Warning - polarizing post ahead:
Yesterday, many of us started our day reading this article lambasting downtown St. Louis https://lnkd.in/gQq6gppc.
Were the few facts provided accurate? Yes.
Were quotes taken out of context? Absolutely. One person confirmed such: https://lnkd.in/g5VRTuew
What compelled #KonradPutzier, to single out St. Louis as THE example of a ‘doom loop’? Who knows.
Yesterday, someone said to me: “St. Louis has a self-esteem problem” – and she couldn’t have hit the nail on the head any better. We are our own worst enemies. So many of the notes I saw flying around yesterday were piling on to the #WSJ’s sentiment of the ‘black hole’ the downtown, and the City, are. What a shame that we collectively aren’t using a lens of optimism to tout the amazing things about this place.
In addition to being better marketers – wouldn’t it be grand if we would also commit to promoting the knowledge, talent and businesses that exist here? In two decades of living here, I’ve met some of the brightest, most humble, quirky and thoughtful people who are passionate about renewing the city, reinvigorating the community, and aspire to make the Midwest anything but ‘flyover country’. Yet, there is a heavy dose of realism in the fact that we, intentional or not, promote brain-drain from the area by compromising the available opportunities here. In my industry, we are faced with the irony that the Downtown STL Master Plan was lead by a team of out-of-town consultants and designers. The City selected an out-of-town design firm to lead the 9-figure convention center expansion. Developers are being strung along and borderline punished when asking for incentives to push redevelopments across the finish line. When developers AREN’T asking for incentives, their efforts go largely ignored and certainly not promoted. For example, how is everyone not talking about the ambitious, bullish, huge redevelopment plan of #GatewaySouth? Thanks to those behind that development for recognizing St. Louis as the gem it was, is (albeit needing some polishing), and can be.
It feels like downtown has been left as a ‘City’ problem. Yet another reason we have to eradicate the division of City and County and act together. The region has 88 different municipalities. For reference, San Francisco, with a population 178% the size of STL, has 101; Nashville has SIX. STL has 88 fiefdoms with individual leadership, budgets, master plans, code adoptions and zoning ordinances. They are competing against one another for investment resulting in lots of parts that do not equal a whole and nothing resembling a collective vision.
Sure, St. Louis has room for improvement. But show me a city that doesn’t. I’ll keep promoting STL, and more importantly, the people that live here. #konradputzier, would love to show you around.
