☕ Morning fam,
Pujols tied Babe Ruth! Maybe that’s the spark St. Louis needs to remember who we are: champions, the city of platinum and gold club bangers, home of one of the biggest selling hip hop artist the last 2 decades and who we can be again, but not without some drastic changes. And judging from what we see happening in City Hall and the County Council that ain’t gonna happen if it’s left to those in power, especially those responsible for the region’s decline, those that turned a blind eye and those who may have the best intentions, but don’t have the courage or stomach to do what it will take.
So much attention is put on appearances, rather the appearance that things are changing. Limiting the ‘crime plan’ to downtown and erecting more buildings in the already congested Central West End is not change. Nor is another promise to invest in North St. Louis, and even if that does come into fruition, who will it be for? Not blacks that are fleeing in droves or being gentrified out the city and replaced by illegals, immigrants and refugees. How does diluting voting power of blacks by moving foreigners into black districts, municipalities and wards help black people? In a city that is no longer majority black facing ward reduction? I’ll wait.
The city and media will try to spin the influx of Cardinals fans that came to watch Pujols make history as a sign St Louis is on the rebound. It’s not. People came to watch us win a Superbowl and World Series … and neither prevented the Ferguson Uprising. Winning a Stanley Cup didn’t in the aftermath didn’t change anything.
Nor did the tens of millions given to Cure Violence, OBS, BFL, the NAACP and other orgs with zero metrics or any accountability… money that would have been better spent investing in the real grassroots, people doing the work because they’re passionate about the work and care instead of funding the same predatory orgs and people who do this work for profit. There’s a lot of profit in nonprofits, with no accountability… and has produced no results.
We can see and know what doesn’t work from lived experience yet regional leader are doubling down on doing more of the same, not making things better for people that live in the region and importing/funding noncitizens at their expense. They didn’t learn from Ferguson, which is why more people are feeling what Ald Bill Stephens said about the BOA being mortally wounded (given the corruption exposed, federal indictments and guilty pleas of President of the BOA Lewis Reed, Alders Jeffrey Boyd and John Muhammad and County exec Tony Weaver) and both the city and county needing new governing bodies or city and county managers.
Leaders can continue to ignore or play with this if they want. Pujols making history may overshadow the 2 officer involved killing we had in one week, the 6 deaths at the Justice Center since April and deaths just recently at the county jail for a day or so, then it’s back to life, back to reality.
The clock is ticking.
