Steve Patterson, a respected blogger and personal friend of mine, recently wrote on his blog, UrbanReviewSTL.com, that he believed the number of aldermen in the City of St. Louis should be reduced. He wrote:
Besides our average Alderman having been in office for 12 years, we have too many. There has been talk about cutting the current number of 28 in half for years. Such a proposal was rejected by St. Louis voters in November 2004. It is time to revisit the issue.
In response, I wrote:
But Steve, you do realize that reducing the number of aldermen means increasing the size of the ward and the number of people in it, meaning it will even less likely that aldermen who had a difficult time addressing the needs of 12,000 people and a few hundred businesses will then be able to address the needs of 25,000 people and more than a thousand businesses.
Not to mention that the larger districts will make it more expensive to run campaigns or challenge incumbents.
I think the answer is better representatives, not fewer.
Then another commenter going by the name “Dumb Me” pointed out the Board of Aldermen’s current racial imbalance. The city is about 55% African American. The Board of Aldermen is 45% African American. He wrote:
For now, the reality is St. Louis is a racially divided city. Black elected officials are particulary concerned about improving conditions for black St. Louisans and black neighborhoods.
Given the years of neglect, can you blame them?…
… Most aldermen simply don’t look at the city as a whole. They see that as the Mayor’s job, the President of the Board of Aldermen’s job, and the job of the rest of the city-wide elected officials.
In response, I wrote:
Dumb Me said: “For now, the reality is St. Louis is a racially divided city. Black elected officials are particulary concerned about improving conditions for black St. Louisans and black neighborhoods.”
And I’ll ask you how many white elected officials are particularly concerned with what’s going on in our city’s ghettos?
The problem (or at least one of the problems) that continues to hold our city back is that we fail to recognize how northside problems affect southside people, or how downtown problems affect midtown people, or how southside problems affect downtown people…
NORTH St. Louis doesn’t have a crime problem. ST. LOUIS has a crime problem.
SOUTH St. Louis doesn’t have an education problem. ST. LOUIS has an education problem.
DOWNTOWN doesn’t have a housing crisis. ST. LOUIS has a housing crisis.
This city is too small for us to have such a case of nearsightedness.
It’s not up to Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett to solve homelessness in St. Louis just because the New Life Evangelistic Center is in her ward.
It shouldn’t be up to me alone, should I be elected alderman, to solve the gang problem just because a large part of the murders happen in or around my ward.
We need to begin to tackle these problems as one city, as a larger region, and as a major part of this state. Because our problems are the problems of the State of Missouri too.
And that’s were my criticism of Mayor Slay comes in. His administration doesn’t bring people together. They tear us apart whenever politically profitable. That’s fine for scoring some short term victories. But in the long run it makes the healing process which will eventually have to occur if we are ever to move forward as a city, that much harder.
It’s actually a pretty good conversation going on over there at Urban Review. I invite you to join the discussion at http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/?p=4738#comments.
Very interesting. When exactly is the election?
Election Day is March 3rd. Are you a 21st Ward voter?
You are very correct, we have city-wide problems that need city-wide solutions. With fewer aldermen they will be forced to step back and take a big picture view of problems. Residents seeking problem solvers can & should turn to bureaucrats at city hall, not elected legislators. Good luck on March 3rd my friend!