The stakes in the confrontation between Mayor Francis G. Slay and the African-American community over his poorly disguised undermining and unwarranted demotion of Fire Chief Sherman George – the city’s first black fire chief and a widely admired and respected citizen – are high and extend beyond this ongoing dispute itself. The protests from an increasingly broad segment of the African-American community after what amounted to a blatant dismissal of George by the Slay administration should cause deep concern among area business and civic leaders.
Over the course of this highly provocative, racially tainted debacle, a casual observer who relies solely on the mainstream press (which mostly has reported Slay’s self-serving version of events) could underestimate – and underestimate badly – the impending damage to efforts to revitalize the city of St. Louis and make the region more competitive for investment and more attractive to the coveted young professionals who in recent decades have fled or avoided the region.
If the St. Louis region is to have greater net growth, buoyed by a trained workforce, it must be seen as a more integrated and stable community. St. Louis must show it has moved beyond its past backwardness, especially in race relations, and has moved forward to address the challenges of a central city whose black community has some real political clout. There is a numerical majority of African Americans, a black majority on the City’s fiscal body (the Board of Estimate and Apportionment) and a significant black presence on the City’s legislative body (the Board of Aldermen). The Slay administration’s increasingly adverse responses to the concerns of the city’s African-American majority have done anything but contribute to this essential forward movement.
The macroeconomic factors that challenge the St. Louis area’s future are many and complex. An important factor is the cultural climate of the area, which depends so dearly on cooperative and mutually empathetic race relations. To compete as a region, St. Louis simply must reverse the negative immigration patterns that have seen too many of our youngest and brightest students and professionals – of all ethnic backgrounds – leave this area to escape its stifling racial climate. Slay’s handling of George, and his administration’s general avoidance of more broad consultation, has made this climate worse.
The current administration in City Hall is either unaware of or indifferent to the impact of its injudicious action against Chief George, a beloved stalwart in the black community, and the subsequent hiring of an unqualified personal friend of the mayor to replace him. Greater cooperation and inclusiveness are necessary in the direction of the City’s affairs. If there is continued, unabated rancor because Slay is defensive, out of touch and unwilling to admit his folly and move quickly to redress the legitimate grievances of the African-American community – a community currently experiencing perhaps unprecedented unity, across a wide social and political spectrum, based on a common rejection of Slay’s decisions – racial distrust in the region will be further exacerbated, and this will cripple the area’s ambitious economic rebirth.
Holiday sentiments aside, now truly is the time for other area leaders to address, out of self-interest, this pressing issue initiated by the political fecklessness of Francis Slay and to avert further damage. Business and civic leaders need to demonstrate their concern in word and deed. They must show decisively that they understand the need to oppose rash political decisions that penalize the region’s economic and social aspirations and move the city in the wrong direction.