STL Develops

Last month I attended a community forum at the Old Post Office hosted by FOCUS St. Louis and Metropolis St. Louis. The forum was about how a global economy affects the Midwest. Panelists were Richard Longworth, senior fellow at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and author of Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism and Rob Paral, principal at the consulting firm Rob Paral and Associates and author of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ inaugural Heartland Paper, “Mexican Immigration in the Midwest: Meaning and Implications.”　The discussion was moderated by former Governor Bob Holden. The panelists explained that the Midwest was once the center of progress for the country and Industrialization occurred largely in the Midwest and was a major reason that the quality of life increased so much in the country. However, this region in general has tended to focus on this successful past and cling to it tightly as a person would a ship in the ocean. The problem is the ship has been sinking and it’s time to build a new one. Rob Paral explained that Mexican Immigration has been increasing greatly in the Midwest and will continue to do so as long as there are available low skill jobs. In order to build a better future the panelists recommend two general frameworks.

First, The Midwest needs to work as a region to gain political influence and increase innovation. For example, we have several of the top universities in the country, but often they compete with each other rather than collaborate. Furthermore, we fight for federal resources rather than work together to demand more. Second, we need to embrace Mexican Immigration. As long as there are low-skill jobs available and a shortage of Americans willing to work in them, there will be immigration. Therefore, we must work to incorporate and naturalize these immigrants. The first step would be to have a legal immigration process that is realistic and allows low-skilled workers access to the US. One striking example from Longworth’s book about the reality of Mexican Immigration is a factory in rural Illinois. The factory workers have transformed from predominantly white to predominantly Mexican workers earning far less than the white workers used to. Many workers recent these Mexicans for taking there jobs. However, the reality of the situation is that factory would not operate in that location paying the high wages the white workers earned, it would simple leave the country. The way I see it is the option is not white workers earning a large salary versus Mexicans earning a low salary. The real options are Mexicans earning a low salary and an open plant in town or no plant at all and thus no income coming into the community from it.

Midwesterners are proud people who were the backbone of the country for a couple of generations. People could earn a good living with little education, but those days are over. We can continue to pretend that the government or Mexicans or any other excuse we want to make is what has changed this. However, the reality is globalization has been occurring, is occurring and will continue to occur. We have to compete against countries that have the ability to create many products at similar or better quality levels and have a work force willing to work for far less than the typical American. In order to regenerate our economy we need to work to innovate and create new products and services that are better than what the rest of the world can. Furthermore, we need to embrace immigrants who can help us compete including low-skilled Mexican workers.

A quote I recently read in the December 2008 issue of Urban Land which is published by the Urban Land Institute, made me think about St. Louis.  The author Patrick Hanlon, a community branding expert, wrote “The strength of community lies in spirit-shared values, trust in one’s neighbors, and a vision filled with hope and dreams.” Do we have these elements of spirit Hanlon outlines?

He later outlines 7 elements that are strands of a community’s culture: creation story, creed, icons, rituals, lexicon, non-believers, and leaders and claims cities with a rich cultural heritage relish all of them.  Do we have these elements?

I think we are stronger in the elements of community culture than the strengthening elements of spirit Hanlon outlines.  I would like to know how you feel. Where are we strong? Where are we lacking? What is our creation story, icons, lexicon? Who are our leaders?

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.