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DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the
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According to a survey paid for by the Downtown St. Louis Partnership and reported today by the Post-Dispatch, "those living [downtown] are younger, richer and better educated than the average St. Louisan."
Just one problem: the mail survey doesn't include downtown's largest population: the poor and the homeless.
"Developers say the number of young adults moving to downtown validates their investments," reports the Post. Self-validation is a dangerous thing when it involves public money.
The Post's articles offers a few clues to why the survey's results differ from what anyone who's spent any time downtown has surely observed: there are more homeless people than yuppies downtown.
The survey was sent in late summer to 5,000 downtown residents (that is, people with known addresses)
Only 14.5% of those people bothered responding
Of those 727 residents who did respond, 46.3% were between the ages of 25 and 34
Only about 7% of respondents said they had children (maybe those with children were too busy to respond)
Of the respondents, 146 had dogs and only 53 had kids
Though it will probably never show up on any Downtown Partnership survey, one of the largest populations downtown, without a doubt, is the homeless.
Any given day, a downtown visitor is more likely to see homeless men and women than they are groups of these mysterious 25-34 year-old hipsters the Post writes so much about.
Despite making up such a large population downtown, very little in comparison has been spent to address this homeless downtown population. In fact, many resources have been spent to sweep them away.
In 2004 more than a dozen homeless persons, many of them veterans, filed a federal lawsuit complaining that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has a policy of attempting to drive the homeless from downtown St. Louis and telling them downtown is "off limits" to them.
The suit, filed with the assistance of the ACLU, alleged that St. Louis police officers have routinely arrested the homeless without any suspicion they have committed crimes, have thrown fireworks at them to get them to move from a public park, have taken the homeless to remote areas and dumped them, have taken their food, medication, driver's licenses and insurance cards, have made them engage in forced labor prior to ever seeing a judge, and have generally attempted to remove the homeless from downtown, particularly before major events.
The word "homeless" does not appear one time in the Post's story about the face of downtown.
From a report Tuesday by Fox 2 reporter Paul Schankman:
From 2001 to 2006, the average number of households on food stamps in the city of St. Louis went up 35%. In St. Louis County, the number went up by 70%. In St. Charles County, it was an 82%. And in Jefferson County, the average went up 88%.
"People at even higher income levels these days it seems like are finding that they need help to get by," says Janel Luck, from the Missouri Department of Social Services.
Financial analyst Juli Neimann says the rich are getting richer, but middle class wages are dropping. Combine that with Missouri's rising unemployment rate and steep increases in the price of gas and basics like eggs and milk and a lot of new faces start showing up at the food pantries.
Still, the Missouri Department of Social Services claims the increase in food stamp usage is largely the result of a statewide initiative to make sure everyone who is eligible is enrolled.
There are a lot of people hurting in the City of St. Louis. Not just struggling to make ends meet, but really struggling — to find shelter, to food for their children.
This is a developing story, which seems to be getting more desperate everyday. But you won't see this story on the front page on the Post-Dispatch. This will not be the top news story on Channels 5, 4 or 2.
There is a horrible disconnect between our community and those that report on it, and those who are supposed to report to it.
Coming Soon: New Gang Documentary features Local Pols, Young People
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Monday, November 05, 2007 at 8:37 AM
The final touches are being put on a new documentary, co-produced by local filmmaker Larry Bastain (brother of State Rep. Talibdin El-Amin), which takes a closer look at the often violent lives of many of our city's young men and boys.
"Off the Record" features interviews with gang members, local community leaders, and elected officials, including El-Amin, State Rep. Rodney Hubbard and State Senator Jeff Smith.
Last week, Governor Matt Blunt and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay joined to declare Missouri a State of ONE to help raise awareness about global disease and poverty with the ONE Campaign, a non-partisan national program dedicated to the cause.
Though it will probably never show up on any Downtown Partnership survey, one of the largest populations downtown, without a doubt, is the homeless.
