By Antonio D. French
Filed Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at 8:55 PM
St. Louis Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe, a longtime critic of the city's Land Reutilization Authority's land-banking policy, testified today in Jefferson City that the proposed Land Assemblage Tax Credit would be good for north St. Louis — but only if it was amended to require any redevelopment plan eligible for the credit to first be approved by the Board of Aldermen. Labels: Blairmont, Development, State_House
Troupe said St. Louis has suffered over the years from "corrupt and backwards and sometimes outright stupid" policies. He pointed to the twenty-year-old LRA policy of acquiring thousands of properties, mostly in north St. Louis, and routinely denying independent rehabbers a chance to purchase one or two properties at a time.
Troupe, who has blamed the LRA for much of the blight on the northside, said this policy has left many neighborhoods devastated and vulnerable to red-lining and declining property values.
With the protection of local control, Troupe said he supports this tax credit bill and sees it as promising for much needed investment.
Following Troupe's testimony, State Rep. Rodney Hubbard* offered an amendment, which was approved by the committee, to require any redevelopment plan to be approved by the the Board of Aldermen.
*Hubbard is a client of A.D. French & Associates
11 Comments:
The whole point of the Aldermanic protest against this bill was to ensure that Alderman would control the development and the developers of these parcels of land, to ensure that Aldermen received kickbacks and campaign contributions for their pockets.
Know that any Alderman that participated in this protest is more than likely an Alderman that is receiving kickbacks and contributions to their campaigns from developers.
This protest was never about how this development would affect the community.
The community sure feels better now that the development will be under local control of Aldermen.
Wheewww, just when the community thought there was nobody to speak up for them, the Aldermen come to the rescue.
What a freakin joke?
You just can't trust politicians at all, and they wonder why the black community is apathetic!
8/21/2007 11:19 PM
I think the LRA for some reason always seem to never really get called out in their part of all of this mess. Most of the problems that happen to the property in North St. Louis are those that are owned by LRA
8/22/2007 6:28 AM
What is LRA's annual budget? If they are the problem properties incentives should be designed to directly promote their development.
8/22/2007 6:51 AM
LRA stockpile of land is the result of the current land reform movement underway in targeted areas of the city. Crime and unemployment will be the result for local residents, throw in tax increases every two-years and this gets real serious.
8/22/2007 7:03 AM
North St. Louis has continued to be victimized by media whores, and political mercernaries whose primary interest is not the people. They pass themselves off as champions of the people by catering to the emotions through rhetoric, i.e., (local a.m. female radio host, who was a former ethnically-challenged, liberal, turned African) At no point has any of the naysayers produced a plan or idea of how to attract jobs, and build their communities or create a sustainable tax-base, yet are critical of anyone else who does. The blight wasn't created by McKee, it was created in part by policy, but more specifically the lack of leadership in the African-American community. The same ones who've been in office for years when the political climate was ripe when the Democrats controlled both chambers, and the Governor's seat. Their inaction, and lack of leadership has precipiitated the political, economic and social blight of this community. Former Rep. Troupe was "Dean" of the House, and served for over 25 years in the House in a Democratic-controlled legislature, and yet we still deal with the issues of local control of police. Marlene Davis, (long-time understudy of Mike McMillan), along with her predecessor have had no problem in the past with given away land, credits and TIFs to "one" developer. So WTF now? At some point the media and political hypocrites such as nihillistic, flip-flopper, shake-down artist Lizz Brown (of $25,000 no-bid, I love the Kids Fame) will be exposed. At what point will the African-american "leadership" face the demons of their past lack of leadership? At what point will be people begin to call out and challenge the selfish, hypocrisy of these self-serving, self-anointed, self-centered people who know nothing but to destroy, and nothing of building and working in the spirit of cooperation for the sak of the community. The African-American elected officials called another knee-jerk "emergency" meeting to address the issue as it served the interest of a few alderpersons. So when will the "emergency" meeting be called to discuss crime abatement, or a plan that African-Americans have for their own community in terms of bringing jobs, and developing the infrastructure? When will the people begin to ask the "leadership" to exercise vision, and not to fight for the sake of saying you fought, with no real intent of actually bringing something tangible home besides rhetoric (i.e., Rep. Neseheed, former activist, turned actor, turned political nut-case). Let's all get real, and cut the deal and start to build!
8/22/2007 7:08 AM
Good answer, are you willing to stand against the democratic party? We have one-party control, look at the results. They look alot like the results of a long waged war. Lets realize we are unwilling participant in a land grab and this is the latest tactic used.
8/22/2007 7:15 AM
1st poster,can you tell me the name of any town,county,hamlet or city in this country that the locally elected politicians would not want to know the plans of any developer planning on development in their community?
8/22/2007 1:00 PM
Well, I know in St. Louis City by the time most of our Aldermen understand the plan we will all be old and grey.
It would kill some folks to admit they ain't that smart. My favorite is Aldermen that ask stupid questions because they think it makes them sounds smart.
Let us all gather together and stop all of the progress in the city. The Aldermen need their money and Nasheed needs attention. (She is so nutty she'll likely run for the schoolboard soon.)
Unfortunately we have the best paid off board of Aldermen and the worst functioning government.
Why again do we have more aldermen than Chicago but not even half as many citizens? Shouldn't we save some money and get rid of some of these blow hards?
8/22/2007 2:38 PM
Neighborhood.
History
Architecture
Tradition!
...who need 'em....right?
I wonder how White Flight hypnocracy
is gonna come back
and build a
much much better than new
Mansion House in the sky?
makla
If the cost of transportation
is so much a factor
why not blight Crestwood Plaza?
Ohhh
it's only 48 acres.....
maybe the County is the one
that seemingly needs
its jobs....
closer to home.
8/22/2007 5:06 PM
So the black aldermen would rather rebuild north st. louis house by house while twice as many blacks leave for either north county or the southside. What a waste!
Wait until redistricting and they find out that two wards need to be put south.
8/22/2007 8:07 PM
The way I see it, the Alderman doesn't care a hoot about the folks that live in the areas in which they are trying to make look presentable, so to say, and I'm talking about the North side city. Our community asked for support for something that was beneficial towards our biggest most ignored problem, our youth.To hell with trying to rebuild the northside, trying to make it a sight for soar eyes, work on our youth. Help the parents. All the Alderman doing is constantly showing kids what a failure their parents are when they see all these new homes next to their shacks. new homes that things like a credit check, with irrelevant history, would keep them from having, keep them lusting, stealing, loitering, etc. all because they can't have. All because they wish they could come. Children blame parents for why they may be living where and how they're living cause so called government reps wanna keep putting new, lusty things in their face. I'm not saying don't fix the city or make it more presentable. I'm saying help parents at least have an opportunity to live somewhere BIGGER adn better, that could be even more appreciated without the strict criteria. It would help a lot as far as how our youth see things. If they see struggle and poverty, they're gonna act accordingly. It need to be about our youth. Paint another illusion. Fight credit checks. People will keep a roof over their heads before they would a car under their tails. To hell with new homes and businesses. Focus on number one priority--our children. It's sad that our community tried to give back to out children. we wanted to show them that it is about them and the Alderperson,ignored our attempt to make a kid happy. Give them something to talk about other than guns, clothes and why or how somebody that's not from around 'here' living in the big new pretty house next door. stop letting the children see what looks like a failing parent. It's about out children. And as for the police department, Planned parenthood, Dental Healthcare for kids, and others...all of these folks are to be ashamed of themselves not support something positive for our youth in their time of need. It's always their time of need. they're our future, get'em ready. When is it gonna be about 'us' for real?
8/24/2007 9:48 PM
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