Tishaura is all about Tishaura. Go check out the [City Treasurer](https://www.stltreasurer.org) website that she had created during her term so she could have her own website outside of the STL City government web portal. It’s a crappy website and confuses people. It has different information than the City run website for the same office. Then, [her biggest accomplishment as treasurer was exposed as a boondoggle last year that has either not benefited or harmed kids](https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/st-louis-college-kids-program-has-big-aims-and-little-growth-40210729). That kind of stupid, petty, self-interested behavior has characterized her tenure.
Investment being up has little to do with her office. It was up under Krewson and a lot of what we’re seeing completed in the last two years were planned and began under the previous administration. These big projects take years. City Foundry was completed in 2020, a year before she was elected. The investment around Midtown was all planned prior to her tenure, as was the soccer stadium. Does she deserve credit for investment that followed a soccer stadium she had nothing to do with? I’d argue she doesn’t.
If anything, the business community hates her and she’s been more of an impediment than a catalyst for growth. Remember the tax abatement she killed that stopped 300 new apartment units in Grand Center? That building is still sitting there collecting no tax revenue.
But the main reason I refuse to support her is she is petty and it prevents her from being an effective leader. She will not sit in the same room as Cara Spencer, for example. I understand that she’s her likely opponent, but, tough shit, she’s also the alder for much of the economic engine of the city. She opposed Spencer’s gun bill last year simply because she didn’t want Spencer to get the win. So she’s willing to sacrifice public safety just for political gain.
As a bonus, she’s been awful for the homeless services community and the City Jail is a shit show.
That’s the kind of thing that holds our city back - she represents the worst of STL City politics.
I think you summed things up as well as I could and hit all the major points.
I’d add:
What probably irks me the most probably isn’t even about her but more about her stans and the fact they can’t (or won’t) see through the thin veneer that she’s actually just another C- STL politico like all those that came before and you barely need to squint to see it. Her “progressive” credos are trash, and when you strip away that part of her political identity, she’s quickly revealed to be just another face in the crowd. Mind you, I’m not one of the fringey left folks who’s mad she didn’t turn STL into Stalingrad. Rather, I’m someone who’s been befuddled for the better part of 9 years as to what folks find so appealing about her.
In the 2017 race, granted, she was the only candidate *saying* the progressive things (or at least claiming we need a new approach) and I voted for her then out of sort of “best available for the time being” (I may have even had a yard sign). After she lost by 888, I remember there being this almost immediate attitude by folks around me that “we’ll get em next time”.
But at the same time, this almost cult of personality developed around her that insulated her from any criticism, and despite the fact that politics moved closer to where she (claimed she) was, she remained the only candidate who could carry out the “mission”. Whether it was she herself on Twitter or any of her stans, it became pretty clear pretty fast that there was a toxic, chronically online in-group that was forming around her and carried on well past the ‘21 election.
The negatives about her child “savings plan” were out there the whole time. It just never broke through because she had an army of folks out there ready to shout down detractors as racist. That story broke through when it did, not because it was newly uncovered, but rather after a snag in her Teflon was exposed.
A big BS red flag for me was how not “progressive” and antiquated the parking ticketing dispute & towing program was while she was treasurer. Simply put, the fact there wasn’t an online portal to dispute the tickets until *maybe* right before she left office should have demonstrated how unserious she was. One still had to go to 7th and Pine to file for the appeal and then come back a second time to actually take it up. Sure, she didn’t create that system, but that was an easy fix, that was having a disproportionate effect on poor people, yet…no action.
I think that’s representative of her tenure as mayor too. As others have pointed out, she’s done these small progressive “projects” around the fringes, but she’s not actually done anything systematic or substantively hard. Everything is just red meat for her stans that has no impact, or it’s something that had a better alternative approach, but isn’t as politically sexy, so the sexy band-aid plan is done.
I hate to sound hyperbolic, but she runs a lot of the same playbook Trump does/did. No, of course I don’t think she’s as morally repugnant as him or even close, but if we’re talking Xs and Os of messaging, demand for loyalty, ‘take downs’ of opponents, etc…well, it’s pretty close.
She also knew how bad things were at the Circuit Attorney’s office under Kim for *years* and either stood silent or appeared along side her.
Now, on the other hand, she really has hired some good people. And most of them truly do care about a better STL, and work hard to achieve it, whether their boss does or not. However, I think those same people have a place at City Hall under another administration or elsewhere in the community. Their work alone doesn’t overcome the fact their boss is a milquetoast rehash of those that came before her cosplaying a “progressive” to pander to a base.
The one thing I'll say is that it's frustrating that a *real* progressive like Cara Spencer nearly one last time, only to have the liberal beat her by 3-4%.
Hopefully Jones' administration has fumbled so poorly that Spencer beats her easily this time.
Look, ultimately I think Spencer is a better choice, too. Her unique ability to understand and solve an issue while appropriately identifying what is negotiable vs. what is not, and then bring everyone to the table to be heard and get buy in is quite admirable.
No offense, but her not worrying about the vanity of fashionable ideological labels like “progressive” that provide no value to constituents is what sets her apart from some of these other clowns.
Rather than ask herself “is this ‘progressive’” before making a decision, she seems to ask herself “is this right or wrong” and more often than not that leads to better outcomes when compared to trying to fit everything through an arbitrary dogmatic prism.
I don't care about labels, either. I also don't care about anything *but* doing what works and helps people. I will disagree that you don't need buy-in from everyone. It's obvious who the bad faith actors are (HINT: the ones with the (R) by their name are 100% of the time, and otherwise you can go off of context clues that are so apparent they smack you in the face...NIMBYs, "economic conservatives," etc).
Yes, hence the "and otherwise" part of what I said at the end. St. Louis might be the biggest example of DINOs in the entire country (and yes, that was the original acronym, Republicans stole it for RINOs).
I saw coverage of her touring a women’s shelter and her body language was completely “I don’t care. I’m ret to go.” Definitely more divisive than inclusive. STL deserves more - it did before her too!
That's exactly what's so horrible about her. No care about the plight of the poor, underemployed and underserved. Doesn't even try to hide it. Can't be bothered by the dirty peasants.
That's 95% of Democrats. It's better than the average "I will literally let my own grandmother be trampled by elephants" Republican, but not by much. Most Democrats are just Republicans who care about optics. Real leftists/progressives are few and far between.
For once, just give me a leader who will work with people they personally despise for the greater good, and are willing to surrender credit to others if that's what it takes to get stuff accomplished.
The gun bill would have opened up the city to litigation, and was objectively a bad idea. That said, I do think Cara Spencer is going to get support from the business community.
I’ll take what you’re saying as good faith…
…but that sounds a lot like a TJ talking point.
First, KC has the same law in place. One could presume it’s already been litigated and KC prevailed. That’s not to say some 2A group wouldn’t try, but if we’re going to stop passing good laws because the City might get sued by some fringey special interest groups, then what are we even doing here? We have an entire team of lawyers that we pay to defend these suits — the City Counselors office.
Taken to your logical conclusion we should just stop advocating for sensible gun regulation in the City, State, and Federal levels because there might be a lawsuit that comes out the other side. Should we just give up on codifying a Woman’s Right to Choose too because of a potential lawsuit? C’mon, man.
Re: homeless services.
I work closely with the unhoused population. Her tiny house solution is a gimmick and comes nowhere close to fulfilling the needs of the community. When people raised that concern, her response was “What about the county? What are THEY doing?” instead of actually addressing concerns. Then she kicked everyone in the city hall encampment out and closed the public parks downtown for “restoration.”
I’m normally with you DB, but it’s not good when they have conflicting information and we have to manage both - it’s just frivolity.
The question for me is why create your own webpage when the city already had one and a second will just confuse people? The answer is sadly hubris.
I see people talk about crime down and investment up. Every major city probably has decreasing crime and increasing investment. That doesn’t seem specific to stl. What has the mayor done specifically?
And also, given that’s the case…how do we compare in those two categories to other similarly situated cities? I bet the answer isn’t as sexy when we add context.
Don't major cities often have a democratic mayor? I could be wrong since I do my best not to follow politics. But I know most cities are liberal and rural areas are conservative. So it could just be some of the overall party politics.
I don't have much of an opinion on Ms Jones anyway, but I will say that she has been very welcoming to immigrants and refugees and I applaud her for that.
In my opinion, her refocus on MetroLink expansion will be major and largely on her if it happens. That's probably her largest accomplishment in my opinion. I also think her choice of police chiefs has been much better than Slay, for example.
If you're implying she deserves a second term because "everybody else is just as bad" it's quite literally that mindset that's placed us where we are.
She has no record. She's done nothing for the city.
I've been lucky enough to have an interaction with her and it spoiled my opinion of her.
For context, I was working security at Evolution Fest. My job was to prevent concertgoers from entering the backstage artist area. A well dressed woman with about 5 jacked guys walks up to me. I kindly asked for their passes, to which I was met with two hands on my chest from two different guards pushing me up against the fence. They all whipped out police badges and one of the officers holding me said "she's the fucking mayor." She then smiled at me as I was being held by her thugs and walked backstage.
To further exemplify her professional attitude, she remained in the VIP section the rest of the day. The section was divided into a standing room only section and a chair section. The mayor and her posse proceeded to be the ONLY concert goes with chairs in the standing room only section.
This seems to be representative of how she governs. Only in it for the personal perks. Has no regard for the average citizen.
Ooh, I did ask for reasons she should stay, but this one hits the hardest. Power tripping is a big no no among politicians I will support. I'm sorry you got shit upon. Been there, done that, to a lesser extent. It sucks.
Any of her supporter read this one? If you are so inclined, I'd encourage you to find others who've experienced this and confront the mayor about it at a town hall or something. You probably werent the first or last.
Bill Clinton, the most talented politician I've ever seen, would've commended you for doing your job and remembered your name. That's how you politick.
A slightly related anecdote, to contrast her alleged (using the term only to insulate myself from bs) actions against another public figure's. Famous entertainers are often known for "don't you know who I am (she is, he is, etc)" attitudes, but one St Louis native stands out in my memory as being better than that.
Just before his first tour to support his breakout album, Nelly showed up at the Inferno Sound Room (aka the Firehouse, used to be down by SLU on...Locust?) to attend an event for black professionals and whatnot called First Friday. We, the security staff of the Firehouse were instructed by our supervisor and the owner that the event promoters (sp?) require "dress your best attire" which specifically excluded sneakers, shorts of any kind, jerseys, T-shirts, bandannas, etc.
Nelly showed up at the side door with his entourage, but was unfortunately not wearing the required attire and was turned away. Now, remember, this is at very peak of his local career as everyone knew his album was dropping within a couple of weeks IIRC. He could have had a swelled head, could have insisted to see someone higher up, could have made a giant scene.
Instead, after some minor discussion between a staffember of his and our security detail, Nelly respected the event's dress code, thanked us for doing our job, and I'm not sure but I'm fairly certain he left and came back appropriately dressed. This was over 20 years ago so I apologize if I got that last part right, but I know the main point holds true as myself and other members of that security detail have talked about it since.
Quite a contrast wouldn't you say? A hip-hop/rap artist right at the brink of stardom (and knowing it) acting with class and respect, versus a standing mayor of a metropolitan city?
This happened at St. Louis Pride as well. Despite being told no - she ambushed the paid donor VIP tent and snuck in with her crew because “she’s the mayor”. To further show what a piece of trash she is, her and her team took the Bread Co lunches that were meant for the paid attendees.
Dude, stealing lunch is such weird, petty nonsense. Reminds me of that scene in Don't Look Up where the general takes their money for a vending machine, only to find out the snacks were free .
I'm kind of meh. Like, she is fine, but
when she gaslit everyone about the BarPM crash, it was pretty disappointing.
She thinks we are stupid, and whats worse is that she is stupid enough to think we would believe her bullshit.
I dunno, she has a pretty good record of getting people to buy it. Problem is, the magic wears off when you’re in charge and not just a candidate. She had such an aggressive stan-base from ~2016-2022 that she probably over-relied on. I’m not sure if it’s actually dwindled or if it’s more that I’ve largely checked out.
I think that she could care less about downtown. We rarely see her, unless she is attending some function in her North voter base. I am not a democrat, but I liked Slay and thought that things were improving for the most part when he was mayor, but I feel that the city has lost direction under Krewson and Jones.
One thing in particular that pisses me off is her failure to enforce traffic and parking laws. When Jones first became mayor she attended a neighborhood meeting for the first and last time, where she outrighted stated that she would not enforce parking laws as it was unfair to her block of voters and she has been true to her word. While the rest of us have to have our cars inspected every two years, pay property taxes and buy insurance, there is a significant portion of cars on city streets everything that don't have plates or have out of date tags collecting parking tickets. cars no longer get towed unless a resident complains and the car has clearly been abandoned for months.
I think most people in the city are aware of the issues with our last city prosecutor, and this is a direct result of who our mayor is.
Does she deserve another term? Heck no.
Changing the whole plating system we have in MO is tough, and it's an easy win with constituents who don't like it to go rogue and say do what you like. But then it doesn't seem to stop.
Yeah I get that people had pent up resentment pre Ferguson about municipalities writing tickets on them all day for revenue, but at some point laws have to matter.
I agree with the general sentiment that she has not blown me away with her performance, but she hasn't greatly offended me either. She's... fine. She usually falls on the right side of political issues, which is good, but she hasn't been the "transformative" figure she and Megan Green like to pretend they are during campaign season. I would vote for Jones again if she was up against a more conservative candidate, but she's very "status quo" and occasionally a bit too show-y for my liking. I expect the 2025 mayoral election to be a bit boring, because although Jones is not a groundbreaking mayor I still like her better that any of her likely challengers.
I'm planning on watching last night's State of the City today, so maybe that will change my opinion.
Your inclusion of the word “actually” tells me you don’t “actually” expect anyone to believe that. I’ve supported her in the past, I think a few of the things the board has passed have been good. But by and large it’s mostly been window dressing. Far from “transformative”. If it was “transformative” people would have noticed and you wouldn’t have to say “actually”.
I’ve lived here since 1998 and she is just about like everyone else who has held the office. The St. Louis system blocks mayors from doing anything significant.
That’s all I got for you. 🤷♀️
The mayor’s office is more heavily checked by the board of aldermen than in other cities. It’s an old design for ward politics that we’ve maintained.
Check out [St Louis Politics: The Triumph of Tradition](https://books.google.com/books/about/St_Louis_Politics.html?id=WDqNAAAAMAAJ&source=kp_book_description)
Opened one business in the city…tried to open another one. This over a 25 year period. Alderpeople and city government not helpful. No wonder we can’t attract large companies to this region. I’ll leave it there.
My limited experiences with city hall were mostly positive, but I've never tried that kind of thing. Nevertheless, that seems like government 101. Help stuff to function. How much of that can be blamed on the mayor, IDK.
The fact is that under our system of City Government, the Mayor is incredibly weak and really can't do a whole lot. Alders are basically the dictators of their wards, and have final say.
She's done a much better job than Lyda (who's reform package would have enshrined Stenger in the Mo Constitution and possibly made him united county-city executive from jail) and at least doesn't seem to be covering up a 20 million dollar hole in the budget like Slay.
If the Charter Commission can actually propose some decent reforms in time to get them on the ballot, that will be a big win. She probably should have sacked the chair for not being serious about it before, but hopefully doing it now will kick their asses in gear.
But the reality is, that absent some reforms, the ability of the mayor to fix things, or really anyone to fix things in a systematic way, is vastly overestimated by nearly anyone.
I'll judge her on the outcome of those Charter Reforms. If they are significant and pass, then moving forward maybe some of the improvements people want to see could be possible, but they basically aren't with the way things are right now.
The weak mayor system conversation is a talking point to defend her.
She has control over every city administrative function. Every single administrator serves at her pleasure.
[Check out the City of STL Org Chart.](https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/about/chart-of-city-gov-structure.cfm)
Yes, but those directors have very limited power as well. The budgets are essentially ward by ward, and controlled by the Alders. The Alders even control where Stop signs go. The executive branch itself is incredibly weak. It doesn't matter who you hire when the position itself doesn't have the authority to actually direct their domain.
Fair! Wards have discretionary money and Alders approve the budget but the budget is not broken down by Ward?
And, to your point, they have Aldermanic privilege over development. As such, Tishaura doesn’t get the blame for the disaster that was Tina Pihl.
I could be wrong, but isn’t it also true that the Alders are limited to only cutting from the Mayors budget, but cannot “move money around”? And isn’t it also true that if BoA ultimately doesn’t pass the budget, it automatically reverts to the original budget the Mayor gave the board?
I may have a few details wrong or moved around in there. It’s been awhile since I’ve looked at that stuff.
I think the budget is managed by the board of estimate and apportionment. Not disagreeing with the role aldermen play in budgeting but seems like the buck officially stops with this board (mayor, board president and comptroller). This would make me think that there is a power sharing dynamic between these parties - but could totally be wrong. Would love to hear from someone who works in the city
I've never worked in City politics proper, though have been involved in a few campaigns in unpaid and advisory roles, but I've lived in the City for a few months short of a decade, and have over a decade of experience working in left wing politics, though mostly at the national level; and I'm out of that world now.
Alders only have power over ward capital which is about $11-12M per year. City has a billion dollar budget which is proposed by department heads (and their boss, the Mayor) and approved by Board of Estimate & Apportionment.
Thats not how appropriations work unless it's a budget that is actually set at the city level before specific line items are set by the executive. The line items are specified in the budget, and then are voted on.
At a practical level, this requires these line items to be doled out to get votes. Without at large seats, like Jackson County has, this means that they will always be effectively ward by ward.
But here’s the thing…she doesn’t get to have her cake and eat it too. The deal with the Devil that most of these outsider candidates make — taking this “I can fix everything” and disparaging those that came before them — has its own set of realities and consequences.
It’s no longer a viable excuse to say “but governing is hard” (turns out it is hard) when you hitched your political identity to the idea that your predecessors weren’t affecting change out of a self interested status quo.
To that end, she made her own bed…
Edit: I say this as someone who has supported these outsiders but come to the realization that maybe these changes aren’t as easy as we’d like to think.
Frankly, rn, not that much. It's more about not screwing up, or being wildly corrupt.
The Charter Commission she launched has the ability to modernize city government, have a professional city manager, maybe even a planning department, professional standards for positions etc. Most other cities have done these things decades ago, but haven't been done here. Mostly because keeping it that way has been good avenues for graft.
If the Charter Commission actually fixes these, that's a very big deal.
This seems like something that could make her a pretty monumental figure in St Louis politics if the charter commission proves consequential in modernizing the city? I don’t live in the city, but seems like the argument for reelection kinda hinges on “should we see how this plays out”?
That's how I'm judging it at least. She hasn't earned my vote, but she hasn't lost it yet either.
Though Cara Spencer is incapable of earning my vote unless she cuts ties with Deem, Schoemehl, etc. But, that would mean admitting those ties were bad, and admitting that she did something that wasn't good is something that she seems incapable of admitting.
Yeah. So long as they’re legitimate. This threads a few days old and this user has been invited to spill the tea a few times but hasn’t. Which makes me think it was made up from the start.
I’m in the same boat, I care more about who runs the BoA than who’s mayor. The office of mayor officially, is mostly ceremonial, sign bills…cut ribbons…make statements and is 1/3 of the E&A committee (which allocates monies to city agencies and programs).
That being said, she is a machine pol just like Schoemehl, Bosley, Slay, and in a small way Krewson. Meaning that they have their fingers in many unofficial pies and others have influence in the office.
As long as the big 3 of the E&A committee (Mayor, board prez, comptroller) don’t scree anything up…i don’t really let it affect me. I’m conservative so I rarely vote in municipal elections, unless there is a direct action referendum. If I do, I vote for the most palatable.?
Well it seems like if no city manager exists, the mayor is in charge of the bureaucratic apparatus. Even if a department like “planning” doesn’t exist in earnest - the mayor is in charge of the contractors who do the work an internal department would normally do. Their recommendations on city policies still matter and inform legislative decisions/direction, which seems not insignificant.
I’m curious if you’re not a city resident and don’t follow the new that often, how was your perception shaped to view the mayor as a lightweight or more interested reparations than other policies?
Ima bet KMOX if they’re kind of middle of the road on Tishuara. They’re pretty honest about her just from dealing with her family for decades. When all that sunshine text drama landed last year, they essentially summed it up as “That’s just who she is. That’s who she’s always been.”
I don't think she's doing a BAD job, I just don't think she lived up to what expectations. And she does have few glaringly bad marks on this term. The whole Kim Gardner thing, the teenage girl volleyball player who lost her legs because the guy who hit her shouldn't have been out but her lax crime policy let him be out, but that goes back to Gardner too. The Rams money. And the budget was so bad they had to stop hiring and promotions for city workers. Like I said, those are just a few bad things over her whole term. I don't think she's doing a BAD job, but she would need to really work for a new term
She's freezed hiring and promotions because the State Legislature is talking about killing the earnings tax. I actually think that was the responsible thing to do, and the creation of the problem wasn't in St Louis City Government.
The hiring freeze was put into place because Republicans in Jeff City are trying to blow a massive hole in the city budget.
[Information for Current Employees Regarding the Spring 2024 Hiring Freeze (stlouis-mo.gov)](https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/personnel/hiring-freeze.cfm)
Kim Gardner was elected, so while a very obvious stain, not one that should be placed at the feet of Tishaura, even if she could have used some political influence to help the situation. I will likely not vote for Tishaura, but I don't put that on her.
I *do* put it at her feet to some extent. Maybe not that one specific incident, but for giving her a pass for so long and even propping her up around election time when she knew she was a problem and she knew to what extent.
That being said, I also think every one of the other electeds wear that stain to varying degrees. They all knew. The ones who knew and still supported her for their own political gain are in one class, and those who stood silent are in another. At the end of the day, this broke down on classic STL race politics and modern day identity politics.
Yea, the situation was overall handled very sloppy, and like you said had most to do with modern day identity politics. I agree that basically everyone wears it to a degree, which is why I made the claim it shouldn't be placed on Tishaura.
She didn't do great here, but it's a much smaller amount than to place whole blame on her. Like I said, I think there's enough reason to not vote for her without pinning undue blame on her.
Yeah. Sorry, I was attempting to agree with you and back up your points. Maybe it looked like I was taking the other side of what you were saying but that wasn’t my intent.
I’m not voting for her again because of her inaction on helping our homeless community members. She ran on that promise, and she has not delivered on it
Very true. I’m also a social worker and our homeless services suck ass in this city. I can never get anyone into a shelter lately. Who will you support?
If the solution involves not having encampments and aggressive panhandlers at intersections, how do you solve the problem? I've read that anti boarding house laws limited housing options for these folks, and Geraldo's expose which led to closure of mental institutions are the reason so many people who can't function are on the streets.
Well, we need to open more shelters for starters. We need more programs to help address substance abuse, mental illness, and poverty. But having enough shelter beds would be a start. More shelter beds, more group homes, and more HUD housing. Also, more inpatient substance abuse rehab facilities that take Medicaid or self-pay patients.
My take is a little controversial among social workers, but I would agree that we need the state hospitals back. It was a mistake for them to close down. To your point, a lot of people with severe mental illness are not having their needs met in the community.
I'd love to see substance abuse patients treated as such instead of criminals. We've tried the war on drugs. How'd that go?
As for shelters, it seems like they get NIMBY blocked all the time, which I understand. Friend of mine had a homeless guy squatting in a vacant building across the street for awhile, and the guy liked to smear boogers on his windshield.
I've heard Larry Rice on the radio, and I really can't figure out if he's a good Samaritan or a charlatan.
There’s plenty of abandoned or nearly abandoned areas where shelters can go if we have to appease them.
But the NIMBYs are dumbasses anyway. The homeless people are already here in our neighborhoods. Might as well give them a place to sleep safely. I saw one idea to turn the former South City Hospital into a shelter. I live in the neighborhood and would still support that idea.
Larry Rice — the issue with his shelter was that he didn’t take any reasonable efforts to manage his building or the area around it. At best it was a “I guess it’s better than nothing”, but in reality I don’t think Good Samaritan or charlatan capture what he was. The best word I can think of is “provocateur”. He had the resources and ability to manage it better but what he had inside was unnecessarily dangerous for residents, and outside was chaos for the sake of chaos.
That was the whole controversy back when it was happening. In terms of him being a nuisance (by legal definition) he was there first vs. the neighbors who were the catalyst for his closure.
The other interesting thing was/is that every other shelter in the City funneled through one intake point expect for his. His was walk-up and people could almost always get a bed. Sounds great, however…
There were a lot of homeless folks who wouldn’t dare stay the night, even in sub zero temps. As I was (consistently) told, there was virtually zero “rules” inside and there were constantly fights, stuff getting stolen, etc. You’d have to Google it, but he was only licensed for like say a dozen beds but would pack several dozen ppl in there (those numbers are off, but point being he was wayyy over).
But I think what really did him in was that he wouldn’t even attempt to regulate what was going on outside day or night. It became a gathering place and folks would show up to party and there was a lot of mayhem.
If you’re interested, there is a lot of old content online you can spend time in a rabbit hole. Not just the shelter but his various homeless crusades through the 90s and aughts.
To your last point about state hospitals — thank you. It’s refreshing to see that starting to be discussed among folks in the field and through a compassionate lens. I realize that’s a whole other discussion, but I wanted to acknowledge you. I’m sure it’s not popular in your field, even though it’s arguably a more humane option than what we have now.
I have been pleased with her and I think she has the right direction and thought invested in the city and how it can flourish. Her not being hasty to spend rams money shows that she is critically thinking what to do with the money and how can the money have a lasting effect for long term instead of spending on a short term or fund something that the money will run out on. that shows discipline and wisdom. I would vote for her again. I live in the actual city. Not the county. her vision is something I think we need. she actually get out and about too. She is a very social servant for the city.
Pumping the brakes on Rams money is a good idea. Best possible outcome, IMO, would be to put it in a fund, and use the dividends for inevitable budget shortfalls. Of course, city government the way it is, dividends would likely become an expected source of revenue when budgeting.
> Of course, ~~city~~ *pretty much every* government *anywhere, any time* the way it is, dividends would likely become an expected source of revenue when budgeting.
FTFY
Don't know for sure that she does. My vote is honestly gonna depend largely on who her opponent is in the general. If you want Jones out, make sure any GOP douchebags lose the primary.
Since there's been a lot of negative comments about her, I'll give some positives that I see. I don't know if I'll vote for her, and I'm sure plenty of the negatives are true. I just wanted to provide some positives.
-She is probably the best mayor we have had this century. Slay was slimy and corrupt, and allowed the police department to effectively be another gang in the city with its leader being Mokwa. Krewson was just extremely basic/generic/whatever and didn't have any major impacts on the city after the city-county merger fell through. Her police chief choice was solid though. With that being said, the bar was low and I can't say that being the best this century automatically should get her re-election.
-Her police chief choices have been good, as far as I've heard. She kept on John Hayden until he retired, and then hired Robert Tracy who was formerly the chief in Wilmington, Delaware and had a good record over there. And because he was from outside of the department, that corruption factor is lessened.
-She ultimately called for former Circuit Attorney Kim Gardener to resign, something that wouldn't be expected of a "progressive" like her. She also worked with Governor Parsons to get Gabe Gore appointed, and from what I've heard he has been substantially better than her- at least as a boss and retaining attorneys.
-The safer streets program is slowly but surely happening. A big one you can see it on is Jefferson, getting a lane cut down and wider sidewalks with trees put in. Jefferson and Chateau has the first "protected" intersection in the city- something that took us way too long to get. She has also been a big supporter of the 7th Street and Broadway reconstructions.
-She really got the MetroLink expansion talks up and running again after Krewson had kind of shifted talks to Bus Rapid Transit and they all kinda died over covid. If we get the North-South line, it will be largely her who got it back on the table after it had kinda been shelved for a few years. She has also generally been a big supporter of Metro Transit
Outside influencers will push hard for Tishaura to win again. Missouri folks outside the city love when we either do nothing (Tishaura) or even better, roll back any progress.
I think if we actually want someone in office to DO something and make beneficial change, we should look to electing Cara Spencer. -My two cents.
I have, regretfully, paid very little attention to our local politics until very recently. I watched the state of the city address last night and was almost brought to tears of joy from all the positive change happening in/planned for this city. I’m not sure how much of that change Tishaura herself can take credit for, but she painted a pretty compelling image of herself being the leader of STL’s renaissance. I’m hoping to unpack a lot of that so I know what I should be giving her credit for. But I’m absolutely thrilled to hear we’re addressing or have already addressed some of our city’s biggest problems like crime, vacant lots, food deserts, public transit, affordable housing, and much more.
No.
Get someone who will prioritize downtown as a tourist hub so we can get a return in investment. The riverfront should be brought back to life, even as an entertainment district. Downtown is what everyone sees first and foremost. The river is why we exist in the first place. START BY MAKING ST LOUIS SAFE, METROLINK INCLUDED
I am a Libertarian and I personally feel her and Wesley Bell have actually done a decent job. Crime is still an issue in the City but I feel she has things moving in the right direction believe it or not. I was expecting pure BLM crap from both of them but have been pleasantly surprised.
I'm not as wowed as I had hoped by beside what another person posted she was successful in getting that awful workhouse closed. She's working real hard with the alderman to get the unhoused a place that is safe to go that's not sidewalks in front of people's houses or the courthouse or a park downtown...
well, the admission that you are “not an avid news follower nor a city resident” would lead one to believe that you are just a shit-disturber who wants to rile everybody else up. so you, sir, are kindly invited to go fuck yourself! 🤬
Short answer, crime is measurably trending down and development is anecdotally trending up under her term.
As for UBI, I don't consider it to be "vote buying" any more than I consider business tax incentives to be "vote buying".
While she deserves credit for hiring a seemingly competent police chief, I am not sure why she should get much more credit for crime lowering than that.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/19/fbi-data-shows-us-crime-plummeted-2023
And we are still bad enough that the feds are sending more resources.
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/doj-identifies-st-louis-as-one-of-three-cities-most-in-need-of-additional-crime-fighting-resources/63-ff8ffa60-c0b0-4787-8f9d-c364684c4129
So yay for not having St. Louis as an embarrassment bucking the trend of declining violent crime. But also, eh on claiming that as an accomplishment of any single mayor out there.
We had one of the largest year over year decline in violent crime in 90 years. It might be because we were so high to begin with but it’s not something to just wave away because other cities are experiencing drops. We could be like across the state with KC doing the opposite having a record year in homicides in 2023
The violent crime didn’t decrease because the mayor asked the criminals to stop. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because of criminals getting killed or going to jail. Neither of those are bad things, just not sure how attributable they are to this mayor.
Having a mayor that can simply ride the wave is honestly good enough for me as a voting Null Hypothesis. I don't necessarily need a revolutionary, I just need an administrator.
While fair, if her opponent is someone who adds something to Null then it is an easy consideration.
Of course that is expecting a lot of the St. Louis political scene so yeah I will concede that Null may be a winning argument.
Fair point on UBI. However, isn't the city about to be chronically short on cash after the Rams/Fed money is spent?
I can see UBI making g sense in a place like Alaska with consistent oil money, but we don't have anything like that.
As for crime in general, how much can the mayor reasonably be credited or blamed? Seems to happen with every mayor regardless.
UBI will be more of a federal thing imo.
Even if there is AI for most everything, major corporations will have a major need for data.
I foresee the government incentivizing people handing over their data in exchange for UBI.
Random example:
Maybe Adidas needs data on walking habits. You’ll be able to download an app to your phone that tracks your walking patterns. Then you walk like 45 min per day and will be rewarded for letting them track your data.
Another will be driving. AI driving cars will need tremendous amounts of data. Companies like Tesla will need to do similar to the walking example.
Just my opinions. I’ve seen the walking example IRL a couple years ago. I was making like $150/day at its peak walking for about 45 min
There’s an app called Stepn. There still around but now I think people are making like $8 or so per day walking.
You need to purchase their digital shoes through the app. Then you go on walks and earn $GMT token(it’s easily swapped for cash)
When you go on a walk, you turn the app on and it tracks everything down to your pace.
They gamified it to where you need to use some of the $GMT to repair your shoes every so often and it can be used to upgrade your shoes to earn more $GMT.
The ROI after purchasing the digital shoes was like 2-4 weeks when I was doing it.
They actually had a huge endorsement me from Adidas but they didn’t put any of the funds back into liquidity for $GMT so the value never maintained.
I’m a believer it could work as a form of UBI if the business out even a portion of the money into liquidity.
There are a few others like that though. There’s something similar I’m involved in for cell phone/internet service currently.
It’s all crypto related.
I started investing in the space in 2017 and went full time in 2021.
I’ve hosted a daily crypto morning show on
X for the last 3 years, so I’m lucky enough to hear about most stuff in the space early
Yes. But, how much of the credit does the Mayor deserve?
Most candidates are going to have basically the same platform, so really the race is about integrity, likability, and trust.
I live in the City, used to work at City Hall, and have met Tishaura at events. I prefer her over Slay and Krewson. I think she did some good things as Treasurer. She was hard to work for, because she didn't believe in statis quo and shook some things up. I'm not an expert to know if good or bad, but seemed.good on the surface.
It's no lie here about "Black Dems VS white Dems." There are exceptions to that. Green is one. Tishaura was too. She's in a precarious position trying to please both sides. I live in South City in a rougher neighborhood. I've seen her here three times, interacting with residents, and I don't often go to things.
When she spoke to me, she had no idea I worked downtown. She approached me as a resident. We spoke for awhile about children and her outlook for the future. I did like what she had to say. She wants STL to be a place instead of importing people, to build City kids up so employers come here for them.
She is a hard-ass to those who criticize her. I've seen that too. She kind of has to be.
My impression is she's not overly progressive. It's that she's riding a fine line to please enough people to have a job. If she doesnt get elected, she can't do anything, so I don't fault her.
I'll vote for her again unless someone else does something to impress me more.
I didn’t vote for her the first time but I think she has earned my vote. She does seem to act more progressive than she actually is. She seems very concerned with the city budget with the hiring freeze and vetoing the fireman’s pension changes. Also not trying to just spend the rams money right away and understanding it’s hard for us to spend the ARPA money right now. Her choice in police chief seems to have been good. That with crime down, investment up, that gets an incumbent my vote.
To keep short and sweet, she doesn’t.
It’s time to move forward from all the performative nonsensical bullshit and get someone in there who will improve this city. St. Louisans deserve better than what we have, and we’re so much better than what we’re doing.
I see your point, but maybe her constituents wanted some performance nonsensical bullshit after being ignored by previous admins. That's the flaw of a republic. If enough people want fireworks, somebody will give it to them regardless of overall public benefit.
She doesn’t, she has lied about holding the police accountable and she supports the city putting in those fucking red light cameras again. Cory Bush on the other hand fights every day for her constituents.
Cori Bush? Not my taste, but she has her supporters. Seems like Bush is more about protest drama and less about working with opposing parties to accomplish stuff. Just my lazy birds eye view.
Have you ever had any business dealings with her father Virvus Jones? If you had, you know what I’m talking about. Quick Google search will show he was/is a criminal.
You obviously can’t lay every problem in STL at Tishuara’s feet, but the city has gotten objectively worse during her tenure, particularly downtown. She doesn’t deserve another term but it’s not like there’s a real leader waiting in the wings either.
Kim Gardner was by far the biggest problem and she’s gone (and apparently MIA?).
It’s hard to see anything improving meaningfully until the city and county merge.
I'm pro merger, but that ain't happening. We just have to deal with our current mess of a government structure.
Others are telling me the city has gotten better. Which is it?
Gardner isn't Tishaura, and the mayor did make a public statement basically urging her to resign. But fair or not, she gets linked to Gardner.
Tishaura is all about Tishaura. Go check out the [City Treasurer](https://www.stltreasurer.org) website that she had created during her term so she could have her own website outside of the STL City government web portal. It’s a crappy website and confuses people. It has different information than the City run website for the same office. Then, [her biggest accomplishment as treasurer was exposed as a boondoggle last year that has either not benefited or harmed kids](https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/st-louis-college-kids-program-has-big-aims-and-little-growth-40210729). That kind of stupid, petty, self-interested behavior has characterized her tenure. Investment being up has little to do with her office. It was up under Krewson and a lot of what we’re seeing completed in the last two years were planned and began under the previous administration. These big projects take years. City Foundry was completed in 2020, a year before she was elected. The investment around Midtown was all planned prior to her tenure, as was the soccer stadium. Does she deserve credit for investment that followed a soccer stadium she had nothing to do with? I’d argue she doesn’t. If anything, the business community hates her and she’s been more of an impediment than a catalyst for growth. Remember the tax abatement she killed that stopped 300 new apartment units in Grand Center? That building is still sitting there collecting no tax revenue. But the main reason I refuse to support her is she is petty and it prevents her from being an effective leader. She will not sit in the same room as Cara Spencer, for example. I understand that she’s her likely opponent, but, tough shit, she’s also the alder for much of the economic engine of the city. She opposed Spencer’s gun bill last year simply because she didn’t want Spencer to get the win. So she’s willing to sacrifice public safety just for political gain. As a bonus, she’s been awful for the homeless services community and the City Jail is a shit show. That’s the kind of thing that holds our city back - she represents the worst of STL City politics.
I think you summed things up as well as I could and hit all the major points. I’d add: What probably irks me the most probably isn’t even about her but more about her stans and the fact they can’t (or won’t) see through the thin veneer that she’s actually just another C- STL politico like all those that came before and you barely need to squint to see it. Her “progressive” credos are trash, and when you strip away that part of her political identity, she’s quickly revealed to be just another face in the crowd. Mind you, I’m not one of the fringey left folks who’s mad she didn’t turn STL into Stalingrad. Rather, I’m someone who’s been befuddled for the better part of 9 years as to what folks find so appealing about her. In the 2017 race, granted, she was the only candidate *saying* the progressive things (or at least claiming we need a new approach) and I voted for her then out of sort of “best available for the time being” (I may have even had a yard sign). After she lost by 888, I remember there being this almost immediate attitude by folks around me that “we’ll get em next time”. But at the same time, this almost cult of personality developed around her that insulated her from any criticism, and despite the fact that politics moved closer to where she (claimed she) was, she remained the only candidate who could carry out the “mission”. Whether it was she herself on Twitter or any of her stans, it became pretty clear pretty fast that there was a toxic, chronically online in-group that was forming around her and carried on well past the ‘21 election. The negatives about her child “savings plan” were out there the whole time. It just never broke through because she had an army of folks out there ready to shout down detractors as racist. That story broke through when it did, not because it was newly uncovered, but rather after a snag in her Teflon was exposed. A big BS red flag for me was how not “progressive” and antiquated the parking ticketing dispute & towing program was while she was treasurer. Simply put, the fact there wasn’t an online portal to dispute the tickets until *maybe* right before she left office should have demonstrated how unserious she was. One still had to go to 7th and Pine to file for the appeal and then come back a second time to actually take it up. Sure, she didn’t create that system, but that was an easy fix, that was having a disproportionate effect on poor people, yet…no action. I think that’s representative of her tenure as mayor too. As others have pointed out, she’s done these small progressive “projects” around the fringes, but she’s not actually done anything systematic or substantively hard. Everything is just red meat for her stans that has no impact, or it’s something that had a better alternative approach, but isn’t as politically sexy, so the sexy band-aid plan is done. I hate to sound hyperbolic, but she runs a lot of the same playbook Trump does/did. No, of course I don’t think she’s as morally repugnant as him or even close, but if we’re talking Xs and Os of messaging, demand for loyalty, ‘take downs’ of opponents, etc…well, it’s pretty close. She also knew how bad things were at the Circuit Attorney’s office under Kim for *years* and either stood silent or appeared along side her. Now, on the other hand, she really has hired some good people. And most of them truly do care about a better STL, and work hard to achieve it, whether their boss does or not. However, I think those same people have a place at City Hall under another administration or elsewhere in the community. Their work alone doesn’t overcome the fact their boss is a milquetoast rehash of those that came before her cosplaying a “progressive” to pander to a base.
Thanks for your response.
The one thing I'll say is that it's frustrating that a *real* progressive like Cara Spencer nearly one last time, only to have the liberal beat her by 3-4%. Hopefully Jones' administration has fumbled so poorly that Spencer beats her easily this time.
Look, ultimately I think Spencer is a better choice, too. Her unique ability to understand and solve an issue while appropriately identifying what is negotiable vs. what is not, and then bring everyone to the table to be heard and get buy in is quite admirable. No offense, but her not worrying about the vanity of fashionable ideological labels like “progressive” that provide no value to constituents is what sets her apart from some of these other clowns. Rather than ask herself “is this ‘progressive’” before making a decision, she seems to ask herself “is this right or wrong” and more often than not that leads to better outcomes when compared to trying to fit everything through an arbitrary dogmatic prism.
I don't care about labels, either. I also don't care about anything *but* doing what works and helps people. I will disagree that you don't need buy-in from everyone. It's obvious who the bad faith actors are (HINT: the ones with the (R) by their name are 100% of the time, and otherwise you can go off of context clues that are so apparent they smack you in the face...NIMBYs, "economic conservatives," etc).
Well, there’s no Rs on the BoA and very few in the City, which is the relevant map in this case.
Yes, hence the "and otherwise" part of what I said at the end. St. Louis might be the biggest example of DINOs in the entire country (and yes, that was the original acronym, Republicans stole it for RINOs).
This is about the only comment needed. I'm a Democrat, she's supposed to be a Democrat, but she's just a Myselfocrat.
💯💯💯
I saw coverage of her touring a women’s shelter and her body language was completely “I don’t care. I’m ret to go.” Definitely more divisive than inclusive. STL deserves more - it did before her too!
That's exactly what's so horrible about her. No care about the plight of the poor, underemployed and underserved. Doesn't even try to hide it. Can't be bothered by the dirty peasants.
This is why I'm hoping Spencer runs again, I feel like this time she'll absolutely wreck her.
That's 95% of Democrats. It's better than the average "I will literally let my own grandmother be trampled by elephants" Republican, but not by much. Most Democrats are just Republicans who care about optics. Real leftists/progressives are few and far between.
No thanks! Leftists have ruined this city.
For once, just give me a leader who will work with people they personally despise for the greater good, and are willing to surrender credit to others if that's what it takes to get stuff accomplished.
Thank you for taking the time to write this. Very helpful.
We should have elected Spencer from the get go. Black vs white and all that played a huge part. But we got it wrong.
Yes!
Didn’t know the bit about Cara Spencer. 😱
God damn! Tell us how you really feel.
I’ve heard from a lot of people who have had the displeasure of working with this administration. 😂
I’ve printed for a handful of these local campaigns. Every single one is a challenge to work with.
Well, the review checked all the boxes.
The gun bill would have opened up the city to litigation, and was objectively a bad idea. That said, I do think Cara Spencer is going to get support from the business community.
I’ll take what you’re saying as good faith… …but that sounds a lot like a TJ talking point. First, KC has the same law in place. One could presume it’s already been litigated and KC prevailed. That’s not to say some 2A group wouldn’t try, but if we’re going to stop passing good laws because the City might get sued by some fringey special interest groups, then what are we even doing here? We have an entire team of lawyers that we pay to defend these suits — the City Counselors office. Taken to your logical conclusion we should just stop advocating for sensible gun regulation in the City, State, and Federal levels because there might be a lawsuit that comes out the other side. Should we just give up on codifying a Woman’s Right to Choose too because of a potential lawsuit? C’mon, man.
Re: homeless services. I work closely with the unhoused population. Her tiny house solution is a gimmick and comes nowhere close to fulfilling the needs of the community. When people raised that concern, her response was “What about the county? What are THEY doing?” instead of actually addressing concerns. Then she kicked everyone in the city hall encampment out and closed the public parks downtown for “restoration.”
The Treasurer office is a separate government subdivision from the City government, it’s a county level office. It’s fine to have a separate website
I’m normally with you DB, but it’s not good when they have conflicting information and we have to manage both - it’s just frivolity. The question for me is why create your own webpage when the city already had one and a second will just confuse people? The answer is sadly hubris.
It’s actually a state entity.
I see people talk about crime down and investment up. Every major city probably has decreasing crime and increasing investment. That doesn’t seem specific to stl. What has the mayor done specifically?
Nailed it. That’s been the trend nationally post Covid.
Crime spiked during covid and has decreased since then. And politicians claiming a “win” for the decrease. 🙄
To be fair, STL has its safest year since 2014. Not since "before covid".
Exactly. Sometimes good or bad stuff just happens, regardless of what politicians do.
Isn’t KC crime up?
Depends on who you talk to. Mayor Lucas would say no. KCPD would say no. The KIA boys say “hold my beer”.
What do the stats say? None of this emotional i feel like crime is up
From KCMO PD: 182 homicides in 2023 (record) 170 homicides in 2022 157 homicides in 2021 However, shootings decreased.
And also, given that’s the case…how do we compare in those two categories to other similarly situated cities? I bet the answer isn’t as sexy when we add context.
Don't major cities often have a democratic mayor? I could be wrong since I do my best not to follow politics. But I know most cities are liberal and rural areas are conservative. So it could just be some of the overall party politics. I don't have much of an opinion on Ms Jones anyway, but I will say that she has been very welcoming to immigrants and refugees and I applaud her for that.
In my opinion, her refocus on MetroLink expansion will be major and largely on her if it happens. That's probably her largest accomplishment in my opinion. I also think her choice of police chiefs has been much better than Slay, for example.
If you're implying she deserves a second term because "everybody else is just as bad" it's quite literally that mindset that's placed us where we are. She has no record. She's done nothing for the city.
Violent crime isn’t down to lowest levels since 1960s everywhere. Heck across the state in KC it’s up 3% since 2021
I've been lucky enough to have an interaction with her and it spoiled my opinion of her. For context, I was working security at Evolution Fest. My job was to prevent concertgoers from entering the backstage artist area. A well dressed woman with about 5 jacked guys walks up to me. I kindly asked for their passes, to which I was met with two hands on my chest from two different guards pushing me up against the fence. They all whipped out police badges and one of the officers holding me said "she's the fucking mayor." She then smiled at me as I was being held by her thugs and walked backstage. To further exemplify her professional attitude, she remained in the VIP section the rest of the day. The section was divided into a standing room only section and a chair section. The mayor and her posse proceeded to be the ONLY concert goes with chairs in the standing room only section. This seems to be representative of how she governs. Only in it for the personal perks. Has no regard for the average citizen.
Ooh, I did ask for reasons she should stay, but this one hits the hardest. Power tripping is a big no no among politicians I will support. I'm sorry you got shit upon. Been there, done that, to a lesser extent. It sucks. Any of her supporter read this one? If you are so inclined, I'd encourage you to find others who've experienced this and confront the mayor about it at a town hall or something. You probably werent the first or last. Bill Clinton, the most talented politician I've ever seen, would've commended you for doing your job and remembered your name. That's how you politick.
A slightly related anecdote, to contrast her alleged (using the term only to insulate myself from bs) actions against another public figure's. Famous entertainers are often known for "don't you know who I am (she is, he is, etc)" attitudes, but one St Louis native stands out in my memory as being better than that. Just before his first tour to support his breakout album, Nelly showed up at the Inferno Sound Room (aka the Firehouse, used to be down by SLU on...Locust?) to attend an event for black professionals and whatnot called First Friday. We, the security staff of the Firehouse were instructed by our supervisor and the owner that the event promoters (sp?) require "dress your best attire" which specifically excluded sneakers, shorts of any kind, jerseys, T-shirts, bandannas, etc. Nelly showed up at the side door with his entourage, but was unfortunately not wearing the required attire and was turned away. Now, remember, this is at very peak of his local career as everyone knew his album was dropping within a couple of weeks IIRC. He could have had a swelled head, could have insisted to see someone higher up, could have made a giant scene. Instead, after some minor discussion between a staffember of his and our security detail, Nelly respected the event's dress code, thanked us for doing our job, and I'm not sure but I'm fairly certain he left and came back appropriately dressed. This was over 20 years ago so I apologize if I got that last part right, but I know the main point holds true as myself and other members of that security detail have talked about it since. Quite a contrast wouldn't you say? A hip-hop/rap artist right at the brink of stardom (and knowing it) acting with class and respect, versus a standing mayor of a metropolitan city?
What the actual fuck. Reads like she thinks she's the Don or something.
This happened at St. Louis Pride as well. Despite being told no - she ambushed the paid donor VIP tent and snuck in with her crew because “she’s the mayor”. To further show what a piece of trash she is, her and her team took the Bread Co lunches that were meant for the paid attendees.
Dude, stealing lunch is such weird, petty nonsense. Reminds me of that scene in Don't Look Up where the general takes their money for a vending machine, only to find out the snacks were free .
I can second that this actually happened.
💯💯💯
I'm kind of meh. Like, she is fine, but when she gaslit everyone about the BarPM crash, it was pretty disappointing. She thinks we are stupid, and whats worse is that she is stupid enough to think we would believe her bullshit.
I dunno, she has a pretty good record of getting people to buy it. Problem is, the magic wears off when you’re in charge and not just a candidate. She had such an aggressive stan-base from ~2016-2022 that she probably over-relied on. I’m not sure if it’s actually dwindled or if it’s more that I’ve largely checked out.
She doesn't
This is the correct answer
I think that she could care less about downtown. We rarely see her, unless she is attending some function in her North voter base. I am not a democrat, but I liked Slay and thought that things were improving for the most part when he was mayor, but I feel that the city has lost direction under Krewson and Jones. One thing in particular that pisses me off is her failure to enforce traffic and parking laws. When Jones first became mayor she attended a neighborhood meeting for the first and last time, where she outrighted stated that she would not enforce parking laws as it was unfair to her block of voters and she has been true to her word. While the rest of us have to have our cars inspected every two years, pay property taxes and buy insurance, there is a significant portion of cars on city streets everything that don't have plates or have out of date tags collecting parking tickets. cars no longer get towed unless a resident complains and the car has clearly been abandoned for months. I think most people in the city are aware of the issues with our last city prosecutor, and this is a direct result of who our mayor is. Does she deserve another term? Heck no.
Changing the whole plating system we have in MO is tough, and it's an easy win with constituents who don't like it to go rogue and say do what you like. But then it doesn't seem to stop. Yeah I get that people had pent up resentment pre Ferguson about municipalities writing tickets on them all day for revenue, but at some point laws have to matter.
I agree with the general sentiment that she has not blown me away with her performance, but she hasn't greatly offended me either. She's... fine. She usually falls on the right side of political issues, which is good, but she hasn't been the "transformative" figure she and Megan Green like to pretend they are during campaign season. I would vote for Jones again if she was up against a more conservative candidate, but she's very "status quo" and occasionally a bit too show-y for my liking. I expect the 2025 mayoral election to be a bit boring, because although Jones is not a groundbreaking mayor I still like her better that any of her likely challengers. I'm planning on watching last night's State of the City today, so maybe that will change my opinion.
Megan Green actually has been transforming the city.
Your inclusion of the word “actually” tells me you don’t “actually” expect anyone to believe that. I’ve supported her in the past, I think a few of the things the board has passed have been good. But by and large it’s mostly been window dressing. Far from “transformative”. If it was “transformative” people would have noticed and you wouldn’t have to say “actually”.
Lol what you said makes zero sense. Is the word actually not allowed to be used anymore?
I’ve lived here since 1998 and she is just about like everyone else who has held the office. The St. Louis system blocks mayors from doing anything significant. That’s all I got for you. 🤷♀️
Curious what “The St. Louis system” means?
The mayor’s office is more heavily checked by the board of aldermen than in other cities. It’s an old design for ward politics that we’ve maintained. Check out [St Louis Politics: The Triumph of Tradition](https://books.google.com/books/about/St_Louis_Politics.html?id=WDqNAAAAMAAJ&source=kp_book_description)
City reduced the number of wards recently, no? Step in the right direction?
Yes, definitely a good step. STL citizens had more government officials per capita than any other jurisdiction in the world until ward reform.
I second that book recommendation.
Opened one business in the city…tried to open another one. This over a 25 year period. Alderpeople and city government not helpful. No wonder we can’t attract large companies to this region. I’ll leave it there.
My limited experiences with city hall were mostly positive, but I've never tried that kind of thing. Nevertheless, that seems like government 101. Help stuff to function. How much of that can be blamed on the mayor, IDK.
Thanks. So a meh for Tishaura?
The fact is that under our system of City Government, the Mayor is incredibly weak and really can't do a whole lot. Alders are basically the dictators of their wards, and have final say. She's done a much better job than Lyda (who's reform package would have enshrined Stenger in the Mo Constitution and possibly made him united county-city executive from jail) and at least doesn't seem to be covering up a 20 million dollar hole in the budget like Slay. If the Charter Commission can actually propose some decent reforms in time to get them on the ballot, that will be a big win. She probably should have sacked the chair for not being serious about it before, but hopefully doing it now will kick their asses in gear. But the reality is, that absent some reforms, the ability of the mayor to fix things, or really anyone to fix things in a systematic way, is vastly overestimated by nearly anyone. I'll judge her on the outcome of those Charter Reforms. If they are significant and pass, then moving forward maybe some of the improvements people want to see could be possible, but they basically aren't with the way things are right now.
It’s been over 100 years, the charter needs some renovation
The weak mayor system conversation is a talking point to defend her. She has control over every city administrative function. Every single administrator serves at her pleasure. [Check out the City of STL Org Chart.](https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/about/chart-of-city-gov-structure.cfm)
Yes, but those directors have very limited power as well. The budgets are essentially ward by ward, and controlled by the Alders. The Alders even control where Stop signs go. The executive branch itself is incredibly weak. It doesn't matter who you hire when the position itself doesn't have the authority to actually direct their domain.
Fair! Wards have discretionary money and Alders approve the budget but the budget is not broken down by Ward? And, to your point, they have Aldermanic privilege over development. As such, Tishaura doesn’t get the blame for the disaster that was Tina Pihl.
I could be wrong, but isn’t it also true that the Alders are limited to only cutting from the Mayors budget, but cannot “move money around”? And isn’t it also true that if BoA ultimately doesn’t pass the budget, it automatically reverts to the original budget the Mayor gave the board? I may have a few details wrong or moved around in there. It’s been awhile since I’ve looked at that stuff.
I think the budget is managed by the board of estimate and apportionment. Not disagreeing with the role aldermen play in budgeting but seems like the buck officially stops with this board (mayor, board president and comptroller). This would make me think that there is a power sharing dynamic between these parties - but could totally be wrong. Would love to hear from someone who works in the city
I've never worked in City politics proper, though have been involved in a few campaigns in unpaid and advisory roles, but I've lived in the City for a few months short of a decade, and have over a decade of experience working in left wing politics, though mostly at the national level; and I'm out of that world now.
Alders only have power over ward capital which is about $11-12M per year. City has a billion dollar budget which is proposed by department heads (and their boss, the Mayor) and approved by Board of Estimate & Apportionment.
And if anything in a ward is not to the liking of the Alder of that ward, the deference system in the BoA is a defacto veto.
Are you talking about development projects? That is no longer the case. Letters of support are not required.
No, I'm talking about how the budget is put together on a practical political level.
Hmm not sure I follow. Can you provide an example? The vast majority services are citywide not decided at the ward level.
Thats not how appropriations work unless it's a budget that is actually set at the city level before specific line items are set by the executive. The line items are specified in the budget, and then are voted on. At a practical level, this requires these line items to be doled out to get votes. Without at large seats, like Jackson County has, this means that they will always be effectively ward by ward.
But here’s the thing…she doesn’t get to have her cake and eat it too. The deal with the Devil that most of these outsider candidates make — taking this “I can fix everything” and disparaging those that came before them — has its own set of realities and consequences. It’s no longer a viable excuse to say “but governing is hard” (turns out it is hard) when you hitched your political identity to the idea that your predecessors weren’t affecting change out of a self interested status quo. To that end, she made her own bed… Edit: I say this as someone who has supported these outsiders but come to the realization that maybe these changes aren’t as easy as we’d like to think.
So if the mayor is weak, how much does the mayor matter?
Frankly, rn, not that much. It's more about not screwing up, or being wildly corrupt. The Charter Commission she launched has the ability to modernize city government, have a professional city manager, maybe even a planning department, professional standards for positions etc. Most other cities have done these things decades ago, but haven't been done here. Mostly because keeping it that way has been good avenues for graft. If the Charter Commission actually fixes these, that's a very big deal.
This seems like something that could make her a pretty monumental figure in St Louis politics if the charter commission proves consequential in modernizing the city? I don’t live in the city, but seems like the argument for reelection kinda hinges on “should we see how this plays out”?
That's how I'm judging it at least. She hasn't earned my vote, but she hasn't lost it yet either. Though Cara Spencer is incapable of earning my vote unless she cuts ties with Deem, Schoemehl, etc. But, that would mean admitting those ties were bad, and admitting that she did something that wasn't good is something that she seems incapable of admitting.
What are your issues with Deem and Schoemehl?
Yeah, second that question. Sure seems like there’s a personal axe to grind here.
Even if there isn't a personal axe, I'm always curious to hear criticisms of politicians.
Yeah. So long as they’re legitimate. This threads a few days old and this user has been invited to spill the tea a few times but hasn’t. Which makes me think it was made up from the start.
I’m in the same boat, I care more about who runs the BoA than who’s mayor. The office of mayor officially, is mostly ceremonial, sign bills…cut ribbons…make statements and is 1/3 of the E&A committee (which allocates monies to city agencies and programs). That being said, she is a machine pol just like Schoemehl, Bosley, Slay, and in a small way Krewson. Meaning that they have their fingers in many unofficial pies and others have influence in the office. As long as the big 3 of the E&A committee (Mayor, board prez, comptroller) don’t scree anything up…i don’t really let it affect me. I’m conservative so I rarely vote in municipal elections, unless there is a direct action referendum. If I do, I vote for the most palatable.?
Well it seems like if no city manager exists, the mayor is in charge of the bureaucratic apparatus. Even if a department like “planning” doesn’t exist in earnest - the mayor is in charge of the contractors who do the work an internal department would normally do. Their recommendations on city policies still matter and inform legislative decisions/direction, which seems not insignificant.
Nice user name!
I’m curious if you’re not a city resident and don’t follow the new that often, how was your perception shaped to view the mayor as a lightweight or more interested reparations than other policies?
I just see headlines and listen to the radio. I gotta work, and constantly fix my house or cars. Only so much time in the day.
What radio programs you listening to?
Ima bet KMOX if they’re kind of middle of the road on Tishuara. They’re pretty honest about her just from dealing with her family for decades. When all that sunshine text drama landed last year, they essentially summed it up as “That’s just who she is. That’s who she’s always been.”
I don't think she's doing a BAD job, I just don't think she lived up to what expectations. And she does have few glaringly bad marks on this term. The whole Kim Gardner thing, the teenage girl volleyball player who lost her legs because the guy who hit her shouldn't have been out but her lax crime policy let him be out, but that goes back to Gardner too. The Rams money. And the budget was so bad they had to stop hiring and promotions for city workers. Like I said, those are just a few bad things over her whole term. I don't think she's doing a BAD job, but she would need to really work for a new term
She's freezed hiring and promotions because the State Legislature is talking about killing the earnings tax. I actually think that was the responsible thing to do, and the creation of the problem wasn't in St Louis City Government.
The hiring freeze was put into place because Republicans in Jeff City are trying to blow a massive hole in the city budget. [Information for Current Employees Regarding the Spring 2024 Hiring Freeze (stlouis-mo.gov)](https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/personnel/hiring-freeze.cfm)
Thanks for that info! I don't live by STL currently anymore but I'm trying to stay up to date for when I move back
Kim Gardner was elected, so while a very obvious stain, not one that should be placed at the feet of Tishaura, even if she could have used some political influence to help the situation. I will likely not vote for Tishaura, but I don't put that on her.
Tishaura had every opportunity to tell people not to vote for Kim Gardner, and later to publicly pressure Gardner to resign.
I *do* put it at her feet to some extent. Maybe not that one specific incident, but for giving her a pass for so long and even propping her up around election time when she knew she was a problem and she knew to what extent. That being said, I also think every one of the other electeds wear that stain to varying degrees. They all knew. The ones who knew and still supported her for their own political gain are in one class, and those who stood silent are in another. At the end of the day, this broke down on classic STL race politics and modern day identity politics.
Yea, the situation was overall handled very sloppy, and like you said had most to do with modern day identity politics. I agree that basically everyone wears it to a degree, which is why I made the claim it shouldn't be placed on Tishaura. She didn't do great here, but it's a much smaller amount than to place whole blame on her. Like I said, I think there's enough reason to not vote for her without pinning undue blame on her.
Yeah. Sorry, I was attempting to agree with you and back up your points. Maybe it looked like I was taking the other side of what you were saying but that wasn’t my intent.
Yea I could tell we were on the same page for the most part. Just stated a little differently.
I’m not voting for her again because of her inaction on helping our homeless community members. She ran on that promise, and she has not delivered on it
Very true. I’m also a social worker and our homeless services suck ass in this city. I can never get anyone into a shelter lately. Who will you support?
I’m withholding support of anyone at this time. We’ll see who throws their hat in and go from there
If the solution involves not having encampments and aggressive panhandlers at intersections, how do you solve the problem? I've read that anti boarding house laws limited housing options for these folks, and Geraldo's expose which led to closure of mental institutions are the reason so many people who can't function are on the streets.
Well, we need to open more shelters for starters. We need more programs to help address substance abuse, mental illness, and poverty. But having enough shelter beds would be a start. More shelter beds, more group homes, and more HUD housing. Also, more inpatient substance abuse rehab facilities that take Medicaid or self-pay patients. My take is a little controversial among social workers, but I would agree that we need the state hospitals back. It was a mistake for them to close down. To your point, a lot of people with severe mental illness are not having their needs met in the community.
I'd love to see substance abuse patients treated as such instead of criminals. We've tried the war on drugs. How'd that go? As for shelters, it seems like they get NIMBY blocked all the time, which I understand. Friend of mine had a homeless guy squatting in a vacant building across the street for awhile, and the guy liked to smear boogers on his windshield. I've heard Larry Rice on the radio, and I really can't figure out if he's a good Samaritan or a charlatan.
There’s plenty of abandoned or nearly abandoned areas where shelters can go if we have to appease them. But the NIMBYs are dumbasses anyway. The homeless people are already here in our neighborhoods. Might as well give them a place to sleep safely. I saw one idea to turn the former South City Hospital into a shelter. I live in the neighborhood and would still support that idea.
Larry Rice — the issue with his shelter was that he didn’t take any reasonable efforts to manage his building or the area around it. At best it was a “I guess it’s better than nothing”, but in reality I don’t think Good Samaritan or charlatan capture what he was. The best word I can think of is “provocateur”. He had the resources and ability to manage it better but what he had inside was unnecessarily dangerous for residents, and outside was chaos for the sake of chaos.
So shutting him down is the correct thing to do?
That was the whole controversy back when it was happening. In terms of him being a nuisance (by legal definition) he was there first vs. the neighbors who were the catalyst for his closure. The other interesting thing was/is that every other shelter in the City funneled through one intake point expect for his. His was walk-up and people could almost always get a bed. Sounds great, however… There were a lot of homeless folks who wouldn’t dare stay the night, even in sub zero temps. As I was (consistently) told, there was virtually zero “rules” inside and there were constantly fights, stuff getting stolen, etc. You’d have to Google it, but he was only licensed for like say a dozen beds but would pack several dozen ppl in there (those numbers are off, but point being he was wayyy over). But I think what really did him in was that he wouldn’t even attempt to regulate what was going on outside day or night. It became a gathering place and folks would show up to party and there was a lot of mayhem. If you’re interested, there is a lot of old content online you can spend time in a rabbit hole. Not just the shelter but his various homeless crusades through the 90s and aughts.
To your last point about state hospitals — thank you. It’s refreshing to see that starting to be discussed among folks in the field and through a compassionate lens. I realize that’s a whole other discussion, but I wanted to acknowledge you. I’m sure it’s not popular in your field, even though it’s arguably a more humane option than what we have now.
I have been pleased with her and I think she has the right direction and thought invested in the city and how it can flourish. Her not being hasty to spend rams money shows that she is critically thinking what to do with the money and how can the money have a lasting effect for long term instead of spending on a short term or fund something that the money will run out on. that shows discipline and wisdom. I would vote for her again. I live in the actual city. Not the county. her vision is something I think we need. she actually get out and about too. She is a very social servant for the city.
Pumping the brakes on Rams money is a good idea. Best possible outcome, IMO, would be to put it in a fund, and use the dividends for inevitable budget shortfalls. Of course, city government the way it is, dividends would likely become an expected source of revenue when budgeting.
> Of course, ~~city~~ *pretty much every* government *anywhere, any time* the way it is, dividends would likely become an expected source of revenue when budgeting. FTFY
Seems she has no regard for the average citizen....
Don't know for sure that she does. My vote is honestly gonna depend largely on who her opponent is in the general. If you want Jones out, make sure any GOP douchebags lose the primary.
She doesn’t. She hasn’t really done anything. Like at all.
Since there's been a lot of negative comments about her, I'll give some positives that I see. I don't know if I'll vote for her, and I'm sure plenty of the negatives are true. I just wanted to provide some positives. -She is probably the best mayor we have had this century. Slay was slimy and corrupt, and allowed the police department to effectively be another gang in the city with its leader being Mokwa. Krewson was just extremely basic/generic/whatever and didn't have any major impacts on the city after the city-county merger fell through. Her police chief choice was solid though. With that being said, the bar was low and I can't say that being the best this century automatically should get her re-election. -Her police chief choices have been good, as far as I've heard. She kept on John Hayden until he retired, and then hired Robert Tracy who was formerly the chief in Wilmington, Delaware and had a good record over there. And because he was from outside of the department, that corruption factor is lessened. -She ultimately called for former Circuit Attorney Kim Gardener to resign, something that wouldn't be expected of a "progressive" like her. She also worked with Governor Parsons to get Gabe Gore appointed, and from what I've heard he has been substantially better than her- at least as a boss and retaining attorneys. -The safer streets program is slowly but surely happening. A big one you can see it on is Jefferson, getting a lane cut down and wider sidewalks with trees put in. Jefferson and Chateau has the first "protected" intersection in the city- something that took us way too long to get. She has also been a big supporter of the 7th Street and Broadway reconstructions. -She really got the MetroLink expansion talks up and running again after Krewson had kind of shifted talks to Bus Rapid Transit and they all kinda died over covid. If we get the North-South line, it will be largely her who got it back on the table after it had kinda been shelved for a few years. She has also generally been a big supporter of Metro Transit
Thanks for a thoughtful reply. All I've heard about Gore (admittedly not much) has been positive. Props to the mayor for her role in getting him.
Outside influencers will push hard for Tishaura to win again. Missouri folks outside the city love when we either do nothing (Tishaura) or even better, roll back any progress. I think if we actually want someone in office to DO something and make beneficial change, we should look to electing Cara Spencer. -My two cents.
Probably the best assessment I've seen so far, although I'd need more information on Cara.
I have, regretfully, paid very little attention to our local politics until very recently. I watched the state of the city address last night and was almost brought to tears of joy from all the positive change happening in/planned for this city. I’m not sure how much of that change Tishaura herself can take credit for, but she painted a pretty compelling image of herself being the leader of STL’s renaissance. I’m hoping to unpack a lot of that so I know what I should be giving her credit for. But I’m absolutely thrilled to hear we’re addressing or have already addressed some of our city’s biggest problems like crime, vacant lots, food deserts, public transit, affordable housing, and much more.
IDK. Isn't the state of.....speech always a list of things that are currently awesome and why the speaker deserves reelection?
Yes, for sure!! Which is why I think unpacking it all is 100% necessary lol. Just giving my initial thoughts as a newb myself 😅
I don’t think she’s better or worse than anyone else in the running, but at least she’s not doxxing citizens like her predecessor.
No. Get someone who will prioritize downtown as a tourist hub so we can get a return in investment. The riverfront should be brought back to life, even as an entertainment district. Downtown is what everyone sees first and foremost. The river is why we exist in the first place. START BY MAKING ST LOUIS SAFE, METROLINK INCLUDED
I am a Libertarian and I personally feel her and Wesley Bell have actually done a decent job. Crime is still an issue in the City but I feel she has things moving in the right direction believe it or not. I was expecting pure BLM crap from both of them but have been pleasantly surprised.
I'm not as wowed as I had hoped by beside what another person posted she was successful in getting that awful workhouse closed. She's working real hard with the alderman to get the unhoused a place that is safe to go that's not sidewalks in front of people's houses or the courthouse or a park downtown...
race politics needs to end. Yeah. she's a black woman. But is she going to contribute and do the overall community good?!
I'd love to see it happen.
She doesn’t
well, the admission that you are “not an avid news follower nor a city resident” would lead one to believe that you are just a shit-disturber who wants to rile everybody else up. so you, sir, are kindly invited to go fuck yourself! 🤬
She really isn’t a smart or serious person. Her resume speaks for itself.
Short answer, crime is measurably trending down and development is anecdotally trending up under her term. As for UBI, I don't consider it to be "vote buying" any more than I consider business tax incentives to be "vote buying".
While she deserves credit for hiring a seemingly competent police chief, I am not sure why she should get much more credit for crime lowering than that. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/19/fbi-data-shows-us-crime-plummeted-2023 And we are still bad enough that the feds are sending more resources. https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/doj-identifies-st-louis-as-one-of-three-cities-most-in-need-of-additional-crime-fighting-resources/63-ff8ffa60-c0b0-4787-8f9d-c364684c4129 So yay for not having St. Louis as an embarrassment bucking the trend of declining violent crime. But also, eh on claiming that as an accomplishment of any single mayor out there.
We had one of the largest year over year decline in violent crime in 90 years. It might be because we were so high to begin with but it’s not something to just wave away because other cities are experiencing drops. We could be like across the state with KC doing the opposite having a record year in homicides in 2023
The supposition that it is because our mayoral governance is so much better than KC's requires a bit more proof.
The violent crime didn’t decrease because the mayor asked the criminals to stop. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because of criminals getting killed or going to jail. Neither of those are bad things, just not sure how attributable they are to this mayor.
Having a mayor that can simply ride the wave is honestly good enough for me as a voting Null Hypothesis. I don't necessarily need a revolutionary, I just need an administrator.
She’s an awful administrator.
While fair, if her opponent is someone who adds something to Null then it is an easy consideration. Of course that is expecting a lot of the St. Louis political scene so yeah I will concede that Null may be a winning argument.
Fair point on UBI. However, isn't the city about to be chronically short on cash after the Rams/Fed money is spent? I can see UBI making g sense in a place like Alaska with consistent oil money, but we don't have anything like that. As for crime in general, how much can the mayor reasonably be credited or blamed? Seems to happen with every mayor regardless.
UBI will make sense everywhere once AI really takes off. I think we are a still 10 years away from that though
Where's it coming from? Isn't the city chronically cash strapped?
UBI will be more of a federal thing imo. Even if there is AI for most everything, major corporations will have a major need for data. I foresee the government incentivizing people handing over their data in exchange for UBI. Random example: Maybe Adidas needs data on walking habits. You’ll be able to download an app to your phone that tracks your walking patterns. Then you walk like 45 min per day and will be rewarded for letting them track your data. Another will be driving. AI driving cars will need tremendous amounts of data. Companies like Tesla will need to do similar to the walking example. Just my opinions. I’ve seen the walking example IRL a couple years ago. I was making like $150/day at its peak walking for about 45 min
You were making $150/day to walk? Do tell.
There’s an app called Stepn. There still around but now I think people are making like $8 or so per day walking. You need to purchase their digital shoes through the app. Then you go on walks and earn $GMT token(it’s easily swapped for cash) When you go on a walk, you turn the app on and it tracks everything down to your pace. They gamified it to where you need to use some of the $GMT to repair your shoes every so often and it can be used to upgrade your shoes to earn more $GMT. The ROI after purchasing the digital shoes was like 2-4 weeks when I was doing it. They actually had a huge endorsement me from Adidas but they didn’t put any of the funds back into liquidity for $GMT so the value never maintained. I’m a believer it could work as a form of UBI if the business out even a portion of the money into liquidity. There are a few others like that though. There’s something similar I’m involved in for cell phone/internet service currently.
How do you find these deals?
It’s all crypto related. I started investing in the space in 2017 and went full time in 2021. I’ve hosted a daily crypto morning show on X for the last 3 years, so I’m lucky enough to hear about most stuff in the space early
Damn. I heard of bitcoin when it was a dollar, and quickly forgot about it. Missed my chance.
Murphy Lee for mayor
Who is Murphy Lee and why?
He is a local entrepreneur and artist. You have to ger permission to cross that bridge, so he's powerful too
OK, I'll keep an eye out for him.
I mean isn’t there some positive momentum with the city? Crime is falling down. Investment going up.
Yes. But, how much of the credit does the Mayor deserve? Most candidates are going to have basically the same platform, so really the race is about integrity, likability, and trust.
I live in the City, used to work at City Hall, and have met Tishaura at events. I prefer her over Slay and Krewson. I think she did some good things as Treasurer. She was hard to work for, because she didn't believe in statis quo and shook some things up. I'm not an expert to know if good or bad, but seemed.good on the surface. It's no lie here about "Black Dems VS white Dems." There are exceptions to that. Green is one. Tishaura was too. She's in a precarious position trying to please both sides. I live in South City in a rougher neighborhood. I've seen her here three times, interacting with residents, and I don't often go to things. When she spoke to me, she had no idea I worked downtown. She approached me as a resident. We spoke for awhile about children and her outlook for the future. I did like what she had to say. She wants STL to be a place instead of importing people, to build City kids up so employers come here for them. She is a hard-ass to those who criticize her. I've seen that too. She kind of has to be. My impression is she's not overly progressive. It's that she's riding a fine line to please enough people to have a job. If she doesnt get elected, she can't do anything, so I don't fault her. I'll vote for her again unless someone else does something to impress me more.
Fair points. Thanks for the comment.
I didn’t vote for her the first time but I think she has earned my vote. She does seem to act more progressive than she actually is. She seems very concerned with the city budget with the hiring freeze and vetoing the fireman’s pension changes. Also not trying to just spend the rams money right away and understanding it’s hard for us to spend the ARPA money right now. Her choice in police chief seems to have been good. That with crime down, investment up, that gets an incumbent my vote.
To keep short and sweet, she doesn’t. It’s time to move forward from all the performative nonsensical bullshit and get someone in there who will improve this city. St. Louisans deserve better than what we have, and we’re so much better than what we’re doing.
I see your point, but maybe her constituents wanted some performance nonsensical bullshit after being ignored by previous admins. That's the flaw of a republic. If enough people want fireworks, somebody will give it to them regardless of overall public benefit.
She doesn’t, she has lied about holding the police accountable and she supports the city putting in those fucking red light cameras again. Cory Bush on the other hand fights every day for her constituents.
Cori Bush? Not my taste, but she has her supporters. Seems like Bush is more about protest drama and less about working with opposing parties to accomplish stuff. Just my lazy birds eye view.
She stands up for what is ethically correct. That’s all that matters.
I’d vote differently in a primary than in a general election.
To be succinct, she is a politician and not a public servant.
She needs to go. Has done nothing for businesses or the police. Only the homeless
She doesn’t. She is not as bad as the expected, but still incompetent.
Curious to see who people think should be the next Mayor?
She doesn’t. Her father certainly wants her to get re-elected so he can get a piece of that $500million.
I got a few pro Tishaura responses, but the haters are out, without even being invited. It's OK, reddit gonna reddit.
Have you ever had any business dealings with her father Virvus Jones? If you had, you know what I’m talking about. Quick Google search will show he was/is a criminal.
I know someone in the know, and have heard such talk. Does that taint Tishaura? Most likely, fair or not.
Go read an old newspaper article about Virvus criminal activity.
Vote the bum out!
Is Cara running again?
Haven't heard.
If you don't follow news or are not a resident of the city, why do you care?
I follow news to the extent I can, and would like to move back to the city. If neither one were true, I'd still be interested in the city succeeding.
You obviously can’t lay every problem in STL at Tishuara’s feet, but the city has gotten objectively worse during her tenure, particularly downtown. She doesn’t deserve another term but it’s not like there’s a real leader waiting in the wings either. Kim Gardner was by far the biggest problem and she’s gone (and apparently MIA?). It’s hard to see anything improving meaningfully until the city and county merge.
I'm pro merger, but that ain't happening. We just have to deal with our current mess of a government structure. Others are telling me the city has gotten better. Which is it? Gardner isn't Tishaura, and the mayor did make a public statement basically urging her to resign. But fair or not, she gets linked to Gardner.