Week 5: News Article Blog - Adrienne

Jobs are the Solution, Andrew Fowler.  St. Louis American 9/12-18 edition.

Paul McKee Jr. was mentioned in one of our recent classes.  While you may not be familiar with the name, you may soon be, especially if he pulls off what he plans to in the near future for St. Louis’ North Side. 

According to the article, Mr. McKee, a major developer, is working with a group of workforce development partners (including St. Louis Job Corps, St. Patrick Center, Better Family Life, Construction Prep Center, and Construction Careers Center) to create jobs for North City residents through a plan called the Northside Regeneration Workforce Coalition.  With this plan, twenty five percent local residents of the North Side will be working on the North Side in jobs created through the program. There were quotes in the article from Michael Holmes, executive director of SLATE, and Stan Shoun, president of Ranken Technical College, both well- known advocates of employment and education in the community.

What if there aren’t any qualified applicants for the new jobs in the local area?  SLATE (St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment) will find and prepare residents, first those who are laid off journeymen and apprentices, then those who have no formal training.  They will then provide necessary training for all employees.  The hope is that building up the area with new businesses and a skilled workforce will invite other new businesses into the area and get the economic ball rolling toward permanent employment opportunities.  McKee points out that ‘the city’s goal is 25 percent minority participation on public works in the city, while his goal is 25 percent resident participation within the project area, which has mostly African American residents.’

In pondering this article, several questions came to mind: What types of businesses are they planning on bringing to North St. Louis?  How long will the employment opportunities last…will they be mainly temporary construction jobs…does that really matter?  What kinds of businesses do they hope will be attracted to the area?  Will there be some sort of mass revitalization of the area to attract other businesses?  I had seen the tail end of a news story about Paul McKee Jr. one day last month, and it seemed that he was deemed some sort of threat to the residents in the area…what of that?

So I did some digging and checked out some news stories from the past couple of months.  It turned out, according to KMOX, that Mr. McKee has an $8 billion, 1,500 acre development plan.  The plan involves “revitalizing two square miles of blighted neighborhoods with up to 10,000 new homes and millions of square feet of office and retail space”. (CBS Daily News, Northside Residents Tell Paul McKee They Want More Input by Kevin Killeen 8/28/13)  McKee was asking for $390 million TIF for the project (http://stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/sldc/economic-development/tax-increment-financing.cfm for the definition of TIF…I didn’t know?), which was being debated, but since has been approved.  Some of the residents of the community felt left out and unsure of the specifics for McKee’s plan, although the news article said over a hundred community meetings had been held with residents who are “mostly supportive.” 

I wonder where the community meetings were held and how many members of the actual community showed up.  I wonder what kinds of folks will live in the houses created.  Is this a plan to uproot black people from the only community some have known, perhaps sending them to other parts of St. Louis… or a legitimate plan to revive St. Louis’ ‘sore areas’?  What happens after the construction is over?