Dear Mayor Jones:
Instead of attracting “talented young professionals with an entrepreneurial spirit” to save the St. Louis area, I suggest making sure the talented people- of all ages- in our city are fully engaged.
I’ve met better entrepreneurs up in Baden, hustling window washing and bootlegged DVD’s from traffic medians and street corners, than in most boardrooms. Some of the most talented and intelligent people I’ve met were homeless, coming to the library every day to read books on economics and politics, and keep up with current affairs, as well as look for jobs and services on the computers.
These forces could be engaged in working for the city. So many things need addressing in each neighborhood! A person standing on a street corner has the power to both talk and listen, to deliver and receive information. Engage the people that are already out, and put them to work, creating a new blueprint for city living, and tackling unemployment at the same time!
First hire activists and volunteers and social workers first. They will work set hours every day, either with teams or alone. They will locate and coordinate with people that suffer from chronic unemployment and/or are unhoused. Give each lead person a geographic area and let them set meet-up places and times for day labor jobs. Let each lead have a team of 4 or 5, as with a regular street team, and specific tasks or goals.
You can use these street teams for many purposes- to inform residents of news and services, to gather data about needed improvements. And to form a city-wide task force to put a disaster plan in place, including evacuation procedures.
Recruit a captain from every block. Block Captains communicate to 6-block Team Captains (as outlined in my letter on responding to possible grid disruptions and water shortages) and Team Captains communicate to Neighborhood Captains, who communicate to Alderpersons (and I encourage more wards, not fewer). With this format in place, there would be no situation or problem in the city that could not be handled quickly and locally, even during a disaster and without phones or internet.
Develop conscious neighborhoods that are self-sustaining. This won’t happen overnight, but it will be immediately transformative and impactful. It will change the way people view their neighborhoods. It will encourage people to develop networks in their communities.
Let each Neighborhood be encouraged to include a fireman, policeman, E.M.T. or nurse, lineman, pipefitter, tree-trimmer/landscaper, telephone lineman, bus driver, truck driver, mechanic, builder, repairman, interpreter of other languages, HAM radio operator, coder, etc.
For those that are chronically unemployed but unable to talk to the public about city news, assistance, and/or the new emergency plan and conscious neighborhood development, grants should be sought to employ people for things like clearing invasive species like kudzu and creeper from public spaces and parks, and vacant or abandoned properties. And our city’s trees need more attention than they are receiving. Again, many people that are already doing this work as volunteers, and could be hired to form similar task forces- going out during set hours and taking along day laborers in small groups.
The City of St. Louis has so many entities that do not pay taxes- schools, churches, and government institutions, including this new National Geo-Spatial Intelligence agency, to whom we granted quite a lot of land for free. All these entities that do not pay taxes should be encouraged to donate funding generously to these programs.
I’d be happy to assist with this in any way, including a more specific plan that goes ward by ward, but I hope you will initiate these changes immediately, or as soon as possible.
Thank you for your time,
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