ST. LOUIS • Vacant property, a new police chief and bids to privatize the city’s airport are some of the next items on St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson’s to-do list.

Describing the period since her April inauguration as a “whirlwind,” Krewson has spent much of her early months in office responding to crises or controversies. Among them was an effort to remove a Confederate monument in Forest Park that led a local museum to sue the city in June, with the two parties eventually reaching a settlement to ensure the structure’s dismantling.

After a fire at the historic Clemens House — a building owned by Paul McKee’s redevelopment organization, NorthSide Regeneration — sparked concerns in nearby neighborhoods of asbestos exposure, Krewson and state officials enlisted the EPA to test the air and the windblown debris from the blaze.

A recent heat wave reinvigorated protesters to call for the closure of the city’s medium security jail, which was operating without air conditioning and houses more than 700 inmates, most of whom are awaiting trial. The city opted to lease temporary air conditioning units, something Krewson said was possible this year because of electrical upgrades. But questions about other allegations of abuse and abhorrent conditions within the St. Louis Medium Security Institution have been left largely unanswered.