How many people go back to read the first post of a blog? If you’re here, you deserve a special treat. A tidbit or two that few others would know about. So…
I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. I bet you don’t meet many people from St. Louis. It’s a forgotten Midwestern city. No longer growing. No longer relevant. But here are the tidbits: Everyone knows that Lewis and Clark started their expedition into the Louisiana Territory from St. Louis. Well into the 20th Century, St. Louis was still the “Gateway to the West,” as the last major city pioneers would pass through before entering the frontier. But just how “major” was the city?
In 1904 the World’s Fair was held in St. Louis. At that time, it was the 3rd or 4th largest city in the country (there’s some dispute). The hamburger was first introduced to the world there. The St. Louis zoo is one of the most important zoos in the country and the wild bird cage there was the largest such cage in the world when it was first built. When the Eads Bridge was built over the Mighty Mississippi in 1874, it was the longest arched bridge in the world and the first bridge to use steel.
One of the oldest Major League Baseball franchises makes St. Louis its home–the St. Louis Cardinals. And for a time the Cardinals were owned by the largest brewer in the world United States, Anheuser-Busch (the brewery is now owned by a Belgian company…a travesty if ever there was).
But by the middle of the 20th Century St. Louis fell into irreversible decline as the importance of Mississippi River traffic gave way to railroads then Interstate Highways. Why do I say “irreversible?” The city leaders made a short-sighted political decision back in 1874: Prior to that , St. Louis was part of the County of St. Louis. The leaders saw nothing of value outside their city’s boundaries, so they had a special provision written into the 1874 re-write of the Missouri Constitution, namely that St. Louis was allowed to secede from the county and become an independent city. No longer would St. Louis residents have to pay taxes to develop the untamed outlying areas of what became the independent St. Louis County. Of course, within 75 years, all the growth in the metropolitan area was happening in St. Louis County, and the “liberated ” city could not expand to take advantage of it.
I learned these tidbits of history in high school civics. And ever since then the part about short-sighted St. Louis politicians has colored my view of the ability of government to solve problems of society.
Now you know a key part of the “why” behind my view of the world. And I hope your visit to this first post was worth your effort.