urbanSTL

TalkinDev wrote: ↑

Apr 25, 2025

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Apr 25, 2025

“They’re all very nice, smart, sincere but nobody she’s brought on has any idea how city gov works, it’s going to be a very tough first year”  From someone at city hall

To be fair... same was said about the Jones admin at the start and continued for 4 years.

Her CoS had citywide government experience.
Her director of operation had experience in operations and union relations and was a hard nosed Boston native.
Her director of streets (and still Spencers director) came from leading MODOTs north county operations
The rest, jones kept from Krewson and Spencer appears to be keeping from jones.

Why do you care so much about how old these people are?

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

Apr 30, 2025

Why do you care so much about how old these people are?

because we need new ideas, visionary leaders.  not old farts who cant use email.   When Otis left SLDC they didnt have a employee handbook. intranet nor used any tech other than basic email and he left in the year 2020.
and more importantly anyone involved in City ops from 1985 to 2016 is the reason we have so many challenges today.  These people are absolute clowns 

dbInSouthCity wrote:

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

Apr 30, 2025

Why do you care so much about how old these people are?

because we need new ideas, visionary leaders.  not old farts who cant use email.   When Otis left SLDC they didnt have a employee handbook. intranet nor used any tech other than basic email and he left in the year 2020.
and more importantly anyone involved in City ops from 1985 to 2016 is the reason we have so many challenges today.  These people are absolute clowns 

You know someday you’ll be an old fart . I couldn’t resist, but seriously I am scratching my head on why drag someone out of retirement so I do agree with you that a younger fresh mind would be better but oh well


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PlatinumBlues wrote:

dbInSouthCity wrote:

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

Apr 30, 2025

Why do you care so much about how old these people are?

because we need new ideas, visionary leaders.  not old farts who cant use email.   When Otis left SLDC they didnt have a employee handbook. intranet nor used any tech other than basic email and he left in the year 2020.
and more importantly anyone involved in City ops from 1985 to 2016 is the reason we have so many challenges today.  These people are absolute clowns 

You know someday you’ll be an old fart . I couldn’t resist, but seriously I am scratching my head on why drag someone out of retirement so I do agree with you that a younger fresh mind would be better but oh well


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Yeah I get the sentiment. I don’t know that it really applies to the Director of Streets, especially when it’s on an interim basis. Seems like having someone who knows how to get the basics right is a reasonable improvement, even if it the long term solution.

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

Apr 30, 2025

PlatinumBlues wrote:

dbInSouthCity wrote: because we need new ideas, visionary leaders.  not old farts who cant use email.   When Otis left SLDC they didnt have a employee handbook. intranet nor used any tech other than basic email and he left in the year 2020.
and more importantly anyone involved in City ops from 1985 to 2016 is the reason we have so many challenges today.  These people are absolute clowns 

You know someday you’ll be an old fart . I couldn’t resist, but seriously I am scratching my head on why drag someone out of retirement so I do agree with you that a younger fresh mind would be better but oh well


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah I get the sentiment. I don’t know that it really applies to the Director of Streets, especially when it’s on an interim basis. Seems like having someone who knows how to get the basics right is a reasonable improvement, even if it the long term solution.

But he doesn’t know the basics. We are in the positions today because of people like him who oversaw the dept for 21 years

Looks like Auggie was absolutely right to bring up past administrations when criticising Spencer in the election thread. She’s literally bringing the Slay and Krewson administrations out of retirement.

I wish she was bringing Krewson admin out of retirement. Those people are still relatively involved in things. These are slay/Schoemehl people

Yea it's actually worse. Never would I have expected a guy from pre-2006 getting picked.

Just gotta hope she picks her permanent people sooner rather than later?

Green opposes Richardson firing

Good grief; regarding the return of the streets director, he has been gone so long that the city didn't even have its first complete streets ordinance in place (2010) by time he left. Not until 4 years after!

I couldn’t even legally drink when he left!

FWIW, I can't think help to think the interim streets director has something to do with storm drains, ice and snow more than anything else from looking back the last year.   Get someone in the short term that keep storm drains open during the summer and  might not get the city in a pickle during the next winter event if you can't find someone beforehand.   Then find the manager with the skill set to run a streets department and  let the mayor/aldermen pursue a vision which is where it needs to come from in the first place (folks who dictate the purse strings)

In that respect, I can see a lot of city residents who voted would absolutely agree that a change in streets department is needed now.   So make the change but get someone in the short term that might have that experience in handling storm events such as getting storm drains cleared during large rain events, to having salt ready for an expected ice storm and or understand when to send out plows when it is snowing.    I can recall my Dad telling me that the city or county employee who was respected the most was the person who managed the snow plow(s) the best.  That was three or so decades ago and I doubt it has changed much since as the means and methods haven't changed much other then weather forecast a little better & can be had on a smart phone at any moment.  Otherwise it is still managing manpower, trucks and plows.   

The person managing storm responses is still there and has been since slay admin

^^ agreed. You google search Jim you’ll find a classic boomer LinkedIn (no photo). Scroll a little further you find (A) 25+ years across multiple mayors, (B) strong director of snow response (C) expanding street repair program, and (D) leaf pickup. That might be a soft platform for political savvy UrbanSTL users but to the average citizen, not really an issue.

In other words… I don’t think it should be too surprising that a mayor who ran on a basic services platform is choosing strong administrators over strong flashy innovators. Her strategy in this and other interim picks could be to convey “Back to Basics” very quickly.

Because it's 2025 and not 2006. It's not that hard to grasp.

It would have been interesting to see what an Andrew Jones administration would be like but y'all just wouldn't even consider it. Could have had a Black man running this sh*t!

Not much to consider when he had nothing to say about transportation at a transportation forum

leeharveyawesome wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

It would have been interesting to see what an Andrew Jones administration would be like but y'all just wouldn't even consider it. Could have had a Black man running this sh*t!

It would have been an incompetent and stupid administration. We are seeing it play out on the federal level and we are seeing it play out all over rural America as hospitals close, doctors leaving, jobs leaving and the only thing left is the disability checks and fentanyl

leeharveyawesome wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

It would have been interesting to see what an Andrew Jones administration would be like but y'all just wouldn't even consider it. Could have had a Black man running this sh*t!

It's actually a stellar indictment on the GOP for their complete inability to win sh*t in cities across America. Only a handful and some are because they switched parties after getting elected.

Maybe if the GOP was more of a serious party about the needs of cities, they could maybe actually get more power over them? Take notes from the Canadian and British Conservatives, multiple major cities in Germany have conservative mayors.

I know you can't grasp this, but the current GOP offers literally nothing to cities. Not a single thing. The failure of the GOP to win in places where economic activity actually happens is an indictment of the party, not the people who have consistent and clear asks that the GOP refuses to acknowledge.

Why is it so hard for the GOP to run people who are ideologically like Phil Scott in places like Chicago, Los Angeles, or even here in St. Louis? I mean, the NYC Republican in this year's election is like an actual comic book villain who's gonna lose to Andrew Cuomo. How pathetic is that for the GOP?

Maybe Andrew Jones would have had a better shot if he had a clear platform or some type of vision or offered policies and plans that city voters actually ask for, but he didn't.

Because gerrymandering