Life is good for me right now. I have the things that matter to me, my family is healthy and the future looks bright. A lot of us in Shaw are living the good life. Our bellies are full and our warm beds are assured for the foreseeable future. So why are people talking about the status quo as though that were a bad thing?
When I look out my front door I can see a couple of houses where things are not so rosy. Many families in our neighborhood do not go to bed each night content in the world. Some live very uncomfortable lives. Its hard to think about but it is true nonetheless. The status quo includes my lovely life AND their poverty. It would be easy to blame those others for their situations but that's the easy way out. It takes a little more time and care to ferret out how my life is connected to the single mother's struggles just down the block. As it turns out, the status quo is not only about personal situations. Its about how those in leadership positions direct resources, what they value. Some of those decisions that benefit me do great damage to my neighbors.
Here is the status quo:
-Shaw's infrastructure is healthy. The houses are well cared for, the streets are maintained, the sewers have been relined, the street trees are carefully monitored.
-The people of Shaw get along with one another partly through neighborly interaction and partly through ignoring one another. The ignoring part is largely along racial lines.
-Political participation in the neighborhood is probably average but not uniform. White people in some numbers belong to the neighborhood association and, in smaller numbers, participate in the neighborhood association. Engagement on this level by persons of color is somewhat rare, especially considering that the neighborhood is about 60% African American.
-Educational opportunity in the neighborhood is split along color lines and economic position. The public schools are failing - not from a performance standpoint but from a funding standpoint. One of our two public schools closed a couple of years ago and is languishing as a vacant building in the heart of the neighborhood. Meanwhile, as more professional well-paid young families move into the neighborhood, St. Margaret of Scotland private school is expanding. They have already broken ground on a new building this winter. I believe they offer scholarships to a variety of families but they are not a real replacement for fully funded public schools.(http://bit.ly/1zAoE8D)
-The alderman's main focus for the ward is property development. I looked over his record from this legislative session and I see that of 47 bills put forward 20 are tax abatement for houses and commercial developments. The argument Alderman Conway makes is that tax breaks are needed to attract buyers, a laughable justification since houses often sell on the same day or within a week of going on the market. Shaw is one of the most desirable areas in the entire city and people will buy here with or without tax abatement.
But what's wrong with a little tax abatement here and there? See exhibit A: Sherman School. Tax abatement artificially raises home prices and is helping to drive working class families out of Shaw. No one likes taxes but they do pay for the services we all need. When the neighborhood fills up with people who aren't paying taxes and we see city services shrink we shouldn't be surprised that our neighbors who have much less than us are damaged more than we are. Its easy to ignore the loss of a neighborhood school when our children go to an expensive private school.
I believe people who can afford to purchase a newly rehabbed home in Shaw can also afford to pay some property taxes. Conway is giving away the bank and hurting those who can least afford the hit. Perhaps the most egregious example during this legislative session is the 5 year tax abatement given to the owners of a $380,000 home on Flora Place. Come on guys, pay your fair share.
It seems shady to me that several of these tax abatements are for property developers and have been issued on properties listed with no sales data. This suggests to me that these properties have been held by the developer for some period of time. This is not a recent sale so the tax abatement can't be said to have been issued to attract buyers. The alderman's decisions are transforming Shaw in very real ways but only a handful of people are reaping the benefit.
-Conway is the status quo. He has been here so long that he seems to feel the ward belongs to him; his right to represent the ward is unassailable. He scoffs at the idea of participatory budgeting. Deciding where tax dollars get spent has always been his bailiwick. Why would he start sharing now?
The problem goes beyond whatever entitlement Conway may feel in his position. After all, he is from the St. Louis he grew up in -- the St. Louis of racial politics and back room dealing. In this way of governing there are never many key players. The big decisions are made early and even if they are sold to the neighborhood as cooperative decisions there is always a strict limit to the amount of input citizens are allowed to have in the process. Here is where the neighborhood association membership is important. The alderman works with the association but he doesn't go much further. If you don't belong to the SNIA, your voice will not be heard.
-Conway doesn't seem to value all the residents in the same way. At a recent debate he claimed to be out on the streets at the protests every night. He's right -- he has been there, I've seen him. Unfortunately, he seems to have been there solely to report back to a small group of neighbors who feel threatened by the protests. I did some investigating and I haven't been able to find a single protest leader who has been approached by Conway to discuss the needs of the people who are speaking out, making their voices heard. This sizable portion of Shaw is so unhappy with the status quo that they leave their warm homes in all weather and demonstrate in the streets, in the face of police intimidation, risking their safety and freedom. Why can't Conway be bothered to find out what he could do to help meet those needs? Instead, he's there to make sure we don't get out of hand. That is so old school St. Louis politics.
I can't think of any substantial efforts Conway has made to
make life better for the working single mothers, the African American
children who are racially profiled by police, the low-wage part time
employees who live in Shaw. Conway is so out of touch with the bulk of
the citizenry that he insists there is still plenty of "affordable
housing" in Shaw.
-The status quo is our inability to really look at the big issues. I get it. It's nearly impossible to work on solutions to difficult problems like race, poverty and access to education when you don't understand those problems. Its so much easier to ignore the big issues and focus on streets and houses. Our neighbors have worked for years on the built portion of our neighborhood. As a result we live in a fine place so maybe now is the time when we step back and reassess. It is no disrespect to our predecessors to decide that we are now ready to move forward and begin to work on the human part of Shaw. To do that we need representation that is capable of including ALL the voices of Shaw. We need a representative who isn't threatened by differences and who doesn't reinforce the social divides that already exist here. We need a representative who doesn't retaliate against people who disagree with him, who doesn't shut out the opposition. That is not too much to hope for and I think, as a neighborhood, we are ready for it.
If you are ready to move forward vote for Kevin McKinney on March 3rd.
