Local activist Dakota Allen running for at-large city council candidate
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- Dakota Allen, a 27-year-old Fairfax native who has made St. Joseph his home, is running for one of the city’s at-large council seats with a platform centered on safe and affordable housing, pedestrian infrastructure, and what he describes as a more humane approach to local governance.
On policy, Allen identified safe and affordable housing as one of St. Joseph’s most urgent challenges, along with what he termed “equity and investment in neighborhoods.”
He proposed partnering with what he called “micro landlords," smaller-scale property owners he believes are “the perfect people” to build a “successful and healthy housing community” if the city invests in those relationships.
He also emphasized the need for improved pedestrian infrastructure, framing it as both a health issue and an accessibility necessity.
Allen described a recent conversation with a constituent who uses a seeing eye dog and “has to walk through a ditch in the process of getting to one of the major areas that he walks because there’s no sidewalk.”
He proposed revisiting the city’s sidewalk reimbursement program, which currently requires property owners to pay upfront costs before receiving 50% reimbursement up to $5,000. “The reality is, most people don’t have the $10,000 to fork over,” he said.
On the issue of unhoused residents, Allen pointed to his experience working with homeless populations in Kansas City.
“We were able to get directly in with camps of people that were working together and living together as communities, and find out what services they need,” he said.
“We have to approach this issue with humanity. We have to understand that these are human beings, whether we relate to their situation or not. So many of us are so much closer to that situation than we’d like to admit.”
He expressed interest in continuing to work with existing organizations like United Way.
Allen also addressed the relationship between the city and the school district, drawing a distinction between aspiration and authority.
“The city council is not the school board, so we’re in kind of this impasse where we can’t really impact policy on that side of things,” he said.
He identified early childhood as the area where the city can have the most meaningful impact, whether through addressing housing codes to make in-home daycares more accessible or examining partnerships with entities leasing city property.
Allen acknowledged that “nobody wants their taxes to increase” and stated he has “no plans for that to be in the future.”
He suggested there is room for conversation about property tax valuations, noting that some $200,000 homes remain appraised at $60,000 for tax purposes.
“I am not an advocate for us to close that gap completely, but there’s a lot of room for us to kind of wiggle,” he said, adding that existing safeguards for elderly and low-income homeowners would make any such process manageable.
On youth retention, Allen said the lack of public entertainment options for young people arises in “nearly every conversation” on the campaign trail.
“If we don’t offer youth an alternative, there’s only a few avenues that they can go down, and it’s causing trouble or staying at home,” he said. “We need to be creating healthy avenues for students or youths to be interacting with each other in safe, meaningful, social settings.”
For small businesses, Allen advocated for streamlining city processes that can overwhelm new enterprises.
“A lot of small businesses fail in those first year or two because of things like city inspections or a failure to meet different standards that exist,” he said.
He pointed to ideas raised by other candidates, such as a city communications app modeled on Kansas City’s system, as concepts worth exploring.
Throughout the interview, Allen returned to a theme of political division and his desire to model a different approach.
He cited his experience as a lobbyist intern in Jefferson City, where he worked on child welfare issues alongside people “on every side of the political spectrum.”
He said, “That taught me that we can sit down at a table and have a conversation right across from somebody that we’ve disagreed with on everything else, but we can sit that aside and have a conversation about what matters.”
Facing a large field of at-large candidates, Allen made his pitch directly to voters.
“I am a passionate person that’s going to stand up for what I believe in along the way of fighting for a better city for all of us,” he said. “Even if we don’t see eye to eye on everything, I promise you that I’m going to listen to what you have to say, hear you out and evaluate that to figure out what’s best for our city as a whole. If you’re looking for somebody that’s a fierce advocate for safe and affordable housing, for walkable and accessible city spaces across our city, that’s me.”
Election Day is April 7th.
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