When 18-year-old Alex Savage isn’t busy studying or attending classes at UL Lafayette’s nursing school, he’s hitting the pavement and knocking on doors in Carencro with his father, making his case to voters.
Savage is running for a seat on the Carencro City Council, vowing to “promote, preserve, and protect the best city in Louisiana.” With eight candidates competing for five seats, he has a pretty good shot.
The Current spoke with the Republican candidate on Tuesday about his reasons for running and what he hopes for a future Carencro. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
You’re studying nursing now. Why don’t you finish your degree and then run for city council? I mean, you must be super busy.
If I wait four years, I’m still 22. In the eyes of a lot of people that’s still too young. I wait another four years after our graduation, and I’m still going to be 26. So for many people that’s still too young.
It’s going to continue being a concern. And the only way I can get over that is knock doors, meet people, talk to as many people as possible so that they know that I’m ready and they know that I’m up for the job.
Have you encountered any skepticism from people about running?
Oh, yeah, all the time. But it’s a great conversation starter because once somebody talks to me, that idea will change. They’ll see that I’m prepared, that I’m ready for the job. I mean, whether it was my age or something else, everyone’s going to be skeptical about something in a way. I just think the age thing might be a little larger because it’s easier to point out, it’s easier to see.
Most people actually love the idea of my age and they see the same thing as me, that the one thing in the council that’s missing is somebody from the younger crowd.
When people give you skepticism, what do they say?
“You don’t look like you’ve hit puberty yet.” All kinds of stuff.
What did your parents say at first when you said you wanted to do it?
They weren’t very surprised. I’ve always been pretty ambitious and pretty involved so they weren’t surprised at all, actually.
I mean it is something odd, maybe a little different than what most 15- or 16-year-olds are talking about with their parents.
How did you first get the idea to run for office?
So, it was actually funny. I always played travel soccer, and we were on the Basin Bridge. I remember it perfectly. And I’ve always been interested in local politics. I mean, I love Carencro. I think there’s no place like Carencro.
And I’ve always been involved, always known about local politics, and just been involved with going to all the police events, all the firefighter events. Just really, really involved in our city. And I talked to my dad. I was like, “I’m really interested in becoming [a member of the] city council.”
I said, “Well, what are the requirements?” So, I looked at the requirements. It was just me and [my father].
And he was like, “Oh, it’s 18.”
What are some concerns that young people have?
A lot of people going to school may not know who the governor is, and may not be able to name a single city councilman, and may not be able to name the mayor in their town or city.
And I really want to change that. I’d love for us to be represented and for the younger groups to have a voice and really feel informed.
Is there a specific kind of issue that young people have that you feel like older people wouldn’t understand?
One thing that’s huge with the younger generation, it’s a lot of people trying to start a family. It’s a lot of the 20- to 30- range where they might have a few kids or maybe they’re trying to create a family.
It’s the affordability. A lot of older generations, when they were growing up, things were much more affordable. We’re in a time where everything’s really expensive. I was talking to somebody the other day about how expensive college is. It’s insane to think about.
Is there anything that the city council could be doing or that you would want to address in terms of affordability?
One thing that I really want to do to help out people in need. I want to throw events for the less fortunate, whether it’s the elderly, families in need, children, veterans. I want to have these events for Christmas and Thanksgiving to relieve some of that pressure and go out, have Easter with the Easter Bunny or Christmas with Santa Claus.
If kids and families can have an enjoyable Christmas or Thanksgiving and not have to have that added pressure of, “do I cook or do I buy extra presents or can I even cook?”, that’s one of the things that I’d love to do for parents, help them out in that way.
When you talk to younger people, what do you feel is on their minds?
One big thing that I’ve been hearing is the beautification of our downtown area. We have a very historic downtown, Church Street, and it has various historic buildings and a few empty lots. And there are a few businesses. A big concern that I’m hearing is that they want to see it thrive.
It’s a very beautiful downtown area, and actually a lot of the restaurants throughout the town have old pictures of paintings of all these horse and buggies going down and then there’s huge buildings and big crowds in the downtown area. And I see a lot of the younger generation wanting to bring that back. And that’s one of my main priorities.
I know they’ve been continuing to work towards that, but I think maybe a new face, new ideas, presenting these new ideas could potentially push that forward.
Are there any ways that you would want to try to foster downtown life?
I know that the church owns most of the property down there. And so it’d be to get them on board. They probably set stipulations and certain obstacles that we’d have to follow.
At the end of the day, I think people have already talked to them and spoken to them and brought up ideas, but maybe a new face with maybe improved ideas [would make a difference].
I was knocking doors the other day and I met a guy who had this rendering of the downtown area. He brought in the ideas from River Ranch, just keeping the historic feel, and it was beautiful and he even had people walking around and it really reminded me of that photo and the painting that I see all the time where the downtown area is just lively. I would love to incorporate that and just beautify the downtown area. He made it more walkable, made it easier to access.
There could be other things that they can do, like maybe make bicycle lanes and be able to drive around in a golf cart. Just little things that you can do and tweak.
I was looking at your website and I thought it was interesting that a lot of the wording you use is about “preserving” or “protecting,” which for me is about the past. But obviously you’re a young candidate. So I’m curious how you think of that – you’re bringing this new energy, but a lot of what you talk about is continuing the past.
Yeah, so my biggest thing about the past and what we need to continue to protect is our small-town charm and this hometown feel. Cause most places where I go, a lot of people can’t name a single police officer, a lot of people can’t name a single councilman, a lot of people can’t name the mayor, don’t have a connection to any of these people. And Carencro is one of those unique places where I feel like most people know a police officer.
We have great Night Out Against Crime events where these kids and even just adults can go out, meet the people who protect us each and every day to have this relationship so that there’s no fear. The police officers make a great relationship, and the citizens get to make a great relationship.
And so it’s just keeping that small-town charm where everybody knows their neighbors, everyone feels safe and confident.
We’re the fastest growing city in the state. My goal is to keep that small-town charm, but also growth. Growth is a great thing, but only if it’s managed towards the right direction. And just so that nobody suffers, we just keep this growth in the right direction and continue to manage it.
So, how do you keep growing and also maintain that small town feel? Because they could be seen as in conflict.
Growth is not going to stop. We have SpaceX, and we have Buc-ee’s coming up right down the road. So, this growth is not going to stop. And it’s a good thing. It’s really a good thing.
So, to continue this growth I don’t think we’ll really have to do anything. Just keep on maintaining the growth that we have.
And then to continue that connection between people and continue that small town charm, we’ll continue events and programs such as the Night Out Against Crime.
One of the things that I would love to do is have a national fishing day. Fishing and hunting is a huge part of my life, and Louisiana’s slogan is “Sportsman’s Paradise.” And I know not everybody may be interested in it, but if kids or young adults are occupied they’re more likely to stay out of trouble.
Have you noticed any growing pains with the population increasing so fast? Do you feel like that growth has meant that certain areas are more neglected or haven’t been able to keep up?
I’m on the drainage master plan committee, and that’s a big thing that I’ve brought to the table. I was talking to a few people at St. Peters, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Carencro. It’s near the downtown area. And you know how new neighborhoods are, where the houses are pretty high and then steep down into the road.
They were saying that a few of the issues that they were having were that the water [from new developments] was flowing down [into the older areas of the neighborhood].
They [now] completely fixed all of those issues, but this is just to have nobody suffer because of the growth. Everyone’s part of Carencro. Don’t leave anybody out. Because it would genuinely suck if I lived in a certain neighborhood for 40 years and I’m near retirement age and my house floods because they build a neighborhood behind me or nearby.
That was just one of the things that I really like to target, whether it’s drainage or electricity or water quality, to leave nobody out. And make sure that everyone has clean water. When everyone calls 911, they [should] get the same response with the same amount of well-equipped and trained officers or firefighters.
What’s been the response from your classmates to this campaign?
Everyone loves it. I met a girl out there [outside the cafe], she goes to UL. She was super super excited. Everyone is super excited, everyone is super supportive. And it’s good to see that, before I even go out and do anything to really promote it.
There was another girl who I haven’t seen in an entire year because we graduated from high school together. I haven’t seen her since we graduated. And she randomly texted me, and she said, “Hey, I got out. You got me to register to vote. I voted for you.”
