The one thing Cara Spencer could do for St. Louis that would make her an instant hero
The newly elected mayor has a long list, but this should be first.
“We’ve hit the ground running.”
Cara Spencer hadn’t been in the office for 48 hours, and she was already getting to work on fixing St. Louis. Three new hires and six committees began a tall task, signifying the rebuilding of a city that was once great but has fallen on hard times in the past decade or so. With no disrespect (okay, maybe a little) to former Mayor Tishaura Jones, the city’s response to multiple catastrophes was painfully slow and didn’t even include mail delivery.
While the homicide rate has gone down (most likely due to the widespread recreational availability of cannabis), the crime rate still sits pretty high (no pun intended) in St. Louis. A wave of “we can get away with it” runs rampant throughout the city, and that will need a few more years of retooling.
The biggest mishap in the past few months was the delay in cleaning up streets after a couple of winter storms buckled the knees of the metro area. Streets, including January Avenue that runs alongside my house, were Mother Nature-made ice rinks for weeks instead of the usual handful of days. Temperatures rose slightly, but the streets remained covered in ice and snow. Since the wintry mix had a chance to stay awhile, the streets took a pounding when they were finally cleared.
This leads me to the answer behind this article’s headline: fix the roads, the first and one of Mayor Spencer’s most vital tasks. While St. Louis has been a cracked and broken tarmac for years, the severity has reached a ridiculous level. Scorched Earth strips of road populate the city area more than smoother pavement. The travel is awful, and that’s not even including the poor drivers.
Spencer can’t turn bad drivers into better ones without installing a new bad driver division, so she can turn her attention to fixing streets. Get some better concrete mix, find faster workers, pay them more money, or whatever it takes. Adapt a Steve Rogers mentality: Whatever it takes. While someone being shot or robbed screams for help and a better response, fixing the shitty streets would be an accomplishment that could lead to locals beginning work on her statue downtown. Hyperbole is attached to that last statement, but the drift is received.
While certain things take years, many committees, and new minds, fixing cracked and broken streets shouldn’t require Earth, wind, and fire. I don’t know about you, but hitting a nasty bump makes me want to flex my rage muscle. Out of nowhere, a good mood can be flipped due to the possibility of a flat tire or your car’s alignment taking a vicious turn for the worse. Hard-working citizens shouldn’t have to visit the auto body shop because a street remains awful for too long.
Negligence shouldn’t live long in a city that wants to keep its residents from fleeing to the county or outside the state. With no offense to my county pals, the city is in more significant decay. Take it firsthand from a guy who delivered plumbing supplies all over the county. They’re not as bad as the city. That’s the worst part of this whole ordeal. As long as St. Louis wants to divide the two parts of its town, the part in greater need deserves some extra attention.
I voted for Spencer because I genuinely believe she has what it takes to improve St. Louis. Fix? That may take another election term, but we shall see what four years brings our town. She didn’t waste any time getting to work, hiring new people, and setting up the lanes to retool disabled areas. It always seemed like Jones was on vacation when applying more force to certain areas. A change was in order, like a pitcher who keeps getting rocked on the mound or a goaltender allowing too many soft goals.
Spencer’s value will be determined by how much she can improve and push towards a path to being fixed. You’re in the spot, Mayor. Let’s see what she’s got in store for St. Louis. Maybe we can figure out where to put that Rams settlement money. Cut off a good portion, and fix the streets. That’ll give you instant hero status.
Until then, let’s get to work!