The Mayor's Blog

The New York Times had a sobering story in its pages over the weekend. Across the country, municipal fire departments are cutting back, firing fire fighters, closing fire houses, using rolling brownouts, because of the bad economy and rising pension costs.

St. Louis’s fire department is not immune to the trends.

Pension costs now account for 30 percent of the fire department’s budget. This year, the costs of the department’s pensions... Read More

John Nations’ selection at the new president/CEO of Metro is not surprising. I joked on Twitter that John had the longest job interview ever.

Two years ago, John, who was and is (until next month), the mayor of Chesterfield, convinced his city council to commit $175,000 to Metro when a budget shortfall forced Metro to cut hundreds of west county jobs off from the people who performed them. John’s understanding of... Read More

St. Louis is a diverse city, one that, like New York, has a Muslim population that is watching to see what their neighbors will say about a proposal to open a religious space a few blocks from Ground Zero.

This is my thought, expanded somewhat from a message I posted on Twitter last weekend:

Count me among those Americans who believe that President Barack Obama, and New York City’s own mayor,... Read More

Design concepts by the five finalist teams in the competition to redesign the area around the Gateway Arch (formally, "Framing a Modern Masterpiece: The City + The Arch + The River 2015") will be unveiled tomorrow morning and displayed in the Arch’s lobby for a month.

I plan to be there.

The finalist designs are the results of months of public discussion and expert evaluation called for the National Park Service and... Read More

Talking trash. Some things are changing; some things will remain the same.

As of July 2010, the City’s Refuse Division began passing along some of the costs of residential solid waste services. A solid waste services charge of $11 per dwelling per month will begin appearing on the same statement as water bills next month. To accommodate the new invoices, the new bills will look different (in a yellow envelope, full-age in... Read More

As of this month, the City of St. Louis is out of the dog-and-cat-storage business. The outdated shelter on Gasconade is no longer accepting drop offs. Animal welfare organizations throughout the region, anchored by Randy Grim’s great Stray Rescue, will care for stray animals until they are adopted. City animal control officers and the police will continue to respond to calls for sick, injured, dangerous, or loose animals in City neighborhoods.
... Read More

I do not know very much about the business or lifestyle of agriculture, and St. Louis is not a rural capital. But, Missouri is a farm and ranch state, and agriculture is one of the underpinnings of our economy. That is important to understand whether we are discussing the proposed China Hub or the mindset of an important caucus of the Missouri General Assembly.

I mention this as background for a rare mayoral... Read More

The St. Louis Special Needs Registry is a database that the City’s human services and public safety entities use during emergencies and disasters to find and help our most vulnerable citizens, mostly our neighbors who are seniors or have disabilities.

During the past week, City staffers used the registry and a “reverse 9-1-1” calling system to check up on seniors and other residents with particular sensitivities to sustained hot weather. For the... Read More

This is a guest blog by David Newburger:

A competition is underway by the CityRiverArch Foundation to select a design team for major rehabilitation and renovation of the Arch, Arch Grounds, the Old Courthouse, and the park across the river from the Arch.

Five design teams are competing. The public is invited to comment on the design proposals.

The proposals will be displayed to the public in the area under the Arch... Read More

The Missouri Secretary of State announced today that a statewide initiative to require voters in St. Louis City and Kansas City to decide next year whether or not to keep an earnings tax has collected enough signatures to be on the November ballot.

I expect the measure to do well statewide, and much less well here and in KC. That’s because the measure includes a provision certain to be popular outstate barring... Read More