Inaugural Remarks
Mayor Francis G. Slay
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Thank you, Julius Hunter, for lending your voice to the City once again. The TV news just doesn’t look the same without you.
Before I begin, I want to take a moment to recognize some people.
Four years ago, we began speaking of the new partnerships that would make our City great again.
Along with all the hard-working men and women who work for the City of St. Louis in patrol cars, on the other end of phone lines, on hose lines, on garbage trucks, on ladders, at desks, and on the business ends of brooms and shovels, these partners of St. Louis – many of them present today -- deserve our acknowledgement.
Please recognize:
Governor Matt Blunt, a new friend whose presence here today is very welcome, and a familiar friend, State Auditor Claire McCaskill.
United States Senators Kit Bond and Jim Talent, represented by senior staffers.
Congressmen William “Lacy” Clay and Russ Carnahan.
The bishops, priests, ministers, reverends, deacons, rabbis, and imams whose ministries anchor their communities and whose words remind all of us of our duties to each other.
Senators Maida Coleman, Pat Dougherty, and Harry Kennedy – and the other members of our state delegation – who are reliable blue voices in legislative chambers full of red.
Comptroller Darlene Green, President Jim Shrewsbury, members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, and the county elected officials – who are our hardworking partners in building and maintaining strong, safe neighborhoods.
St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, who has added friendship to partnership.
Our partners from East-West Gateway and the statewide office holders.
The circuit judges, including my friend Judge Jack Garvey, who dispense equal parts of justice to wrongdoers and reassurance to the rest of us.
Former mayors Jim Conway; Vince Schoemehl; Freeman Bosley, Jr., and Clarence Harmon – whose contributions to our City’s well-being fortunately did not end when we hung their portraits in the gallery outside Room 200.
And, of course, my family – my wife, Kim; my parents, Anna and Francis R. Slay; my many brothers and sisters; and a pair of good kids, who are smarter, taller, and better drivers than they were four years ago. Without them, I would not be here at all.
Fellow St. Louisans, our city was visited earlier this month by 80,000 rabid practitioners of basketball fandom, and seen by millions more on television. The St. Louis that they all saw bore little resemblance to the city that hosted the NCAA Finals back in 1973.
That earlier city, like many of its peers, had been struck hard by the exodus of its middle class to the suburbs and its industries to the Third World -- leaving behind an aging infrastructure of roads, parks, and sewers; a government that operated on equal parts paper and patronage; and blocks of empty homes and warehouses.
Yet, the same year that saw Bill Walton’s stunning 44-point performance for UCLA beat Memphis State was also the year that St. Louis recognized its first federal historic district: the then-shabby Victorian mansions and the overgrown park of Lafayette Square. And, that far-sighted action set in motion a process that has seen our old river city finally begin to reverse decades of decline.
Looking past the Arch on the riverfront, evidence of our revival can be found everywhere:
In . . .
New restaurants that are attracting diners from throughout the region;
Businesses that are expanding their city operations and moving into the city from outlying suburbs;
Suburban retailers that are building new city locations and other innovative home-grown retailers celebrating success;
Entertainment districts like the Delmar Loop, Washington Avenue, and the City Museum that are now counted among the most entertaining and unique places in the country;
Historic homes that are being renovated throughout the City and vacant warehouses and factory buildings that are being reborn as urban lofts; and
New homes that are being built in areas that have not seen true investment for decades.
With all these wonderful things, the City of St. Louis is clearly retaking its place as the strongly beating heart of the central Midwest.
We’ve certainly done some things wrong, but we’ve done a lot more things right: It is no coincidence that for the first time in five decades, more people are moving into the City than out.
Three decades after Lafayette Square was enrolled on the National Register of Historic Places, there are more than a dozen other historic districts in St. Louis. City historic ordinances are strictly enforced. The Cultural Resources Office, the arbiter of historic development, is one of the busiest agencies of city government. And St. Louis nominates more buildings for inclusion on the National Register than almost any other city in the country.
Making a conscious effort to preserve the City’s unique built environment; to re-use and re-build whenever possible and to use codes and ordinances to control the direction and pace of change – these are the things that have created a city unlike most others. And, as a result – as the Assessor has recently told you -- residential property values are up an average 56 percent since 2001 and an average of more than 30 percent from just two years ago.
Businesses are renewing their downtown leases and expanding their operations in other parts of the City. New businesses are moving in. St. Louis is once again holding on to its employment base, now accounting for nearly one out every ten jobs in the state of Missouri.
When I stood before you four years ago, problem properties were choking many City neighborhoods, as well as the City’s court system. Today, over 5,000 problem properties cases have been successfully resolved -- nuisance behavior eradicated, and deteriorated buildings either brought up to code by the original owner or sold or donated to another owner able and willing to renew them as neighborhood assets.
In 2001, far too many public works projects were stopped in their tracks. Today, most of those laggards are under construction.
 In 2001, the police department and the rest of city government were strangers to each other. Today, they work as a team. As a result, the City is now safer.
In 2001, the city’s lead poisoning prevention program was all but non-existent. Today, the city has a “Lead Safe St. Louis” action plan, and is one of the best performers in the country with respect to its federal lead grants.
By 2001, too many people had given up on North St. Louis. Today, there are 2,000 new homes with more on the way. Martin Luther King Boulevard is undergoing a renovation so the street will match the quality of the name.
In 2001, what development there was in our City was focused in a few places. Now, there is new investment in every corner of our City.
In 2001, the plan for a life sciences business park had been sitting on a shelf for two decades. Now that business park is under construction a mile from where we are standing.
After eight years of effort, empty nesters and new graduates now share loft living spaces along Washington Avenue; a new $400 million entertainment district is being mapped out along the riverfront; nearly $3 billion has already been invested in rehabilitation and new construction in the central business district and along the Gateway Mall; and, finally, a request for funds to begin connecting the Arch grounds to the rest of downtown is now sitting in front of federal officials.
In 2001, outsiders doubted St. Louis. But, that has changed in a big way. The NCAA was knocked over by the Final Four; a Minneapolis company wants to invest millions in a Downtown building; our new school superintendent is from Philadelphia and our new airport director is from San Antonio.
We still have a long way to go, but we have come a long way. We can be proud of our accomplishments.
It is important to remember, however, that our progress was not an accident, and it was also not inevitable.
It happened because many of us decided to put aside historic differences and rivalries and work together.
Poverty, tight government budgets, and limited imaginations remain formidable barriers.
The fragmentation of our own City and regional governments, and the estrangement of out-state Missouri from its urban capitals, handicap concerted action.
Over the next four years, we must work until all of our schools – public, parochial, and private -- are centers of learning and excellence, and all of our children are prepared for lives as clear thinkers, hard workers, and good citizens.
We must work until every neighborhood – south and north -- is safe and attractive.
We must work until our City is a place where all of our citizens have the opportunity to earn a decent living and can expect even better lives for their children.
We must work to end the suspicions of class, religion, gender, and race that can poison all progress.
We must work to be a great City – and we must work together . . . with each other, with each neighborhood, with St. Louis County, and with the rest of the state.
And if we do these difficult things, we can also do great things.
With better schools and with more schools, we can – and should – double the number of students who graduate from the city’s private, parochial, and public schools.
To give those students a chance at the American dream, we can – and should – add 10,000 new jobs in the City.
To improve the quality of life for our families, we can – and should – add recreation centers, make more of our parks world-class like Forest Park is today, and hire new police officers.
With safer neighborhoods and better neighborhood amenities, we can – and should -- be able to foster the construction or rehab of 10,000 new quality homes in the City.
It is time for our entire region—both Missouri and Illinois-- to come together to make our Riverfront a destination attraction. It is also time to challenge our engineers and architects to make Richard Baron’s vision for Chouteau’s Lake become reality.
Both projects can transform our City and act as economic engines for our region.
And, as people from the suburbs and all over the state of Missouri rediscover the City of St. Louis as the center of civic and cultural life, we can – and should – celebrate with dozens of new festivals and special events to create the kind of excitement that attracts visitors, new residents, and new employers from all over the country.
It all fits together.
Even the naysayers are starting to believe. And a new-found belief in ourselves may be the greatest accomplishment of the last four years. Because we have come so far, we now believe that we can go so much farther.
But, to get there will require us to think about our City, the County, the State, and ourselves in new ways. In four years, Charlie and I may share fire engines, airports, a health district, a bond issue, a tax base, or – even – an office. Or, we may not.
The governor may be making more deals in our City than in Jeff City. Or, not. The point is: we have enough upward momentum now to do great things together. The City has learned to walk. Now, it is time to run.
Four years ago, my call for a great city was a blue-print. And there were more doubters than believers, even in this rotunda. Today, our great city it is a marvelous work-in-progress. And, calling for a great city in this, the People’s Hall, is much more like preaching to the choir. There is no longer much doubt. Because we have come so far, we now believe that we can go so much farther – and so much faster. Our only limitations are those we place on ourselves.
I believe in this City. I believe in its future. Together, we will make St. Louis an even greater City that everyone in our region and in our state can be proud of.
Thank you. And God bless you.
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