St. Louis’ Great Divorce Finalized 134 Years Ago Today
One hundred thirty-four years ago today The City of St. Louis divorced itself from St. Louis County, becoming an independent city.
“The vote took place 22 Aug 1876, and the initial count indicated that the separation question had failed by just over 100 votes. Supporters of separation then brought charges, including fraud, and a recount was ordered. The recount took four months so it was late 1876 before it was determined that the vote for separation had passed.” (source)
Further reading on the “great divorce” here and here.
Past attempts at a reconciliation have failed but leaders in both the city & county are again talking about getting back together. But these talks are a point of disagreement in the race for St. Louis County Executive between Charlie Dooley & Bill Corrigan:
“Bill Corrigan, the Republican candidate for St. Louis County Executive, spoke out this week against any proposed merger between St. Louis City and County.
“Inheriting all the economic problems that exist in the city, and the funding liabilities that the county would incur by merging the two,it would be an economic disaster for the county,” Corrigan said during Thursday’s edition of St. Louis on The Air.
Corrigan’s opponent, Democratic incumbent Charlie Dooley, told the Post-Dispatch last month that a city-county merger would make government more efficient. St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay expressed support for that idea after his re-election last year.” (KWMU)
Originally the city saw the county as a financial liability. Â Now Corrigan thinks the city would be a burden to the county. Â In an “us vs them” mindset, he is right. In a “we are in this together” mindset, he is wrong.
The issue of the region’s governance is a huge, complicated issue. Â The options include:
- Do nothing.
- Make the City of St. Louis the 92nd municipality within St. Louis County.
- Create one large city-county government that includes most, or all, of the city & county.
The last option is the best option from a regional governance perspective, but it would also be the most complicated. Instead of 92 mayors, a county executive and hundreds of aldermen/council members having a single mayor, city manager and a dozen elected representatives?
For more on modern regional governance check out “Moving Toward Regional Governance Incrementally: The St. Louis Case“ by E. Terrance Jones & Don Phares, the two leading local scholars on the issue.
– Steve Patterson
Even if the municipalities + STL County + STL City don't want to officially become one larger government, simply teaming up for “group discounts” and reduction of redundancies seems like it could save money, increase efficiencies and perhaps even save lives.
Having one larger combined police, fire, ambulance, 911, water, streets dept, trash contract, education, licenses, inspections, processing of taxes and fees, benefits for city employees, etc. seems like it would be much more efficient and probably more effective than having 50 separate versions of those being run independently just miles apart from each other.
I don't think it'll ever happen, though. I can't imagine the “haves” ever wanting to be associated in any way with the “have-nots”.
There are lots of “haves” in Pine Lawn? They have their own small (corrupt) police force, and they're far from wealthy. There are many more.
Steve, I believe Dooley stated that he supported St. Louis city becoming another muni within St. Louis county, just as Clayton is.
Its really obvious that the two distinct options have become one when discussed anywhere. The political reality is that a full merger won't happen in the foreseeable future. Instead, Slay and Dooley really need to do a better job of defining their position and get away from the wording of “MERGER” for the simple fact that is not the correct term for what has been discussed by both.
You get away from the word merger and Corrigan's becomes weak as the county gains a significant increase in population and consolidation of power into Clayton.
In 20 years when Saint Louis is at new heights of prosperity the tables will be turned once again; with the same result. The county and the city are too different by nature; they may always be.
I don't, however, see any real benefit in merging them.
The city-county differences are similar to the State-city differences. I really don't want more conservative, city-hating people having a say over Saint Louis' affairs. The people that moved out of the city into the county did so because they don't like our city. You don't give control of something over to people who don't want it, don't like it, and chose to abandon it rather than help make it better.
If St. Louis were to come into the county as “just another city”, the two big advantages I could see would be in the areas of detention and social services. I'd have no problem with letting the county take over the city jail, the health department and welfare services – in all three, I could see better efficiencies and lower costs. But I would also expect to see no real changes to police, fire, schools, parks or the Board of Aldermen. The only way any of that would change / be in play is if the county followed the Indianapolis / Louisville / Lexington model and absorbed all the existing cities to make one ginormous, new and improved, St. Louis . . .
The latter is what we need, add Toronto to the list of examples.
Thank God this is not another Wheelchair post!
Actually you need to thank me, I'm the one that wrote it. If I can use my disability to make St. Louis more walkable for everyone I will continue to do so.