Shannon Hardin is president of Columbus City Council and a candidate for mayor of Columbus.
I’m proudto be city council president, but my favorite job serving our community was as a teenager working in the city call center that predated 311.
In the basement of a building infested with water bugs, I reported for duty to help residents fix potholes, repair burned-out streetlights and report missed trash pickups.
Many callers had lost faith in city government, and they’d be angry and upset. My proudest moments were solving someone’s problem and demonstrating to them – in a small but meaningful way – that they belonged here and mattered to their city.
And I’m running for
Columbus mayor in 2027 for that very same reason: to make sure that as our city grows and changes, our residents know that they still belong here and matter to their city.
I've been listening
For years, I’ve sensed a growing disconnect between our residents and our city government. I’m a person of faith, and Scripture tells us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. So I decided to stop talking for a while and listen.
Over the last 18 months, I have met with more than a thousand residents, the kinds of people who don’t get invited into the small rooms where Columbus makes its biggest decisions.
I heard from parents who wonder how Columbus can call itself the next great American city when half our kids are in undersupported and underperforming schools. They know city hall doesn’t run schools – but they don’t care about jurisdictional excuses. They want somebody, anybody, fighting for their kids.
I heard from neighbors who watch the wealthy and well-connected get city hall's attention while regular people struggle with rent, utility bills and property taxes.
And I heard a lot about growth. One resident said to me, “I love Columbus. But I don’t know if I have a place in the new Columbus. Can I be grandfathered in?”
We are ready for change
Columbus has a choice to make.
We can keep doing things the way we’ve always done them. Or we can embrace change and build something different.
My vision is a city where growth creates opportunity for the people who already call Columbus home. If Columbus is going to prosper, we've got to cut everybody in on the deal: workers, small businesses and families who’ve been here for decades, not just big companies and new arrivals.
My vision is a city where more people have a voice. We must bring in new perspectives, welcome disagreement and conduct real debate. The next great idea for Columbus isn't sitting on a desk at City Hall. It's somewhere out in our community.
My vision is a city where working people actually feel the progress we're always talking about – in their daily lives and in their neighborhoods.
There is another candidate in this race who has been in office for more than a decade. I've worked with him, and I’m proud of much of what we’ve achieved together.
But after his three terms, I believe Columbus is ready for something new: on-the-ground, bold, engaged leadership. Residents want to see a mayor who will roll up their sleeves and get up every day ready to address the homelessness crisis, the state of our public schools, the epidemic of young people breaking into cars and stealing guns, the lack of affordable child care, and the need for truly affordable housing.
If you think the other candidate is focused on all these issues – if you believe he is going to fight like hell for you, your neighbors and your kids – you can stick with the status quo.
But I believe a great city shouldn’t settle, so I’m ready to give voters that choice.
I don’t mind being the underdog, but I’ll need your ideas and your help.
This isn't going to be a campaign where a small circle decides what Columbus should look like and then tries to sell it to everybody else. And if I am elected, the city won’t run that way anymore, either.
Columbus is full of dreamers and doers who yearn to see us meet our potential, act like a great city and level up. So if you love Columbus and believe we can do better, join me.
Shannon Hardin is president of Columbus City Council and a candidate for mayor of Columbus.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus and its residents are disconnected. We all must be cut into the deal | Hardin
