STL Develops

After my last post, I feel I was a bit harsh on my home town. I only get angry because I care, and public transportation is an extremely important issue for the future of our region. That being said, we have some tremendous initiatives in our region as evidenced by our designation as an All American City by the National Civic League in 2008. Initiatives that prove St. Louisans have demonstrated the ability to work together for super ordinate goals. The National Civic League cited the Great Rivers Greenway District, Downtown Now, and The Boomerang Press as examples of exceptional regional collaboration. These examples are all large-scale initiatives that involve government collaboration, along with private assistance, and volunteer work. I think it is important to note that these initiatives involve cooperation and various stakeholders working together for something greater than the some of its parts. These types of projects make our region attractive, but they cannot be realized by individual municipalities or as for profit initiatives. They must be a regional collaboration. This means that some areas will benefit first and maybe more than others. For example, new “Greenways” cannot be created in all areas at once, even though everyone is paying for them. All too often, stakeholders including taxpayers, politicians, and business people will support projects only when they see an immediate benefit for their lifestyle, town, or company respectively. The author of the editorial page in the 6/11/08 Post Dispatch summed up regionalism and this award well:

“The big challenge for St. Louis remains taking regionalism far beyond bike trails and arts projects. In some minds, “regionalism” is code for “city-county merger.” That’s politically unlikely here, though it should be noted that Louisville, Ky., Nashville, Tenn., and Indianapolis all have adopted some form of metropolitan-wide government.

All of them are competitors for jobs and industry with St. Louis, and all have seen improvements in government efficiencies and economies because they took regionalism to scale.

However unlikely metro-wide government might be in St. Louis, there still are efficiencies the region could take short of merger — collaborative efforts on transportation, transit, economic development, tax incentives, police and fire protection and airport governance to name but a few. The entire metro region should celebrate its All-America recognition and strive to act more regionally more often.”
We have a city with tremendous assets and talented people. These existing assets and the demonstrated ability to work together to create very positive progressive initiatives is what makes it so frustrating when we miss out on opportunities to really propel ourselves forward. Although, we missed the opportunity to fund Metrolink expansion at a crucial time, hopefully the next opportunity we have to further a major regional plan or service will be seized.