Lashunda Scales enters Birmingham mayor’s race, focused on crime and development
For weeks, signs proclaiming “Lashunda Scales for Mayor” and her mantra “She Works” have peppered streets from east in Roebuck to Crestwood and Avondale in the south and all the way west to Wylam.
With just 90 days until voters in Birmingham elect a new mayor, the Jefferson County Commissioner puts an end to the speculation: She’s running.
Scales, whose commission district includes east Birmingham, said her run for mayor is a continuation of her commitment to residents, specifically those in the city, who urgently seek solutions.
“I recognize that 47 percent of my commission district is Birmingham and it’s dying,” she said. “And one of the hurtful parts of all of this is that I am limited as a county commissioner as to the authority that I have in the city of Birmingham. A lot of my constituents I’m having to explain what I can do as a county commissioner versus the power of the mayor.”
Scales joins a growing field of competitors who are seeking to end Mayor Randall Woodfin’s time in the city’s highest office. Woodfin officially announced in February that he was seeking a third term. Scales previously challenged Woodfin for mayor in 2021.
Other announced candidates for mayor include State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, longtime activist Kamau Afrika, pastor and non-profit executive Frank Woodson and Jerimy Littlepage, a newcomer to politics who said he was inspired by Woodfin to seek the elected office.
Standing on the front porch of an abandoned house in Birmingham’s Collegeville neighborhood Tuesday morning, Scales formally announced her campaign and discussed her platform for voters to AL.com.
Scales said she chose the house, a modest historic home with overgrown grass, broken front windows and a broken storm door, because it embodies a longstanding unmet community need.
“We know that when we talk about blighted structures we’re talking about drugs that are in the community,” Scales said as rain beat down on the metal awnings nearby. “These are the seeds that over time manifest themselves in different ways.”
Scales, a two-term county commissioner and former Birmingham council member, said she is seeking the office of mayor after seeing grim statistics and unmet needs that she said compel her to attempt to intervene.
“We want to make sure that people are aware that help is on the way,” she said. “We’re not talking doom and gloom, but we are talking about facts along with solutions so we can move our city forward in the right direction.”
Scales said her platform also focuses on reducing violent crime, protecting Birmingham’s assets from further state-sanctioned takeovers – following the regionalization of the Water Works Board – and delivering on local economic development.
“I know that Birmingham has a lot to offer, and over the past seven and a half years we have gone from number one to number four. We are listed as one of the most violent cities in the country,” she said. “That has not always been the case. And I know that we can make Birmingham the leader in this state that we once were, but it’s going to take work.”
Scales was joined by a few supporters including Tina Sanders of No More Tears, a local victim’s support organization.
“Mothers are crying and babies are dying and we need someone who is going to fight for this change in communities,” Sanders said. “We need someone in place who is going to do the work.”
Mamie Easley also came to support Scales’ candidacy. Easley said her son was attacked by other youths at CityWalk downtown in April, forcing her to move her son out of town.
Easley, who is originally from Detroit, said her son’s father died a violent death and she is determined to protect her son from that fate in Birmingham.
“I am blessed that Commissioner Scales took her time and reached out to me to even understand me and see what was going on,” Easley said. “She listened and she’s standing with me to get justice for my son. She’s helping me and that’s the kind of leadership we need right now.”
Scales said comments like those from Easley and Sanders mirror a long list of promises and unmet commitments to others across the city.
For example, Scales cites development around Birmingham’s Crossplex in Five Points West that has still not materialized as promised. Additionally, other capital projects that have come to fruition such as the downtown stadium were promised nearly two decades ago during the Larry Langford administration, she noted.
Beyond major building initiatives, Scales also stressed the need to meet basic city services, a focus she said has largely been ignored since Langford’s brief term in office.
“We’ve got to grow beyond the work that former mayor Larry Langford did for us 16 years ago,” she said.
The framework was already there, she said, citing the tax package and projects that Langford introduced in 2007. But she said there hasn’t been anything new to replace what Langford did.
“What are we doing to show not only voters but to taxpayers that you’re paying for services and it’s time for those services to be rendered?” she said.
Birmingham’s ranking as the fourth largest city in the state, a major decline from its longstanding top rating, presents an urgent need for action to address the exodus of residents, she said.
“This is the turnaround that we’ve got to do. It’s not the personalities involved, it’s the policies of those individuals,” Scales said. “We’re looking forward to letting people know that there’s hope and hope is on the way.”
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