The NFL has left, but major league soccer (MLS) is interested in St. Louis.
There are at least two potential MLS ownership groups in St. Louis.
They include Foundry St. Louis, which has already identified property at the northwest corner of Chouteau Avenue and Grand Boulevard for stadium development, and MLS2STL, whose representatives are adamant the stadium site should be downtown. (Post-Dispatch)
The downtown site would technically be in Downtown West — just West of Union Station.
So today’s non-scientific poll seeks to figure out where the readership thinks a dedicated soccer stadium is best placed, if at all. There are many pros & cons to both possible locations.
It has now been over a year since IKEA opened for business and it appears to be boosting tax receipts:
The Swedish retailer’s 63110 ZIP code saw a 40 percent spike in state sales tax revenue from October 2015 through June 2016 compared with the prior-year period, according to the latest available data from the Missouri Department of Revenue.
The period with Ikea generated $277 million in state sales tax revenue versus $197 million in the prior-year period without Ikea. (St. Louis Business Journal)
An increase of $80 million, though not all can be attributed to IKEA. It’s unclear now much additional revenue went to the City of St. Louis. But it didn’t come cheap, from February 2014:
Ikea’s plans to open a St. Louis store next year moved ahead Friday when a city panel voted to back a $32 million tax incentive for the project.
Members of the city’s Tax Increment Financing Commission voted unanimously to approve the subsidy. The vote also backed a separate $5.1 million subsidy for a residential building planned for an area just west of the Ikea site.
The Swedish furniture retailer has yet to specify the cost of its St. Louis store, planned for the southwest corner of Forest Park and Vandeventer avenues, but a spokesman said it will exceed $100 million.
The TIF projects are part of a $167.7 million TIF city officials approved for the Cortex bioscience district in 2012. The district is split into 10 TIF areas that must be activated individually as the area develops. (Post-Dispatch)
The store employees hundreds, each paying the 1% earnings tax.
On October 5th police chief Sam Dotson entered the race for St. Louis mayor, but the current mayor had something to say:
Dotson, who has long been rumored to be considering a mayoral run, announced his candidacy in a statement playing up his status as a “full-time police chief” and “not a career politician.”
But as Mayor Francis Slay sees it, launching a mayoral campaign while still in uniform could make Dotson a part-time police chief.
In a statement released shortly before Dotson’s announcement, Slay said Dotson should focus on running for mayor or being the police chief, but not both. (Post-Dispatch)
Dotson has indicated he doesn’t plan to resign.
So here’s the poll question for today:
The non-scientific poll will be open until 8pm, but will be closed sooner if I detect a spike in traffic in an effort to alter the outcome either way.
Washington University in St. Louis will host the 2nd presidential debate for 2016 tonight, not its first time doing so:
Washington University in St. Louis has hosted more debates than any other institution in history. Between 1992 and 2008, the Commission on Presidential Debates asked the university to host debates in five consecutive elections. The debate scheduled for Sept. 25, 1996, was canceled two weeks prior. The Oct. 9, 2016, event will be the fifth debate held at Washington University. (Washington University)
The last debate held at Washington University in St. Louis was the Vice-Presidential Debate in October 2008. Each time the costs have increased:
For the first debate that [associate vice chancellor] Givens organized in 2000, the fee the university paid to the debate commission was $450,000. This time, that upfront fee is just shy of $2 million. Combine that with other costs the university will incur, including the set-up of a state-of-the-art media center, security, staffing and crowd management, and Washington University will end up paying anywhere between $4-5 million to host the debate on Oct. 9. [St. Louis Public Radio]
That’s a lot of money! That figure might include paying local police departments for security details. With two presidential candidates in town at the same time their routes to/from the airport must be secure.
On the other hand, the influx of press and campaign officials means hotel rooms, restaurants. etc will be full for days prior. It’s unclear how much, if anything, local taxpayers will end up paying. It is unknown how much of the $4-5 million will stay in the local economy.
So lots of unknowns, but here is the poll question for today:
The poll closes at 8pm tonight, the time the debate starts.
Some cities say the health concerns are not convincing enough to override the benefits of the first-generation bright LED lights that they installed in the past three to eight years. New York is one of them, although it has responded to resident complaints by replacing the high-intensity, white LED bulbs with a lower- intensity bulb that the AMA considers safe.
Scott Thomsen, a spokesman for Seattle City Lights, which is responsible for the city’s exterior illumination, dismissed the health concerns about bright-white LED lights, noting that they emit less of the problematic blue wavelengths than most computers and televisions. (Washington Post)
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