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Post10:11 AM - Mar 31#1351

Wasn't alley recycling mostly going to garbage because people were throwing unrecyclables in the alley bins?

I don't like that it's gone but I've noticed the fire station recycling bins where I take mine are well used with actual recyclable materials.

I'm not sure what Jones was doing to preserve our architectural heritage and housing stock that Spencer is not.

Bringing it back to the census challenging the estimates is something I think our mayor should be more proactive with. .

I brought this up to Mayor Jones in 2024 and Spencer when she was running. Both seemed familiar with how that was successfully done in Detroit but neither took any concrete steps to do so here from what I have seen.

Even with the tornado I think we are being undercounted.
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Post2:46 PM - Mar 31#1352

jtlq53 wrote: ↑
7:08 PM - Mar 27
What are some of the things you all would (realistically) like to see the mayor do within their power/resources? I'm not caping for Cara. Just interested in the particulars -- and saying holding off on the Green Line until 2029 doesn't count, that's low hanging fruit 😁
The Mayor's power and resources to affect real change are comically limited by the state government. There's almost nothing significant any Mayor can do themselves, so anyone claiming a second Jones administration would have been significantly more effective is full of sh*t (and I voted for her, twice).

TLDR: Spencer has so far been a disappointment, but the structural and political forces endemic to the City and State ensure that every Mayor will be a disappointment. Only marginal differences in mediocrity are even possible.

The Mayor has no authority over the school district, which is a perpetual den of venality and incompetence incapable of making medium/long-term decisions or even successfully executing short-term initiatives, like hiring a capable and scandal-free superintendent.

The Mayor has no authority over tax policy, other than a limited toolbox of tax-based incentive programs that require approval from some combination of MO, BOA, BEA, Individual alders, SLDC, LRA, and/or voters themselves. Even the most charismatic mayor with the most sure-fire tax policy reform program will run into the brick wall of Jeff City junior-nazi shitheads who just want to stick it to their perceived urban enemies.

The Mayor's ability to hire and fire city department leaders is also limited. As DB and others on here have noted (and forgive me for not recalling offhand the specifics), the mayor controls some departments  directly while others have commissions or are shared with the City's county offices, or otherwise have protections for senior employees that shield incompetent legacy hires from any accountability. 

Add a tornado (and soon a global depression) to the mix and you can bet on accelerated failure. (And I promise you the "hundred year tornado" is about to become a regular feature of life in the Midwest, along with alternating periods of droughts and floods,).
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Post4:32 PM - Mar 31#1353

Baltimore Jack wrote:Wasn't alley recycling mostly going to garbage because people were throwing unrecyclables in the alley bins?

I don't like that it's gone but I've noticed the fire station recycling bins where I take mine are well used with actual recyclable materials.

I'm not sure what Jones was doing to preserve our architectural heritage and housing stock that Spencer is not.

Bringing it back to the census challenging the estimates is something I think our mayor should be more proactive with. .

I brought this up to Mayor Jones in 2024 and Spencer when she was running. Both seemed familiar with how that was successfully done in Detroit but neither took any concrete steps to do so here from what I have seen.

Even with the tornado I think we are being undercounted.
St. Louis "successfully" challenged back in the mid-2000s just to reveal that they were completely wrong in 2010. Was part of the fake renaissance.

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Post4:38 PM - Mar 31#1354

SB in BH wrote:
jtlq53 wrote: ↑
7:08 PM - Mar 27
What are some of the things you all would (realistically) like to see the mayor do within their power/resources? I'm not caping for Cara. Just interested in the particulars -- and saying holding off on the Green Line until 2029 doesn't count, that's low hanging fruit 😁
The Mayor's power and resources to affect real change are comically limited by the state government. There's almost nothing significant any Mayor can do themselves, so anyone claiming a second Jones administration would have been significantly more effective is full of sh*t (and I voted for her, twice).

TLDR: Spencer has so far been a disappointment, but the structural and political forces endemic to the City and State ensure that every Mayor will be a disappointment. Only marginal differences in mediocrity are even possible.

The Mayor has no authority over the school district, which is a perpetual den of venality and incompetence incapable of making medium/long-term decisions or even successfully executing short-term initiatives, like hiring a capable and scandal-free superintendent.

The Mayor has no authority over tax policy, other than a limited toolbox of tax-based incentive programs that require approval from some combination of MO, BOA, BEA, Individual alders, SLDC, LRA, and/or voters themselves. Even the most charismatic mayor with the most sure-fire tax policy reform program will run into the brick wall of Jeff City junior-nazi shitheads who just want to stick it to their perceived urban enemies.

The Mayor's ability to hire and fire city department leaders is also limited. As DB and others on here have noted (and forgive me for not recalling offhand the specifics), the mayor controls some departments  directly while others have commissions or are shared with the City's county offices, or otherwise have protections for senior employees that shield incompetent legacy hires from any accountability. 

Add a tornado (and soon a global depression) to the mix and you can bet on accelerated failure. (And I promise you the "hundred year tornado" is about to become a regular feature of life in the Midwest, along with alternating periods of droughts and floods,).
Maybe she shouldn't have ran on doing everything magically better then lol

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Post7:46 PM - Mar 31#1355

^They all do it and many believe it. Mild narcissism and perpetual optimism are necessary personality traits for any would-be elected official
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Post3:54 AM - 16 days ago#1356

I have no idea why news sources put so much interest into the year to year census - the numbers are always proven wrong in the decennial census which is the only one that matters for resources  
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Post6:18 AM - 16 days ago#1357

Private for-profit media needs clicks and views to sell ads to advertisers. Bad news and news thar makes the city look bad get more clicks from the overwhelmingly suburban audience.

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Post1:55 PM - 16 days ago#1358

I have a sneaking suspicion that if a census estimate showed we gained population it would be met with skepticism by our local media. I'd love to have the chance to be proven wrong though
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Post2:39 PM - 16 days ago#1359

Baltimore Jack wrote: ↑
1:55 PM - 16 days ago
I have a sneaking suspicion that if a census estimate showed we gained population it would be met with skepticism by our local media. I'd love to have the chance to be proven wrong though
100% would. "Updated Census shows St. Louis gained residents, but downtown foot traffic tells a different story!"
919

Post2:07 AM - 15 days ago#1360

Let’s get a census estimate that bumps our population before worrying about the reaction if we do. I keep thinking we’ve bottomed out considering our economy, jobs, infrastructure…but it just keeps going down


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Post12:35 PM - 5 days ago#1361

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑
2:28 AM - Mar 27
Probably because the county methodically keeps under counting the city, probably by 10,000 since 2020.
Having watched the same pattern in many other cities, I tend to agree that there tends to be a likely population undercount in all cities with accelerating household growth.  We have to remember that the population estimates and and ACS estimates are produced by different divisions of the Census Bureau using very different methodologies and mashed together each year in the topline ACS reports.   I watch the housing situation in Baltimore closely and the gains in the household totals (and vacancy reductions) produced by the ACS appear to be mostly real.  That makes me suspect that the population estimates are on the low side.  The same pattern appears in St. Louis and several other cities.
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