By Antonio D. French
Filed Monday, August 20, 2007 at 6:00 AM
PUB DEF SPECIAL REPORT Labels: Blairmont, Special_Reports
Poisoning the well of good faith negotiations in trying to reach a compromise on the controversial Land Assemblage Tax Credit is the amount of anger and raw emotion people have towards its chief architect, Paul McKee, and the amount of damage he has done to a community already devastated by decades of neglect.
"Paul McKee creates blight," said 5th Ward Alderman April Ford Griffin last week as she showed legislators and her aldermanic colleagues long-standing brick buildings which now sit with entire walls spilled out onto its once green yard.
She told the other lawmakers about reports from neighbors of mysterious men ramming Bobcats into the sides of buildings, which only months before housed families, causing the walls to fall onto themselves and leaving the building open to the elements, looters and drug dealers.
Some scenes in the video you are about to watch look like they were filmed in the most devastated areas of New Orleans. Mr. McKee and others will point to these images and say this is why he needs this tax credit. What is important for Missouri's state legislators to understand, say city aldermen, is that just 18-24 months ago, many of these buildings were homes with families living in them. Then Blairmont came.
This is where the anger comes from.
But after all the anger surrounding this one man, what St. Louis' Legislative delegation must remember is that this problem is larger than one man, even this man who in the short-term has made the situation worse.
There are 100 million dollars in much needed tax credits on the table. The challenge over the next few days is how to make them available to people who do care about these communities, organizations and developers who are respectful of the people of these areas and sensitive to their desires about the future of their community, and not to reward a man who has for so long, so blatantly disregarded the men, women and children forced to live next to his piles of bricks and self-made blight.
The devil will be in the details.
Click here to download this video (.mov). Here's the YouTube link.
Click here to watch our earlier Blairmont special report.
Bloggers, feel free to post these videos on your sites.
11 Comments:
Wow, made my first appearance in a PubDef video.
Don't have speakers on this computer, but the video looks good. Only change I would have made is to put some of the video of the new homes and renovations in Old North. The 14th St Pedestrian Mall renovation project started construction today as well. Just more good investment to show McKee's and legislators.
8/20/2007 10:07 AM
Why isn't that damn Slay criticizing that fat cat McKee,about all his derelict properties? Is Slay going to profit from McKee's advantageous deal ?
8/20/2007 10:42 AM
St. Louis should be proud man!
People always talk about St. Louis being the last place to free the slaves, but this video made history!
Dr. Martin Luther King's dream was realized on this video, and he is probably clapping his hands from heaven.
Black and white people riding on a bus together for a cause. Some black people in the front seats and some white people in the fronts seats. Some black people in the back seats and some white people in the back seats. People on the bus from different religious backgrounds, genders, and possibly sexual orientations.
Rosa Parks is probably smiling too!
Paul McKee has helped bring St. Louisians together for a purpose that would not have taken place otherwise, and sometimes there is a silver lining under the cloud.
Antonio, it was gangsta hood the way Eminem music was brought in the video toward the end to emphasize the resemblance of the Blairmont Properties to Eight Mile road in Detroit, Michigan.
Always stay a gangsta, don't ever forget where you come from----on the reallaaa my MIGGGAAAA! Quote me first on MIGGA, to solve the "N" word controvery!
SIGNED BY
THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE
8/20/2007 11:57 AM
^ dude has a point.
8/20/2007 12:14 PM
Any truth to the rumor that Jeff Smith is quietly working behind the scenes to help McKee?
8/20/2007 3:57 PM
Probably. Wouldn't surprise me at all.
8/20/2007 7:42 PM
Don't just look at Smith to see if he is helping McKee.
The Political Eye should really be on Maida Coleman.
She is quietly supporting the McKee project in its current form. Have you heard from her? Exactly.
In fact, she is so quiet on this topic, because the governor is going to announce that he will be appointing her to the PSC. The governor's appointment is contingent upon her supporting the McKee deal. But that's not all folks. Maida has to take care of Amber Boykins. As a result, Boykins will probably take a gig w/ McKee.
We shall see.
8/20/2007 10:16 PM
good to know these videos are up for grabs these days. will try to share the good word about our friends around town. we think it's a relatively apolitical issue to protect history and help those who need it through new investment.
8/21/2007 1:48 AM
> Is Slay going to profit from
> McKee's advantageous deal ?
Sort of. He'll be able to tell a story of how the state and city governments helped to solve longstanding problems of the city through a partnership... blah blah ...working together... blah blah ...jobs... blah blah blah. Now elect me to the state legislature because of my track record.
Why should there be any tax credits?
t
8/21/2007 8:54 AM
"Why should there be any tax credits?"
Because development costs exceed market values.
Next question?
8/21/2007 5:08 PM
How does anyone else compete in the same or surrounding area without the same incentives?
8/22/2007 6:06 AM
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