Chicago City Wire

Nineteen-year-old David Krupa held a forum Jan. 24 to answer questions from citizens regarding his candidacy for alderman of the 13th Ward.

Krupa, a DePaul University freshman, said he's running because his ward's voices are not being heard.

"There’s a big issue about not having options and voices not being heard," Krupa said at the forum. "I wanted to be sure we had democracy functioning here in the 13th Ward."

Krupa said the ward has security issues and tax issues.

"Chicago aldermen need to work with the state government to fix the pension issue," Krupa said. "We need to hold county politicians accountable."

Krupa said people are leaving the city in droves.

"People don’t stick around when the taxes get really bad," Krupa said. "We need to get some of these older guys out and put new guys in."

Krupa said if he is elected he wants to propose an economic innovation committee to start working on the idea of fixing economic issues in Chicago.

Krupa also said there was too much aldermanic privilege in regard to business.

"As far as I’m concerned, if you want to open a business on 63rd Street, I don’t care what it is," Krupa said. "Let businesses compete. We need to bring up Chicago as a whole, not just places that don’t have hardships already."

In regards to a 2016 photo of Krupa, who was then 17 years old, wearing a shirt that supported President Donald Trump and holding a sign that said "Hillary for Prison 2016," Krupa said he supported political change.

"In 2016, I supported political change, just as I do now," Krupa said. "I don’t agree with everything the president does, but I don’t want to see him fail because then the country fails."

Krupa said he can see both sides to residents' stances on charter schools.

"Kids are the future," Krupa said. "If elected, I want to petition the newly elected mayor for a big education budget. I think that would solve a lot of problems. We would be able to keep both because both would get resources. If we split the schools we split the resources, and we don’t want that."

Krupa said he wants to serve Chicago.

"Public servants are here to serve the people, not the other way around," Krupa said. "I don’t get elected to boss you around, you boss me around. You tell me what the problems are and how to solve them, and we’ll go to work."

Krupa said children as well as adults need to see residents caring for the community.

"If we don’t show our kids that taking care of the community is important at a young age, they won’t grow to take care of it," Krupa said. "I think that’s a lot of the problem we see in the entire city of Chicago and the entire country."

Krupa also said he supports election reform and that it is important for aldermen and residents to communicate with each other and hold people responsible.