Economic Development & Job Creation Tops List For Aldermen
Last week readers selected. from a long list, the issues they’d like to see our 28 aldermen work on in 2011.
Q: What are three issues you’d like the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to address in 2011? (Pick 3)
- Economic development/job creation 80 [18.31%]
- Reducing the number of city elected offices, including aldermen 73 [16.7%]
- Rejoinging/merging with St. Louis County 63 [14.42%]
- The budget – reducing expenses and/or increasing revenue 46 [10.53%]
- New form-based zoning 41 [9.38%]
- Defeating the April ballot measure to repeal the earnings tax. 39 [8.92%]
- Local control of the St. Louis Police 36 [8.24%]
- Ballpark Village 18 [4.12%]
- Homelessness 15 [3.43%]
- Other answer… 11 [2.52%]
- A comprehensive valet ordinance. 8 [1.83%]
- Attracting a pro basketball team to the city 6 [1.37%]
- Create boundaries of one ward so we might see an Asian or Hispanic elected in the future 1 [0.23%]
Not surprising that “Economic development/job creation” topped the list. Â But what does that look like from a body that can pass ordinances? Tax abatement? TIFs?
The 11 other answers were:
- Cannabis reform
- Citywide demolition review
- Making ward boundaries so that neighborhoods are not split among multiple wards
- Cracking down on brick/copper thieves
- taking a long hard look at City education, i.e. investigating admin. corruption
- crime
- Work to pass the earnings tax and wring the difference out of the budget
- pension reform
- Get real on balancing pension obligations and funding!
- None. Violence is no way to organize a society.
- establishment of checks and balances
Pensions are certainly a topic I should have included on my list. Â Not sure how a legislative body can impact crime, other than toughen our ordinances. Similarly, I don’t see how the aldermen can improve education. Â More economic development & jobs, however, would indirectly reduce crime and improve education.
Your thoughts?
– Steve Patterson
Steve,
Alderman do much more than pass legislation. They are neighborhood leaders. Neighborhood leaders are key in organizing residents to combat crime and work on other quality of life initiatives.
As the legislative body, the BoA can address a multitude of business-creating and business-detering issues, everything from voluntarily moving away from taxes businesses view as regressive (earnings, personal property, real estate, business, etc, etc.) to streamlining the permitting processes required to actually do business in the city. One small example – to obtain a building permit, the first step in the process is for some old guy to page through large books to verify the address, just like in the 1950's! We have computers now, but we apparently haven't looked at the underlying processes and departments in years, if not decades. Besides saving money, improving efficiency would go a long way in changing businesses' perceptions about the city. While many of us may not want a Walmart or a Chipotle or an Ikea in the city, I find it disturbing that they're not trying to come in. These are all successful businesses, and if they don't want to be here, what are we left with?!
How many big cities have legislative bodies that take the summer off? If nothing else, this argues that focusing on solving problems really isn't a priority!
So many little townships sit on the highways and draw revenue from people who never even enter the township, but rarely any drawing from that pool for The City. Must be a great source considering the # of others I see constantly (in some pretty nice cars I might add). BofA prolly has little to do w/ this though…