“I think we need a mayor with integrity, intelligence, experience,” Krewson told the Post-Dispatch the day of her announcement, which came through a video posting on YouTube. “Somebody who will do the job with civility, determination, inclusion and fairness.”

Krewson, the chief financial officer of PGAV Architects in downtown St. Louis, has served as the Ward 28 alderman for nearly two decades. The ward spans the city’s booming western central corridor neighborhoods, including the Central West End, DeBaliviere Place, Hi Pointe and Skinker DeBaliviere.

Krewson has repeatedly said her top priority, by far, would be public safety.

“I think we need to admit that we have a problem,” Krewson said in June.

Krewson has a personal experience with the issue. In 1995, her husband was fatally shot during a carjacking in front of their Central West End home on a return trip from Target. Krewson and her two young children, 2-year-old Jack and 5-year-old Taylor, were in the back seat.

“It was 21 years ago,” Krewson said. “We were all in the car. That certainly changed our life forever.”

Krewson stayed in the same house and raised her children. She later married former KSDK (Channel 5) reporter Mike Owens.