Larry West
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| Larry West | |
| Birth name | Lawrence A. West-Gibson |
| Born | January 11, 1985 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Field | Illustration, Graphic Design |
| Training | Hussian School of Art |
| Movement | Fantasy & Science fiction illustration / Pop-Art |
| Awards | Ruth and Bernard Petlock Award (2005) |
Larry West (born January 11, 1985) is an American illustrator and musician. He was an Independent write-in candidate who ran for Mayor of Philadelphia in the 2007 election.
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[edit] Personal life
West's mother died when he was 20, which motivated him to run for office. He attended the Hussian School of Art and graduated in 2006 with an Associate's degree in Commercial Art with a major in Illustration and a minor in Graphic Design.[1] Larry West also runs an internet heavy metal radio station and show, Mark Skull Pirate Radio[2] and is an active and respected member on many internet forums, including those for metal bands Anthrax and Megadeth.
[edit] Professional career
Larry West has previously worked with Multi-Platinum Thrash Metal band Megadeth in 2004 and created the design for the reunion tour of that same year. He has since worked with the bands Traüma and Khapra, as well as countless other companies and people. He currently freelances.
West has also done charity work for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, or CBLDF, over the years, donating various autographed items from big-name stars. This includes a print of his signed by Jim Lee and a roll of toilet paper signed by Alex Ross.
[edit] Larry's 2007 mayoral campaign
His pose in front of Philadelphia's City Hall is a parody of the Megadeth album "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?"
[edit] The Milton Man March incident
On March 1st, 2007, West arrived at a press conference for Milton Street, the brother of then current Mayor of Philadelphia, John Street. Shortly after arriving with a protest sign that said "Stop Milton Street!/No Crimanals [sic] in City Hall!"[3], he was approached by the press that arrived to cover the march. Larry took the opportunity to publicly announce he was running for Mayor of Philadelphia as an Independent Write-In. When Milton Street himself approached Larry West, asking him, "Why do you hate me?", West replied, "My name is Larry West, and I'm running against you."
[edit] Fight to change the age requirement for office
On March 5th, West appeared on the cover of the Philadelphia edition of the free daily newspaper Metro International in an article written by Brian X. McCrone. Inside, Larry was asked about the age requirement for mayor, stating that he does acknowledge that the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter states a candidate must be 25 years old to run for Mayor of Philadelphia. "I plan on doing things to challenge that. I'm going to knock on doors at City Council, see who's there, and ask them to lower it to 21."[4]
West had little success, and is still ineligible to run for office. According to his website and blog, he is currently looking for a lawyer to help him fight the city so he can run, in addition to seeking a lawyer to work pro-bono.
On April 14th, West was on stage with Congressman and current Mayoral Candidate Chaka Fattah after a screening at The Trocadero theater of the film The Shame of a City. West then asked Congressman Fattah why he did not change the age requirement himself when he was younger and was considering a run for office in Philadelphia. Congressman Fattah did not give an answer.[5]
In a May 19 post on his blog, West stated he was talking to a lawyer, stating "we are looking at the issue as, quite simply, an age discrimination issue. As the only major city in America with an actual age requirement for office (New York City, the nations largest city, has none), and since the state has said that being registered to vote is old enough to run for office anywhere else, we have a lot working in our favor."[6]
[edit] Green Party nomination attempt
On his website and a press release on May 28, 2007, West stated he switched his voter registration to the Green Party and was going to ask for their nomination at a May 29th General Meeting of the Green Party of Philadelphia. [7] Larry West has stated that the outcome of this meeting will be announced and released to the press on June 2nd at a Press Conference.[8] On June 2nd, at a press conference held at his house, he stated that he was turned down by the Green Party, but was still in discussion about possibly attaining it in the near future. He cites the reason they objected was the age requirement that made him too young to officially run.
[edit] Policy
West's policy included taking an approach on crime that mixed both the techniques of his personal views and those used by Rudy Giuliani during his time in New York City. He quotes the book Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities, stating that the City of Philadelphia needs to begin tackling smaller crimes to deter criminals from committing bigger ones. He went on to state that he wanted to hire George L. Kelling as a consultant to help the City of Philadelphia battle crime. In terms of his own personal approach, he agreed with hiring more police officers, but stated that, due to a lack of trust with officers from citizens, he wanted them to simply say hello to the people they protect and get to know them better.
His Anti-Corruption plan included bringing back the right to recall elected officials in Philadelphia, imposing term limits for City Council, lowering the age to run for office, and eliminating nepotism.
West's economic policy included eliminating the Business Privilege Tax (BPT) by 2012, and making all new business exempt from the tax. In addition, he wanted to eliminate all taxes that prohibit businesses from staying open later than 7PM in the Center City District of Philadelphia, as well as the rest of Philadelphia. He also wanted businesses to hire young people.
His education policy borrowed heavily from his Catholic School education in High School. While not giving a full detail on grade schools, he stated that he wants all high schools to follow an Intensive Scheduling, or Block Scheduling, format. This means all high schools in Philadelphia would have 4 classes a semester, each class taking 90 minutes. In addition, he wanted to institute the Track System, which separates a class into Track 1 (Honor Students), Track 2 (Average Students), and Track 3 (students who need more help). He credits this system for helping him achieve better grades in high school.
West also was the only mayoral candidate to have a policy based entirely around sexual health. This included giving out free condoms in nearly all government buildings in Philadelphia (mostly high schools) to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among high school students, having all 10 Free Clinics in Philadelphia offer STD testing, mandatory Sex Education classes in all high schools, and a government website listing information about STD infection rates and educate citizens about safe sex practices.
He also stated he wants Philadelphia to have a broadcast (UHF) Public Access Television station. He stated that by buying WGTW-TV, which was bought by TBN, he could allow citizens to broadcast their own shows, televise all City Council meetings, and sell time to advertisers.
His environmental policy heavily criticized the current environmental policy, stating that he does not agree with the current method of recycling. He went on to say that he would like to carry out a study to find out how efficient the current recycling program is compared to that of other major US cities and believed Philadelphians should do more to recycle like their counterparts in other major cities. He also wanted to hire local citizens to keep their neighborhoods clean.
Most of his platform focused on youth issues, something done by very few people running for mayor in Philadelphia. He stated that "the problems facing Philadelphia today, for the most part, are based on the Youth of Philadelphia." To respond to this problem he proposed setting up an Anger and Emotional Crisis Hotline in Philadelphia to help teens and adults who need someone to listen or give advice during times of need. As an avid skateboarder, he agrees with skateboarders on reopening LOVE Park and Dilworth Plaza to skateboarders. Repair costs would have been covered by a 1 million dollar check given to the city by DC Shoes.
[edit] "The Punk Rock Candidate"
Philebrity.com was one of the first to describe Larry as a "Punk Rock Candidate" and a "Crust punk Kid".[9]
In the March 5th edition of the Philadelphia Metro in an article entitled Mayor with a Mohawk, reporter Brian X. McCrone asked, "What about if someone were to say you're the punk rock candidate?" Larry responded, "I've heard that quite a bit already on MySpace. I was added to someone’s friend list called Punks for Politics or something along those lines. They said, 'Punk rock mayor coming through.' If it works, it works. I mean, the reality is, I'm more of a metal guy myself, but I like the mohawk."
Larry West has stated and shown that he is, indeed, more of a fan of heavy metal. This is evident by his love of Megadeth, Strapping Young Lad, and Slayer. He also tends to list upcoming concerts he plans on attending on his MySpace page.[10] Larry is also an active as well as respected member on the Megadeth online forums.
[edit] Criticism of his campaign
West has also undergone criticism for running for office as well. This criticism reached a head, as Philebrity.com reported during their article on a screening of The Shame of a City:
Meanwhile, to make it interesting, we also invited Larry West, the punk rock independent kid who is, as of this writing, too young to legally run but has proved a very thought-provoking fly in the ointment during this election anyway. Now, a lot of people have given us shit for including Larry in our coverage of “serious” candidates and certainly on our panel in this forum last night. But here is our thinking: To us, the mere existence of Larry West’s candidacy gets to the heart of why we got involved with the New Rules project in the first place. Just having him in the room begs questions about how do we get young people involved in city politics, and just as importantly, how do we stop the brain drain of the young and educated from the city in the first place. Plus, we love the mohawk. [11]
Other criticisms include opinions that West is not serious about his run for office nor is he a competent candidate. Often fueled by his young age of 22, his mohawk, and the videos he has posted of himself playing the guitar and, most noticeably, his video of him making Kraft Dinner to Annihilator's song "Kraf Dinner", Larry refuted these claims under the auspices that a candidate should not have to fit into a box to be accepted as serious. Larry also struggles with spelling and grammatical errors which often plague his campaign literature and press releases.
[edit] Election Results
In the 2007 election for mayor of Philadelphia, West lost to Michael Nutter and Al Taubenberger. He received only 100 votes and came in 4th, which he considered a success.
[edit] References
- ^ Larry West Bio Page
- ^ http://www.morisecomics.com/markskullpirateradio/ Mark Skull Pirate Radio
- ^ YouTube - Larry West for Mayor Makes his TV Debut!
- ^ Mayor with a Mohawk?
- ^ On-The-Scene Report: The Shame Of A City Screening & Forum, 4/11/07
- ^ Ineligible? NOT FOR LONG! 5/19/07
- ^ And We Still Have Five More Months Of This
- ^ NEVER MIND THE NUTTERITES! HERE COMES LARRY WEST!
- ^ Philebrity Exclusive: Young Punks for Milton
- ^ Larry West for Mayor MySpace
- ^ On-The-Scene Report: The Shame Of A City Screening & Forum, 4/11/07
