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?
Did Brewster McCracken say anything about St. Louis that was untrue? I guess that he could have singled out Detroit as an example of how not to run a city but everyone is doing that these days.
St. Louis has been falling apart. I’ve photographed parts of the town that have trees growing on the tops of abandoned buildings and entire malls that are standing empty. St. Louis has been going through a very hard time. Its been documented and studies in many books (eg. _An Empire Wilderness_ by Robert D. Kaplan ch. 4) and is evident to anyone that rides the Metro Link from the airport through downtown. Austin is currently thriving in a bubble that protects it from the problems facing the rest of the US and part of the world, but McCracken knows that it can’t last forever.
well…did he lie? st.louis city is a dump. it used to be a major, key city. that generation passed long ago. take a stroll through lambert international airport and see the ghost town. try finding a money changing booth in the alleged int’l airport. the city is a joke. no one goes there after dark.
yeah, let’s rail at someone for telling the truth.
When you have prime real estate in the middle of down town right next to the ball stadium and can’t get anyone to build on it that about says it all for the viability of the down town. St Louis has had several major companies that have move out in recent years. When the city needed the airport expansion it allowed it to be tied up in court for years by a small backward thinking town like Bridgeton. Now the expanded airport is underutilized with a major area of it closed. The city schools are in a shambles. I would think that if the city doesn’t get it’s act together soon they may want to put up a bill board asking that the last person to leave will please turn out the lights. The city in in the center of the country with two major rivers and four major interstate highways. It doesn’t have to be this way. St. Louis get your act together.
I grew up in St. Louis, my family there since before the civil war. I live in Houston, and will probably retire in Austin, the nicest area in Texas. All of my descendants and their families live in Austin, and I spend a tremendous amount of time there. All of my anscestors, siblings and their families live in St. Louis, and I spend a lot amount of time there. Both places are very near and dear.
The McCracken campaign ad I viewed online ends up as an unfair smear on metro St. Louis. Like any complex topic taken on in a few seconds on TV, there is no way to fairly portray St. Louis in this venue. If I had a few seconds to represent my former hometown on TV, I would say something like “St. Louis is a great place, but it is not perfect.” Austin voters have been left with the impression that St. Louis is mostly a ghost town.
Austin has had the luxury of working under the Texas constitution, which gives it virtual carte blanche to annex everything around it. Austin can control its development any way it wants, it is mostly a new and uncrowded city that is enforcing environmental and livability standards for the future across the huge area of its current city limits. Austin will end up as a very large city population-wise in a matter of a few decades, given current growth rates. It is trying hard to retain the qualities that make it so attractive to new residents. I would guess that Austin will end up being larger than Houston or Dallas, and very much larger than St. Louis. It is a very unique place.
St. Louis, the city, has had the misfortune of working under the Missouri constitution, which precludes any annexation or physical growth of the city. Once the city itself was populated, the city of St. Louis had virtually no say in the further development of the metro area. Metro St. Louis has developed nicely and prospered, and is a great place to live, and this includes the city. I miss St. Louis most every day, and I understand why most of my family will stay there for life.
St. Louis is correct to point out its wonderful sports teams and other great institutions, the Cardinals being the best professional sports franchise in the country. Austin is a minor league town as of now, but with major league college sports. This will change, Austin will get big league teams, but maybe not in my life time. When I retire to Austin, it will take a trip out of town to see big leauge sports.
If I were rich like Gates or Buffett, I would buy a lot of Southwest Airlines tickets for residents of both towns, and let them explore the other city. Two great places. St. Louisans would see a young Austin, which seems to have the deck stacked in its favor. Austin folk would see a beautiful and mature St. Louis, still growing, and able to offer all the assets of a major metropolitan area. I celebrate both towns!
I would be in great denial to say we don’t have problems here in STL, but this buffoon in Austin is an idiot. Every city has crime, poverty, and political issues; Detroit, Cleveland, et al. He’s comparing apples to oranges; he obviously didn’t look at any positive points because he’s running a campaign on scare tactics to get votes-a typical politician. “OOOhhh let’s not be like scary St. Louis!” GEEZ, DUMB.
We have free museums and the zoo (one of the best), the best drinking water, some of the best hospitals in the country, the Arch grounds are beautiful (did anyone hear of how they want to put ADVERTISING on the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE?), I see the street cleaners (people and machines) out everyday, Washington Ave. looks gorgeous, etc. I ate lunch today in Forest Park and all kinds of people were out, walking, biking, having lunch, and relaxing in the sun.
I’ve been as far west as Vegas, north to Chicago, east to New York, and far south to Dallas/Ft. Worth and Orlando. With this economy EVERY city, not only in this country, but in this world is having problems right now. Why pick on us when you can pick on us all? Chicken I guess? I’m glad McCracken doesn’t live here, he can stay in Austin.
I’m a native St. Louisian and I’m staying.
Here’s his facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37894339999
why not stop by and say hi and ask why he’s spending so much time focusing on St Louis and not Austin.
Ahhhh, ST. Louis…what a BEAUTIFUL example of what happens when democrats run everything.
Taxes and business costs go up, businesses and working-class go bye-bye. What’s left is bureaucrats and gang-bangers, misfits and morons, bombed-out looking lots and general disfunction. Get over it city-dwellers and smell the rot.
What’s next, national obamarot…