By Antonio D. French
Filed Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 12:30 PM
In February, candidates for the August primary elections began filing with the St. Louis Board of Elections and the Missouri Secretary of State. Our camera was there as Mike McMillan, Gregory F.X. Daly, Mariano Favazza, Sharon Carpenter, and the gang gathered at the entrance of the Board of Elections.
State Senator Maida Coleman announced that she was not running for state auditor.
Fallout from the videotaped beating of Edmon Burns by Maplewood and St. Louis City police officers continued in February. The Coalition Against Police Crime and Repression held a press conference outside of Maplewood's city hall calling for the firing of all of the officers involved.
The incident helped add to the calls for the creation of a civilian review board. But Mayor Francis Slay said he was "hard pressed to explain" why the media focused on the push to get a civilian review board in the City, but not in other municipalities.
"Does the taped beating suffered by a fleeing suspect at the hands of several pursuing Maplewood police officers and a single City officer support the conclusion that the City of St. Louis – but not Maplewood nor any other local police jurisdiction – needs a civilian review board for its police department?" wrote Slay on his blog.
On February 2, Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt lost his bid to become the new Republican majority leader in the House. Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) beat out the pop of Gov. Matt Blunt.
Northside Aldermen Bennice Jones-King and Freeman Bosley, Sr. said citizens should be "outraged" by the decision to move the Annie Malone parade out of north St. Louis.
Sen. Jim Talent and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman met with a group of local African-Americans to discuss the relationship between blacks and the GOP.
A decision by the State Tax Commission to side with Nestle Purina in its case against Tax Assessor Ed Bushmeyer and the City of St. Louis meant that the company would pay taxes on its property valued at $19 million and not the $47 million that the city had assessed. That openned the door for other St. Louis companies to seek re-evaluations of their property taxes, costing the city and our public schools millions of dollars.
At a meeting of the Public Safety Committee. Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe (D-1) called upon the City's Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) to improve the way they maintain and sell their property.
The LRA maintains, markets, and sells acquired properties and performs land assemblage for future development. Land assemblage (or "land banking") can take decades. In the meantime, critics argue, buildings sit in unsafe and undesirable conditions. This is a very large problem in north St. Louis, where many blocks look more like war zones than part of a city experiencing a comeback.
Gov. Blunt appointed former journalist and anchorman Julius Hunter to the St. Louis Police Board.
Angeletta McCormick Frank resigned as a Republican commissioner with the St. Louis Board of Elections to become Community Liason for Senator Talent.
In his St. Louis Schools Watch newsletter, school board candidate Peter Downs reported that food vendor Aramark served moldy apples and wormy oranges to SLPS students.
Responding to comments by Comptroller Darlene Green saying that perhaps it was time to cut back from 100% TIFs to maybe 50% so that developers and new residents would start to help pay for schools and police, developer Kevin McGowan told the Post-Dispatch that was "a terrible idea... I think the timing is not right." He said the time will be right when he and his colleagues can sell $300,000 to $500,000 lofts in 30 days. Right now, he says it takes him six to 12 months. Boo frickin' hoo. Could it be because of the schools and the crime?
Alderman Greg Carter (D-27) later introduced a bill that would have required future TIF projects to pay a minimum of 50% of taxes on any residential component of the redevelopment.
PUB DEF called attention to the continuing conflict of interest that is Barb Geisman, Mayor Slay's deputy mayor of development, and her live-in boyfriend, Richard Callow, lobbyist for several companies doing big business with the city and reaping millions in city tax dollars.
Concerned that the St. Louis school board's willingness to sharply raise its superintendent's salary will have an inflationary affect on smaller school districts around the state, State Rep. Terry Young (R-49), of Independence, MO, introduced the bill which sought to limit a school superintendent's salary to 1.5 times the highest teacher's salary.
Rev. Nathaniel Cole was killed as a car being chased by police collided with the car carrying Cole and his wife.
Congressman Lacy Clay signed onto House Resolution #635 calling for an investigation of possible grounds for impeachment of President George W. Bush.
Scott Leiendecker, the Republican elections director for St. Louis City, testified in favor of Senate Bill 1014, which required a photo ID be shown at the time of voting.
On Feb. 15, the school board approved a plan by Superintendent Creg Williams to make some big changes in the City's public schools. The plan, which was kept secret until the night of the vote, included no public input, and was never funded, included mandatory school uniforms at some schools, separate 9th grade academies, year-round school for 9th graders, some all-boy and all-girl schools, and smaller "learning academies".
PUB DEF exclusively reported that Capitol Police were called after Luther Boykins, Jr., the brother of State Rep. Amber Boykins, confronted State Rep. Rodney Hubbard about his support of one of Boykins' state senate opponents. According to police reports, Boykins said he would "not let anyone fuck with his sister."
Congressman Russ Carnahan was appointed to the prestigious House International Relations Committee. He replaced Robert Menendez (D-NJ) who was appointed to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate.
Also in February, Dorrie Wise, owner of DKW Construction, found the body of a dead raccoon hanging from a rope on her construction site on the I-64 project in St. Clair County. After seeing the "lynched coon", Wise said she immediately called her union and advocates of the black contracting community. "It's 2006 and we've still got to deal with this," Wise told reporters, shaking her head.
Aldermen Craig Schmid and Jennifer Florida butted heads after Schmid ignored the tradition of "aldermanic courtesy" and spoke against a proposed McDonald's development in Florida's ward. Florida said she felt like she was "slapped" or "beat up" and was "completely blindsided". "I question his ethics," Florida told the Post-Dispatch. "I would not do that to an enemy. Let alone a colleague."
With the school board race shifting into high gear, PUB DEF began to beef up our video offerings and stalked the candidates from forum to forum. In this video, the candidates were asked at a 1st Ward forum, What is the biggest problem with the school board?
An unidentified man walked in front of City Grocers protesting the fact that downtown's only grocery store does not accept EBT cards (food stamps), something we reported back in October 2005.
Washington University renamed its the Hilltop Campus after William H. Danforth, life trustee and chancellor emeritus.
State Rep. Sherman Parker, the Missouri House's lone black Republican, went to Washington to be a panelist in a debate on the impact of the Bush Administration's policies on African Americans.
Wrapping up the month, we ventured south for the annual celebration of beer, boobs and beads known as the Soulard Mardi Gras. Click here to see our photos (viewer discretion is advised).
Check out our full February 2006 archive.
1 Comments:
Antonio, I read your blog on an almost daily basis with great respect for the content and your journalistic skills. I would like to point out however, that the small academy high school concept was implemented with a high degree of success at Northwest. This was after many meetings with parents, students, community members, teachers, administrators (thanks Mrs. Carter-Thomas), elected officials (thanks Rep. Connie Johnson, 61st) and Dr. Creg Williams. For years those of us who live and work in this community tried to get the many structural issues at Northwest addressed (half of the roof was leaking water into the building, the lockers were worn & broken, the gym floors needed to be replaced, the building needed paint, the school at times was “over-crowded” – just for starters). At one time the community was even promised a brand new school which was to be named after Senator Paula Carter. All this with nothing but disappointment as our reward.
I am not a defender of Creg Williams (at $300k I don’t think he needs my help) but there were a number of community meetings that were held and hopefully we can keep that same momentum going. Not everything in SLPS is bad. This school has a history of producing leaders and the community looks forward to continuing this tradition well into the future and hopefully we can do it as the Northwest High School Law & Public Service Academy (one of the “small learning academies”).
12/26/2006 8:45 PM
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