Meet candidate for Grand Rapids mayor Hailey Lynch-Bastion

FOX 17 is profiling the four candidates for Grand Rapids' mayor. The election is August 6.

Hailey Lynch-Bastion is an employee at Founders Brewing and describes themself an artist and philosopher.

Their campaign website can be found here.

You can watch Lynch-Bastion's full interview with FOX 17 here.

Below is a full transcript of the interview between FOX 17 and Lynch-Bastion, which was conducted a few weeks ago.

Why did you want to be Grand Rapids mayor?

“About like 8 years ago it started as a passing joke. Then 6 years ago I started to take it seriously. I was like, I think I actually can like do some good."

“Four years I started to take it like really really seriously, and then, two years ago I found out according to ancestry.com that like 80 something of my ancestors were mayors, in Galway Ireland. Which I thought was really interesting on a genetic ancestral level. Not to be a hippie.”

So how do you plan to do that?

“It’s a good question, because with the weak mayor system, a lot of what I get to do is get to say yes or no at City Commission meetings. It seems a lot of the owners, is on the actual citizens of Grand Rapids to come to us and be like ‘we should do this’ and then I can be like ‘yes!’

What do you like about Grand Rapids, and what do you see as things we need improvement on?

“Just the people I come across in my day-to-day seem to have massive hearts. They don’t always know what to do with, either. I feel like there’s a lot of desire for change and community here, that is growing, and I really appreciate that about it. Beyond that, the art scene has always been really great. The music has always been fantastic.”

Where do you see room for improvement in the city?

“Well, I think there’s way too much as regards, government focus.. there seems to be way too much focus on getting tourists here. And maintaining some level of tourism. It kind of makes it so the city, when they talk about, oh this will be good for the city. Is this kind of some abstract thing? The city is supposed to be the people, the citizens, composed of. I think there could be a reorientation of how we’re viewing what’s beneficial to the city.”

What in your experience makes you feel like you’re ready and prepared to take on this role?

“I’ve been doing very intense amount of studying for the last few years. Various philosophical, psychoanalytic, economic, and like various other cultural systems. That I think give me a very wide range of tactics, or ways of viewing situations that you wouldn’t get otherwise."

The big projects that are coming to the city, the soccer stadium, the amphitheater, what are your thoughts on those projects as mayor?

“I am not a big fan of them. I think it’s kind of crazy to be focusing on these large projects to bring in millions to the city. I doubt you are going to see any money from the soccer stadium. I know I’m not going to. And meanwhile, there’s people starving on our streets and burning to a crisp. Not a big fan.”

That’s always interesting to hear that perspective. Because we often hear how great these projects are going to be. What are your concerns with them again?

“They’re using a lot of really valuable land space. Really just the use, it feels like a misuse of resources to me, all around."

Anything else you want people to know about you as a selling point as mayor?

“It might be useful to mention one tactic I had to kind of get a bit more money flowing for public works that could be beneficial, is I intend to donate the majority of the mayor’s salary, and maintain my kitchen job as well. Donate the majority of my salary as the mayor to like the public works, so that we do have a bit more leeway to start with I suppose.

“Also, a lot of people think because of my anime hair and my goofiness, that I’m not a serious candidate. But I would like to assure everybody that I am.”

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