urbanSTL

I really enjoyed reading through the truly incredible mudslinging up thread, so thanks for the entertainment. 

I think most of us local politics watchers knew Spencer was probably going to win, but the Remington poll removes almost any doubt in my mind that she is going to run away with it. Frankly, the boosterism of Jones reminds me nothing so much as Biden's inner circle defending him to the last in the months before he finally dropped out. 

Something that I don't think has been discussed that I think is a big contributor to Jones' lack of support this time around is that she has been disengaged entirely from South City for the last four years. South City contains over half of the City's population and well over half of the electorate, especially in lower turnout municipal elections, and yet Jones appears to not care. Jones' supporters in this thread have repeatedly disparaged SW City residents so perhaps this is a wider feeling among the faction currently in control of City Hall. I can only go off of what I hear from my neighbors but I don't think it should be a surprise that South City residents are looking for change, especially when all we hear about from City Hall is Downtown this, Downtown that, Northside this, Northside that. I seem to recall Jones had to be reminded that there were poor, black and racially diverse neighborhoods on the Southside that were just as needing for federal funds that she would have preferred gone entirely to the Northside. Thankfully she did not get her way on this, as she hasn't on many things over the last four years. I am hopeful that Spencer will bring more professional management to City Hall and return City services to the bare minimum level that City residents used to be reconciled to.

This is a very typical view from the wealthy, stable side of the city, of which I live. Very much a self-centered and lacking of empathy. Much of south city has 0 understanding of how destroyed north city is. None at all. And most either have never ventured "up there" are barely have. And it's the result of decades and decades of neglect and refusal to invest in it. And now south city people feel "neglected" because they aren't the center of attention for the first time ever.

And even then, things like the North-South MetroLink and road dieting has and would greatly benefit south city.

Auggie wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

Also, comparing Jones to an 81 year old dude is like so many levels of.....things I'm not allowed to say.

Unless you're comparing the spread of false or misleading information, which is absolutely prevalent in St. Louis regional politics just like national politics.

As I stated earlier I’m up in Hyde Park every month and it is a disaster. It needs an outside-of-the-box strategy to save it.

It's funny that you would mention road dieting, as I attended a streets department informational meeting held at Carpenter Branch library in September of 2022 to address recent traffic violence on South Grand and proposed traffic calming solutions. Despite it being claimed in advance that she would attend Mayor Jones failed to show up. Perhaps she was out of town.

whitherSTL wrote:

Auggie wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

Also, comparing Jones to an 81 year old dude is like so many levels of.....things I'm not allowed to say.

Unless you're comparing the spread of false or misleading information, which is absolutely prevalent in St. Louis regional politics just like national politics.

As I stated earlier I’m up in Hyde Park every month and it is a disaster. It needs an outside-of-the-box strategy to save it.

Agreed. Understanding that macro-economic conditions are outside of the Mayors control… I have been unimpressed with Jones approach to North City. Even ARPA funds, which should’ve been transformational, were botched. To the point the program is a political liability.

If you asked the average North City resident, would they say their lives are better now than four years ago? Polling says no.

There has been a lot of talk from the powers that be at City Hall about the Northside, but what action has there been? In all the political cover being given to Jones in this thread, I don't think anyone has even tried to defend the ARPA process, and that should tell you something.

whitherSTL wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

Auggie wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

Also, comparing Jones to an 81 year old dude is like so many levels of.....things I'm not allowed to say.

Unless you're comparing the spread of false or misleading information, which is absolutely prevalent in St. Louis regional politics just like national politics.

As I stated earlier I’m up in Hyde Park every month and it is a disaster. It needs an outside-of-the-box strategy to save it.

And yet you support the exact same policies that made it a disaster.

The city's incentive structures have been redesigned to help North city and she supported putting $40M from the Rams settlement money towards north city rehabilitation.

Her UBI and home loan programs (among others) have the intention of reducing poverty or at least the effects of poverty. It's been proven over and over again that poverty causes crime. No amount of police will solve crime. Reduce poverty will have long term crime reduction impacts.

These *are* out of the box solutions that will take time to be applied and see effects.

Auggie wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

This is a very typical view from the wealthy, stable side of the city, of which I live. Very much a self-centered and lacking of empathy. Much of south city has 0 understanding of how destroyed north city is. None at all. And most either have never ventured "up there" are barely have. And it's the result of decades and decades of neglect and refusal to invest in it. And now south city people feel "neglected" because they aren't the center of attention for the first time ever.

And even then, things like the North-South MetroLink and road dieting has and would greatly benefit south city.

This is so cliche, do better.  Almost every city lover/loyalist I know (a LOT) cares about the North Side and understands that its viability is critical to the overall health the city.  Your narrative is obsolete and lazy.  I love the North Side and the South Side and Central Corridor and I think downtown-- the center of the city that unites us all-- deserves a disproportionately much higher share of Rams settlement funds because downtown has been disproportionately affected by their unethical departure.  Not to mention the importance of IMAGE.  Yes, the residents of St. Louis are important, obviously, and that is why it is important to invest in the single most valuable marketing opportunity-- a vibrant, stable downtown.  The bones are there-- time to jump them with $$$.  Without it we are treading water at best and will never reach a respectable standard that all St. Louisans deserve.  

I am a supporter of the Green Line-- I fantasize about it and have for many, many years.  I think a north-south rail line is essential to completing a truly functional transit network in the city.  I know from direct personal experience that Cara Spencer has supported north-south MetroLink expansion in the past.  I continue to hope that one day the Green Line will be built.  For better or worse, Cara Spencer is more of a realist than I am and she recognizes what I am to reluctant to admit-- there's a better chance of TWA coming back to Lambert than the Green Line receiving any necessary federal funds anytime in the foreseeable future.  So do we hold out futile hope for funds that will obviously not come, or do we focus on more practical and attainable transit strides in the near term?  I am truly conflicted on that question myself, and I definitely respect both candidates' views on the Green Line and will be following closely.

jivecitystl wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

Auggie wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

This is a very typical view from the wealthy, stable side of the city, of which I live. Very much a self-centered and lacking of empathy. Much of south city has 0 understanding of how destroyed north city is. None at all. And most either have never ventured "up there" are barely have. And it's the result of decades and decades of neglect and refusal to invest in it. And now south city people feel "neglected" because they aren't the center of attention for the first time ever.

And even then, things like the North-South MetroLink and road dieting has and would greatly benefit south city.

This is so cliche, do better.  Almost every city lover/loyalist I know (a LOT) cares about the North Side and understands that its viability is critical to the overall health the city.  Your narrative is obsolete and lazy.  I love the North Side and the South Side and Central Corridor and I think downtown-- the center of the city that unites us all-- deserves a disproportionately much higher share of Rams settlement funds because downtown has been disproportionately affected by their unethical departure.  Not to mention the importance of IMAGE.  Yes, the residents of St. Louis are important, obviously, and that is why it is important to invest in the single most valuable marketing opportunity-- a vibrant, stable downtown.  The bones are there-- time to jump them with $$$.  Without it we are treading water at best and will never reach the standard of living all St. Louisans deserve.  

I am just responding to what the OP said. They sounded exactly like a typical, south city resident who is too scared to go to north city and legitimately has no idea how disastrous it really is.

I was like that too at one point, but back in high school I took a bike class for PE credits where we rode all around the STL region (Downtown, south city, central corridor, south County, central county), but what i saw in north city was the biggest culture shock I had ever experienced. Nothing short of the result of pure neglect for decades upon decades. Did you know there's "no littering" signs all over north city? I didn't until that bike ride. And those "no littering" signs, of which I've never seen in south city, do absolutely nothing to solve the issue at hand.

So i find it quite rich that south city residents feel neglected. It's really a joke.

As for downtown, I agree that downtown should get a large sum of the Rams money. I was/am strongly opposed to Green taking money out from the downtown portion and I hope that whatever the bill looks like whenever it's debated, will have at least $74M going towards downtown. But I also am hoping north city will get at least $20-30M as it is absolutely needed.

North sides I know want jobs and access to jobs, many don’t have cars. Either flood the area with more bus routes, or how about this:

If you can prove you have a job, and no car, you get a $5K handout that has to be used for a car.

No childcare or education stuff.

jivecitystl wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

Auggie wrote: ↑

Feb 05, 2025

This is a very typical view from the wealthy, stable side of the city, of which I live. Very much a self-centered and lacking of empathy. Much of south city has 0 understanding of how destroyed north city is. None at all. And most either have never ventured "up there" are barely have. And it's the result of decades and decades of neglect and refusal to invest in it. And now south city people feel "neglected" because they aren't the center of attention for the first time ever.

And even then, things like the North-South MetroLink and road dieting has and would greatly benefit south city.

I am a supporter of the Green Line-- I fantasize about it and have for many, many years.  I think a north-south rail line is essential to completing a truly functional transit network in the city.  I know from direct personal experience that Cara Spencer has supported north-south MetroLink expansion in the past.  I continue to hope that one day the Green Line will be built.  For better or worse, Cara Spencer is more of a realist than I am and she recognizes what I am to reluctant to admit-- there's a better chance of TWA coming back to Lambert than the Green Line receiving any necessary federal funds anytime in the foreseeable future.  So do we hold out futile hope for funds that will obviously not come, or do we focus on more practical and attainable transit strides in the near term?  I am truly conflicted on that question myself, and I definitely respect both candidates' views on the Green Line and will be following closely.

I've personally never said on here that Spencer is opposed to the Green Line. All I've said is that she hasn't publicly supported it on Twitter since 2017. I just think Jones doesn't get the credit she deserves for what she's done with regards to bringing the Green Line back to the table. Remember, Krewson had said they changed the plans to be essentially a dumbed down US BRT, which is an extremely "St. Louis" scenario.

If it were up to me, we'd sit on the money and let it grow until we can have a real shot at federal money for the Green Line. We'd have $400M of the $1 .1 billion right now, add in the $400M or so of federal loans, our grant ask would only be $300M instead of the current $600M.

Can't overstate enough how monumental a north-south line would be for the city.

I don't think revitalizing Downtown is actually of primary importance to most City residents/voters. Not when trash is picked up sporadically, calling 911 is like rolling the dice, much needed infrastructure upgrades languish in planning for years longer than they should, the building division is severely understaffed and stuck in last century, etc. A lot of this is Great Recession eras cuts finally paying negative dividends, but there has been a noticeable degradation over the past four years that a massive influx of federal funds that is unlikely to ever be repeated has not seemed to have much impact on.

As to giving credit to Jones for N-S Metrolink, I have said on this forum in the past I would give her a lot of credit if it actually got built. But unfortunately here we are four years later and to me it does not seem any closer to being built. If anything it seems like an incredibly remote possibility. So I don't see why we should reelect Jones on the basis of a nonexistent light rail line.

Ebsy wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

I don't think revitalizing Downtown is actually of primary importance to most City residents/voters. Not when trash is picked up sporadically, calling 911 is like rolling the dice, much needed infrastructure upgrades languish in planning for years longer than they should, the building division is severely understaffed and stuck in last century, etc. A lot of this is Great Recession eras cuts finally paying negative dividends, but there has been a noticeable degradation over the past four years that a massive influx of federal funds that is unlikely to ever be repeated has not seemed to have much impact on.

As to giving credit to Jones for N-S Metrolink, I have said on this forum in the past I would give her a lot of credit if it actually got built. But unfortunately here we are four years later and to me it does not seem any closer to being built. If anything it seems like an incredibly remote possibility. So I don't see why we should reelect Jones on the basis of a nonexistent light rail line.

More gaslighting on 911, trash, and Metrolink.

As if they aren't building a new 911 call center right now, as if trash pickup wasn't in a worse state when she came in, and even Metro? Like you realize that when Jones came in, the North-South plan was a BRT? Sure she didn't get it built in 4 years but it's one federal grant short of being reality. That's significant progress. If Harris was elected, it would be a near certainty that it gets built. But you feel like it's fair to take credit away because America chose wrong? Even though she moved heaven and earth to make it even a possibility?

You can only get credit for moving heaven and earth to make something happen if it actually happens.

Ebsy wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

You can only get credit for moving heaven and earth to make something happen if it actually happens.

"We shouldn't re-elect the mayor because forces completely out of her control have tied her hands."

Peak St. Louis mindset right there.

What exactly did Jones do to get it built that was so above and beyond what anyone else would have done?

Ebsy wrote: ↑

Feb 06, 2025

What exactly did Jones do to get it built that was so above and beyond what anyone else would have done?

Better question is what didn’t Krewson and Slay do to get it built, but what Jones did is use her relationships from the time at the state house to secure state funding for the project

^To DBs point, Slay really squandered our transit expansion within the city during a time that it was very realistic. The 2010-2017 period was a friendly time for transit expansion. Our N-S application should have been in then.

I wasn’t part of the electorate then, but it seems like the catering to SW City residents bought us four terms of Slay, who in my opinion, had a strong first term, a so so second term, followed by two “lazy” or “lackluster” terms that let BPV sit, downtown office market dwindle, the Landing die, Railway/Millenium/909 Chestnut be completely abandoned, crime rise, southeast city see little infrastructure improvement, and north city thrown to the junkyard with north side regeneration and just got absolutely ignored.

I continue to not understand the desire of some people on here to just give up on metrolink expansion. We need N-S badly and if we can just get another spine down, we can really start building a great system off what we would have. We have put in the leg work.

Any mayor of StL for the next 4 years should be all in on N-S metrolink and the prospect of building off the system/pushing a new line forward for the next step after N-S.

Current mayor should be careful about attaching legacy to the N-S transit line. It could be a disaster. Have to remember that we are planning running a transit line through one of the most depopulated areas in the country. This transit line would surely be the least ridden transit line in probably the entire world. That said, I'm not totally against it although skipping a Russell stop that has two schools and an early childhood center nearby is a deal breaker for me personally. Makes zero sense.

It should a dedicated trackless tram anyway. Train tracks are so 20th century and take forever and cost a fortune for such a risky proposition.