Saint Louis submits application with half hearted support from RCGA:
Brookings officials say RCGA’s attitude was not a factor in the decision to defer St. Louis’ application. Rather, officials cited unresolved — but not insurmountable — questions about whether the St. Louis region has the capacity for kind of “deep private-sector engagement and regional cohesion” needed for this kind of enterprise to be successful.
Amy Liu, who heads the Metropolitan Business Planning project, told us that metro areas that are chosen don’t get a Brookings report. They get a business plan, for which people within the community have done 90 percent of the work. Such a plan only can be effective if it is the shared work of the community, she said, reflecting a genuine statement of “regional intention” by major employers and public institutions to transform the local economy.
What Brookings can to bring to the process, she says, is help to achieve “market discipline” and “action discipline” in the planning process. That means making sure any regional plan truly is rooted in market expertise. It means identifying real people and enterprises committed to carrying out each step of the plan.
Brookings says it is “committed to working with leaders in greater St. Louis on their regional ambitions, and we have offered recommendations to strengthen the likelihood of success of a metropolitan business plan.”
On a complete side note–Amy is from my hometown and we are friendly acquaintances though I haven’t talked to her in some time.
East-West Gateway does what it can, but ultimately, the elders in Saint Louis are pretty happy watching the place stay stagnant as they offer TIFs for minor developments. If you actually change and embrace things like biotech firms in a city with multiple hard science institutions you might have to start listening to the new people who come and we can’t have that.
The really important thing about living here–as the second choice under Living Here on RCGA’s website points out is we have pro and college sports.
Just about 10 years ago I was in Austin and doing some field work. I was staying in a hostel and a guy from Seattle came up to me and told me how cool Saint Louis’ music scene was. He was talking about bands like the Bottle Rockets and festivals like Twangfest that actually appeal to young people looking for a cool place to live and work. Let me repeat. He was from Seattle.
The problem? Unless you are really into music you wouldn’t know that Saint Louis has any attractions that appeal to anyone under 50–actually that’s probably 60 now. Take a look at the list of people RCGA site.
All notable people and old or old and dead with the exception of Buck and Costas and they aren’t young either
I’m sure one would hear the excuse that this fits the demographic of CEOs and such and it speaks to them.
That is the problem in itself. It’s not CEOs of big companies you want to attract–it’s younger entrepreneurs who are going to be the CEOs of tomorrow. Don’t throw out the list just update it. Like that Jon Hamm guy who is even a regional booster. Or what’s that band headed by a kid out of Belleville? Wilco…and his past band partner is still here and releasing fairly popular albums–Jay Farrar and Son Volt. Nelly maybe. Outside of Austin & SXSW we have one of the best Twang/Americana scenes, but nada. We sure wouldn’t want to be attractive to young people and entrepeneuers like Austin is though..we need those big companies that Dick Fleming knows how to talk with their CEOs and play golf and have highballs with….
In many ways I’ve separated myself from the region as my kids have gotten older and my attention has had to turn to some pedestrian concerns, but frankly writing the same crap over and over again about the problem with this region just gets fucking old. Again, it’s not Dick Fleming and RCGA that are the problem, they are just the symptom.
Until this region develops some sort of capacity for venture capital and attracting new ideas it’s just not going to change. You have many of the ideas with biotech, but it has to go to Chicago to even think about venture capital and what was built looks more like multiple 5 year Soviet style plans.