Month: December 2017

2017 is drawing to a close, and the number of homicides has surpassed 200 for the first time since the mid-1990s. We all knew it was going to happen, we’ve been outpacing last year’s homicides since mid-summer, but now it’s official. Our New Year will be peppered with the obligatory pessimism that comes along with news like this.

But before we all go and defenestrate ourselves, let’s bring some perspective to these numbers. Here’s a few things to keep in mind:

Continue reading “St. Louis City just passed 200 murders in 2017. Should we panic?”

It’s no secret that the city has been a financial disaster for decades.  Plenty of scorn has been heaped onto us by Missouri Republicans as they gleefully ride the Trump train back to the 1950s.  Democrats are the preferred whipping boy of the moment (at least for now, the tide will turn in a few years and then it will again be the Republicans who are irrationally hated for a period of time.  Back and forth we go until the sovereign debt crisis wipes us all out.), and they have been heavily derided as the cause of every problem we face in St. Louis City, especially the financial problems.

Is this a fair assessment?

Continue reading “A review of St. Louis City’s financial situation”