Illustration by Jesse Kuhn
As the odometer rolls over to 2010, we’re sure to be inundated with an onslaught of retrospectives. The Year That Was, of course, spanned President Barack Obama’s first year in office and a tumultuous healthcare debate. But let’s forget those stories for a moment and focus on what we know best: St. Louis.
The city under the Arch had its own share of ups and downs: the east half of Highway 40 closed and the Moonrise Hotel opened; voters toyed with a smoking ban in the county and reelected Slay in the city; the Rams went up for sale in May, while the Cards choked in October; and developers unveiled plans to renovate the Kiel Opera House and the city’s near North Side despite a dismal economy.
SLM attempted to connect the dots in five key areas—jobs, real estate, crime, politics, and downtown—by asking the experts: “What does it all mean—and where do we go from here?”
The Year of Layoffs
Nothing earned as much ink this year as the economy—and rightfully so. The numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics say it all. Over the past decade, the state’s unemployment figures have steadily risen, but at no time as quickly as during the past two years. As of August, more than 285,000 Missourians were out of work—many in the wake of cuts at St. Louis’ heaviest hitters.
Just before the year began, A-B InBev announced it would can more than 1,000 St. Louis employees, while the executive board’s compensation reportedly nearly doubled in 2009. Hundreds of steelworkers’ jobs were cut in Granite City, and the U.S. auto crisis hit home for laid-off workers at Fenton’s shuttered Chrysler plant and Wentzville’s downsized GM operation. The Saint Louis Art Museum said goodbye to 16 employees, and Ameren offered buyouts to 350. The Post-Dispatch, suffering from long-declining readership and ad revenues, made a succession of cuts throughout the year. Even silk-stocking law firms like Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale let attorneys go.
The layoffs weren’t just here. St. Louis–based companies like Emerson and Monsanto announced layoffs around the country. At the state level, Gov. Jay Nixon announced plans to cut more than 1,500 jobs. And St. Louis’ roller-coaster ride continued as Six Flags and Charter Communications filed Chapter 11. All told, between August 2008 and 2009, St. Louis lost 52,400 jobs—down 3.9 percent.
“A funnel cloud” is how Michael Holmes, executive director of the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment, describes what he saw when he arrived last September. “I think every time I opened my computer in the morning, there were five or six companies saying they were going through layoffs,” he says. The agency helped more than 500 clients per day—and not just low-wage workers. “More professionals have been dislocated than the workforce has ever seen,” Holmes claims, adding that some clients had been making upwards of $150,000. In July, the agency opened a center specifically for professionals. It had already served 200-plus by early October (press time for this article), when Holmes began dealing with the possibility of budget cuts.
By midsummer, the stock market had started to bounce back, and by October, forecasters proclaimed the worst was behind us and job losses were reportedly slowing. Yet many local companies and unemployed workers were still reeling. “I tell people, ‘Yes, there’s light at the end of the tunnel,’” says Holmes. “But is it going to be immediate? No.”
Recessionary Real Estate
Even as employment was down, so was real estate. Many realtors’ mantra became “it’s a buyer’s market.” (Granted, overextended buying was one way America got into this mess.) Some states along the coasts were particularly hard-hit, but the Show-Me State also had its share of bad news.
During the past year, Missouri home sales fell 11.5 percent by June, compared to a nationwide drop of only 2.5 percent—though the decline began to level off in the second quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors. Single-family rehab permits in the city were roughly half of what they were in 2007 for August. And the number of foreclosures fluctuated, rising and falling before spiking again in September.
Still, there were signs of hope. The median home price in St. Louis had risen from just above $100,000 in the first quarter to more than $133,000 by the end of the second quarter (still down 10 percent from a year earlier), the NAR reported. And some builders bounced back as single-family home permits increased this summer, although Whittaker Builders Inc. filed bankruptcy midway through October.
Of course, the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers played its part. “I think there are more sales right now, and that’s because of the stimulus,” says Carole Baras, president of the St. Louis Association of Realtors. At press time, realtors and builders were urging Congress to extend the tax credit.
As for existing homeowners? “There’s still a hesitation,” admits Baras. “It will be very interesting to see how our spring will be.”
Crime and Punishment
When the year began, experts predicted the recession would translate into a rise in crime. Indeed, as stats came in from 2008, the city saw a significant increase in murders, with 167 that year—the most since 1995. (At the same time, though, the number of homicides went down in many other big cities, including Baltimore, Detroit, and Cleveland, which all saw double-digit declines.)
As for 2009? “Up until midsummer, we were not seeing the crime increases that might be expected based on the significant recession we’ve been in,” says Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. By August, the Post reported a decrease in murder, burglary, larceny, auto theft, and arson in the city.
In St. Louis County, police were reporting a staggering 20 percent drop in crime compared to the first half of 2008.
“That does strike me as a quite significant drop if it turns out to be the case,” says Rosenfeld, “and we’d want to know if it persists throughout the year.
“It may be a little too early to tell,” he adds. “Typically crime increases follow economic downturns, and sometimes the lag can be quite lengthy.”
Politics and Public Trust
It’s ironic, after an election year in which “hope” was the overriding battle cry, that so many local officials shook the public’s trust with headline-grabbing scandals. “Obviously, the politics of hope are dashed somewhat when political realities set in,” says Kenneth Warren, a political science professor at Saint Louis University.
The first dose of reality came last December, when former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested for allegedly soliciting bribes in exchange for Obama’s vacated Senate seat. As impeachment hearings played out, Blagojevich made his case not in court but on Letterman, The View, and Good Morning America.
He (and his famous hairdo) even made a cameo in a Chicago musical named after him. In April, Blago was vacationing at Disney World when he learned a federal grand jury had indicted him.
Then, in August, St. Louis’ own state Sen. Jeff Smith and state Rep. Steve Brown resigned after pleading guilty for conspiracy to obstruct justice. In 2004, Smith had filed a false affidavit with the Federal Election Commission during a failed congressional campaign against Russ Carnahan. A federal campaign-finance probe was reopened earlier this year, and Smith and Brown (who served as an aide in the campaign) eventually ’fessed up about assisting an independent effort to distribute negative fliers about Smith’s then-opponent.
“I was very surprised by it,” admits Warren, who appeared in a documentary about Smith. “There’s no question he let people down. He was more than a flicker of hope for the Democratic party.”
With a special election scheduled for November—the same month as Smith’s and Brown’s sentencing—politicos began speculating about who would fill the vacant Senate seat. Among the names was state Rep. Talibdin El-Amin—that is, until late September, when the St. Louis Democrat pleaded guilty to seeking and accepting cash bribes from a gas-station owner who was in fact working with federal investigators. El-Amin was the third St. Louis Democrat to resign in roughly a month.
Will St. Louis politics take a turn to the right as a result? It’s unlikely, in Warren’s opinion. He believes voters will make up their minds on the basis of national topics like the economy and healthcare. “It’s not true, what [Tip O’Neill] said a long time ago,” says Warren, “that all politics are local.”
A Downtown Turnaround?
Among the few bright spots of 2009 was downtown. Despite last-minute attempts to cover up the area’s shortcomings (e.g., Ballpark Village) before the MLB All-Star Game, the central business district fared well in the national spotlight. Sure, Pujols didn’t live up to the hype (who could?), Stan the Man deserved more praise, and the president’s pitch was almost in the dirt. But new public-works projects like Old Post Office Plaza and Citygarden offered welcome additions—for more than just visitors.
“We see workers gravitating to both of these open spaces during the day, residents more in the evening,” says Jim Cloar, recent president and CEO of the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis.
Even though the economy was down, the neighborhood’s population was actually up by 3 percent in 2009, according to a midyear report from the partnership. As condos were converted into apartments, newcomers—many young professionals—found places along Washington Avenue and near the Old Post Office.
Then there were downtown’s daring entrepreneurs. Left Bank Books turned a page with its second location along 10th Street last December, and eateries like The Terrace View expanded downtown’s menu of options. Perhaps no addition, though, was more anticipated than Ninth Street’s new Schnucks Culinaria—the first supermarket of its kind downtown since 1985. “The combination of Citygarden and Schnucks Culinaria has attracted so much attention throughout the region,” Cloar says. “That may have been one of the best marketing campaigns we could have had.”
But will the attention help fill all those vacant office buildings? “This is a tough economic climate in terms of office tenants throughout the country,” says Cloar, noting the lending crisis was beginning to hit commercial buildings this fall. “A lot of big tenants are hesitant to make any moves at all.”
Still, he is optimistic about adding entertainment venues in 2010, notably the restored Kiel Opera House. “One thing we’re missing downtown is a strong cultural center,” he admits. “This will be a real shot in the arm.” And Cloar says he “wouldn’t be surprised at all” if we finally see progress on Ballpark Village in 2010.
Time will tell. 7
Jarrett Medlin is SLM’s senior editor. The highlight of his year: Getting a much-needed new car. The windshield broke the next week.
Reader Quiz: Name That Quote
Who made news in 2009 with these, er, memorable mumblings?
1) “I have plenty of critics. You can’t sue everybody who is criticizing you...”
2) “Hunger can be a positive motivator.”
3) “I’ve been wanting to be on your show in the worst way for the longest time.”
4) “Artie would totally want us to throw him under the bus here.”
5) “Look, let me put it to you this way: The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons.”
Answers....
(Scroll Down)
1) St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa on suing Twitter in May for trademark infringement, cybersquatting, and misappropriation of his name and likeness.
2) State Rep. Cynthia Davis on subsidizing school lunches for low-income children.
3) Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on the Late Show With David Letterman; Letterman’s response: “Well, you’re on in the worst way, believe me.”
4) Former state Sen. Jeff Smith’s suggestion to pin blame on the late Artie Harris.
5) Radio-show host Rush Limbaugh in 2007, before expressing interest this year in purchasing the Rams.
