If Ben Shepard could have his way, Kanye West would be the Mayor of Chicago in 2015. Shepard had launced the “Kanye 4 Mayor” campaign. He wants West the film maker, music artist, fashion designer, father and husband to be the successor of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He believes West could lead a movement to make it the best city in the world. Shepard said there are four main issues he feels the citizen of Chicago would want the Mayor to address. Failing schools, sub par transportation, excessive shooting and undemocratic police force. You could read below what he wrote to West.
Right now your home city is ruled over by a Mayor whose allegiances are not with the majority of Chicagoans.
I want to invite you to run for mayor of Chicago in 2015 and make it the best city in the world. Doing this would require fixing some big problems…
Not to put any pressure on you but you are the only person in the world who could make this happen. There isn’t anyone else who (1) is wealthy and famous enough (2) is from Chicago, and (3) may actually understand the problems with the city.
“Mayor” can mean many different things. Right now it means a servant of a very narrow elite who exerts massive public relations energy to disguise this fact. Under your administration it would mean a combination of role model, consultant, and design chief. It would probably take 8 years to get all this work done but just think what would be possible after.