The City of St. Louis is the heart of the metropolitan area and, as such, we must take the lead in making our city the "best it can be" so the entire region can point with pride at our achievements.

My administration, along with its public and private partners have received national and international recognition for St. Louis’s renaissance. We have improved the quality of life in our neighborhoods, revitalized downtown, focused on public education, poverty, homelessness, and improved the delivery of city services. Because of the renewed confidence in the city and its future, property values have gone up by almost 70%. Best of all, for the first time in five decades, the city’s population is growing.

As we have worked to improve the city, I look to more cooperation with St. Louis County. But even talk of cooperating on projects like the rebuilding of Highway 40, Metro and our airport, elicit concerns from residents of both the city and the county.
Their concerns seem to be about the same. Cooperation is only a step away from merger - and merger could mean changes in governance. My city friends worry that the larger and more homogenous population in the county would out-vote the gains we’ve made to empower and celebrate our diverse city population. My county friends worry that a municipality as large as the city would upset the balance of power maintained among the county’s political subdivisions.

While I understand the worries, I believe that they are dwarfed by the realities. The county’s problems are exacerbated by its patchwork of municipalities. The city’s growth is constrained by the relatively anemic nature of its tax base. We’d all be better off in the same boat.

I don’t expect that we will undertake a voyage anytime soon. But it is a topic worth exploring.

Francis Slay
Mayor, City of St. Louis

Mayor Slay's comments about cross-county cooperation reflect a growing trend in the United States -- jurisdictions finding new ways to work together to successful improve the economic health of all the jurisdictions in a metropolitan area. A major trend is that most of these efforts are not focused on actual consolidation or merger of government entities, but new or expanded approaches to cooperation. The Alliance for Regional Stewardship and the National League of Cities recently produced a guide to successful efforts. Go to http://www.regionalstewardship.org/resou...llabor.pdf
to get a free copy of the guide which presents examples that could have potential in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

John Parr
former president, Alliance for Regional Stewardship.

I agree that a strong case exists for shared services or a partial or full merger. Given that you feel it's a good idea, why shouldn’t we "undertake a voyage" immediately?

We are all in the same boat, aren't we? When you travel anywhere across the country or even globally, we don't say we're from St. Ann or Chesterfield. We say we're from St. Louis. We do sink or swim together.

Why can't there be more governmental cooperation without merger? Just for practicality sake, since most in the county, I would think, would oppose merger. Shouldn't the conversation instead be about what we can do cooperatively?

Mayor Slay, what are some areas that you think the city and county can cooperate on (you gave a few examples already of metro and the airport) and how can that be done more effectively?

Isn't there also the issue of the county not wanting merger because it views the city as having more problems? Why would the county want to take on the city's problems?

What do county folks think?