Keith Larson: 2025 candidate for Aurora alderperson at large

Bio

Office sought: Aurora alderperson at large

City: Aurora

Age: 29

Occupation: Software engineer

Previous offices held: None

What is the most serious issue your community will face in the coming years and how should the city council respond to it?

One of the common issues all communities in the U.S. are facing and will continue to face is rising costs of necessities while wages stay low. Housing costs are skyrocketing and working families trying to buy homes are being outbid by wealthy investors and landlords, further contributing to rising costs and forcing people to rent in the absence of affordable homes for sale.

This results in families having to pay rent without building equity and long-term wealth, as a mortgage provides, and people have less disposable income, which hurts local small businesses.

The city must invest in affordable housing rather than more market rate or luxury rental units which the current administration is subsidizing, and the city must also attract high paying jobs to empower the working people who are the foundation of our city. We can both create jobs with new developments that will actually be affordable for residents rather than pricing residents out.

How would you describe the state of your community's finances? What should be the top priorities for spending during the next few years? Are there areas of spending that need to be curtailed?

Aurora is in a lot of debt that is inevitably going to be paid off by the taxpayers. I think the city needs to prioritize necessary infrastructure development to improve safety of our drinking water and roads for both drivers and pedestrians.

The city also needs to do a better job of actually addressing the requests of residents, such as addressing the severe lack of affordable housing as housing costs continue to skyrocket. The city needs to spend less time and money on subsidizing high cost developments that are going to be inaccessible to many residents as spending power decreases with inflation and low wages.

The city has and continues to subsidize donors to the mayor with millions of taxpayer dollars and this needs to stop. These developments are designed to benefit wealthy developers while hurting working families in the city who will continue to see rising property taxes as a result and rising property values, forcing more people to rent rather than buy.

What do you see as the most important infrastructure project the community must address? Why and how should it be paid for? Conversely, during these uncertain economic times, what project(s) can be put on the back burner?

One of the most important infrastructure projects in Aurora is the replacement of our lead water pipes, which make up approximately 35% of water service lines in the city.

The city has a program to replace these pipes based on funding which we have received from the IEPA and this funding is expected to increase in 2027.

I am not a health expert, but I know children in particular are vulnerable to lead contamination and lead has long lasting impacts on children. I think the city can accelerate this process by reducing spending on projects like the recently announced APEX development on Bilter Road next to the Chicago Premium Outlets which will likely receive incentives from the city under the current mayor and instead spend money on things that will materially impact the safety and well-being of those in our community rather than enriching developers who have plenty of excess money to donate to the mayor.

Describe your experience working in a group setting to determine policy. What is your style in such a setting to reach an agreement and manage local government? Explain how you think that will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions with your city council.

I have not worked in government before, but I have had experiences trying to work with elected officials in groups to propose resolutions at the local level and I have also worked in group settings at my job to determine details for projects.

My experience working with elected officials has been disappointing with most of them ignoring me and other constituents with some exceptions like John Laesch who literally gave me and other residents a seat at the table to write a draft resolution.

At work, we plan projects and write requirements for smaller chunks of work in a more democratic fashion by allowing people with different roles in the company to provide input based on their expertise. If elected, I will work with other elected officials, experts, and residents who would be affected by various policies and projects to hear everyone’s opinions and give them direct input.

This is how I believe democracy is supposed to work, but many elected officials do not operate this way.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

Simply put, I am a better candidate than my opponent and many other Alderpeople because I have no conflicts of interest. It is frequent that my opponent and other Alderpeople have to recuse themselves from discussions and votes in city council and committee meetings due to a conflict of interest and I have no conflicts of interest.

Most people in this city are employees just like me and do not benefit from the millions of dollars in incentives that the city gives out to developers, but multiple people on the city council have to frequently recuse themselves. I don't think this is representative of our population.

I would also be the youngest person on the city council if elected and I think young people need better representation as younger generations have dramatically less wealth compared to older generations and that gap is growing.

What’s one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?

One idea that has not been talked about much is an idea that has been proven to be greatly successful in other cities of similar size to Aurora is public high-speed broadband.

One of the best examples of this is Chattanooga, Tennessee which has a population of around 187,000 which is very similar to Aurora’s population. Aurora has OnLight, a nonprofit which owns fiber optic networks in the city that serves some businesses and schools.

But OnLight has not been successful like Chattanooga’s public broadband network and I think we should work toward a goal of providing affordable, high speed internet to everyone in the city like in Chattanooga.

OnLight was created in 2011, 1 year after Chattanooga had gigabit fiber optic networks operational and we still have not seen similar success 14 years later. I believe we can tap into state and federal funding, such as Rebuild Illinois which offers funding for infrastructure projects including broadband access.