One of the most infuriating moments that I ever experienced took place about 25 years ago in the bar of an Italian restaurant on “The Hill” in St. Louis.
We were in town visiting our good friends, Mary and Gus Buttice (a faithful blog reader), and talking with some of their friends while waiting for a table. A fellow in his 20s — an upbeat, lippy sort — was recounting that he had been living in Kansas City for a while but was delighted to have moved back to St. Louis recently. Kansas City didn’t hold a candle to St. Louis, he said. Then, he gestured at me and said, “Ask him; he knows.”
Flustered and on foreign soil, I didn’t know what to say or whether to say anything, so I kept my mouth shut. Inside, I fumed.
That was when St. Louis still led Kansas City (according to the 1980 Census) by about 5,000 residents — 453,000 to 448,000.
The worm turned in 1990, though, when Kansas City passed St. Louis (well, took the lead by losing far fewer people than St. Louis in the 1980s), and the margin has widened considerably since.
According to Census Bureau figures released last week, Kansas City gained 18,000 residents between 2000 and 2009 for a population of nearly 460,000. St. Louis’ population, meanwhile, fell 8.3 percent, to about 319,000. Perhaps even more startling, the population in St. Louis County, where St. Louis City residents have been fleeing for decades, also fell — by 1.7 percent, to less than a million people.
The Census story caused barely a ripple in Kansas City, but from my reading of articles in The New York Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the story had people in St. Louis grabbing the left sides of their chests.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said: “This is absolutely bad news. We had thought, given many of the other positive trends, that 50 years of population losses had finally reversed direction. Instead, by the measure of Census to Census, they continue…Combined with the news from St. Louis County, I believe that this will require an urgent and thorough rethinking of how we do almost everything.
“If this doesn’t jump-start regional thinking, nothing will.”
When I told my wife Patty about the St. Louis population figures, she paused for a moment and said, “That could happen to us, if we don’t fix the schools.”
I think she’s right. Unlike St. Louis, which is hemmed in on all sides, we have a Northland, where there is plenty of elbow room for growth. I couldn’t come up with specific figures, but I feel sure that the losses have continued south of the river, due mainly to people moving to the Kansas side for better schools.
We can’t count on the Northland to offset south-of-the-river losses forever. At some point, the Northland will cap out. What will south of the river look like at that point? I almost hate to think about it.
So, the stakes are as high as the hopes in this situation with hard-charging Superintendent John Covington and the “new and improved” Kansas City school board, headed by the young, dynamic and seemingly driven Airick Leonard West.
More specifically, regardless of what happens at a majority of the schools, if Covington and the board can’t put a stop to the fights and fires at Southwest High School, many of the young families banking on better days ahead (and trying to tough it out until it gets to that point), will bail.
Southwest is the crab that will not release its grip on the image of Kansas City schools.
Frankly, I don’t care for Kansas; its residents freeload off Kansas City but don’t want to pay its earnings tax, which fuels the core, which makes this a great area.
There are things I like about St. Louis, but I would never trade it for Kansas City. I wonder if that guy I talked to in the bar that night so many years ago would make such a harsh comparison to Kansas City now? Probably not.
I’m really glad and proud to call myself a Kansas Citian. But I’m worried.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
I think people in St. Louis are heading over to East St. Louis.
Now THAT, Jim, is a shining city on a hill.
Yes, Chuck, I’ve been by East St. Louis on I-64 many times…Truly a beautiful city from afar.
Joco residents “freeload” what the hell are you talking about? The e tax is just a way for KC to live beyond it’s means. IF the streets were clear after a non-election year snow storm, IF the roads were free of pot holes, IF the streets were safe, IF the money was not used to support failed entertainment districts, IF the money was not used to support 2 massive arenas, one that sits empty most of the time and costs the city millions every year, IF the money was used for maintaining the very urban “prizes” KC is famous for, but it is not. The money is squandered daily, from paying for the mayor’s wife’s racist words, to high prices dinners for the police, to deferred and not ever done maintenance, Millions of unrepresented tax dollars have flowed into the pockets of corrupt unions, millions of unrepresented tax dollars fill the pockets of the connected.
IF KC was a good steward of the money they steal from unrepresented folks that would be different. KC is on the way to becoming Detroit, empty scorched land surrounded by suburbs.
I don’t pay the earnings tax, all of my income comes from business outside of KC, I don’t go into KC, the cops tend to like Joco plates, they know the ticket will be paid. KC does all it can to milk the burbs and as a result failure is on the horizon.
Time to stand on your own KC, live within your means, stop stealing from those outside.
My thoughts parallel yours: KC residents are beating feet.
Our kids attend a private school, but close friends have several of their brood in (UCM charter) Academie Lafayette. AL has been exploring a partnership with the KCSD over the last year or so; consequently I’ve paid closer attention to other schools in the greater KC area than I probably otherwise would have.
So – with a 50% drop in KCSD enrollment over the last decade (and no seeming end in sight), with the (probable) repeal of the e-tax looming combined with a (possible) repeal of the state income tax and a sudden reliance on a stiff sales tax (isn’t KC’s current tax already 8%?), with no academic progress within the KCSD schools proper…the exodus of people of means, hell, even just steady jobs, will continue.
And if the only plan City Hall has of creating jobs is to seed private businesses while later ceding resulting tax revenues, if water/sewage rates explode (and they will), if the city’s basic infrastructure further crumbles, if the incipient crime continues unabated…who can blame them?
The only question in my mind is whether said outbound flight continues long enough for us to duplicate Detroit.
Hmmm…. Jim, I like your column today. What a clever way to back into a future mayoral candidate discussion with very interesting and unsettling statistics.
BTW….the 2/22/11 primary “turnout was 12.55 percent according to Yael T. Abouhalkah (UPDATED 8:22 p.m. Earlier posts below.) Midwest Voices http://voices.kansascity.com/entries/2011-mayoral-votes-consider-2007-results/“…… surely that’s not true. In one of the most important elections in the last 100yrs. When everyone in the KC city limits has their quality of life future in their hands 87.45 % of eligible voters stayed home?? What sort of mandate for change and governance is that?
This fair and beautiful city isn’t just dead, that would be too easy, it’s in an apparently irreversible coma on life support. But yes I’m looking forward to voting for my new mayor to get the party started.
sure go ahead and pour salt in the wound…
You took that better than I thought you would, Gus…Believe me, I don’t take any joy in seeing “the dimming of St. Louis.” A comeback is in order for both bookend cities.
Jim
Well, after UMKC and Columbia, there was SOME REASON I was commissioned and graduated from UMSL …..
donlake@ymail.com Ruskin and U of Missery
I enjoyed this piece. Having grown up in St. Louis and live here again, I can say I truly loved living in Kansas City and would not hesitate to do so again when a family matter resolves itself.
It’s no surprise St. Louis City is losing population. It’s square mile area is only 62 while Kansas City’s city limits covers 318 square miles. KCMO has several great areas to develop while St. Louis has very little.
St. Louis is transforming itself a bit. Loft housing downtown is steadily growing and a developer has an urban plan for north St. Louis that is getting some support.
Now, on to local police control and the earnings tax…
Scott Simon
St. Louis
Former KMBZ Anchor/Reporter
You’re missed here in Kansas City, Scott. Yours was always a steady, reliable voice.
I hope you’re doing well in St. Louis. There are parts of St. Louis that I like a lot, such as the melting pot of Grand Boulevard by Tower Grove Park and the St. Louis University area. But downtown isn’t very appealing, and that’s the key in these days where big-city downtown areas rely so heavily on conventions and tourism. This week in Kansas City, for example, we have the Big XII women’s and men’s basketball tournaments. One’s at Sprint Center, the other at Municipal Auditorium. Where to party after the games? No problem. Right in the middle — Power & Light District.
Jim
If you guys at the Star had done your jobs properly and told the public the truth about the KC school district and it’s board members, this mess might not be so bad now.
The Star never told the truth about the gross corruption of the board members and that the whole thing was about jobs and goodies for friends and family and not about the students. This was an especially black thing too but the Star is not going to spill the beans about such non PC revelations.
The Mafia had it’s man on the board for years who slept during many meetings. The Star never told. (and they knew)
The truth is, after many untold millions of dollars wasted and students cheated from good educations, the KC District is a total ruin and smoking clump of ash.
My kids went to KC schools for two years and it was not a great experience. Some of the teachers were morons but others fairly good.
And if KC is so damn great, why are people like me living in Kansas and loving it? Could it be they are not so screwed up here? Less corrupt? More competent?
And that nonsense about being a parasite….give it a rest.