Alderman Antonio French hand-delivered a letter to Mayor Francis Slay regarding a comment made by his chief of staff comparing north St. Louis to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
“While it is certainly true that parts of the City of St. Louis have suffered greatly from decades of population loss and benign neglect under past administrations, to have the chief of staff of the Mayor make such a broad characterization of half of our city completely undermines the efforts many of us are making to improve the quality of life in our wards,” wrote French.
“As I work daily to attract the interest of rehabbers, developers and entrepreneurs who can help us rebuild the 21st Ward house-by-house, block-by-block, I definitely do not need to have an official City spokesperson on television painting a negative picture of my northside ward.”
The St. Louis American also reported on the comment, which offended many northside representatives. Click here to read the American’s October 15th story.
Click here to download Alderman French’s full letter.