A month ago, we wrote Gov. Jay Nixon that if he “calls the Legislature back to session, he will have an economic development bill to sign by the end of the special session – and he will have played a crucial leadership role in completing legislation that has potential to shape the destiny of this region and state.” As of yesterday, we have been proven correct. House and Senate Republicans announced that they have reached what state Sen. Eric Schmitt describes as “a delicate balance” to agree on an economic development bill that includes the crucial Aerotropolis incentives. The governor quickly followed by saying he would call a special session.
For more than a month now, we have neither changed our stance nor changed the subject. That is because we knew the critical consensus was there to pass this economic development bill, and we believe everything else under discussion this summer pales in importance to getting this deal done expeditiously for the future of this region and state. Many have addressed the Aerotropolis bill and some have abandoned it, but we have not wavered from our position that we must do a better job in leveraging our competitive assets in St. Louis. There is so much potential for growth here – growth that could greatly benefit the ailing African-American community – if we seize this moment to capitalize better on our competitive advantages.
We were impressed with the leadership shown this week by Dick Fleming at the RCGA, who took to task the naysayers – so many of them local – who doubt the “Big Idea” represented by the Aerotropolis incentives and Midwest-China Hub effort. Fleming writes, “The critique of the St. Louis Big Idea ignores St. Louis’ ideal location, airfield and air space capacity and thousands of acres of developable airside land – not to mention a game-changing customer, the fastest growing economy in the world [China], which previously announced that it would increase the percentage of cargo being shipped on Chinese airlines to 50 percent from the present 15 to 20 percent in the next five years.”
This argument is compelling, based on St. Louis’ existing logistical assets that can enable our region to grow as a global cargo hub. The region already is a leader in rail, barge and over-the-road transport, making it attractive to ship air freight to this centrally located city because there are so many options for moving freight around the country from here. When companies take advantage of the Aerotropolis incentives and begin to invest in St. Louis, they will find a region with major workforce advantages, starting with our 37 colleges and universities – some of them absolutely top-of-the-line – and their 150,000 students.
Gov. Nixon is a Democrat seeking reelection in 2012 who has tended to take the urban Democratic stronghold of St. Louis for granted. For Nixon to show ambivalence toward this promising initiative, which did originate in the Republican business community, is disturbing but not entirely surprising. What is much more disturbing and surprising is that he finds naysayers in St. Louis who actually tried to discourage Nixon from putting his political capital behind Aerotropolis. In addition to the inevitable self-serving motives, we find this attitude typical of how St. Louis so often looks at itself. Not only must we complete this deal, but we must also overcome this defeatist mindset. We must develop and encourage a mindset that says we must compete. We must compete in the new global economy, because to continue in our current course is to be left behind.
We know all too well the arguments against us: regional fragmentation, segregation, racism, the urban/rural split, the recent loss of corporate headquarters and steady decline of the airport, which has made it more and more difficult to attract and retain businesses and to live here. But focusing on our disadvantages and failures is no way to approach the need to move forward and compete. We simply must address our current disadvantages and past failures, and compete. We are not unique. Other regions have done it, some with fewer competitive advantages to draw upon. Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Charlotte and even Atlanta were once behind St. Louis, yet all have drawn upon their strengths to reposition themselves for a better future.
We see Aerotropolis as St. Louis’ most viable proposal to incentivize major investment in this region based upon our existing competitive advantages. And if we win this one, that victory will open the door to greater opportunities. A lot of change starts in people’s heads. St. Louis has a great botanical garden today largely because of one man’s vision and his ability to build consensus around that vision; we have a truly great university because of a collective effort to turn a regional institution into a world-class center of learning and research. This is not just a naive pipe dream or wishful-thinking boosterism. It is confidence based on the reality of our underutilized assets that we can – that we must – leverage and build upon.
