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?
Yes, Amanda, entire sections. Next time you leave your office, head north instead of south, and you’ll see several of them. Instead of making fun of the guy’s name, can we have a serious discussion about the issue he raises?
You criticize McCracken for failing to research something which is common knowledge. Yet your article is snarky, void of any research at all, incites people to bad behavior - and to top it all off, you did the email link wrong. Try clicking on it, you’ll see.
The guy’s name is Brewster McCracken? Wasn’t he a villain in a Smokey and the Bandit movie.
Why don’t we let Texas secede from the Union? They’ve given us the worst president in the history of this country, country music (and the awful fashion that comes with it), David Koresh, mega-churches (McGod), Anna Nicole Smith, Gary Busey, etc. The entire state is an embarrassment.
Dosen’t he know that stupid cow mascot “Bevo” at U of T is named after an old A-B product. They owe a source of their pride to STL.
In watching the ad, I’m thinking, “Why did he single out St. Louis?” I’m wondering why he didn’t do what all typical politicians do and remain ambiguous. If I were running the campaign, I would have said something like “Many formerly great industrial cities in our country…” rather than pinpointing St. Louis. He had to know this ad would pop up in our area somehow.
I know this city pretty well and have scoured North City several times on a Sunday afternoon out of curiosity, hope for signs of life, and glimmers of architecture from days past. But I don’t remember seeing the scenes he uses in this ad as his examples of our urban decay. I’ve never been to Austin, but I would suspect that it too has it’s share of questionable areas that need attention.
As an outsider who has lived here for over 11 years now, my experience tells me that life-long residents are St. Louis’ worst enemies. With few exceptions, it’s been outsiders coming in, marveling at what this city has to offer, pulling up their sleeves, and making pockets of it great again.
When I first moved here as a life-long Missourian from Joplin, I was amazed that I had lived in Missouri all my life, and St. Louis had somehow failed the past 28 years to make me want to come visit. Eleven years later at age 39, I still think St. Louis has failed to market itself properly to the outside world.
In the meantime, there are SO many simple things we can do to make our city more appealing to visitors and future residents. Things like picking up trash in your yard and on your curbs (better yet, instill a sense of pride so that people think before throwing it out on the street in the first place!), maintaining your lawns and planting a few flowers, maintaining the public median planters the city has already neglected.
I’m curious if this politician has actually visited St. Louis, or if he has based his campaign ad merely on the negative image that St. Louis can’t seem to shake?
The Truth Hurts.
If the city of Austin wants to elect a McCrackHead for mayor, why do we care? I thought Texas didn’t want to be part of the USA anymore, anyway.
Nick:
You were right that I had the email messed up, thanks for pointing that out. I see much of the city and the area on a regular basis. There are areas that are in dire need of help, indeed, but I daresay that most American cities have sections like that.
He made a great point. I wish he would have run for mayor of St. Louis!
It’s true. A century ago, this city and region had the opportunity to build an incredible city here in the midwest but greed, short sightedness and a sense of entitlement killed it. just killed it.
The revitalization that is happening now, though, is a good thing. But, St Louis will never be the City is could have been or has been.
…………Yes, and he probably is a tool, but then the city of St. Louis is a dump with a joke of a school district and murders every day that NO middle class family in their right mind would want to live in.
Talk all you want to of the frozen custard, toasted ravioli world series championships and scattered artsy-niche neighborhoods, but it won’t change the fact.