Tony Messenger’s April 13, 2017 article, Messenger: Redraw the boundaries so that St. Louis can go all in, addresses the divide between the city and county in St. Louis. Messenger references research outlined in the 2014 For the Sake of All report underscoring the gaps in health outcomes and life expectancy between rich and poor and African American and white St. Louisans. According to For the Sake of All Project Director Dr. Jason Purnell, “This is the story of St. Louis. The in group has divided the resources and, more often than not, left little for the out group. That’s our history, on purpose.”
The article discusses the results from the recent April 4 elections in the context of the city-county divide and highlights an event held on the same day in which Dr. Purnell and other panelists encouraged the city and county to come together. Messenger also proposes an approach where the city, county, and state would work together (as they plan to in the NFL lawsuit) or where policy agencies would consolidate to establish agency-wide standards and improve public safety.
According to Messenger, “that sort of thinking would require what Purnell says is necessary for St. Louis to thrive in a new global economy, a ‘redrawing of the boundary of the in group.’
Messenger’s message: “Redraw the boundaries so that the entire region can go all in.”
Read the full article.