O.k. The next few posts will be a history from the beginning to today.
In an effort to bring everyone up to speed who comes to our page, we'll start at the beginning and explain what we've done and where we've been. We'll also provide a little background so that people can learn who the players are and what they have done.
The first thing I'll post is a link to the first main-stream media article about this whole mess. It's called "Phantom of the Hood". It's from the Riverfront Times way back in 2007. I think I still have a copy of the original print edition somewhere. Even though this was before I had moved to North St Louis, and way before I had met anyone who lives in the footprint of what eventually was announced as Paul McKee, Jr.'s Northside Project, something about that article stuck with me.
Note I said "the footprint of what eventually was announced as Paul McKee, Jr's Northside Project". I did not say the neighborhood where my friend Sheila Rendon has lived all her life with her family; or where my friend Isaiah Hairis bought a brand new suburban style house about ten years ago that would be very nice but wholly unremarkable in any middle class suburb in the area; or the cop block where quite a few St Louis City police officers live; or the brewery apartments constructed around, and inside of, the old Falstaff Brewery.
So many people think it's a bombed out wasteland up here, and it's true there are those parts of the area that are like that. But there are also average people here just trying to make a life. Some have lived here since they were born, some have come much more recently. They deserve to be able to continue on with their lives without harm or financial penalty for choosing the wrong place to stand and try to build a community.
No one, whether they were born here or came later, was told when they chose to make this area their home, "Oh by the way...this place...it's temporary. Eventually, we'll replace this with something better, but we can't guarantee you'll be able to stay." What NSCBA wants is a fair deal for those people who have invested here no matter if they put down roots as a family, or they built a business here.
What we consider fair is just compensation to make everyone financially whole for any move if it comes to that. For a renter, this means moving expenses with a little extra for the hassle of moving, and help finding a comparable apartment elsewhere in the city or even the county if they choose to move there. For a home owner what this means is the ability to buy a comparable house in a neighborhood where they won't be chased out again, moving expenses, and a little extra for the hassle of uprooting yourself and family and settling in a different place. For a business owner or apartment building owner this means a high enough price for your property that you can easily afford a similar facility elsewhere, compensation for any disruption in your business, and a little extra for the hassle of moving. There should also be extra coverage for investors, since you've forced someone to liquidate an investment they found through their own and often not insignificant efforts and make those efforts all over again to find another investment. There should also be coverage of any contingency expenses that were due to the move but not anticipated prior to it. It's a simple concept, if government, through it's efforts to improve the city for everyone wishes to force some of it's citizens do something for the good of all, then the citizens who are affected should be made whole in any way they want. We'll all pay for it later in out taxes, and if it benefits everyone, then everyone should pay.
If the City of St Louis and a private developer they are empowering with a redevelopment agreement can't afford this type of compensation to residents, business owners, and investors who have stuck it out and been loyal to their community and city, then they can't afford the development. It's that simple. If the proposed development isn't financially viable enough to fund all such expenses, then it isn't just to shift those uncovered costs onto the people who live in the footprint of a proposed development now.
For these situations, I say build around anyone who doesn't want to sell at the price you offer. It's that simple. If you can't buy them out, build around them. It's cheaper, and fairer, and it can be done. Write their property out of the boundaries of the redevelopment agreement. It's been done before and can be again. That way, the people who have stuck it out, who have been loyal and patient, will not be abused by having to guess what will happen in the future. They will have certainty and know they are safe.
For those in city and state government; if you abuse ordinary people, you will never have their trust and they will always fight you. Just as we have.
You may sneer at our idealism, that we demand that government and society live up to its ideals, but without people who push, we would never have anything better. And we will keep pushing. All of us can do better.
Keith Marquard
Treasurer, NSCBA
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