Why I'm Supporting Mayor Tishaura Jones
Later this month, my friend Michael Allen will moderate a mayoral debate between St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones , Alderwoman Cara Spencer, and Recorder of Deeds Michael Butler. The event will be held at The Royale courtesy of Steven Fitzpatrick Smith and will be streamed live.
I'm a supporter of the Mayor and her reelection campaign. I believe the city is headed in the right direction under her leadership and she is in the position to protect St. Louis against any negative fallout from Trump Administration policies.
St. Louis has serious challenges. The city has been losing population since the 1950s and for the last number of years has been hemorrhaging families with children.
Schools are closing because there are fewer children left to attend. The schools that remain open are largely of a low-quality, despite the fine-dining and big spending of SLPS officials.
St. Louis is safer under Mayor Jones, but still has serious issues of crime and violence. Each story you see in the news is one you may forget, and chalk up to statistics, but they permanently alter lives and change families. This has led to many Black families looking to the Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta metros as better places to raise families. Crime didn't begin with Mayor Jones and it will not end. In fact, crime was much higher in the crack and gang-banging era of the 1980s to early 90s and the gangster era of the 1970s. People who talk about crime as if it was something new have a weak grasp on history or are being disingenuous. Crime was higher under state-control and is lowering now after a COVID-19 spike. Missouri Republicans are manufacturing a crisis as a political football and St. Louis Democrats, most especially the Mayor and Sen. Karla May on the senate floor, are right to fight hard against this power grab.
The city grapples with other serious issues such as homelessness, the delivery of city services, and the administration of jails. I haven't seen anything from Spencer but counter-punching and political ambition. What are her serious plans on these issues? Many of our unhoused don't want to be housed and refuse shelter. What is the next step? Many need access to mental-health resources. What is the plan? The workhorse closed and this is something Spencer supported along with the Mayor. However, the City still has a lot of people who are accused of serious violent and s*xual crimes moving through the court system. No one serous believes they shouldn't be in jail, so what is the specific plan to run a more efficient jail?
One of the negative aspects of population loss is the loss of workers. Derided by many, the historical patronage system of a 28-member Board of Aldermen traditionally did a pretty good job of keeping the city staffed (Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics by Terry Golway does a pretty good job in his book explaining how urban political machines most often benefitted the working-class and were mocked by the more educated and affluent).
A city that is losing families and working-class residents who are either not replaced or replaced by largely college-educated, childless, and secular whites seeking lifestyle hubs isn't necessarily one that is gonna contain many people who wanna wake up early in the morning and operate snow-cleaning or street repair equipment. Or be police officers, firefighters, plumbers, you name it. If you attend a St. Louis Board of Aldermen meeting today it looks and feels dramatically different than it did 10-20 years ago. It has the feel of grad students gathering to do a class project while hung over. This is a reflection of the changing demographics of our city. Most of he present BOA doesn't know many dudes who drive trucks and work with their hands, has no idea how to recruit them for employment, would have no idea on how to even have a basic conversation with such people, and aren't thinking about them at all when working on neighborhood and housing development. Nor do they generally think of families.
As the Trump Administration targets immigrants, both documented and undocumented, and the state supports this effort, this also has a negative impact on St. Louis. Mayor Jones has demonstrated a commitment to immigrants and used city resources to demonstrate such. With a declining city population, a declining St. Louis County population, and a stagnant region and state, attracting immigrants is an important vehicle for growth. Unfortunately, the immigrants the city has attracted, largely leave the city after getting on their feet seeking better schools for their children, safety, and more. (Just think what south city would look like if 50% of Bosnians would've stayed and become voters and not moved to south county and other cities).
St. Louis has to face cold hard facts. We don't have beaches, mountains, or warm weather. Missouri doesn't have the unique appeal of places like Texas and Florida. It's unlikely we will ever see the population numbers we had in the 1950s. Many things about this decline sting, such as not having NFL and NBA teams, but there are many perks to being a mid-sized city as well. Shorter lines at stores, lighter traffic, more affordable housing, and you can actually get seated at your favorite restaurants. We are an incubator for start-ups, have elite educational institutions, a rich cultural scene, a world-class food scene, the best pizza in the world, the best fans in baseball and so much more. In St. Louis, there is opportunity. You can come here and buy an historic home that would cost millions in DC or San Francisco for a much lower price. You can headquarter a business in downtown St. Louis at a fraction of the cost of being in Chicago and not deal with the winds from Lake Michigan. Mayor Jones is a traveling Mayor, and that is a good thing, because she has been on the road promoting St. Louis as a place to invest in.
There is no Utopia and every attempt to do so from Moscow to Raqaa has more closely resembled Hell on Earth. The city has problems and will have problems as all of us do in our individual lives. The question is who is in the best position to address our needs and work to make improvements? The answer to that question is Mayor Tishaura Jones. I will also argue that the Mayor represents the pragmatic nature of the Black urban political tradition, while Spencer represents a monied, technocratic, developer-friendly approach, and the BOA has increasingly represented the fringe-left of the American political spectrum.