ST. LOUIS — Four aldermen said Tuesday they will back a proposal from the region’s business lobby to split the bulk of the city’s $250 million Rams relocation settlement between downtown and struggling city neighborhoods. It wasn’t clear it would matter.
Aldermen Pam Boyd and Laura Keys, who represent north St. Louis wards, and Cara Spencer and Tom Oldenburg, who represent parts of downtown and south city, told reporters at a press conference it was past time to put the Rams money, received in December 2021, on the streets.
Boyd said the North Side, riven by poverty and pockmarked with vacant lots, can’t wait any longer. And downtown, which has struggled to recover from the pandemic, is at a tipping point, she said.
“We can no longer talk about saving this money for a rainy day,†she said.
The proposal, from Greater St. Louis, Inc., dedicates $130 million to rebuild infrastructure, rehab dilapidated buildings and help people buy homes in the city’s poorer neighborhoods. Another $102.5 million would do the same things downtown as well as work to drum up activity on the riverfront and subsidize retailers interested in filling vacant storefronts.
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It was the latest broadside over one of the prickliest questions in City Hall right now: How should the city spend the remarkable windfall won in the wake of the NFL’s departure from St. Louis a decade ago?
Some, like Greater St. Louis, argue the money should be spent in bulk, and quickly. They say the right investments will reverse declines and spark a boom that will pay bigger dividends down the road.
Others, like many aldermen and Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, have recommended putting the money into a kind of trust that would create a coveted new revenue source for the city. Aldermen have spent months examining ways the interest on the money could seed programs increasing access to child care, boosting pay for a short-staffed city workforce, or fixing a treasured but troubled water system.
They also point out that the city is still in the middle of spending $500 million in federal pandemic relief money, much of which is being spent in struggling neighborhoods.
The press conference marked a show of resolve for the business lobby’s effort after a bruising reception from lawmakers and top city leaders last month.
But the endorsements from the four aldermen were not surprising, nor indicative of broad support.
Notably, three North Side aldermen — Rasheen Aldridge, Shameem Clark Hubbard, and Sharon Tyus — were missing from the group. In an interview after the press conference, Aldridge said the plan simply doesn’t put enough into struggling neighborhoods.
Aldermanic President Megan Green, who favors holding back on spending, said the group doesn’t have the votes at the board to pass the plan or the votes on the city’s three-member Estimate Board — comprised of Green, the mayor and the city comptroller — to approve the spending.
“This doesn’t change things,†Green said.
Conner Kerrigan, a spokesperson for the mayor, said the same thing.
Nevertheless, Boyd, Keys, Spencer and Oldenburg said the city needs their plan, which will be formally introduced at the board Friday.
They didn’t say on Tuesday exactly which specific streets would be repaved in the new plan, nor which buildings would be fixed. The only money specifically earmarked for a certain project was $20 million for the long-vacant Cleveland High School, in the Dutchtown neighborhood. But they said that could be worked out later.
“This is a starting point,†Spencer said.
Oldenburg, a banker, said the investments contemplated by the legislation were the kinds that pay “dividends for decades.â€
Boyd, the bill’s lead sponsor, acknowledged the opposition, but said she believed they would eventually come around.
“I believe in my heart,†she said, “we will have those votes.â€
The team won against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. About a month later, the NFL sealed the team's fate and allowed owner Stan Kroenke to move it to Los Angeles.
