By Antonio D. French
Filed Thursday, August 16, 2007 at 7:11 PM
At a press conference this morning at the corner of Montgomery Street and N. Garrison Avenue in north St. Louis, 5th Ward Alderman April Ford-Griffin voiced her concerns about the proposed Land Assemblage Tax Credit that is once again being discussed by state legislators. Labels: Blairmont, Development, Tax_Credits
Griffin echoed concerns that the bill needs to be amended to allow others beside controversial St. Charles developer Paul McKee to benefit. According to Griffin, McKee has intentionally allowed his 500-plus properties in north St. Louis to deteriorate — and in some cases, workers have intentionally knocked down walls and destroyed foundations — in order to drop the property values and buy more land.
Griffin said the state legislature should not reward McKee for his poor stewardship of these properties.
Griffin also accused Mayor Francis Slay's office someone in city government of sending city workers to McKee's sites yesterday to clean up his lots ahead of today's press event.
Several other aldermen, including Charles Troupe, Dionne Flowers, Freeman Bosley, Sr., Marlene Davis, Jeffrey Boyd, Terry Kennedy, Frank Williamson, Bill Waterhouse, and Board President Lewis Reed attended the event. State Reps Jeanette Mott Oxford and Jamilah Nasheed, who both helped organize the event, were joined by colleagues Rodney Hubbard, Cynthia Davis (R-O'Fallon) and Ron Casey (D-Crystal City). License Collector and former 19th Ward alderman Mike McMillan also attended.
13 Comments:
The question is who are the additional developers that were excluded from Bill #327 and have cracked the whip on these two Aldermen to fight against this bill. These additional developers are not playing with these two black Aldermen and they better block this bill from going through, or their campaign contributions will cease and desist in the future.
This whole thing is about certain developers getting a piece of the money pie from the State of Missouri, and this is definitely not about the community. A portion of the money pie from the State of Missouri would go to these additional developers who will be chosen by these two Aldermen and then campaign contributions would trickle down to these two Alderman.
People look behind the smoke screen and you will see the clear picture of what is going on.
Anyway, if you are an Alderman of a Ward and can't get the City of St. Louis that you represent to pick up trash on vacant lots and board up windows on vacant buildings, then it is time to retire and let someone new have the position.
How did this person buy all these properties anyway without the permission of the Aldermen?
Normal citizens need the blessing of the Alderman to buy LRA properties and a written letter.
This smells fishy, ishy, isshy!
Can I get an AMEN?
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
What Alderman would admit to that?
8/16/2007 8:19 PM
Fox 2 is reporting that McKee plans to "bring jobs to the area" (que low-talker SNL's Kevin Nealon...) "Brownfield Tax Credits".
Forget urban scale housing folks or North Haven...
McKee is planning to bring Earth City to North City.
8/16/2007 9:05 PM
Folks, the mother of all city development controversies has been unleased.
We should all meet at the Episcopal Church downtown and pray that some good comes of this.
8/16/2007 9:11 PM
That damn Slay gives the impression that he is McKee's butt boy,the way he allows city maintenance crews to be McKee's personal caretakers of his many derelict properties!
8/16/2007 9:35 PM
You don't need a letter from your alderman to buy anything from LRA if all you have to do is go directly to the Mayor and have him contact LRA/SLDC on you behalf.
Its more than just what he plans to do with the land that is in questions...what about what he is NOT doing with the land and property now. Why reward someone with more property when he is using the city (who cares if he pays the bill on time or late) as his personal forestry team. Yeah the city is getting paid but they get paid late and while they are cleaning up his property (which they did a good job of doing the day before tour...nice touch) they are neglacting all of the other property that the city really does own and won't board up, won't clean up, won't cut the grass...that unless you call and put in a request and even then it takes 6 weeks to get it done. Don't blame the alderman blame LRA for being the worst landlords and real estate management team in the country.
8/16/2007 10:47 PM
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8/16/2007 11:50 PM
According to April Ford? How about According to Michael Allen. I wonder how this situation would have unfolded if not for the objection of community leaders?
Suddenly we have alderman talking bad about McRee Town when they didn't do a DAMN THING to stop it.
8/16/2007 11:52 PM
He's not buying LRA, yet.
8/17/2007 8:48 AM
interesting comments, i guess the alderwoman forgot to mention that the city has sent paul mckee a bill for nearly $400,000 for work it has done on his property like boarding up buildings, grass cutting, etc.....ford leaves the impression that mckee is draining city resources when in fact he is being charged for the work being done to maintain his properties....he has paid 90% of bill to date
8/17/2007 8:59 AM
How can I make an appointment for the city to come cut my grass? I'll gladly pay. Will the city also change my flat tire?
8/17/2007 11:18 AM
I'd guess these fall under maintenence, so the state is being asked to pay at least 1/2.
8/17/2007 1:27 PM
Only if your ladt name is Busch as in Anheuser Busch!
8/17/2007 1:29 PM
If other (namely smaller, more localized) developers are able to benefit from some revised bill, in what position would that leave McKee, (competition wise) since he is no longer the only recipient of tax credits?
8/17/2007 3:39 PM
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