Cara's website does a great job providing detail on how she will address these issues. Funds are allocated in the budget to hire the needed staff. Contract out when and where it makes sense otherwise. Not complicated.Auggie wrote: ↑Mar 03, 2025No she doesn't. I will be going over her entire campaign website later tonight (after work). The section on city services comes down to paying workers more (with what money?) and contracting the jobs out (again, with what money?).Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑Mar 03, 2025To reiterate what Ebsy said above, Spencer does lay out what she wants to do for fixing roads, trash and other services on her website. Tishaura really doesn’t.
A reoccurring issue with Spencer's campaign is the need for significantly more revenue than the city actually has to fulfill her promises.
And we all know privatization has pretty much always worked to perfection (as seen by Spencer's own campaign mailer that features a private dumpster).
I agree that candidates' websites don't tell a full story or are a guarantee of anything. However, claiming nothing can be done because there is no money does not seem to me to be based in reality. The City is not broke. To the contrary, Mayor Jones herself is campaigning on spending hundreds of millions of dollars.
Hundreds of millions in long budgeted infrastructure improvements that will be one time deal. Completely different from promising to raise everyone's salaries or creating new contracts to do the job of those same employees who are supposed to get salary increases.Ebsy wrote: ↑Mar 03, 2025I agree that candidates' websites don't tell a full story or are a guarantee of anything. However, claiming nothing can be done because there is no money does not seem to me to be based in reality. The City is not broke. To the contrary, Mayor Jones herself is campaigning on spending hundreds of millions of dollars.
And I haven't touched the reality that contracting with public dollars inherently fuels the exact competition that takes city employees into the private sector. Making the problem worse, meaning we get more reliant on private contractors to do "city services". Eventually, you'll have entire chunks of the budget going towards for profit corporations with the goal of generating a profit and not providing services.
Rundown of Spencer's Campaign: ($+ = spending increase; $- = spending decrease)
Transparency:
-I have no real issue with this section.
A Safer City:
-Increase police and 911 dispatcher pay (Already happening) ($+)
-Explore housing benefits for police ($+)
-Increase Diversity
-Establish better recruitment criteria (sounds like a good way to decrease recruitment
-CCTV cameras (Already happening)
-"Predictive policing"(?)
-Improve internal communication
-"As mayor, I will build a comprehensive 911 operating system to ensure all 911 calls are answered" (This is particularly funny because exactly what's described here is currently being built "by" Jones)
-Implement a 311 system ($+)
-Problem Landlord Unit ($+)
-Office of DEI ($+)
-Better streetlights (Already happening)
-Mayoral and cabinet community meetings
-Partnerships with private organizations to provide cameras and other security systems (Already happening)
Much of Spencer's crime section is already happening under Jones, happening long before Jones, or is largely redundant. One particularly interesting absence was anything about violence prevention programs or organizations that have been a pillar of Jones' crime policy. Hopefully that wasn't intentional. Overall, it makes sense that Spencer would want to keep the status quo going as crime is actively going down.
Quality Education:
-Appoint liaisons for public, charter, and private schools ($+)
-Encourage families to stay in the city (This is a word salad with no policy proposals)
-Unmet educational needs (both of which that are listed, special and early childhood, are provided by SLPS. So not really sure what we are referencing here)
-Celebrating improving schools and best educators
-Redevelop vacant SLPS buildings
Not sure why Spencer dedicated an entire section to education when that's something the mayor's office has little control over.
Business Environment:
-Supporting Small Businesses by "acting as liaison between departments and business owners" and "advise the Board of Aldermen on changes to support the business community" (Very strange language here)
-Eliminating red tape ($-)
-Improving Zoning (Very few specifics here, not enough for something as massive as zoning)
-Improving Special Tax Districts (Once again, sounds cool on the surface, but literally zero specifics)
-Simplifying the permit process for special events (but not fixing the building permit problems I guess?)
The Tale of No Specifics! When you're trying to unseat the mayor who has seen the best economic growth the city has seen this century, you'd think you'd provide more specifics than "city hall is going to be this big friend who acts as a liaison" or "help business owners navigate city processes". Just such a strange way to characterize the job of city hall. For example, how do you go about "designating areas where businesses are welcomed and supported by the community without requiring special, burdensome hearings that cost time and money" without hearings to determine what the community supports and what it doesn't? This was the only "specific" under zoning, yet it's a self-defeating point as written.
Basic City Services:
-Overhaul street paving policy: "When a utility company digs up a street, the current policy directs it to pay the city to repave it at a cost that does not cover the cost of paving, thereby leaving streets with steel plates for months on end. Following the lead of other municipalities and requiring the utility companies to repave our streets themselves will free the short-staffed Street Department to work on other projects, such as street repair. This should also result in faster and more complete repairs by the utility companies." I needed to paste the entire section because I really don't know what we're talking about here. First, it's at minimum not a universal policy that the city repaves all the holes dug by a utility company. Spire, for example, patches the streets themselves. Maybe it's not like that with all utility companies, but this is misleading at best. Second, I've never seen a street plate be in place "for months on end" because no one is repaving the hole. The plates are there to cover the hold while work is being done. Finally, part of the problem with how bad street repairs are is because it's the utility company doing the repair and not the city. The company has no incentive do "do a good job" and the idea that "more complete" repairs come from the utility companies is purely delusional.
-Need to find $10 million for road maintenance
-Honesty regarding recycling (I don't think anyone thinks recycling is being recycled as is)
-Expand recycling drop sites
-Opt-In Recycling program ($-)24/7
-Beef up consequences for illegal dumping
-All the staffing issues from trash to road maintenance: Spencer's ultimate solution to fixing these issues is to contract out the jobs until they have enough workers to do the jobs themselves. I talked about this in my last post, but all this will do is send public money to the exact private companies that siphon away city employees. There's a role for private contractors, but the way Spencer's website turns to them over and over again for major services like trash or road maintenance is disturbing and shows she doesn't have a real plan to solve the staffing shortage issues.
-Spencer seems to recognize the very real problems with the current recycling system but also wants to salvage it. I have a better idea: Completely cut the recycling program and double down on trash pickup. Contract out recycling to expanded pick up points. Then, you have people who are inclined to separate out recycling from trash, you are saving the city money, and you are ensuring that all resources are going towards trash pickup. Instead, she's going to try and keep everyone happy, I guess?
-Modernize Refuse Department ($+)
Justice Center Overhaul:
-Don't really have any comments about this section beyond that my contact in the public defender's office have never had the issues that Spencer is referencing. Many of these issues are more isolated than her campaign makes it out to be, but that's politics. ($+)
Homelessness:
-Ensure availability of beds before dangerous weather (no specifics) ($+)
-24/7 warming centers ($+)
Homelessness is an issue that the city has an unfair burden compared to the state and federal governments, so I cannot fault any one administration for failing to "fix" it, but I can fault a candidate for overpromising. 24/7 warming centers sound like a great idea until you need to staff and supervise them 24/7. It's easy to backseat drive and say that you'd "ensure available beds" before dangerous weather, but again, if it was so easy to do that, we wouldn't have issues like these. I also have major questions about this line, "Only with nonprofit and private sector partners stepping up and scrambling to build solutions at the last minute was the city able to provide life-saving beds and warming options for our unhoused." Yes, emergency beds are operated by non-profits and private sector organizations. Is this news to the Spencer campaign? Spencer makes this out as a jab at Jones even though it's exactly how the emergency shelter systems work. Currently, all of the city's emergency beds are private organizations. Just so confused by why this is made out as a bad thing.
A Thriving Downtown:
-Address employers' issues and concerns
-Create a special policing unit for downtown (already exists)
-Implement a zero-tolerance policy for reckless driving downtown (hard on crime!! Always works)
-Crack down on alcohol license violations
-Expand tourism
-Expand affordable housing
-Create a homelessness plan
-Enforce Prop V (lucky for Spencer, her predecessor has already done most of the heavy lifting)
I'm actually shocked at how sparse her "downtown" section was. Outside of the obligatory tough on crime nonsense, what exactly is there to be excited about? Maybe a homelessness plan? Pretty disappointing for the supposed "downtown candidate".
Overall, I just can't understand how this platform is in line to beat an incumbent who has seen great GDP growth, large crime declines, and movement on some of St. Louis' biggest scars in its downtown. Spencer has no plans to fix any of the problems she and many people on here have pointed out. All she has are band-aids. Tough on reckless driving rhetoric but nothing about making streets safer? Fully staffing the SLMPD but nothing about violence prevention programs? Not to mention that while the PD has lost 200 officers, crime has gone down. Her city services solutions are either already happening (see 911 dispatch center) or is just contracting the city's job to private companies, the same companies that take away workers from the city. She talks a big game on homelessness, which is probably the most attractive part of her campaign for me, but she also shows that she doesn't seem to fully understand how cities deal with homelessness? She talks big about road maintenance but nothing about road diets and has used conservative language about MetroLink expansion very recently. That's another thing missing- public transportation. Nothing about public transit at all on her platform. There are at least 10 proposals in her platform that include increasing spending vs 2 that would cut spending, bringing another question: Where are we going to get all this money? The surplus is only so large, and a good chunk is going into the already increasing police, fire, and 911 salaries.
Add on the fact she is being very publicly financially backed by Bob Clark- a man who intentionally created negative news for the city for political gain- and that she has never been the leader of an office anywhere near the size of the mayor's office. I've said this before on here, but she will be the least qualified mayor dating back to the early 1990s at least.
I'll do a full argument in favor of Jones Monday evening.
Transparency:
-I have no real issue with this section.
A Safer City:
-Increase police and 911 dispatcher pay (Already happening) ($+)
-Explore housing benefits for police ($+)
-Increase Diversity
-Establish better recruitment criteria (sounds like a good way to decrease recruitment
-CCTV cameras (Already happening)
-"Predictive policing"(?)
-Improve internal communication
-"As mayor, I will build a comprehensive 911 operating system to ensure all 911 calls are answered" (This is particularly funny because exactly what's described here is currently being built "by" Jones)
-Implement a 311 system ($+)
-Problem Landlord Unit ($+)
-Office of DEI ($+)
-Better streetlights (Already happening)
-Mayoral and cabinet community meetings
-Partnerships with private organizations to provide cameras and other security systems (Already happening)
Much of Spencer's crime section is already happening under Jones, happening long before Jones, or is largely redundant. One particularly interesting absence was anything about violence prevention programs or organizations that have been a pillar of Jones' crime policy. Hopefully that wasn't intentional. Overall, it makes sense that Spencer would want to keep the status quo going as crime is actively going down.
Quality Education:
-Appoint liaisons for public, charter, and private schools ($+)
-Encourage families to stay in the city (This is a word salad with no policy proposals)
-Unmet educational needs (both of which that are listed, special and early childhood, are provided by SLPS. So not really sure what we are referencing here)
-Celebrating improving schools and best educators
-Redevelop vacant SLPS buildings
Not sure why Spencer dedicated an entire section to education when that's something the mayor's office has little control over.
Business Environment:
-Supporting Small Businesses by "acting as liaison between departments and business owners" and "advise the Board of Aldermen on changes to support the business community" (Very strange language here)
-Eliminating red tape ($-)
-Improving Zoning (Very few specifics here, not enough for something as massive as zoning)
-Improving Special Tax Districts (Once again, sounds cool on the surface, but literally zero specifics)
-Simplifying the permit process for special events (but not fixing the building permit problems I guess?)
The Tale of No Specifics! When you're trying to unseat the mayor who has seen the best economic growth the city has seen this century, you'd think you'd provide more specifics than "city hall is going to be this big friend who acts as a liaison" or "help business owners navigate city processes". Just such a strange way to characterize the job of city hall. For example, how do you go about "designating areas where businesses are welcomed and supported by the community without requiring special, burdensome hearings that cost time and money" without hearings to determine what the community supports and what it doesn't? This was the only "specific" under zoning, yet it's a self-defeating point as written.
Basic City Services:
-Overhaul street paving policy: "When a utility company digs up a street, the current policy directs it to pay the city to repave it at a cost that does not cover the cost of paving, thereby leaving streets with steel plates for months on end. Following the lead of other municipalities and requiring the utility companies to repave our streets themselves will free the short-staffed Street Department to work on other projects, such as street repair. This should also result in faster and more complete repairs by the utility companies." I needed to paste the entire section because I really don't know what we're talking about here. First, it's at minimum not a universal policy that the city repaves all the holes dug by a utility company. Spire, for example, patches the streets themselves. Maybe it's not like that with all utility companies, but this is misleading at best. Second, I've never seen a street plate be in place "for months on end" because no one is repaving the hole. The plates are there to cover the hold while work is being done. Finally, part of the problem with how bad street repairs are is because it's the utility company doing the repair and not the city. The company has no incentive do "do a good job" and the idea that "more complete" repairs come from the utility companies is purely delusional.
-Need to find $10 million for road maintenance
-Honesty regarding recycling (I don't think anyone thinks recycling is being recycled as is)
-Expand recycling drop sites
-Opt-In Recycling program ($-)24/7
-Beef up consequences for illegal dumping
-All the staffing issues from trash to road maintenance: Spencer's ultimate solution to fixing these issues is to contract out the jobs until they have enough workers to do the jobs themselves. I talked about this in my last post, but all this will do is send public money to the exact private companies that siphon away city employees. There's a role for private contractors, but the way Spencer's website turns to them over and over again for major services like trash or road maintenance is disturbing and shows she doesn't have a real plan to solve the staffing shortage issues.
-Spencer seems to recognize the very real problems with the current recycling system but also wants to salvage it. I have a better idea: Completely cut the recycling program and double down on trash pickup. Contract out recycling to expanded pick up points. Then, you have people who are inclined to separate out recycling from trash, you are saving the city money, and you are ensuring that all resources are going towards trash pickup. Instead, she's going to try and keep everyone happy, I guess?
-Modernize Refuse Department ($+)
Justice Center Overhaul:
-Don't really have any comments about this section beyond that my contact in the public defender's office have never had the issues that Spencer is referencing. Many of these issues are more isolated than her campaign makes it out to be, but that's politics. ($+)
Homelessness:
-Ensure availability of beds before dangerous weather (no specifics) ($+)
-24/7 warming centers ($+)
Homelessness is an issue that the city has an unfair burden compared to the state and federal governments, so I cannot fault any one administration for failing to "fix" it, but I can fault a candidate for overpromising. 24/7 warming centers sound like a great idea until you need to staff and supervise them 24/7. It's easy to backseat drive and say that you'd "ensure available beds" before dangerous weather, but again, if it was so easy to do that, we wouldn't have issues like these. I also have major questions about this line, "Only with nonprofit and private sector partners stepping up and scrambling to build solutions at the last minute was the city able to provide life-saving beds and warming options for our unhoused." Yes, emergency beds are operated by non-profits and private sector organizations. Is this news to the Spencer campaign? Spencer makes this out as a jab at Jones even though it's exactly how the emergency shelter systems work. Currently, all of the city's emergency beds are private organizations. Just so confused by why this is made out as a bad thing.
A Thriving Downtown:
-Address employers' issues and concerns
-Create a special policing unit for downtown (already exists)
-Implement a zero-tolerance policy for reckless driving downtown (hard on crime!! Always works)
-Crack down on alcohol license violations
-Expand tourism
-Expand affordable housing
-Create a homelessness plan
-Enforce Prop V (lucky for Spencer, her predecessor has already done most of the heavy lifting)
I'm actually shocked at how sparse her "downtown" section was. Outside of the obligatory tough on crime nonsense, what exactly is there to be excited about? Maybe a homelessness plan? Pretty disappointing for the supposed "downtown candidate".
Overall, I just can't understand how this platform is in line to beat an incumbent who has seen great GDP growth, large crime declines, and movement on some of St. Louis' biggest scars in its downtown. Spencer has no plans to fix any of the problems she and many people on here have pointed out. All she has are band-aids. Tough on reckless driving rhetoric but nothing about making streets safer? Fully staffing the SLMPD but nothing about violence prevention programs? Not to mention that while the PD has lost 200 officers, crime has gone down. Her city services solutions are either already happening (see 911 dispatch center) or is just contracting the city's job to private companies, the same companies that take away workers from the city. She talks a big game on homelessness, which is probably the most attractive part of her campaign for me, but she also shows that she doesn't seem to fully understand how cities deal with homelessness? She talks big about road maintenance but nothing about road diets and has used conservative language about MetroLink expansion very recently. That's another thing missing- public transportation. Nothing about public transit at all on her platform. There are at least 10 proposals in her platform that include increasing spending vs 2 that would cut spending, bringing another question: Where are we going to get all this money? The surplus is only so large, and a good chunk is going into the already increasing police, fire, and 911 salaries.
Add on the fact she is being very publicly financially backed by Bob Clark- a man who intentionally created negative news for the city for political gain- and that she has never been the leader of an office anywhere near the size of the mayor's office. I've said this before on here, but she will be the least qualified mayor dating back to the early 1990s at least.
I'll do a full argument in favor of Jones Monday evening.
A lot of arguing between people in here on who they think is better when there is zero chance you are changing the other sides mind.
- 953
“Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”
― Mark Twain
― Mark Twain
I second this. Multiple threads have become argumentative. Stick to cool news and good vibes.jshank83 wrote: ↑Mar 03, 2025A lot of arguing between people in here on who they think is better when there is zero chance you are changing the other sides mind.
- 733
jshank83 wrote: ↑Mar 03, 2025A lot of arguing between people in here on who they think is better when there is zero chance you are changing the other sides mind.
I’ll add to this: Name the last mayor of STL who affected real change? Cervantes?
- 3,766
^^I agree. We all want STL to flourish & grow into the City it can be. We all may believe in different paths to get there, but we can all respectfully agree to disagree. This site has a lot more hostility lately. It is ok to disagree all. Let's get back to boosterism, mutual respect & understanding that we can agree to disagree without all of the anger. Respectful disagreement is what makes a democracy flourish. Just my 2 cents.
- 2,632
Or at least keep it quarantined to the political threads like this one
- 3,766
^Exactly.....Seems to have spread into many threads. Not just political ones.
Yesterday we went to Cavalry and Bellefontiane with some out of town relatives to lay down flowers at some family gravesites. We also drove by some old homes in the area.
Completely unscientific, but it was interesting to see Cara Spencer signage in the area. Read into it what you want.
Completely unscientific, but it was interesting to see Cara Spencer signage in the area. Read into it what you want.
There is more talk about Butler jumping to second place than there is regarding who gets first.
50% chance, Spencer 1st, Jones 2nd, Butler 3rd
30% chance, Jones 1st, Spencer 2nd, Butler 3rd
20% chance, Spencer 1st, Butler 2nd, Jones 3rd
Which begs the question... If you're Cara Spencer, do you want Jones to come in second? Butler would reset the electorate. Spencer's primary campaign is against jones. If Jones isn't in the race, does she lose motivated voters?
50% chance, Spencer 1st, Jones 2nd, Butler 3rd
30% chance, Jones 1st, Spencer 2nd, Butler 3rd
20% chance, Spencer 1st, Butler 2nd, Jones 3rd
Which begs the question... If you're Cara Spencer, do you want Jones to come in second? Butler would reset the electorate. Spencer's primary campaign is against jones. If Jones isn't in the race, does she lose motivated voters?
Why Jones deserves 4 more years:
Economic:
-GDP: Raw/Real/vsInflation
-STL City: 15.2%/6.7%/2.8%
-STL MSA: 14.5%/4.9%/2.3%
-BAL City: 13.5%/5.6%/1.1%
-KC (County): 13.6%/4.4%/1.2%
-Indianapolis: 15.2%/6.2%/2.8%
-Child Poverty: 27.1% (Lowest in city history, even when compared to the national average)
-Civilian Labor Force (Feb 2020 vs Dec 2024): 2.1% (+3,158)
911 Response:
-As of Oct 2024, city 911 responded to 75 to 80% of calls within 10 seconds, up 15 to 20% from mid 2023.
-Increased starting EMS dispatcher pay by 31.4%
-Increased starting public safety II and police dispatcher pay by 11.6%
-Increased starting public safety dispatcher I pay by 9.1%
-$45 million new 911 dispatch center that will consolidate and increase dispatcher capacity by over 20%
Police:
-Hired Robert Tracy as PC, he introduced the department to the COMPSTAT system to better track where crime is increasing and what strategies are working on a week-to-week basis.
-Raised police pay by 8% to 13% in 2023
-Raised police pay by 7% in 2025
Crime: 2021 vs 2024
-Murder: -25.7%
-Violent Crime: -27.6%
-Property Crime: -12.8%
-Jones focused on violence prevention work with organizations in north city to try and do some work towards the root of the problem instead of endless trimming, which is ultimately all police can do.
Friendly Streets:
-$300 million funded plans to not just repave streets, but overhaul them to better accommodate pedestrians, bikes, ADA access, and build them to calm traffic by reducing lanes, adding curb bump outs, and protected bike paths.
-This project is something other cities have been doing since as early as the mid-2000s, but St. Louis never did it and is now far behind our peers.
Downtown:
-Vacancies:
-Both the AT&T Building and the Millenium Hotel have promising redevelopment plans totalling over $1 billion.
-The city is working to take control of the RWX with the ultimate goal of getting a redevelopment plan.
-The only new major vacant building under Jones has been the Wainwright Building, which itself already has a solid owner who will work to find a developer.
-These are major developments for downtown that will have lasting impacts for decades if they come to fruition. Neither Millenium nor RWX have had any major movement since they became vacant, and AT&T’s only two redevelopment proposals have come under Jones’ term.
-There has been a significant amount of office space vacated and companies moving out of downtown. This has been a universal trend across the US in the wake of covid. However, there has also been multiple downtown victories to go along with the numerous and highly publicized losses:
-Logic Systems Holdings moved 130 employees downtown
-$5M in SLDC tax credits
-Both AT&T and US Bank moved employees to their downtown offices
-$1.2 billion Gateway South
-Legal Services of Eastern Missouri moved 90+ employees downtown
-Anthem moved 500 employees to a better downtown location
-Anders agreed to add 224 new employees downtown in exchange for tax incentives to stay downtown and invest in its space.
-Scale AI added 215 new jobs at a new downtown office.
(None of this is to say that these are all "because of" Jones, it's to say that there was good downtown news mixed with the bad. Additionally, Jones is made out to be weak on downtown when she's been literally anything but)
North City:
-Despite the overall decline in the city’s permit totals and value total, the total permits and value for North City has actually increased. This can be largely attributed to Jones’ focus on development in north city with grant programs and an overhaul of the tax incentive system, prioritizing north city. Stabilizing north city
-ICL $500M new manufacturing plan, will add 150+ new jobs
-P&G $180M expansion, add 100 new jobs
-$55M Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center
-$1.5M Northside Economic Empowerment Center
-SLDC Workforce Center
Economic Programs:
-UBI program
-Housing subsidy program
-Childcare and education benefits for city workers to improve retention and attraction (I prefer this plan over contracting out city services to private companies)
St. Louis is trending up and many of the trends can be attributed to policies and actions taken by Jones and her administration. No one is saying her term has been perfect, far from it. But it has been the best we have seen in a long time and she has achieved outcomes that no one believed she could. You don't change the lineup when the team starts winning games. You shouldn't change the mayor when the incumbent has a record that looks like Jones' record- certainly not for an alderperson who has never held an executive job in their life. Reminds me of the Cardinals firing Mike Schildt for Oliver Marmol. How'd that work out? Just seems like a needless gamble.
Economic:
-GDP: Raw/Real/vsInflation
-STL City: 15.2%/6.7%/2.8%
-STL MSA: 14.5%/4.9%/2.3%
-BAL City: 13.5%/5.6%/1.1%
-KC (County): 13.6%/4.4%/1.2%
-Indianapolis: 15.2%/6.2%/2.8%
-Child Poverty: 27.1% (Lowest in city history, even when compared to the national average)
-Civilian Labor Force (Feb 2020 vs Dec 2024): 2.1% (+3,158)
911 Response:
-As of Oct 2024, city 911 responded to 75 to 80% of calls within 10 seconds, up 15 to 20% from mid 2023.
-Increased starting EMS dispatcher pay by 31.4%
-Increased starting public safety II and police dispatcher pay by 11.6%
-Increased starting public safety dispatcher I pay by 9.1%
-$45 million new 911 dispatch center that will consolidate and increase dispatcher capacity by over 20%
Police:
-Hired Robert Tracy as PC, he introduced the department to the COMPSTAT system to better track where crime is increasing and what strategies are working on a week-to-week basis.
-Raised police pay by 8% to 13% in 2023
-Raised police pay by 7% in 2025
Crime: 2021 vs 2024
-Murder: -25.7%
-Violent Crime: -27.6%
-Property Crime: -12.8%
-Jones focused on violence prevention work with organizations in north city to try and do some work towards the root of the problem instead of endless trimming, which is ultimately all police can do.
Friendly Streets:
-$300 million funded plans to not just repave streets, but overhaul them to better accommodate pedestrians, bikes, ADA access, and build them to calm traffic by reducing lanes, adding curb bump outs, and protected bike paths.
-This project is something other cities have been doing since as early as the mid-2000s, but St. Louis never did it and is now far behind our peers.
Downtown:
-Vacancies:
-Both the AT&T Building and the Millenium Hotel have promising redevelopment plans totalling over $1 billion.
-The city is working to take control of the RWX with the ultimate goal of getting a redevelopment plan.
-The only new major vacant building under Jones has been the Wainwright Building, which itself already has a solid owner who will work to find a developer.
-These are major developments for downtown that will have lasting impacts for decades if they come to fruition. Neither Millenium nor RWX have had any major movement since they became vacant, and AT&T’s only two redevelopment proposals have come under Jones’ term.
-There has been a significant amount of office space vacated and companies moving out of downtown. This has been a universal trend across the US in the wake of covid. However, there has also been multiple downtown victories to go along with the numerous and highly publicized losses:
-Logic Systems Holdings moved 130 employees downtown
-$5M in SLDC tax credits
-Both AT&T and US Bank moved employees to their downtown offices
-$1.2 billion Gateway South
-Legal Services of Eastern Missouri moved 90+ employees downtown
-Anthem moved 500 employees to a better downtown location
-Anders agreed to add 224 new employees downtown in exchange for tax incentives to stay downtown and invest in its space.
-Scale AI added 215 new jobs at a new downtown office.
(None of this is to say that these are all "because of" Jones, it's to say that there was good downtown news mixed with the bad. Additionally, Jones is made out to be weak on downtown when she's been literally anything but)
North City:
-Despite the overall decline in the city’s permit totals and value total, the total permits and value for North City has actually increased. This can be largely attributed to Jones’ focus on development in north city with grant programs and an overhaul of the tax incentive system, prioritizing north city. Stabilizing north city
-ICL $500M new manufacturing plan, will add 150+ new jobs
-P&G $180M expansion, add 100 new jobs
-$55M Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center
-$1.5M Northside Economic Empowerment Center
-SLDC Workforce Center
Economic Programs:
-UBI program
-Housing subsidy program
-Childcare and education benefits for city workers to improve retention and attraction (I prefer this plan over contracting out city services to private companies)
St. Louis is trending up and many of the trends can be attributed to policies and actions taken by Jones and her administration. No one is saying her term has been perfect, far from it. But it has been the best we have seen in a long time and she has achieved outcomes that no one believed she could. You don't change the lineup when the team starts winning games. You shouldn't change the mayor when the incumbent has a record that looks like Jones' record- certainly not for an alderperson who has never held an executive job in their life. Reminds me of the Cardinals firing Mike Schildt for Oliver Marmol. How'd that work out? Just seems like a needless gamble.
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^ Considering Shildt was a moron of a manager, that might not be quite the comparison you're hoping to make.
Again, there really doesn't seem to be anyone that has made a compelling argument for Spencer other than... vibes? I guess.
Again, there really doesn't seem to be anyone that has made a compelling argument for Spencer other than... vibes? I guess.
- 1,614
Saw a Tishaura ad this morning. It was compelling. I think at this point Jones and Spencer are taking it for granted they are heading to the General.
I typically love St. Louis election days. Unfortunately it’s a Tuesday in Trump’s America. Allyships breaking, trade wars, stock market crashing, inflation going back up or higher, labor market freezing.
It’s only Tuesday.
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It’s only Tuesday.
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Regardless of who you support anyone else kinda wish we just had a non partisan initial primary with runoff only being held if no candidate received a majority?
Absentee.
Misread the sheet, corrected.
9,421 voters cast 12,866 votes (1.35 votes of approval per voter). Cara Spencer earned 6,822. Tishaura Jones and Michael Butler at 2,400 each. I'll wait to see the day of votes but that feels difficult already.
Considering many Jones supporters will not vote for Spencer. We are in a very feasible reality where Michael Butler is the next Mayor of St. Louis.
Misread the sheet, corrected.
9,421 voters cast 12,866 votes (1.35 votes of approval per voter). Cara Spencer earned 6,822. Tishaura Jones and Michael Butler at 2,400 each. I'll wait to see the day of votes but that feels difficult already.
Considering many Jones supporters will not vote for Spencer. We are in a very feasible reality where Michael Butler is the next Mayor of St. Louis.
Andrew Jones has 1200 votes. A majority of those votes will go Spencer's way.addxb2 wrote: ↑Mar 05, 2025Absentee.
Misread the sheet, corrected.
9,421 voters cast 12,866 votes (1.35 votes of approval per voter). Cara Spencer earned 6,822. Tishaura Jones and Michael Butler at 2,400 each. I'll wait to see the day of votes but that feels difficult already.
Considering many Jones supporters will not vote for Spencer. We are in a very feasible reality where Michael Butler is the next Mayor of St. Louis.
The real damage is 72% of voters approved of Cara Spencer, only 26% approved of Mayor Jones.
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This wasn't due to a snowstorm. I said months ago that Jones support was incredibly soft.
All this election affirms is that we live in a post-fact world, which we already knew.
I look forward to Spencer taking credit for Jones' accomplishments. I'll be here to remind everyone of reality.
I look forward to Spencer taking credit for Jones' accomplishments. I'll be here to remind everyone of reality.
- 741
^yes you've said that many times.
Anything new to add to the discussion?
Anything new to add to the discussion?