I Know One Candidate I Am Not Endorsing

A little over a month ago I stated I was going to wait until the end of January, after campaign reports were filed, to make any endorsements for candidates in upcoming elections. While that will remain the case I did not mention anything about ruling out candidates from consideration.

After witnessing the 6th ward executive meeting from two tables away last night I can say this, there is no way in hell that I’d endorse Patrick Cacchione for alderman. He is clearly an integral part of the factional ward system I seek to destroy. This is the very system that has been holding back our city for decades. Why do we allow our city to be run this way?

Kacie Starr Triplett is young and optimistic, both good and bad qualities. The third candidate in this race is Christian Saller, someone completely removed from the ward process, a huge bonus in my view. What would be great is if Triplett and Saller both completely blew off the 6th ward democratic good-ole-boy clique — don’t even show up at the meetings. Ignore them completely. Don’t build up the importance of this petty little group. Boycott the 6th Ward Democrats! And for everyone else out there, if you are handed a sample ballot on election day just think about why those names are on that list. Is your ward “open” like the 6th or is it closed where the officiers of the tiny factional ward group determines who you should vote for?

In the end I may not make any endorsements at all, I might find reason enough to write-off every last candidate in the upcoming election. To one degree or another they all play the ward game. We’ll see what happens over the next couple of months but at the moment I can scratch one name off my list: Patrick Cacchione.

Welcome to the 6th Ward Circus

Tonight I had dinner at the lovely Pestalozzi Place restaurant, conveniently at the same time the executive committee of the 6th Ward Democracts were having a dinner meeting. At issue were a large number of new members that Kacie Starr Triplett brought to the organization. The executive committee, including opponent Patrick Cacchione, have suggested something is not right and wants most if not all the new members banned from voting at the endorsement meeting next month.  Triplett has a brief comment on her campaign website.
I have to say, if Kacie Starr Triplett thought she had a chance at getting the ward endorsement over the committeeman, Patrick Cacchione, she was kidding herself. Yes, she is on the executive committee but not as the committeewoman. You see Kacie, this is St. Louis and here we dutifully wait our turn. Your hard work and dedication has been noted and that is why you were given a leadership position but it is the committeewoman and committeeman that are the next in line to become Alderman. Once the committeewoman decides she no longer wants the position you coudl have been considered so that you’d be next up. Basically Kacie, you are being insubordinate for stepping out of line — shame on you. But at least you are not as rude as that Christian Saller guy — he just blows off the ward stuff altogether.

This is not, I don’t think, about race. I don’t believe that Cacchione or the others have a problem with a large number of black members joining the group — they have a problem with a large number of people of any race joining the group with the intention of supporting Kacie Starr Triplett at the endorsement meeting in January.

And all you voters out there who think you actually get to decide the election in March don’t kid yourselves either. Here we have two out of the three candidates packing a partisan ward committee with new members so they’ll be the endorsed candidate by that committee. Does this make any sense? Why not just have non-partisan elections and let the voters in that ward weigh the pros and cons of each candidate and make a decision? Why must we go through this whole circus of holding a committee-level election simply to hold a ward-level election?

Christian Saller is the smart one of the three in all of this, staying clear of this party in-fighting. No wonder our city has declined to the point it has over the last 50 years, when our leaders are not passing legislation to add or remove a stop sign they are spending time debating by-laws relative to how to pack a ward committee for an endorsement. Give me a break…

St. Louis’ International Award-Winning “Strategy for Renewal”

Two weeks ago this Wednesday St. Louis won a “World Leadership Award” in the category of Urban Renewal for its submission entitled “Strategy for Renewal.” The mayor’s website was full of excitement and the RCGA sent out a glowing press release. I was sceptical as nobody knew what we submitted. On Friday I received a paper copy after submitting a request under Missouri’s Sunshine Law. Here are a few tidbits.

Mayor Francis G. Slay sent a letter accepting the invitation to submit an entry on April 1, 2006. In that letter he writes,

“I am writing to let you know that we do plan on submitting an entry, and we would welcome the favorable publicity that we would receive if we won or even if we were a finalist.”

Our entry was submitted to the organizers on July 10th, 2006. Here is a quote from the opening page:

After losing 500,000 people in 45 years, the City of St. Louis has reversed the trend and become a model for “rebuilding” cities around the world. New residents are returning; businesses are starting to meet the growing market; and we have initiated education reform to make our public schools again, schools of choice.

Education reform? Since when is criticizing the school board education reform?

We have turned the corner. After decades of record population loss, growth is occurring. The U.S. Census Bureau ranked St. Louis 43rd in percentage population growth over the past year. I believe our strategy has become a model for other cities to follow.

While I will agree the massive droves of people fleeing the city has stopped I don’t know that we can say the city is growing. I’d say more like stabilized. Furthermore, I don’t know this is due to any policies enacted by Mayor Slay or simply the fact we hit bottom. And I find it rather amusing this strategy that is supposed to be a model for other cities had to be obtained via Missouri’s Sunshine Law regarding open documents.

The document talks about a number of objectives and strategies, some which have been done, some of which are in process and others that I am not aware of any effort to complete. One area that seems a bit of a stretch is around the city’s Strategic Land Use Plan. From the Strategy for Renewal:

A critical stage in our Great City renewal strategy was to provide a concise roadmap to direct public and private resources to where we needed them most. Until 2005, St. Louis operated under a Master Plan conceived in 1947.

That plan called for wholesale demolition of 35% of the City, coinciding with demographic changes. Conceived before the loss of 500,000 people, the Plan offered no strategy for addressing wholesale urban disinvestment. The Strategic Land Use Plan adopted in 2005 has changed how we think and do business. We have identified those parts of the City where public investment is most needed, to help stimulate private investment that builds on our strengths.

All levels of City government act in a coordinated manner to create nodes of growth. Subsequent efforts then connect “these nodes”, creating corridors of positive change. From a new housing project; a loan to a small business owner to repair a building; grants to remove lead paint from the schools and homes to enhance the welfare of the children; a combination of small incentives helps to stabilize declining neighborhoods.

Gee, last time I checked we still operate under that 1947 plan. Yes, the land use designations have been updated but our archaic zoning is still in place. Earlier this year, when arguing before the city’s “board of adjustment” regarding the McDonald’s drive-thru issue, I suggested the South Grand the area was to have certain character, as described in the land use plan. They told me, in a public hearing, the land use plan does not trump zoning. The mayor can tell people in London all he wants about this land use plan but in reality until we have new zoning it is worthless. The implimentation page for the land use plan admits as much:

Zoning designations are continually problematic in the City, and more often than not new development requires a variance from the existing zoning code. It is anticipated that once this plan is adopted zoning designations will be modified to conform to the plan and “overlay districts” may be developed and adopted that are specific to the character of specific neighborhoods and development areas.

While the mayor and his staffers are flying off to London to accept awards we are still waiting for meaningful action. Why we’d go to all this trouble to enter a competition and then not share the winning entry is beyond me, unless the mayor and his staff didn’t want to be held accountable for their strategy?

But you don’t need to take my word for it, I’ve uploaded the original submitted for judging and the presentation for your review.

• Strategy For Renewal (34-page PDF, 1.4mb)
• Presentation from 12/6/06 (49-page PDF, 2.9mb — I believe the actual PowerPoint would have had some video clips and such, I will likely request the actual PowerPoint as this PDF file seems incomplete. Plus you will need to rotate it to view)

Check them out and share your thoughts below. Even better, ask your alderman what he/she thinks about the objectives, strategies and current progress!

French & Patterson on KDHX’s Collateral Damage Tonight, 7pm

Antonio French of PubDef and yours truly will be on KDHX’s Collateral Damage program tonight at 7pm. Among the topics we’ll be discussing is the 6th Ward issue over new ward organization members and the case of the missing by-laws. Other likely topics will be the immediate future of the St. Louis Public Schools (note to self: read the state’s report), and recent changes on Cherokee Street. If you have suggestions for other topics for us to discuss use the comments section below.

St. Louis Politics: The Triumph of Tradition

My holiday reading has started with UMSL Professor Lana Stein’s 2002 book, St. Louis Politics: The Triumph of Tradition.   I’ve only just started reading the book so this is not a review, more of a teaser.

Dr. Stein was a guest speaker this Fall in one of my graduate classes at SLU and realized this would be a great way for me to get caught up on all those people and events that not being a native I would not know.  Dr. Stein, by the way, is not a native either — she moved to St. Louis in 1987.

From the book’s preface:

The roots of today’s system began in 1876 with the city’s divorce from its county and in its 1914 charter. Unlike a number of other cities, St. Louis failed to centralize either its government or its political function. It has practiced factional, ward-based machine politics for better than a century, and its political culture reflects the individual ward system and a distrust of any concentration of power. Although there have been bursts of leadership, the city has continued with a complacency and a lack of confidence. Changes to the system have not altered the fundamental modus operandi.

Ouch, that doesn’t sound too promising does it?  The book promises to enlighten the reader on our political history not from the city’s founding but from 1876 when we split from the county.   Here is one more teaser from the introduction:

Many newcomers to St. Louis look askance at the city’s political life, which may seem somewhat archaic to them.  St. Louis politics clearly hearken back to an earlier era in American history.  The city’s elections are partisan, a large number of offices need filling, and twenty-eight ward organizations serve as the focal point of campaigning, the source of endorsements, and the base of the city’s patronage employment.  Jobs still are provided in exchange for political support.  Power is fragmented, and ward-based factionalism remains a hallmark of the system.

Keep this archaic factionalism in mind this election cycle as candidates promise to change St. Louis for the better and as the 6th Ward organization attempts to locate their by-laws.