urbanSTL

urban_dilettante wrote:^ you think detroit, kansas city, indianapolis, and cleveland have leapt ahead of st. louis? i don't get it.

Yes they are doing better they may not be killing it but they are doing better. Those cities have willing corporate leaders willing to not only stay in their core cities but invest not saying St.Louis doesn’t have that but there’s not been any significant movement in making downtown be the center of the region or the lack there of. Also those cities continue to grow while St.Louis languishes in the abyss of nothing land with a dysfunctional government system that works against each other & not for each other. When the city see’s it’s first ever population growth this century & the region as well then maybe I’ll be convince we are doing better.


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If Alderwoman Green continues to win these tit-for-tats, I wonder what our city will look like in several years. Our peer cities are focusing on economic expansion and heightening their INTERNATIONAL profile. St. Louis wants to send direct payments to the poor and execute reparations. So be it.

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

Dec 02, 2024

This article seems to imply it was his spat with Megan Green over the GSL’s recommended approach to spending the Ram’s money that led to his departure.

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/polit ... 4ddaa3b0f6


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No

PlatinumBlues wrote: ↑

Dec 02, 2024

urban_dilettante wrote:^ you think detroit, kansas city, indianapolis, and cleveland have leapt ahead of st. louis? i don't get it.

Yes they are doing better they may not be killing it but they are doing better.  Those cities have willing corporate leaders willing to not only stay in their core cities but invest not saying St.Louis doesn’t have that but there’s not been any significant movement in making downtown be the center of the region or the lack there of.  Also those cities continue to grow while St.Louis languishes in the abyss of nothing land with a dysfunctional government system that works against each other & not for each other. When the city see’s it’s first ever  population growth this century & the region as well then maybe I’ll be convince we are doing better.  


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that's pretty subjective and "feely". detroit's downtown is making strides, but 90% of the city is still prairie. they only just recently posted marginal population gains for the first time in decades after contesting census results. cleveland continues to lose population (and st. louis has seen more construction, despite their new office tower). indy and kc are both like 5000 square miles with significantly less population than st. louis. if st. louis city could annex neighboring cities we'd look good on paper too. and i'm pretty sure st. louis has been outpacing them all in job growth.

^ While Detroit is far from 90% pairie (it is as dense as we are and we both remain denser than Atlanta despite our population challenges) I agree with your larger point that what goes on in compact downtown areas, as well as out in greenfields and outer edges of expansive cities, can heavily distort perceptions of cities.

Anyway, St. Louis City may have the least regional corporate commitment to its downtown among the cities mentioned, and hopefully GSL can help change that, but we have a more vibrant core city as a whole. Indianapolis and KC cores need a big time boost in population and Detroit and Cleveland need a big time boost in incomes. We need to tackle Black/White disparity and increase immigrant populations.... making significant strides in those areas are key. 

GSL names new CEO. It does not suggest good things IMO that Greater STL is hiring down. Previous leader from Wichita Falls, Texas, chamber, has held roles in Michigan, Alabama.

No evidence that this person has the ability to attract Fortune 500 companies or steer a region this size back downtown.

Especially considering talks fell through with the preferred candidate.

I lean towards agreeing, but it sounds like he was good at his jobs in smaller sized cities like Witchita Falls and Kalamazoo. All great leaders need to start somewhere, right?

One interesting thing is that Witchita Fallas has seen population decline in the last 10 years and has been stagnant since 2000. So he apparently was unable to promote population growth in a Texan city.

I’ve never seen such a uniform negative reaction to what should be excited news.

Just some of about dozen texts I’ve gotten in the last 2 hours from media, elected officials and business people (active GSL investors)

I can’t believe how quickly the wheels fell off of GSL. I understand that this guy could surprise us all but do they really think STL is in the position to take that bet? Are they really losing the best candidates (First Candidate) by being absolutely cheep with salary?

STL needs the people from Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake City.

addxb2 wrote:I can’t believe how quickly the wheels fell off of GSL. I understand that this guy could surprise us all but do they really think STL is in the position to take that bet? Are they really losing the best candidates (Jason Hall + First Candidate) by being absolutely cheep with salary?

The guy from Southwestern Michigan is the best a national search company can do?

STL needs the people from Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake City.

There’s a lot more to it than just salary. GSL has lots of organizational issues (just look at Glassdoor or Reddit) that an incoming CEO would need to fix, before even beginning to fix the regional issues in St. Louis. Guessing that made it very hard to recruit a top talent candidate.


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I’ll reserve any criticism for another time cause I know nothing about him however I do believe people if they have good intentions deserve a shot so who know what lies ahead…


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STLcommenter wrote:

addxb2 wrote:I can’t believe how quickly the wheels fell off of GSL. I understand that this guy could surprise us all but do they really think STL is in the position to take that bet? Are they really losing the best candidates (Jason Hall + First Candidate) by being absolutely cheep with salary?

The guy from Southwestern Michigan is the best a national search company can do?

STL needs the people from Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Salt Lake City.

There’s a lot more to it than just salary. GSL has lots of organizational issues (just look at Glassdoor or Reddit) that an incoming CEO would need to fix, before even beginning to fix the regional issues in St. Louis. Guessing that made it very hard to recruit a top talent candidate.


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I appreciate the context and you’re probably right. The new hire is recognized for his organization building, maybe that’s the idea.

It’s just hard for me to fathom that staff/managers/leaders current and past allow their own career ego to form toxicity in such an important place.

I think there are a few members on this forum that would do incredible work at GSL. Mostly because their passion for STL is legitimate. STL above all else. That’s who should be in these orgs.

I think they hired him for his data center experience in Wichita Falls

He’s going to resign before he even starts


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Feedback on the new GSL CEO hire has not been from random residents, this is way too inside baseball. These reactions are coming from people who want GSL to succeed and have a vested interest in its success. Yet so far, not a single positive comment has been said. The response has been overwhelmingly negative.

Many feel this was a panic hire. Some have raised concerns that GSL’s pay scale for this position is out of alignment with peer organizations in other metros. The sentiment is that GSL took a step back this year, particularly during the Rams settlement funds debacle.

For many stakeholders, the CEO search was seen as a chance to reset, re-energize, and reposition the organization to drive results. Yesterday’s announcement has instead deepened frustration and concern. The prevailing mood has shifted further downward, with confidence in GSL’s direction eroding when it most needed to rebuild. A lot of people want to say this publicly but for various reasons cannot or haven’t been willing to date, I think that may change soon and the media will start digging deeper

Let's keep in mind Jason Hall left for a smaller market region at almost double his GSL salary (from what I have been told, I'm sure DB can clarify).

Correct, a lot of others that followed him to the exits left for the same reason. Some of the low balling ties back to the era of previous chamber and blowing money like crazy but at some point, being $300-500k behind peer regions was going to catch up

They were offering $50k for program managers but wanted a masters degree. Yeah, ok, maybe in 2010.

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Sep 26, 2025

Feedback on the new GSL CEO hire has not been from random residents, this is way too inside baseball. These reactions are coming from people who want GSL to succeed and have a vested interest in its success. Yet so far, not a single positive comment has been said. The response has been overwhelmingly negative.

Many feel this was a panic hire. Some have raised concerns that GSL’s pay scale for this position is out of alignment with peer organizations in other metros. The sentiment is that GSL took a step back this year, particularly during the Rams settlement funds debacle.

For many stakeholders, the CEO search was seen as a chance to reset, re-energize, and reposition the organization to drive results. Yesterday’s announcement has instead deepened frustration and concern. The prevailing mood has shifted further downward, with confidence in GSL’s direction eroding when it most needed to rebuild. A lot of people want to say this publicly but for various reasons cannot or haven’t been willing to date, I think that may change soon and the media will start digging deeper

Isn't the salary for GSL CEO like $500k+?

Hall made around $485,000, which was $200-300k less than Joe Reagan made when he headed to STL chamber of Commerce (which morphed into GSL with few other orgs). The guy hall replaced in Columbus made $1m

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Sep 26, 2025

Hall made around $485,000, which was $200-300k less than Joe Reagan made when he headed to STL chamber of Commerce (which morphed into GSL with few other orgs). The guy hall replaced in Columbus made $1m

So salary has gone down? Geez.

According to a friend, apparently GSTL did not give out annual bonuses to several employees last year, after everyone got one the year before. Employees also have to beg for the slightest pay increases and promotions. At the same time, they host extravagant events for their investors practically every other week so their leadership seems to have bad priorities.


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