As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter assigned to cover City Hall from 2011 to 2016, Nicholas J.C. Pistor enjoyed a perk not given to journalists at other outlets: An office inside the building.
A small room on the first floor, the office has been a holdover from another time: Back in the day, many major metropolitan daily newspapers were granted space at their local City Halls, and sometimes even courthouses or police stations. The rival Globe-Democrat once had an office of its own, directly next door to one used by the Post; the city now uses it to store Christmas decorations.
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Pistor, who has published two books since leaving the paper, thought of his old office recently after getting the idea to write a book about his old beat. “I was thinking of Buzz Bissinger’s A Prayer for the City, that he did about Philadelphia years ago about their City Hall,” he explains. “And so I was thinking, well, I need to get inside and see what’s going on.” How better to do so than via an office inside City Hall?
That thought has since unleashed a series of increasingly emphatic letters, all sent on Pistor’s personal letterhead. He’s inquired about leasing the old Globe-Democrat office, or, barring that, moving in with the Post. He’s made Sunshine law requests to determine whether the Post has a lease on its space (it doesn’t). He’s suggested there’s a problem if they’re not paying rent (they aren’t). He’s CCed Hal Goldsmith, the assistant U.S. attorney known for rooting out public corruption. He’s even visited the Post’s digs with a man he describes as his commercial real estate broker, tape measure in hand.
All of which has people at City Hall wondering: What does he really want? Pistor insists the answer is an office. Is he serious? He says yes.
“I’ve offered rent,” he says. “It looks like the Post has not paid rent for decades—and they’re a for-profit company.” Of the space, he says, “Why can’t anyone have it?” He suggests that, given a lease, he’d open the doors to other non-daily reporters: “I’d like to offer it to anyone who’s doing journalism.”
For all his antics, Pistor actually raises a good question. Fifty years ago, it probably did make sense for the Post-Dispatch and the Globe-Democrat to enjoy free office space at City Hall, but these days, some of the most read coverage of the city comes from KSDK’s Mark Maxwell, SLM’s Ryan Krull, or even (dare we suggest?) various citizen journalists primarily posting to X. Like Pistor’s letterhead, the idea of a single media outlet getting free office space inside a government building seems like an anachronism.
Even so—and despite whatever frustration Mayor Tishaura Jones may feel with the coverage of the Post-Dispatch—no one seems willing to confront the elephant in the free government office space. No one except its former denizen. In a letter sent Friday filled with more bold type and underlining than any editor would ever allow, Pistor stressed the idea of a for-profit company being given space in a government building for zero rent (his styling). “What else is going on at City Hall?[!]” he wrote. “Who is in charge? I have tried to communicate this matter with you before protracted litigation sets in. Further formal investigation will continue.”
The person he addressed the letter to, executive director of operations Nancy Cross, has not responded to it. Both the city and a Post-Dispatch spokesperson declined our requests for comment.
But one City Hall insider thinks he has a pretty good idea of what Pistor wants. “Mischief,” he theorizes. “And a free office.”
