“I’m running because I want to help the homeless and I want to help this city,” he said. His campaign slogan is: “The People Have Suffered Enough.”

If elected mayor, Rice said he would find a way to cap city government salaries at $75,000 per year and use the savings toward hiring more police officers.

He added that he would also stop giving tax breaks to rich developers and, instead, focus city resources in north St. Louis.

Among his plans are a “homesteading program” though which people would be allowed to live in city-owned vacant properties with an agreement that they would repair the houses within three years.

Rice said he would also explore turning vacant lots into community gardens.

Meanwhile, Kacey Cordes, vice president and assistant project manager at US Bancorp Community Development Corp., is fighting to appear on the ballot, also as an independent.

Cordes paid the $1,300 fee and filed the necessary paperwork this week to get on the ballot, but she did not turn in the required signatures.

City election rules require nonpartisan candidates turn in the number of signatures equivalent to 2 percent of the votes cast in the most recent mayoral election.

Cordes is attempting to bypass that rule, setting up a potential legal battle. She is arguing there is a distinction between an independent and a nonpartisan candidate, therefore voiding the signature requirement for independent candidates.

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