Ok. I tried posting this as a link. I guess I'll just have to post the text of the URL and let you copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser.
Link: http://www.showmedaily.org/2011/01/whaeva-i-do-what-i-want-the.html/comment-page-1#comment-9199
We encourage everyone to comment.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Our Response to the Recent McEagle Open Letter to St Louis
I think I’ll just start with Mr. McKee’s quoting of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” That is so true. This is part of the reason we live in North St Louis, have built lives here, and continue to speak out against the wrongs we see around us.
So why wasn’t McKee speaking and acting decades ago as the city let North St Louis, the entire North St Louis mind you, slip into deeper and deeper ruin? He’s proclaimed in past statements that he’s been aware of this area of the city and its potential since the 70’s. The city government continues to ignore this area to this to this day, spending federal grant money south of Delmar at over 30 times the rate of north of Delmar where the need is the greatest. It appears that the city government neglects the northern part of the city and milks it for grant money. Mr. McKee could have ended his evil silence years ago to help bring services and jobs to North St Louis, but he did not. But now he has a moral awakening that North St Louis needs him to save it? Now after the state enacts a $100 million tax credit for areas like North St Louis?
If Mr. McKee really wishes to bring jobs and opportunity to North St Louis, he can do it without taking our homes and the property of the businesses currently operating here. All he has to do is write anyone out of the redevelopment plan who does not want to be in it. The people he would be sparing from the redevelopment ax are people who have stuck out the bad years and tried to make a life here, or tried to run a business here. Many of these people located here out of a sense that they were part of the future of the area. Many of us felt that by investing and sticking it out we were doing something good for our community and ourselves at the same time. They are committed to the City of St Louis as many others are not.
We’ve stuck it out, why can’t we stay to enjoy the revival? Write us out of the redevelopment area if we wish. That would make our homes and businesses secure from any future legislation authorizing eminent domain. Considering the investment we’ve made in the future of our city, this is only fair. Mr. McKee and the city leaders have refused to do this, and we have fought them and their defective ordinances and plans. Can they not get anything right? Even moral outrage?
The minimum of what we ask for is very simple:
o No possibility of eminent domain - that means you must write our property OUT of any redevelopment ordinances or blighting studies if we request it. By “our property” we mean all property owners, business or residential. This has been done in other projects and it is easily do-able within Missouri TIF law. This is the only guarantee against eminent domain under these circumstances.
o Dramatically improved compensation for moving expenses of renters if they are renting in a property sold for re-development. Give us what was given for projects like Kirkwood Commons to residents of Meacham Park in Kirkwood. If it’s good enough for the county, it should be good enough for the city.
o Northside Regeneration and McEagle will start pressing charges against anyone caught looting one of their many vacant dilapidated buildings.
o McEagle will secure now and continue to secure any vacant buildings. This means a secure board up and stabilization of at least roof repair. Board up does us no good if the building falls down into neighboring yards. It also does no good if it is done so poorly that the homeless and vagrant break in on a regular basis. This is to be done regardless of the project time line. We would ask the same of any absentee property owner. If you aren’t going to do something with it now, at least secure it. Post a phone number and neighbors will call you when something happens after they call the police.
None of these demands are out of line. If this had been done from the start, none of us would have fought Mr. McKee or his people. Even if we didn’t trust him (and we don’t) we could live with the above concessions from Mr. McKee and the city government; a city government that ostensibly should represent us in any negotiation. We want basic security for ourselves and our neighbors, and protections for the thousands of people who still live here. That’s all we ask. We don’t think it’s too much.
We are very tired of Mr. McKee’s vacant property and his continued surprise that these buildings he and his companies DO NOT maintain or repair are falling down, being set on fire, or collapsing after brick thieves knock holes in the walls. He has received $28 million dollars in State of Missouri tax credits to date for this project. Where has he spent the money he has received for selling these tax credits? I would like an accounting as a taxpayer and resident of the area. And just why is this not enough money to get his Clemen’s Mansion project off the ground without even more subsidized bonds being issued by the state? Is the state budget not enough of a wreck that it has to forego even more tax revenue in order to pay Mr. McKee for what he should have done when he bought the Clemens Mansion six years ago?
Mr. McKee can put his money where his mouth is on eminent domain and write anyone who wants out of this project. All it takes is some extra typing when his lawyers are writing up the redevelopment agreement. If he really doesn’t want to use eminent domain, put it absolutely beyond use.
As for Mr. McKee’s proven track record of creating jobs, we see his developments and the only jobs he seems to be creating without massive government subsidies are for the lawyers of the banks that he owes money to. Banks like the two that lent him money for his Hazelwood Logistics center and then had to take back the property in one case and sue him in federal court in the other. Neither bank will get back all the money they lent to him, and he continues to fight tooth and nail to give them as little as possible.
“You have to take these lenders to the wall.” That’s what he said to me personally in response to my questions about his disputes with his lenders in one of the Northside community meetings. So let me get this straight…He can’t pay back what he’s borrowed while he continues to live in his Huntleigh mansion next to August A. Bush, IV? Why is this man getting state and local subsidies to do anything at all?
Mr. McKee claims that breaking up the project area he has proposed would do no good. But that’s exactly how he proposed it; four parts phased over at least 20 years. I’m puzzled by this. This is just another example of him saying one thing and then saying something completely opposite later on. His project is phased because that’s how any large scale project is done. You don’t do it all at once.
The very best parts of our region and city were put together piecemeal by small holders and independent builders. Soulard was not re-habbed in a day and still isn’t finished. Lafayette Square has been the work of many, many years. Laclede’s Landing took many years. The come-back of Washington Avenue and the loft district started way back in the early 90’s and is only largely finished today. Benton Park between Cherokee St and Gravois has been in progress for about a decade. The section of Cherokee west of Jefferson has been in progress for at lest half that period. I could go on all day talking about other city neighborhoods, suburban neighborhoods, and small towns.
Piecemeal development does not yield immediate results, but the city and region have seen it yield dramatic and very valuable results over and over again. Give things over to the independent real estate developers, builders, business people, and homeowners and you very often get very, very good results. And when you don’t get good results from an independent small holder, it’s not a 2.5 square mile area in the heart of your city. They guy next door with the funny color scheme or weird floor-plan is just one guy, not a giant area.
What mega-projects has the region seen that turned out well? First, we’ve never seen anything close to this scale. Neither has any region of the U.S. The Stapleton project in Denver wasn’t nearly this large and was a completely vacant former airport.
What about the medium to large local project Mr. McKee has been directly involved in? I don’t see Winghaven as a success even with the big subsidies paid to MasterCard to locate there. Mr McKee just split with several business ventures at Winghaven that he was a key man in due to money. He declined to continue to contribute cash to them. As a general rule the only businesses you have to keep contributing cash to year after year are money loosing businesses. Other partners in those ventures have now taken over. How is that success? North Park was land eminent domained for airport noise abatement. It was then sold to Mr. McKee to develop. If it wasn’t for Express Scripts wanting to be right next to the UMSL campus, there would be nothing remarkable going on there. And what about Hazelwood Logistics Center? The city of Hazelwood eminent domained businesses that generated jobs and tax paying home owners and got some empty land and a few vacant warehouses in return. Vacant warehouses Mr. McKee couldn’t or wouldn’t pay his debts over. Should we continue subsidizing Mr. McKee to play his real estate development/default games with other people’s money when that money isn’t that of informed investors but the taxpayer? If we’re going to subsidize businesses, shouldn’t that be through financing programs to help expand the ones that aren’t losing money but generating it?
In closing I would like to quote my favorite moral philosopher Rheinhold Neibuhr: “Evil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity.” For we do not believe Mr. McKee is evil, as he implies that we are. We believe he is merely acting opportunistically to take advantage of conditions that the collective behavior of humanity (and very poor regional leadership) have created. We note that could have acted in many ways at many times to help to overcome these awful conditions but has remained silent and did not act until now. Where was he in the past and why was he not public with his anguish over the plight of North St. Louis? If he wishes to claim some crusading moral authority, he should not only tell us of his morals now, but also of what he was doing all those years when he wasn’t publically protesting the unfair distribution of city resources and the unvarnished racism of it all.
All we ask of Mr. McKee and the city is that we be protected from his grand schemes and tax credit fantasies that we do not share, so that we may carry on with our own lives as we have done before he got the North St Louis religion.
So why wasn’t McKee speaking and acting decades ago as the city let North St Louis, the entire North St Louis mind you, slip into deeper and deeper ruin? He’s proclaimed in past statements that he’s been aware of this area of the city and its potential since the 70’s. The city government continues to ignore this area to this to this day, spending federal grant money south of Delmar at over 30 times the rate of north of Delmar where the need is the greatest. It appears that the city government neglects the northern part of the city and milks it for grant money. Mr. McKee could have ended his evil silence years ago to help bring services and jobs to North St Louis, but he did not. But now he has a moral awakening that North St Louis needs him to save it? Now after the state enacts a $100 million tax credit for areas like North St Louis?
If Mr. McKee really wishes to bring jobs and opportunity to North St Louis, he can do it without taking our homes and the property of the businesses currently operating here. All he has to do is write anyone out of the redevelopment plan who does not want to be in it. The people he would be sparing from the redevelopment ax are people who have stuck out the bad years and tried to make a life here, or tried to run a business here. Many of these people located here out of a sense that they were part of the future of the area. Many of us felt that by investing and sticking it out we were doing something good for our community and ourselves at the same time. They are committed to the City of St Louis as many others are not.
We’ve stuck it out, why can’t we stay to enjoy the revival? Write us out of the redevelopment area if we wish. That would make our homes and businesses secure from any future legislation authorizing eminent domain. Considering the investment we’ve made in the future of our city, this is only fair. Mr. McKee and the city leaders have refused to do this, and we have fought them and their defective ordinances and plans. Can they not get anything right? Even moral outrage?
The minimum of what we ask for is very simple:
o No possibility of eminent domain - that means you must write our property OUT of any redevelopment ordinances or blighting studies if we request it. By “our property” we mean all property owners, business or residential. This has been done in other projects and it is easily do-able within Missouri TIF law. This is the only guarantee against eminent domain under these circumstances.
o Dramatically improved compensation for moving expenses of renters if they are renting in a property sold for re-development. Give us what was given for projects like Kirkwood Commons to residents of Meacham Park in Kirkwood. If it’s good enough for the county, it should be good enough for the city.
o Northside Regeneration and McEagle will start pressing charges against anyone caught looting one of their many vacant dilapidated buildings.
o McEagle will secure now and continue to secure any vacant buildings. This means a secure board up and stabilization of at least roof repair. Board up does us no good if the building falls down into neighboring yards. It also does no good if it is done so poorly that the homeless and vagrant break in on a regular basis. This is to be done regardless of the project time line. We would ask the same of any absentee property owner. If you aren’t going to do something with it now, at least secure it. Post a phone number and neighbors will call you when something happens after they call the police.
None of these demands are out of line. If this had been done from the start, none of us would have fought Mr. McKee or his people. Even if we didn’t trust him (and we don’t) we could live with the above concessions from Mr. McKee and the city government; a city government that ostensibly should represent us in any negotiation. We want basic security for ourselves and our neighbors, and protections for the thousands of people who still live here. That’s all we ask. We don’t think it’s too much.
We are very tired of Mr. McKee’s vacant property and his continued surprise that these buildings he and his companies DO NOT maintain or repair are falling down, being set on fire, or collapsing after brick thieves knock holes in the walls. He has received $28 million dollars in State of Missouri tax credits to date for this project. Where has he spent the money he has received for selling these tax credits? I would like an accounting as a taxpayer and resident of the area. And just why is this not enough money to get his Clemen’s Mansion project off the ground without even more subsidized bonds being issued by the state? Is the state budget not enough of a wreck that it has to forego even more tax revenue in order to pay Mr. McKee for what he should have done when he bought the Clemens Mansion six years ago?
Mr. McKee can put his money where his mouth is on eminent domain and write anyone who wants out of this project. All it takes is some extra typing when his lawyers are writing up the redevelopment agreement. If he really doesn’t want to use eminent domain, put it absolutely beyond use.
As for Mr. McKee’s proven track record of creating jobs, we see his developments and the only jobs he seems to be creating without massive government subsidies are for the lawyers of the banks that he owes money to. Banks like the two that lent him money for his Hazelwood Logistics center and then had to take back the property in one case and sue him in federal court in the other. Neither bank will get back all the money they lent to him, and he continues to fight tooth and nail to give them as little as possible.
“You have to take these lenders to the wall.” That’s what he said to me personally in response to my questions about his disputes with his lenders in one of the Northside community meetings. So let me get this straight…He can’t pay back what he’s borrowed while he continues to live in his Huntleigh mansion next to August A. Bush, IV? Why is this man getting state and local subsidies to do anything at all?
Mr. McKee claims that breaking up the project area he has proposed would do no good. But that’s exactly how he proposed it; four parts phased over at least 20 years. I’m puzzled by this. This is just another example of him saying one thing and then saying something completely opposite later on. His project is phased because that’s how any large scale project is done. You don’t do it all at once.
The very best parts of our region and city were put together piecemeal by small holders and independent builders. Soulard was not re-habbed in a day and still isn’t finished. Lafayette Square has been the work of many, many years. Laclede’s Landing took many years. The come-back of Washington Avenue and the loft district started way back in the early 90’s and is only largely finished today. Benton Park between Cherokee St and Gravois has been in progress for about a decade. The section of Cherokee west of Jefferson has been in progress for at lest half that period. I could go on all day talking about other city neighborhoods, suburban neighborhoods, and small towns.
Piecemeal development does not yield immediate results, but the city and region have seen it yield dramatic and very valuable results over and over again. Give things over to the independent real estate developers, builders, business people, and homeowners and you very often get very, very good results. And when you don’t get good results from an independent small holder, it’s not a 2.5 square mile area in the heart of your city. They guy next door with the funny color scheme or weird floor-plan is just one guy, not a giant area.
What mega-projects has the region seen that turned out well? First, we’ve never seen anything close to this scale. Neither has any region of the U.S. The Stapleton project in Denver wasn’t nearly this large and was a completely vacant former airport.
What about the medium to large local project Mr. McKee has been directly involved in? I don’t see Winghaven as a success even with the big subsidies paid to MasterCard to locate there. Mr McKee just split with several business ventures at Winghaven that he was a key man in due to money. He declined to continue to contribute cash to them. As a general rule the only businesses you have to keep contributing cash to year after year are money loosing businesses. Other partners in those ventures have now taken over. How is that success? North Park was land eminent domained for airport noise abatement. It was then sold to Mr. McKee to develop. If it wasn’t for Express Scripts wanting to be right next to the UMSL campus, there would be nothing remarkable going on there. And what about Hazelwood Logistics Center? The city of Hazelwood eminent domained businesses that generated jobs and tax paying home owners and got some empty land and a few vacant warehouses in return. Vacant warehouses Mr. McKee couldn’t or wouldn’t pay his debts over. Should we continue subsidizing Mr. McKee to play his real estate development/default games with other people’s money when that money isn’t that of informed investors but the taxpayer? If we’re going to subsidize businesses, shouldn’t that be through financing programs to help expand the ones that aren’t losing money but generating it?
In closing I would like to quote my favorite moral philosopher Rheinhold Neibuhr: “Evil is not to be traced back to the individual but to the collective behavior of humanity.” For we do not believe Mr. McKee is evil, as he implies that we are. We believe he is merely acting opportunistically to take advantage of conditions that the collective behavior of humanity (and very poor regional leadership) have created. We note that could have acted in many ways at many times to help to overcome these awful conditions but has remained silent and did not act until now. Where was he in the past and why was he not public with his anguish over the plight of North St. Louis? If he wishes to claim some crusading moral authority, he should not only tell us of his morals now, but also of what he was doing all those years when he wasn’t publically protesting the unfair distribution of city resources and the unvarnished racism of it all.
All we ask of Mr. McKee and the city is that we be protected from his grand schemes and tax credit fantasies that we do not share, so that we may carry on with our own lives as we have done before he got the North St Louis religion.
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