Weekend Wrap-Up #3

The new power dynamics in St. Louis, #moleg special session, the Big Beautiful Bill

The May 16 tornado that scattered bricks across St. Louis City also left a political schism in its wake. The Missouri Legislature and the Missouri Supreme Court are teaming up to smother the voices of their constituents. Donald Trump’s got a ‘big beautiful bill’ and it’s gonna give all our money to the people who already have a lot (and it’s gonna take away our ability to regulate AI).

Go Help Yourself, St. Louis

The May 16 tornado left the City of St. Louis with more than a billion dollars of damage and tens of thousands of trees and lives completely uprooted. On top of having to deal with brick thieves, many on the city’s north side are living with tarps over their heads and an unacceptable amount of uncertainty about their future.

The tornado also created a fascinating power dynamic between the City of St. Louis and ‘The People’s Response,’ the ground-level tornado response organized by Action St. Louis and For the Culture STL. While the People’s Response has been able to be nimble and quick, the city has run into the same typical roadblocks they always do – political infighting, budgetary and legislative bureaucracy, and a complete lack of capacity and resources.

Mayor Cara Spencer promised she’d get the city ‘back to basics’ during her campaign, but while the basics of tornado response are deceivingly simple, they’re also completely out of reach for her administration:

• a set of consistent standard operating procedures

• a clear and concise messaging strategy

• easy-to-deploy emergency funds

• enough staff and resources to execute on all of it.

The city, right now, has none of these things, and the People’s Response is stepping in to fill that void.

This has created a dynamic in which the city needs to work with Action STL and For the Culture to properly respond to this disaster, but they also have no idea how to do that. While there have been meetings between the two entities, the city has so far come woefully unprepared to move that partnership forward.

Meanwhile, former Mayor Tishaura Jones is working for the People’s Response and is able to flex what someone with her high profile can get done when unrestrained by the political trappings of Room 200. She’s able to use her existing connections and sizable social media following without having to answer to reporters or get any bills passed at the BOA.

Another interesting dynamic here is that the richest parts of the city, like Forest Park and Central West End, were hit along with some of the poorest parts of the city, like O’Fallon. There’s a lot of wealth and philanthropy in St. Louis, and this combination of a plethora of private money and a dearth of public resources means you’ll likely see folks teeing off at Forest Park’s Probstein golf course long before you see any meaningful rental assistance on the north side.

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