To a gallery of more than 100 people Saturday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), a native St. Louisian, asked, “What can the state, the city, the Mayor, the federal government do to fix this problem?”
The problem was more than 30 years of decay and disrepair in North City. The reason behind it was on the mouths of everyone in the room, and long in the minds of black St. Louisans old enough to remember – The Team 4 Plan.
Hosted by Rep. Waters, Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) and Rep. Al Green (D-TX), the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity held a field meeting at St. Louis City Hall where concerned citizens, community leaders and activists packed the hearing.
Representatives from the community as well as the government gave testimony, including Mayor Francis Slay’s deputy mayor of development, Barb Geisman, who said that she had never read the Team 4 plan, but nonetheless asserted that it was “not relevant to anything we’ve been doing the last seven years.”
Team 4 was a controversial plan developed in the 1970s that proposed the cutting off of services and funds to North City so the area could be slated for later redevelopment. Many North City residents blamed the plan for the deterioration of their neighborhoods even though the city has long denied that it was formally implemented.
Waters said the meeting was to find out if there had been an “informal” implementation of the Team 4 Plan and how the community and government could address these issues in the hope to move North City beyond the programs and developments of the past that failed the neighborhood.
Rep. Clay said North City has long suffered from many development ills.
“We have not received the proper attention from the government or the private sector,” said Clay, later recalling what North City was like in his youth, adding, “You can never go back to the past but you can reflect on that and know the potential for the community.”
March 9th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
What a waste of time. Not a single one of these clowns mentioned Paul McKee. I heard on KWMU that Clay supports McKee’s tax credit — a tax credit that makes the Team Four Plan look like a Black Panthers manifesto. If Clay is on board with the credit and won’t talk McKee, what good is he doing? Just another northside politician playing the situation for his own ego.
March 9th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Thanks to Antonio for letting us know that this was going on Saturday. I was mystified as was the above poster regarding lack of mention of the debilitating effects of the Blairmont scheme. Neither Congressman Clay nor Ms. Geisman acknowledged McKee as a significant landowner, along with the LRA.
March 9th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I couldn’t make the event due to homework. Clay is in support of Blairmont. That’s interesting because McKee’s blockbusting is clearly in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Had I been able to attend I most certainly would have brought that to his attention.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Team 4 was a sell out plan and this event was not widely known. I know it was known, but there was no real build up. There are people in St. Louis who remember this vividly and they tell the story like it is. Clay’s dad was key in Team 4 as some of you know. Some other people in town will be providing a different take, hopefully soon. Keep your eyes and ears tuned in.
March 10th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Did Lacy admit any fault? His staff is rude and incompetent. He has done nothing to help North St. Louis his whole time as an elected official. I am tired of his blame game.
When Rita Days announces she is running I and many others are ready to vote for her.
We need to kick Lazy Clay out of Congress.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Sure, our elected officials play a part in community building but the residents are the ones who make change and keep communities thriving! I live in the Wells/Goodfellow area and I’d like to know when my lazy ass neighbors are going to stand up and take some responsibility for the current condition of their homes, parks and schools? I’ve never seen more folks pointing and blaming as opposed to mowing their lawns, picking up trash in their front yards, fixing their houses and volunteering at church! We got a new Schnucks about 10 years ago and it’s already trashed. Why would any business want to come here when the people who live here don’t even give a damn?
March 11th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Why is the deterioration of north saint Louis due to a team 4 plan and not largely do to what Ive always know it to be, LIKE, the huge drug and gang problem? I grew up on the northside for years!!! I can never understand why our black leaders address every issue coming against our community as to protect it from outside forces but never address the inner problems with the same intensity! In my neighborhood, there was a culture of crime, and it was accepted and the police were not liked, how can an environment like this ever produce anything progressive? why is it the whitemans fault?