Hey Brewster: Here’s some advice for YOU about dissing St. Louis
- Brewster McCracken
If your name is Brewster McCracken, you might have had a hard time at recess when you were a kid. Maybe people still pick on him — and that explains why he picks on others.
McCracken, you see, wants to be the mayor of Austin, Texas. But instead of running an ad saying why he’d make a great mayor, and what he can do for that city, he’s running one ad that disses St. Louis — hard. He points out that in 1904, St. Louis hosted the World’s Fair and probably thought it was the center of the universe. According to Brewster, things have gone downhill since then.
“Entire sections of St. Louis urban core have been abandoned for decades. There’s a warning to cities all over the country from St. Louis’ story.”
Really? Entire sections? I’m sure Brewster did careful research to back up that claim.
We know St. Louis has its problems. I’d venture to say Austin has better Tex-Mex food, hotter summers, and no world championship caliber baseball. But is the best way to run for office in one city really to talk smack about another one?
I’m sure Mr. McCracken would appreciate hearing from St. Louisans about our city. His email address is info@brewstermccracken. com. Maybe he’ll enjoy getting some e-mail from the Midwest.
But meanwhile, what do you think of his campaign tactics, and what do you think of his attack on St. Louis?
I don’t see anything wrong with what Brewster is saying….and I don’t see why the person who wrote this has a problem either. The freakin guy is 1000 miles away - big deal.
I’m sure Texans are crying themselves to sleep because they didn’t win a World Series….boo hoo…
Interacting with Native St. Louisans is somewhere between a mix of the movies New Jack City and Deliverance.
I e-mailed Mr. McCraken with an invitation to St Louis with an offer to show him around and a good time for a weekend.
Folks if you do e-mail him don’t be rude, hatefull, mean or cuss him out. You’ll just proove him right.
Really, I don’t feel like he’s truly slamming our town that hard just because he’s pointing out realities. And yes, we’ve clung to hosting the World’s Fair even 100+ years later, lets be honest…
It hurts to hear the truth, but it is the truth. There are whole sections of this town being left to rot. Did you know that St. Louis is a major hot spot for people all over North America that are into urban exploration because of the very reason?
Our music/art scene has barely been keeping afloat for at least the past decade, and so on and so forth.
Maybe all St. Louisians should watch his ad, bounce back from the hurt in pride, and then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT instead of crying. At least St. Louis is good for complaining. But is that all we want to be?
I love my home town, missed it when I was gone and have always been happy to return but I have to admit that some of what he says is true.
St. Louis has always been the city that could–but didn’t.
1) St. louis did decline from the 1930’s till the 1990’s.
2) St louis does seem to be bouncing back (assuming the economy turns around and the state doesn’t kill the historic tax credit).
3)Austin is the state capitol of a state of 23 million people, and home to the University of Texas, which has 50 THOUSAND students! Those are two aspects st louis can never compete with.
4) Having said all this, the question should be asked: what was his motive? Austin and St. Louis do not compete and are in no way similar, so what gives? It would make more sense in Cinicnnati or Kansas City, but who the heck cares about st louis in Austin (or vice versa)?
I’m less offended than perplexed. If they want to keep Austin weird this certainly helps with that.
Think before you speak.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Austin. It’s a nice city, but not without its problems. Here are some ways that Austin “beats” St. Louis:
1. Far more street peddlers. Every corner–every intersection has been staked out and is constantly being worked by a beggar.
2. Far worse traffic. Austin has badly outgrown its infrastructure and the traffic is by far the worst in Texas–and far, far worse than St. Louis. You can now pay about $10 to drive around Austin on a north-south tollway.
3. No major league sports team representing Austin has ever lost a game–they are undefeated! Oh, wait, they don’t have any major league sports teams, not one–unless you count the recruits at the University of Texas. No baseball team, no football team, no hockey team.
4. And they are living up to their motto (Keep Austin Weird) quite well!
Seriously, it is a nice city, but so is St. Louis. Austin has advantages in some areas, St. Louis in others. Seems sort of classless for him to attack a city some 800 miles distant as he runs for mayor, though.
I sure don’t have the capital but I am sure if people and organizations in St Louis are roiled about McCraken’s dissing St. Louis, why not get together and place an ad in the Austin Newspaper…..that might diss the mayoral candidate?
Steers and… Well, you know the rest.
Looks like Texas has two village idiots.