Mayor Francis G. Slay of St. Louis, Missouri

9/08/2016

Mayor Francis G. Slay

Office of the Mayor

c/o St. Louis City Hall

1200 Market Street, Room 200

St. Louis, MO  63103

Dear Mayor Slay,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan and I have a strong interest in learning history and public policy.  In these subjects I like to learn the need to make Civil Rights stronger to help protect people who are different, protect the environment from pollution, find ways to improve public safety, and many others. The main reason I’m writing you a letter is because I find your work as 45^th Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri to be very inspiring to me.

In your current role as 45^th Mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, I am very proud on how you are a strong supporter of advancing Civil Rights to help protect women, minorities, and people with disabilities from being discriminated in education, jobs, and public places.  Also on Civil Rights, I like on how you are an advocate for people with disabilities’ rights, provide funds for women including minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy, support the need for equal pay for women to help protect then from being discriminated based on gender, support LGBT rights, and create “City of St. Louis Diversity Plan” to help hire women including minorities along with people with disabilities to work in law enforcement, public safety, and government services.  Your approach on improving the economy, like pushing for an increase in the minimum wage to $8.25 through $11 to help minimum wage workers afford to live, expanding on job-training programs to help train youth including workers to develop job skills to help prepare them for the workforce, and working with small businesses to help reduce red tape or high fees to help them be part of the community is common sense to make the economy better.  On the environment, I like on how you push for funds for renewable energy projects to help reduce addiction to oil with gas, expand on research to find ways to help protect the environment, encourage businesses including industries to use energy efficient products to help reduce high energy cost while protect the environment, and provide funds to help clean up parks with water resources to make them safe for people to use.  Your commitment to make education reform a better place by providing funds to help fix public schools to make them safe for students, funding special education to help students with disabilities get educational resources that they need, expanding training program to help make educators be efficient on teaching or improve o their skills,  and expanding on funds for arts including history to make education diverse.  On public safety I like your approach on improving it to make it safe for people like expand homeless shelters to help homeless people get the care they need, hire police offices to patrol the streets, work with minorities communities including people with disabilities to reduce racial profiling, push for ban on second hand smoke in restaurants along with city buildings to help improve health,  create the Mayor’s program to reduce children’s exposure to lead paint, and push for funds in forensic science along with partnering with UM-St. Louis criminologist to help find ways to reduce crime. Another thing that I like about your work as Mayor is how you worked with National Park services and other non-profit organizations to help restore historical sites, national parks, museums, entertainment sites, and other attractions to help improve tourism, make education resources better for people to learn, and to show diversity.

Mayor Slay, I have Autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate on my thoughts, and get teased. Your commitment to be a strong supporter of Civil Rights, be an advocate for people with disabilities’ rights, and promote diversity really inspires me to work hard on my disability.  Also your work as current mayor and your strong support on restoring historical sites with different attractions motivates me to continue my interest in history and learn the need to make history a better place. My future goal is to someday visit St. Louis to see different historical sites or other attractions and someday work in public policy to help shape common sense ideas to make society better.

Mayor Slay, I strongly believe that you are making a great difference in your current role. I’m very proud on how you are working hard to make history, society, Civil Rights, diversity, the environment, and many others a better place. I heard that you aren’t running for re-election in 2017 Mayoral election. My letter is a gift to you for inspiring me and to appreciate your commitment to make a great difference. You have truly inspire me to work hard on my disability, work hard when there are challenges,  and be motivated to continue my interest in history.  I hope someday I can get a chance to meet you because you have truly inspired me with your work. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a difference, and inspiring me.  I wish you well to continue your role as mayor and to continue to make great achievements to make society a better place.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick