Meet Grand Rapids mayoral candidate Hailey Lynch-Bastion

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — News 8 is interviewing all of the candidates running to become the next mayor of Grand Rapids.

The primary election is set for Tuesday, Aug. 6. The top two vote-getters will move onto the November general election.

News 8 previously spoke with candidates Steve Owens and David LaGrand. On Monday, News 8 interviewed Hailey Lynch-Bastion. Our final interview with mayoral candidate Senita Lenear will air and publish on woodtv.com Tuesday.

Lynch-Bastion is a Grand Rapids native and resident who works at Founders Brewing Company.

“I am a person who focuses on philosophical and psychoanalytical work, largely speaking,” Lynch-Bastion said. “I’m also an artist because how else do you pass the time?”

For Lynch-Bastion, jumping in the race for mayor was to advocate for people who feel unheard and neglected.

“I am not trying to get me elected,” Lynch-Bastion said. “I am trying to get the people in a place where a voice for the people is at least a little bit louder than it usually would.”

Below, see Lynch-Bastion’s response to our questions. The following interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Q: Why are you running for mayor?

Lynch-Bastion: “Well, No. 1, everything is terrible all the time. I do think with my disinterest in personal gains, I will be able to help people more from a grounded point of view. Also because I found out at one point I have many ancestors who were also mayors. So it’s like a genetic thing. Mayors in Galway, Ireland. I also have one great uncle that was mayor in Traverse City, I think.

“I’ve been talking about it to my friends for about six years now seriously. About eight years total, just making jokes.”

Q: What’s your biggest priority if elected?

Lynch-Bastion: “Homelessness and food. We have so many resources. We act like there’s a scarcity and allow our brothers and sisters to literally starve on the streets, melt to death. It is abhorrent to me. My main concern is helping them.

“From there, we start to look at the worst places, housing situations, and try to work on those. Unhoused does not strictly mean literally does not have a house. It also means in the sense that you don’t have control over your housing, or you are always one paycheck away from losing your housing. It’s that terror that people feel, that’s not housing. I personally live in a one-bedroom currently that’s filled with bugs and there’s lead in the paint. Despite my best efforts to deter these pest issues, it’s the state of a lot of housing, not just in Grand Rapids but nationally and internationally.”

Watch an extended version of News 8’s interview with Lynch-Bastion below :

Q: What else needs to change in the city?

Lynch-Bastion: “A lot of people that I talk to individually, they will be enthusiastic about the idea of helping other people. ‘I would love to be able to volunteer, help do this, but I don’t have time because I’m working two jobs and I have three children.’

“I think not only is this work-yourself-to-death-faster-and-faster sort of viewpoint something that needs to be seriously addressed both by the community and by the people in charge, but also just the whole paradigm we’re currently existing under I find a little sad.

“What if people did not have to worry about being housed and fed. What if it was a given? We have the resources. I think we should switch the conversation from making committees to deal with the homeless or the hungry to taking care of this now because they are dying right now. That’s important to me.”

Q: What’s your opinion on the amphitheater , proposed soccer stadium and possible aquarium , do you think it’s a good of resources?

Lynch-Bastion: “This abstract of your taxes going into the amphitheater and in a few years there will be $4 billion floating around … are you going to see a dollar from that? Am I? To present these citywide endeavors as if they are going to actually improve the lives of the citizens there, when in actuality they are just kind of encouraging tourists to come here and trying to accrue money from them, I really don’t mess with that.”

Q: The rising cost of parking downtown as well as the availability of street parking is a concern for some residents. How do you balance that need with these projects?

Lynch-Bastion: “Once again, this is an example of artificial scarcity. Are there no places to park downtown usually? There’s many lots, but you have to pay $15 get in. Or if you’re lucky to get on the street, it’s $3 an hour or whatever. It’s restrictive for the people that could only barely get there to begin with.”

Q: Do you support the proposed 3% hotel/motel excise tax that’s on the August ballot?

Lynch-Bastion: “If the idea of the tax is so we can get extra money to help the people here now and have people hold back for a just a second, I am pro that policy. If the policy is strictly to pull more money from people, it’s like, ‘What’s the point?'”

Q: How do you hope to reduce crime and violence, especially involving young people?

Lynch-Bastion: “What are the root causes of crime? Poverty, trauma, you’re either reenacting something that occurred upon you that ruined your psyche in a sense or you are trying to get money to live. If we made it so that people were inherently able to live, then the crime rate itself would fall naturally.”

Q: The police chief has talked about officer shortages in his department and wanting to bring more people through the doors. Do you believe the police department needs more funding or less funding?

Lynch-Bastion: “I don’t think they’re using the officers they have appropriately. I don’t think they need more, I think they need to relax. I think they need to be stripped of some of their… I don’t like they have guns.”

Q: It was clear after the death of Patrick Lyoya : There remains a lot of pain in a good portion of the community when it comes to the police department. How do you hope to bridge the divide between part of the community and the police department?

Lynch-Bastion: “To try and say how do we bridge this gap without making any changes in the structure of the police department itself is to try and in a sense victim-blame. It’s like saying, ‘Hey community, we notice you’re having a hard time with the police killing you, how do you want to act differently?’ Or at best, it’s like a cop played a game of basketball with a kid. That’s the community outreach. I’m tired of that. Community outreach for me looks like let’s take away their guns. If you keep killing people by accident, take away the thing that kills people.”

Q: Why should someone vote for you? What’s your pitch to voters?

Lynch-Bastion: “People should vote for me because I will care about you. I will care about your family. I will care about the family you don’t even care about. It’s going to be a good time regardless.”

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