This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 30, 2009 - Crime and transportation, homelessness and vacant buildings, education and race relations haven’t been talked about much, if at all, during the St. Louis campaign for mayor. The absence of dialog struck members of Metropolitan Congregations United as a disservice to city voters. That’s among the reasons the group hosted a mayoral candidate forum Sunday to grill candidates on some of the issues.
Metropolitan Congregations United is a coalition of churches concerned about social and economic issues, such as housing, education and health care. Only members of the group were allowed to asked questions at the forum, held at Second Presbyterian Church in the Central West End.
A second forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, took place Monday night at the Central Library in downtown. This session covered many of the same topics, along with questions about restructuring city government and the earnings tax. The candidates offered no fresh ideas about these issues or running city government in general.
Mayor Francis Slay, accused of shunning debates during the primary, was at both meetings, defending his record. So was Maida Coleman, a lifelong Democrat who is running as an independent, along with Elston McCowan, the Green Party candidate. Libertarian Robb Cunningham called to cancel during the first forum, citing the flu.
McCowanwas the most aggressive of the three, repeatedly challenging Slay’s performance and accusing the mayor of doing more harm than good, citing things such the Ballpark Village project that has yet to get off the ground. Slay talked about the city getting millions in economic stimulus money for many projects that would benefit residents of the North Side of St. Louis. But McCowan faulted the mayor for attending a fundraiser and Mardi Gras event at City Hall at the time that mayors and officials from many other cities were meeting with members of President Barack Obama's administration in Washington to discuss the economic stimulus program.
The mayoral candidates had up to two minutes to make their points, so time ran out before Slay had a chance to respond fully to some comments about his leadership.
For the most part, Coleman chose to use most of her allotted time to focus on her experience as a former Democratic leader in the state Senate and her management of a few state and local government agencies. She also said some areas of St.Louis were severely distressed and that she would want to use some of the federal stimulus money to help small businesses, create jobs and see that more is done not just for downtown but throughout the city.
Slay also said he wasn’t being given credit for the improvements his administration had made to the quality of life in north St. Louis. He said the city had invested more than $2 billion in north St. Louis, a figure McCowan disputed. Slay cited rehabilitated housing in general, an award-winning program to address homelessness, an attack on lead poisoning, and $3 million to demolish vacant buildings, among other improvements.
Slay was the only candidate to talk in detail about transportation, saying that St. Louis had done its share with a tax levy for public transportation, and that he hoped St. Louis County would do the same. He added that federal stimulus dollars would offer some help on transit issues.
Slay and Coleman did agree on the need for more regional collaboration on homelessness, noting that most of the homeless people in St. Louis are not from the city.
Schools
Coleman disagreed with Slay on the public school issue. While saying he supported traditional public schools, Slay said he favored giving parents a choice of charter schools because the city continues to lose families who move to St. Louis County rather than send their children to city public schools.
McCowan thanked Slay for “finally taking some of the responsibility for some of the things that are going on in St. Louis public schools,” citing Slay’s support of the corporate turnaround team that McCowan says destroyed the steps the school district had made toward regaining accreditation.
Coleman also accused Slay's administration of participating in the “dismantling” of the city school system. She said the solution was not charter schools but the creation of more magnet schools that would attract more families by offering all children the same quality education that she says is offered in existing magnet schools.
Race
The candidates also offered their thoughts about racial problems in St. Louis. Slay said the issue needed to be addressed, but he added that the problems weren’t as bad as some critics suggested.
“This is a tough issue,” he said. “We are the fifth most integrated city in America, block by block, black and white, living together and working together. I’m proud of that.”
But he said the region was the nation’s sixth most segregated. “We need this region to come to the table and talk about race” and gender preferences, Slay said.
McCowan said his first step toward racial healing would involve the reinstatement of Sherman George as the city’s fire chief. He accused Slay of unfairly pushing George out of the job solely because George favored the use of an employment test that wasn’t biased against minorities. Slay apparently didn’t get time to respond to those comments.
Coleman said, “People who have no idea of what racial discrimination is are in denial. So it becomes very difficult to make people see this is a real problem.”
She said many organizations were trying to address the issue but “there has been no one brave enough to do the hard things and say the hard things. I’m not afraid to confront the uncomfortable issues. I want to take the lead to fix those problems and change the way we relate to each other.”
Second Presbyterian's minister, the Rev. Mary Gene Boteler, said the group had set up chairs to accommodate 105 visitors and was surprised when 170 showed up.
She said, “I thought the debate covered questions that a lot of people were concerned about, issues such as schools and transportation and there was at least some voicing of the discontent over the issue of Sherman George. There hasn’t been a public forum like this.”
Apparently the only politicians in the audience were state Sen. Jeff Smith of St. Louis, Alderman Lyda Krewson, D-28th Ward; Brian Wahby, 7th Ward Democratic committeeman; and former Alderman Irene Smith, who lost the Democratic primary race against Slay.