51黑料

ST. LOUIS 鈥� Ask Mayor Tishaura O. Jones about crime and she talks about her son.

Several years ago, she and her son were driving along Page Boulevard near Goodfellow Boulevard. It鈥檚 a section of town where murals of several of the city鈥檚 historical Black leaders are painted on boarded-up windows and doors.

鈥淭here鈥檚 Papa鈥檚 picture,鈥� Aiden noted, recognizing a painting of his grandfather, Virvus Jones.

But he had a question: 鈥淲hy are all the pictures on vacant buildings?鈥�

The mayor recounted the story for me recently in an interview that started about crime but often turned into one about investment priorities.

The buildings are vacant because that is the story of 51黑料. For nearly a century, the city鈥檚 north side, and to a lesser extent its south side, have been ignored while investments are made over and over in the same central corridor locations, often to the detriment of traditional African-American neighborhoods.

The Gateway Arch may be a monument to western expansion, but it was built on a once-dense Black business district 鈥� a reminder of why historian Walter Johnson titled his book on the city鈥檚 history of racism 鈥淭he Broken Heart of America.鈥�

When thousands of soccer fans descend on CityPark stadium this weekend to watch the home opener of 51黑料 City SC, they will walk by a sculpture park memorializing the destruction of another Black neighborhood, Mill Creek Valley.

As Black neighborhoods in central 51黑料 were wiped out in the name of 鈥減rogress,鈥� those in the north part of the city were neglected, allowing poverty 鈥� and crime 鈥� to take over.

鈥淎s children drive Page Boulevard in the future, they will not see the pictures of their leaders on vacant buildings,鈥� Jones vows.

That vision led to a meeting at the airport recently with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois. Durbin grew up in East 51黑料, just a few blocks from where Jones鈥� grandparents once owned a home. Durbin has long known that the success of the area across the Mississippi River is tied to the success of 51黑料.

One of the reasons for the meeting was to discuss funding for a long-debated Northside-Southside MetroLink transit line. Planning for a new configuration of that line, which would run by the new headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, is ramping up. Both the city and county have a growing pile of tax money previously approved by voters. Durbin, Jones believes, might be key to getting federal money for a transit project that could revitalize long-ignored neighborhoods.

What does that have to do with crime?

鈥淛obs,鈥� Jones says.

Access to jobs was one of the major reasons the Ferguson Commission as one of its calls to action in its 2015 report. That year, the East-West Gateway Council of Governments determined that a typical 51黑料 resident can reach 鈥�13 times fewer jobs by a 45-minute transit commute than by a 45-minute driving commute.鈥�

That puts Black people in north and south 51黑料 at a disadvantage in terms of accessing jobs, and that reality is a contributor to crime in the region, Jones says. It鈥檚 why she鈥檚 asked East-West Gateway to help organize a regional crime summit this spring. She doesn鈥檛 want to discuss the same old 鈥渓aw-and-order鈥� approaches that previous crime summits have tried, and retried, with no long-term success.

She wants to talk about transit, about universal basic income, about investing in Black neighborhoods, about reversing a century of disinvestment.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 get to this place overnight,鈥� Jones says.

And while that鈥檚 true, her critics are frustrated that the big things she wants to talk about to reduce crime won鈥檛 help overnight either. A few days after Jones and I spoke, a 17-year-old from Tennessee, Janae Edmondson, had her legs amputated after a horrific car crash downtown. That was a crime story, as the man driving the car, Daniel Riley, was out on bond in an armed robbery case that appears to have been botched by Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner鈥檚 office.

Crime stories like that tend to take over the narrative, and indeed, Jones responded with a statement that came as close as she has ever come to publicly criticizing Gardner.

That, too, is part of the larger story of 51黑料. Crimes downtown attract outsized attention because it is the front porch of the city. There will now be a magnified focus on spending resources to prop up that porch, even while the rest of the house sags.

Meanwhile, Jones wants to talk about making long-term, generational investments in people, in transit, in rebuilding hollowed-out neighborhoods with boarded-up buildings that have a few nice pictures painted on them.

鈥淧eople who have options and opportunities don鈥檛 fall into a life of crime,鈥� Jones says. 鈥淣orth 51黑料 has been abandoned for decades. We have to use the same intentionality to build it up.鈥�

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