Sometimes There is More Than One Answer

It appears that spring has finally come to University City, although it’s had a bumpy arrival. Trees are blossoming all over town. Lawns are starting to green out. And the kids are coming back to the Loop on balmy weekend nights.

Last weekend was tough. Hundreds and hundreds of youth decided to visit the Loop at one time. We are seeing in our downtown business area a concrete example of the efficiency of modern communications. Young people from throughout the St. Louis area can link up within minutes – messages being passed to friends, then on to friends of friends, and on and on. And they decide within minutes where they are heading, and some town has to handle the rush.

As has been the case for the last three years, the Delmar Loop in University City and the City of St. Louis has had to respond to these crowds.

I took office last year on April 22nd. The problem of huge crowds in the Loop was one of the first big issues the new Council had to consider. We adjusted the curfew in the Loop – after 9pm anyone under 17 now has to be accompanied by an adult. The police presence was expanded. Police checked IDs regularly. And the kids who caused trouble were taken in and charged.

We got through the summer without massive problems. Then school started again, the weather cooled, and the Loop crowds returned to the old “normal”.

School’s not out now, but students can see the finish line. After a really lousy winter we’ve had some evenings of perfect spring weather. And so hundreds of youth from throughout the St. Louis region are visiting the Loop again – because it is central and a hip place to see and be seen. And this business area, our local police, other visitors to the Loop and the local businesses were overwhelmed.

This is not working. We know it is not working and this administration has moved quickly to expand on efforts that were put in place in the past.

• City Manager Lehman Walker sent out a news release on Monday, April 11th detailing the first steps he is taking to deal with this challenge. (I have copied that news release below.)
• Mr. Walker discussed these plans with members of the Council at our Monday meeting, and we all heard from members of the public about concerns about the crowds and suggestions on how we might deal with them.
• Mr. Walker, Police Chief Charles Adams, Councilmembers Kraft, Crow and I attended the monthly meeting of the Loop Special Business District to reassure business owners that we are working on this. Mr. Walker discussed his plans. Chief Adams spent a good chunk of times talking about how his officers have and will face the challenge. And he answered many questions.
• Mr. Walker and Chief Adams met with the St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s Chief of Staff, the St. Louis Police Department, St. Louis Alderwoman Lyda Krewson and representatives from Washington University and Metro to discuss next steps, which include an expanded police presence and increased enforcement – more ticketing of and fewer warnings to people causing trouble.
• Mr. Walker had a personal conversation with John Nations, the head of Metro, about Metro procedures and security.
• Mr. Walker met with Lew Prince of Vintage Vinyl, Joe Edwards of the East Loop Business District, and Jessica Bueler of the Loop Special Business District to revise a permit request for an annual event at Vintage Vinyl that will be held this Saturday.
• Mr. Walker is sending out a letter to all Loop merchants restating our support and our commitment to managing this challenge.
• The City is putting out bids for a camera surveillance system for the Loop – funded by the Economic Development Sales Tax, a process that was in place prior to last weekend.
• We are asking the City Attorney to look into additional ordinances that, if passed, might help us handle the crowds. This takes some time because work needs to be done to ensure that any new ordinances are legally sound. Possible ordinances include a change in the curfew time and age; an ordinance that would limit vendor trucks in the Loop on the weekends (This past weekend, on Saturday, a truck was in the Loop handing out free energy drinks.); and one that would mandate that outdoor furniture be stacked when a business is not open, so that the furniture does not become a hang-out location.

We are working hard to manage gatherings that organize on-line, that we don’t know about until they happen. It’s not an easy job. But our staff is working with our neighbor St. Louis and other involved parties to manage this challenge. We are not doing it on our own, because this is not just our problem. This is a regional problem and I believe it has to be faced on a regional basis.

When I became Mayor a year ago, I made appointments to meet with the mayors of surrounding communities. I wanted to introduce myself, discuss how we might work together, and bring up issues on my mind.

At the top of my issues list was this challenge with so many youth converging on U City on nice weekends. Most of the kids who end up in the Loop are not from U City, but from all over the region. I told the mayors with whom I spoke (Slay of St. Louis, County Executive Dooley of St. Louis County, Whitfield of Wellston and Goldstein of Clayton, among others) that I thought we needed to approach this issue on a regional basis. There are not enough jobs for the youth in our community during these hard economic times. The youth have been banned from the privately-owned-and-operated malls, where they have been hanging out for years. What do they do? Where do they go?

County Executive Dooley said, quite forcefully and quite rightly, that government cannot do everything; that there is plenty of stuff for kids to do in the region; and that parents have to be more involved. And he is right. But, I told him, it’s not working. So….what do we do? Do we solve the problem in the Delmar Loop but just push it to another part of St. Louis City or County? I would hope not.

This is what I did. I added “Youth” to my Mayor’s Task Force on Seniors. It’s now the Mayor’s Task Force on Seniors and Youth. That task force is doing an asset inventory for our youth – determining what services, programs, recreational and other opportunities exist for youth in our community. Then they will be doing a needs survey – surveying youth and parents and guardians in our community to get a sense of what is needed and desired for the younger residents of University City. Finally, the task force will present me with their recommendations on what University City could and should be doing for our youth.

And I hope that these recommendations might be considered by other municipalities. Let University City lead the way on this.

In addition, I wonder:

• Can we start a regional conversation on how to integrate youth programming that is offered in the City of St. Louis and throughout St. Louis County? And can we figure out how to get the word out about the opportunities that already exist?
• As part of that conversation should we discuss the possibility of organizing region-wide athletic leagues? The City of St. Louis has a basketball league. Mayor James McGee of Vinita Park has gotten his kids involved in another league in his area. Is there a way to bring all of these efforts together, add a few more, and set up a system where youth from around the region are meeting each other in friendly competitive games, instead of on the streets where trouble could arise?
• Can we sponsor a region-wide summit – inviting all the non-profit organizations from the St. Louis area who deal with youth in this targeted age group to get their ideas and suggestions? They are the people who really know kids – shouldn’t we be picking their brains for ideas?
• Can we see this challenge as an opportunity to start working together across the City/County line?

I would very much like to partner with other mayors to start this conversation. And we have to do it, and soon.

I also have to encourage all residents of University City to continue to support our Loop and Loop merchants. Patrick Liberto, the owner of Meshuggah Coffee House, said at the Loop Special District meeting on Tuesday that “this is our neighborhood”. He’s right. University City is well known throughout the region. It is seen as the cool place to be by lots of people, including our kids. (And I know this from personal experience – our 13-year-old loves to head to the Loop with her friends from Delmar-Harvard). We face special challenges because of our location in the metro area. That is what has made U City what it is today. That’s why many of us live here. This is our neighborhood.

We can’t give up.

We will fix this.

Mayor Shelley Welsch

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  April 11, 2011

CITY MANAGER IN UNIVERSITY CITY FOCUSES ATTENTION ON THE U CITY LOOP

Lehman Walker, the City Manager of University City, will be working with the City Council and Police Chief Charles Adams to pinpoint ways to manage the influx of hundreds of youth to the University City Loop.  Walker, who started worked as City Manager in August of 2010, is faced with his first full season of handling spring and summer crowds in the Loop, many of whom are not coming to the area to support area businesses.

“I have been working with Chief Adams since my arrival to fine-tune our approach to the challenges we have faced every spring and summer for the past three years in our Loop business district,” said Mr. Walker.  “Each year brings new challenges, and the City staff and Council are committed to managing things in a way that provides a sense of security to everyone who wants to come to the Loop to support our businesses, while protecting the rights of all metropolitan residents who want to spend their evenings in this great business district.”

Specifically, City Manager Walker would like to:

• Reconsider the focus of the current Loop curfew, reviewing the curfew hours and the affected age groups;
• Reevaluate the police staffing in the Loop, in light of the City’s police needs throughout the whole city;
• Work with adjacent municipalities to develop a strategy to address these challenges on a regional basis; and
• Focus the proposal for charging for parking on the City-owned lots on increased security in addition to maintenance of these lots; and
• Share all information with the Mayor’s Task Force on Seniors & Youth which is working to develop proposals on how better to provide for the needs of the youth in our community.

Mr. Walker will present these ideas at the regular session of the City Council which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. this evening in the Council Chamber.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Lehman Walker, 314-505-8534, lwalker@ucitymo.org

The mayor's blog is NOT affiliated with the official University City website. That is at www.ucitymo.org. The mayor's personal website is NOT trying to replicate what's on the City's website.