—and the candidates’ responses. Each day for the next five weekdays, we’ll publish a story spotlighting one of the agenda items and sharing what the candidates had to say about it. You can find those stories linked on this page, at ninepbs.org, and at stlmag.com. We’ll also post transcripts of each candidates’ one-on-one interviews.

We went into this project hoping to cover the election in a new way, to get away from horse-race coverage and focus instead on the issues that matter to St. Louis. We hope we’ve succeeded.

Interview transcripts:

Learn more about the issues:

Candidates share their thoughts on transparency and accountability 

City services are a huge frustration for voters. What will it take to fix them?

Voters want downtown revitalization, but candidates differ on how

Public safety remains a focus for many residents. Here’s what the candidates said about it

Mayoral candidates answer a big question: What’s your vision?

Courtesy Nine PBS/St. Louis Magazine
Courtesy Nine PBS/St. Louis MagazineSTL_CA_Logo_color.jpg