最新杏吧原创

ST. LOUIS 鈥� Economic development in 最新杏吧原创 is at a crossroads.

The city鈥檚 powerful development chief is retiring. The central corridor is finally a self-sustaining growth engine. City leaders want to refocus development on the most impoverished neighborhoods. And the region鈥檚 business and civic community has a reinvigorated interest in its urban core.

This spring, 最新杏吧原创 voters will pick a new mayor, who will have a unique opportunity to shape the future growth of the city 鈥� and by extension, the region.

鈥淭his is a major, major inflection point,鈥� said Jason Hall, CEO of the region鈥檚 new civic leadership group, Greater 最新杏吧原创 Inc.

鈥淎re we a community on the rise or a community in decline?鈥�

Four candidates are running for mayor. Three politicians and a businessman. All four agree that one of the next mayor鈥檚 biggest jobs is to be the city鈥檚 cheerleader in chief and convince residents and business leaders throughout the region that metro 最新杏吧原创鈥� fate is tied to the health of the city.

鈥淪o goes 最新杏吧原创, so goes the region,鈥� said city Aldermanic President Lewis Reed.

最新杏吧原创 Treasurer Tishaura Jones said the city should be 鈥渁 willing partner鈥� with the business community and build better relationships with area counties. 鈥淲e have to develop a mindset that our destinies are linked and shared,鈥� she said.

Public-private partnerships helped revitalize Detroit, said Alderman Cara Spencer, 20th Ward. Business leaders here have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars revamping the Gateway Mall, from the Arch grounds to the under-construction Major League Soccer stadium. She hopes they can organize now around such shared regional goals as strengthening the rest of the city.

鈥淲e have a business community that wants to invest,鈥� Spencer said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the mayor鈥檚 job to set the table to convene those stakeholders in a constructive manner.鈥�

The lone Republican candidate, Andrew Jones, a vice president at Southwestern Electric Cooperative, said the city needs to 鈥渢ake the reins鈥� of regional leadership.

鈥淯nfortunately,鈥� he said, 鈥溩钚滦影稍� hasn鈥檛 been good about taking that mantle and leading the way.鈥�

The four candidates will square off March 2 in a first-round primary, which will narrow the field to two. The April 6 general election will determine the city鈥檚 47th mayor.

The winner will have an unusually large opportunity to influence economic development.

Greater 最新杏吧原创, created by the recent merger of top business groups Civic Progress and the 最新杏吧原创 Regional Chamber, has said it will focus on the city as a key to its jobs strategy.

The new mayor will also get to pick a new chief for the city鈥檚 development arm: Its longtime head, Otis Williams, 73, is retiring in April when Mayor Lyda Krewson, who is not running for reelection, leaves office.

At the same time, the new mayor will start even as Williams鈥� agency, 最新杏吧原创 Development Corp., has outlined its own new strategy:

To stop focusing so much on the central corridor, where over hundreds of millions of dollars in projects are underway or are just finishing 鈥� and to start rebuilding disinvested neighborhoods one by one.

The new plan

Two of the four mayoral candidates applauded SLDC鈥檚 new direction, mapped out in the 400-page 鈥溾�� plan.

鈥淚 really like the shift to focusing on neighborhood development,鈥� said Spencer. Investment in the Gravois Park and Dutchtown neighborhoods she represents has increased in recent years as she and other neighborhood groups focused resources there, she said. 鈥淚 know the model works, and I鈥檓 excited to take it citywide.鈥�

Reed pointed out that he sponsored the 2018 bill that spurred SLDC to hire a consultant to write the plan.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 absolutely essential that whoever the next mayor is embraces it fully,鈥� Reed said.

Tishaura Jones, though, said the city and region have plenty of plans and that 鈥減eople deserve action.鈥�

鈥淲e spent $800,000 for them to tell us what we already knew, which was we needed to stop developing in areas that are already built up, and needed to go north and south and make it a neighborhood approach,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淲hile I appreciate all of the hard work that went into the report, I don鈥檛 think it told us anything new.鈥�

Andrew Jones said he wasn鈥檛 yet sold on the new framework. While he said a comprehensive plan is essential, he said he wants to do an 鈥渁nalysis of the analysis鈥� before signing off on it as the city鈥檚 roadmap.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if it leads us down the yellow-brick road or not,鈥� he said.

To him, the biggest issue is violent crime. Lower the homicide rate, and businesses will come, he said.

鈥淲hen you change the perception of the city of 最新杏吧原创, people will look into it,鈥� Jones said.

Beyond crime, the city should focus on touting job-training efforts at institutions like Ranken Technical College and 最新杏吧原创 Community College, he said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a jobs problem, we have a personnel problem.鈥�

Spencer said city leaders need to concentrate resources on a few high-need neighborhoods outside of the central corridor while also working to stabilize downtown, which has been hammered by a pandemic that has kept thousands of white collar office workers home and threatens to fundamentally change the nature of employment districts.

鈥淲e can鈥檛 have a successful region without a successful downtown,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat is going to have to be a key strategy of stabilizing the city.鈥�

Reed would like to see the city begin planning for a broadband line through north 最新杏吧原创 that will help attract businesses and can also be used to bridge the 鈥渄igital divide鈥� by offering free Wi-Fi for lower income families. The city can also do a better job leveraging its strong transportation infrastructure to grow trade and logistics industries, which Reed said offer more entry-level opportunities and should be more insulated from a shift toward remote work.

鈥淎 lot of those jobs are jobs that we can quickly and easily train a workforce up,鈥� he said.

Now that the Biden administration is in power and the prospect of winning transit and infrastructure dollars from Washington is real, Tishaura Jones said the city needs to be ready to act on the north-south MetroLink line. The project, which called for a new line running into north 最新杏吧原创 County south through the city into south 最新杏吧原创 County, was much discussed five years ago. It faded from public discourse after Republicans took control of the federal government in 2017 and the chance of matching federal funding diminished. Former 最新杏吧原创 County Executive Steve Stenger also was skeptical of the route.

鈥淣ow that we have a willing partner in 最新杏吧原创 County, I think it鈥檚 time for a new revisit of that project,鈥� Treasurer Jones said.

Paying for redevelopment

None of SLDC鈥檚 budget now comes from general revenue. It relies instead on fees from development incentives, tax credits and federal grants.

SLDC leaders say more staffing 鈥� likely paid for via general revenue 鈥� would better equip the agency to assemble sites, recruit developers and spur redevelopment in rough neighborhoods.

It鈥檚 something Spencer has brought up before. One of SLDC鈥檚 key functions is vetting and negotiating tax abatement and other incentive requests from developers. Because the fees from those projects largely fund the agency, a perverse incentive exists when SLDC is negotiating with developers, Spencer said. She鈥檇 like to see general revenue fund a portion of the agency鈥檚 budget so it鈥檚 not too beholden to development fees.

鈥淚 have been calling for a revisioning of how we fund SLDC for years,鈥� Spencer said. 鈥淭he current structure where SLDC is funded exclusively from developer fees is problematic.鈥�

Reed, too, supports finding general revenue to help SLDC implement its new plan. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 money well spent,鈥� he said.

Tishaura Jones said the city needs to review SLDC鈥檚 budget first.

鈥淚f we want any sort of transformational radical change, everything has to be on the table, everybody鈥檚 budget has to be scrutinized with a fine-tooth comb,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淚f they have revenue to support 60 (staff), then it鈥檚 possible there鈥檚 room within their existing budget depending on how the staff is deployed.鈥�

Andrew Jones said he wants SLDC, which is currently a quasi-governmental agency with its own board made up largely of mayoral appointees, to become a true city agency under the mayor.

鈥淎 quasi relationship is not the relationship that I want,鈥� he said.

Regional role

Still, the four candidates agreed that the next mayor must redefine the city鈥檚 narrative.

Reed, for instance, wants to better champion 最新杏吧原创 schools, in the hopes of attracting new residents.

鈥淧art of what the mayor has to do is redefine that whole thing,鈥� Reed said.

Tishaura Jones said she has known Hall, the new Greater 最新杏吧原创 CEO, for years and looks forward to working on the group鈥檚 regional

鈥淭here are a lot of things in that report that I think, if implemented, can be game-changers for the region, especially in workforce development and entrepreneurship,鈥� she said.

The city needs to do a better job building relationships with East 最新杏吧原创, St. Clair and Madison counties in Illinois as well as with 最新杏吧原创 County, she said.

Spencer called Greater 最新杏吧原创 鈥渁n incredible opportunity to organize the business community.鈥� She said she鈥檚 鈥渧ery hopeful鈥� about Hall鈥檚 leadership and the opportunity to attract further support from the corporate community.

Andrew Jones said the city needs to step up.

鈥溩钚滦影稍�,鈥� he said, 鈥渟hould be the hub for the region.鈥�