Housing, Urban Development and Zoning - Regular Meeting

Thank you. We'll call today's Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee meeting to order. Madam Clerk, please call the roll. We're trying to be respective of our collaboration here with the library, so I'm trying to move as quickly as possible so that we can get what we're here for is to hear from you all, right? And so we want to have as much time as possible to hear from you all before our hearts stop at 745 to be out by 8.

Thank you.

And this is not the last opportunity to speak. There will be no legislating as it relates to amendments or anything so that we don't take up the time. This time and space was requested by President Green to meet you all out in the community. And so, again, we want to take advantage of that and hopefully start as quickly as possible to have as much time as we can to hear from the community. Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Alderman Cohn. Alderman Schweitzer. Vice Chair Sonnier. Alderman Browning. Alderman Aldridge.

Present.

Chair Clark Hubbard. Here. President Green.

Present.

Alderman Cohn. Alderwoman Schweitzer. Vice Chair Sonnier, Alderman Browning, we have three present.

Okay, we're going to, just for clarity, we don't actually need a full quorum. I just came. That's where I'm rushing from. We had another committee hearing that's still going on where two of our members are present, and so they will come in later. President Green, if you want to make an introduction on what Board Bill 22 is so they can go directly into public comment.

Great. Thank you, Chairwoman Clark-Humberd and members of the HUD's committee. Today, I'm here to present on Board Bill 22, which responds to the critical citywide needs by allocating $230 million of the RAM settlement fund. The funding priorities in this bill reflect what we've heard from residents through a dedicated public engagement process and ongoing conversations with the mayor's office, members of the Board of Aldermen, and other community stakeholders. The initial online engagement strategy demonstrated that the majority of residents viewed this fund as a transformational opportunity for the city and identified key themes for investment. You might have remembered about two years ago we did the initial public engagement around this. And what residents across the city said they wanted us to focus on was infrastructure, city worker wages, subsidized child care, a revolving loan fund for redevelopment, particularly in areas seeing disinvestment in our city and the need for both downtown and north side development. While those priorities remain, we know that we have had three events that have reshaped this proposal that we are discussing here today. First and foremost, last year's tornado and the subsequent response by local, state and federal officials made it clear that we need a significant long-term commitment to rebuilding. Second, House Bills 199 and 3231 recently established entertainment and innovation districts, which unlock state funding for redevelopment projects downtown, allowing the city to build on momentum of other projects currently underway, including the redevelopment of the Millennium Hotel and the Jefferson Arms Building. And third, in consultation with residents and neighborhood groups, the Planning and Urban Design Agency completed four neighborhood plans which cover nine north St. Louis neighborhoods. And plans for the remaining north side neighborhoods will be completed by the end of this year. Many of you in this room may have engaged in the planning process already for those neighborhood plans. And what those do is they give us a blueprint for rebuilding neighborhoods in a way that align with the various specific needs and visions that residents have for your own neighborhoods. And before I move on, because we have gotten a lot of questions about this, I want to highlight what it might mean to implement a neighborhood plan. If we're just looking at the plan one, plan area one plan, for example, some of the things that came out of that is residents wanting to see more identity branding throughout their neighborhoods. They wanted to see us enable urban agriculture and build more food access and food resilience hubs on vacant land. They wanted us to expand down payment assistance and provide shared equity pathways to help grow black homeownership. and to fill in sidewalk gaps near schools, nodes, and corridors to make it easier for residents to get around their neighborhoods. And so those are the types of things that this money could fund in developing those neighborhood plans. The plan is no good if it just sits on a shelf. So for those reasons, Board Bill 22 supports three key areas that stakeholders have identified as vital to our city's long-term success. The first is tornado recovery and rebuilding of North St. Louis. The second is citywide infrastructure investments. And the third is downtown revitalization. And it's worth mentioning that the other residents priorities like raising city worker wages and subsidized childcare are being addressed in other ways. So it was still important for us to hear that those were priorities from the community because For example, the city did a pay study where we found that we had some workers making 30% under what they needed to be making. And so in the next budget bill we have taking effect July 1, we've remedied a lot of those pay disparities. And so that is being handled that way. And some of you might have also heard there is a currently a ballot initiative related to affordable early childhood that is being circulated. And so that's another pathway for getting that done, even if it's not happening through RAMS funds. I also want to make sure that we understand that the largest investment in this proposal is directed toward North St. Louis and tornado recovery. So we are creating a $79 million long-term tornado recovery fund to help residents, businesses, and neighborhoods recover. So what does this include? It includes funding for repairing tornado damaged homes, for supporting housing preservation and new housing construction, stabilizing neighborhoods, repairing sidewalk, removing hazardous trees, assisting residents with temporary housing and other recovery needs. And it also provides dedicated funding for program delivery, oversight, and accountability to make sure that this round of money we are able to get out into the community faster than the original $30 million that was allocated. Because we know we did not move fast enough as a city, but we do feel like we have a lot of the pathways set up now to be able to act faster. In addition to the $79 million, the proposal also creates $31 million for North St. Louis Neighborhood Plan implementation. And so this is sort of the rebuilding bucket is the way that we want to look at it. at this. These dollars will help to implement the neighborhood plans that have already been adopted and shaped by residents, and funding can support housing development, small businesses. We know that there's been 300 small businesses that have closed since the tornado in the tornado impact zone, and we want to make sure that we're able to provide some small business support, neighborhood beautification, infrastructure improvements to parks and key community services. Importantly, projects funded through this process must demonstrate community consultation and alignment with the neighborhood plans. What we don't want to do is go into the rebuilding phase and be funding redevelopment and rebuilding that doesn't match what people who live in these neighborhoods want to see, what you want to see in your neighborhood. And so what will happen is at a later date, residents will be asked to affirm specific spending strategies by voting to approve resolution or resolutions that sign off on the development and agree that this matches what is in the neighborhood plans that were developed. Additionally, this bill proposes $65 million in major infrastructure investments, and this is a citywide fund. So it creates $30 million for a water infrastructure fund to support $700 million of critical water system improvements. which our water department intends to use as part of its financial plan to leverage revenue bonds and state and federal loan programs. So that $30 million investment will help them get access to other money to be able to improve our water department. Another $30 million will support safer streets and sidewalks, things like traffic calming, ADA accessibility, recreation centers. We have money set aside within them to make sure that we are supporting our youth with you know, quality places that they can go to in the community through our rec centers, tree removal, and neighborhood infrastructure upgrades. And these investments prioritize high-need areas and corridors with significant pedestrian safety concerns. And we know kind of as we look at our maps of the city and where a lot of collisions take place between pedestrians and pedestrians, and vehicles that disproportionately happens on the north side. So I would expect a good portion of infrastructure money to also be spent in north side neighborhoods to address some of these needs. As part of this, we're also creating a $5 million vacancy reduction fund focused on tackling vacant and neglected properties citywide. So this will allow us to strengthen enforcement against absentee property owners. We all know that we have way too many LLCs in California that own property and never do anything. With them and we can never get in contact with them and so this would provide ongoing funding to be able to provide legal support to go after some of these negligent owners to Get them to either do something with your property or sell your property And it would also work on expanding Pre-approved building plans to make sure that we can redevelop in a faster way And then finally, the last bucket, this proposal invests $55 million in downtown revitalization. Downtown's our economic engine, and its success, we know, impacts every neighborhood. So these funds would support major capital projects, safer and more walkable streets, riverfront improvements, retail and restaurant activation, and help us to attract more events to bring residents and visitors back to downtown. There are a few things before I close that I want to touch on in this bill. As you can see, these funds on their own are not enough to fully repair our water streets infrastructure, transform downtown, or completely restore communities that were destroyed by last year's tornado. But much of this money is structured in a way to help us leverage matching funds. So the water division, for instance, will be seeking state and federal funds, but they need the local match in order to get those funds and meet their capital goals. The funds will also be set up to accept matching donations by corporate and philanthropic partners, which in the case of North St. Louis and the Tornado Recovery Fund through the Community Foundation will be necessary to meet the extraordinary level of need to replace all housing and spur development. We know that we are looking at an almost $2 billion need. And so, you know, $110 million that is proposed here is not going to 100% fill that need, but it will help us access additional money to fill those needs. And I also want to note that each of the funds outlined here will be moved into their own interest bearing accounts, meaning that the funds will continue to gain interest as they are spent down. And any interest that is generated will stay in that fund. So for example, for the Tornado Recovery and Northside Fund, that $110 million will continue to generate interest and all the interest that is generated in it will stay in that account as it's spent down. So there will be more than $110 million that is generated into it before all of that is spent down. So with that, I want to thank members of the committee and will, I think, No. Wrap it up? Okay. And so with that, we have one last or one more hearing on this that will take place next Tuesday at 11 a.m. at City Hall. Tonight, we will not have amendments. We're just here to hear public testimony. So with that, I'll turn it back over to you.

Thank you, President Green. So with that, I want to make sure to first thank you all for taking the time to come out and meet us here, be in position for us to be able to hear from you, which is most important. Regretfully, coming here means that we didn't have the Zoom access that we typically have in our other meetings. So my commitment is that when we start our meeting on June 9th, for the people that can only participate via Zoom, we're going to start with that. Because we want to make sure if they could only be here to speak Zoom and they have something to say, that we hear from them. Again, it was noted that we won't legislate. That means amendments and things here. That's, again, out of respect for you all's time and the collaboration here with St. Louis Public Library. If you haven't already signed up and you want to speak, please make sure you sign up with the clerks. I'm going to swear everybody in at one time to quickly go through this so we don't have to hold everybody up with this. So everybody that has signed up to speak, if you can raise your right hand. And in the overflow room as well. You swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thank you so much. And we'll proceed. You'll hear your name called by our clerk. It's noted that in these hearings, we typically have three minutes, but we have a lot of people that we want to hear from. So if you definitely have three minutes, we don't want to take that from you. But if you have less than three minutes, then that'll allot time for others to speak. Thank you.

Our first speaker is Sharon Williams.

Thank you to our staff for being here at no point.

OK. Good evening, everybody. And thank you for allowing me to speak today. My name is Sharon Williams. And I live at Homer G. Phillips, the old hospital Homer G. Phillips, which is now a senior building. And I'm the president of the Resident Association. A lot of you have heard me asking and begging for things. And I'm here today to ask and beg again. We were in the tornado as well. And although we live in one of the largest structures in North St. Louis, we were affected by the tornado Well, when it occurred, my roof came off at the top. Some of our things came up, which is now leaking on the sixth floor into residence apartments. Our windows, which are very large windows. I think a lot of people were complaining that after the tornado, the windows dropped down at the top. And so now we're getting that kind of bugs and water and things into the building. But before that, our building was kind of like left there. It's been neglected. And it's a city-owned property. And it's been truly neglected, especially by the management company that is currently in there now. And we're working on trying to get them together. But I do believe that the money that has been put forth needs to come back into North St. Louis because not only is our building structure was damaged by the tornado, but the outside of our building, the sidewalks, the streets, we have a lot of people in here that are on walkers and on motor scooters. When you walk two feet in front of you, you can't get over the next hump in the sidewalk. So a lot of our residents are forced to get into the middle of the street. And if you're on that street on Whittier, you know how fast those cars zoom by, and then the fire department is right there. So I believe that the money that is being allocated should be put forth into North St. Louis, into the community, and to some of those entities that have been very neglected, like the Homer G. Phillips building. So thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Williams.

Thank you, Ms. Williams. Next, we have Michael McLemore of the 12th Ward in opposition.

Good evening. Good evening. Can y'all hear me? OK. So I want to start by saying, if you have not had the chance to drive through the impacted zone on the way to this meeting, I hope you all take the chance to do so following this hearing. I think it's important to do so in order to really take in how dire the situation really is and why myself and other organizers are going so hard for this cause. As I'm sure you all have heard, In addition to my organizing around securing more funds for the north side, I myself am an impacted resident right across Natural Bridge on Lexington and live with the lack of urgency for recovery from the city of St. Louis every single day. I don't get the opportunity to take a break or clock off or just do something else. This is literally my reality 24-7. And to be clear, I fully intend to keep advocating for my neighbors and fill the gaps left by folks who consider my presence and local displeasure of the pace of this recovery as threats to their personal safety. So my demand remains the same. I demand $150 million from the Ram Settlement Fund be allocated to us to recovery efforts in North St. Louis City. Though this is not nearly enough, it provides a pathway for residents from neighborhoods like this one we're in now to get back home. This is an opportunity for the city of St. Louis to start rebuilding trust already lost during this process. Under funding recovery, when we have the funds to begin to rebuild, sends a message to the north side that in addition to downtown interest groups like Greater St. Louis not giving a damn about them with their livelihoods, but also that their city government couldn't care less about them either. And that is completely unacceptable. The sooner we can get these RAMS funds allocated, the sooner we can increase our advocacy for federal HUD dollars that will fill the remaining gaps in recovery. But we need our city to buy in first, and this is your chance to do so now. Thank you.

Thank you. You can just leave the mic so other people don't have to keep running back and forth.

Next we have Reed Chun of the 11th Ward in opposition.

Right. I was saying, just pass it to, when you finish this, so that you can just pass it to the next person. Thank you.

Good afternoon, good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Reed Chun. I'm a graduate of the illustrious Harris-Sell State University, and I'm here before you to request an augmentation to the current proposal from $110 million to $150 million in the proposal. And the reason I say this is, we all know that the tornado caused a $1.6 billion in damage. But The downtown received approximately $0 in damage from the tornado, yet they're receiving about almost 50% of what the north side is receiving in order to revitalize them. And this is not fair. This is not equitable. So of that, 110 million, 5.5 million of that is simply for administrative funds. So the residents don't even get to see that. And of the remaining 29.5 million of that 31 million is most likely either in loans or inaccessible to North City residents themselves. So that's further reducing how much we get to see to help rebuild our community. As a homeowner and as a graduate, I love my community, I love my neighbors, but I do see the neglect every day going to and from work. Additionally, the reason for the increase is to help compensate for the years of neglect that the north side has already seen. We have, according to my account, of the 17 St. Louis public schools that are listed for sale, they either abandoned or dilapidated, 16 of them are in north St. Louis. So it's difficult for us to send our kids somewhere to go that has proper funding. Additionally, during the tornado recovery, community organizations organized faster and they organized much wider than the city of St. Louis themselves. I know most of my information came from the people's response going door to door to ensure that we had all the information necessary. Additionally, our parks, our courts, our fields are regularly forgotten. We had a tennis court at Sumner High School, and within two weeks it already grew cracks, it grew grasses, and every weekend we teach tennis to kids, and we show them Sumner Court, Arthur Ashfield, and we show them BJC. And the stark difference is BJC has never had a crack in their field. BJC has never been rotten. BJC has never had weeds growing between them, yet when we get a new court, we choose the lowest bidder and we get poor quality. And the last thing is, St. Louis and Missouri itself did not seek to access all the funds available from either FEMA or from HUD. So this is just a drop in the bucket of what we can get to recuperate what should be coming to us and what our city leaders should be working for. So again, I'm asking for augmentation from $110 million to $150 million to recuperate what we've already lost. Thank you.

You can just pass it to the next person that'll come up. Our next speaker is Curtis Young.

Excuse me. Who's Curtis Young?

Yes, I live in North St. Louis right now. At one time, I had a house in North St. Louis on Corte. And this house is completely destroyed. Completely destroyed. It needs to be repaired. It needs to be... needs to be helped i need help for that to to complete my uh restoration of this home i was asking of a part of this committee of this money be used used in our neighborhood to help our neighborhood our neighborhood is in completely uh It's destruction. It's destruction. We need help in North St. Louis. All of North St. Louis needs help. And I'm asking the committee to please help North St. Louis. We need a lot of money for North St. Louis. We can't do it by ourselves. We need help. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much as well on that. We understand if you have challenges, just bring it on up. I know you want to run over. Whoever the next person is to speak, we're trying to cut down on time. So don't put it back on there because it's falling out. The next person that speaks, we want you to come up. And then if you could just stand there and give it to the next person so that you are in the shot and we are capturing it. We understand the challenges. If you can't stand up, but we would like you to stand up so that we make sure that we're capturing your comments. Thank you.

Okay, the next speaker is Cynthia Williams.

WE WANT TO MAKE SURE IT SOUNDS LIKE IT MIGHT BE SOME PEOPLE THAT JUST SIGNED, THOUGHT THEY MIGHT HAVE BEEN SIGNING IN, BUT DIDN'T NECESSARILY WANT TO SPEAK. WE'RE NOT MAKING YOU SPEAK, MS. WILLIAMS, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO. BUT JUST KNOW THAT WHEN YOU SIGN THAT SHEET, IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN FOR A SPEAKER SO WE CAN KEEP IT GOING AND HEAR IT FROM AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. BUT, MS. WILLIAMS, YOU KNOW, WE ALWAYS WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU IF YOU WANT TO SPEAK NOW.

OKAY. I'M FROM AUBURN AVENUE. The house has been in my name for over 50 years. My father gave it to me as a 21 year present, whatever. The house has been in my family's name for over 80 years. I know Arbort when Arbort was tree lined and beautiful. The city came because they were supposed to, you know, those little, I don't know if they call that medium or wherever by the street. Okay. They were supposed to maintain the trees and they automatically cut them all down. They told the, they bamboozled the neighbors, the elderly neighbors that will cut them down for free if you do it today. Well, that caused us to have totally hot winners. It caused us to have, um, You know, no fresh air. I mean, it was a lot of things happening. I would like to see some of that money to come back and not only do the houses, but the neighborhoods to be as attractive as some of the neighborhoods are in the Central West End that still have their trees. Now, I need my house done, don't get me wrong. But I would like to see some things happen to do... anesthetic kind of beauty so that not only will the houses be repaired, which needs to happen, but, you know, it doesn't cost much to plant a tree. And then later on, 10 years later, we'll all benefit on the beauty of the area, too. Thank you, Ms. Williams. I wasn't prepared to say anything. No, you said the perfect thing.

You said the perfect thing. Thank you, Ms. Williams. And please remember that if you're going to be uncomfortable standing for the duration of the meeting, we do have the overflow room available. The clerks can assist you and point you in that direction. Next speaker, please.

In this order, if we're going to try to stand, call at least five people up at a time. So first, we're going to have Kayla Reed, Justin Logan from the First Ward.

Can I do this?

Kim Johnson. And Alicia Bay.

I thought she was still, I didn't know she was finished. Good evening. Very grateful that you all have had a hearing in North City. I want to just offer, I think there needs to be another one because you're going to run out of time. And yeah, if you need another building, we have one that doesn't close at 8. Want to first start with, so we've been on the other side of this building for about two hours feeding North City and talking to folks about this piece of legislation who can't come in because they've been working all day, et cetera. And I met a man today that I haven't met before. His name was Mr. Oscar Brown. He lives in the Vander Vander neighborhood and his home was devastated by the tornado. Since the tornado, he's experienced profound health issues and was at the doctor today all day for an additional test. And he cites the cause of his issues as stress from the lack of resources that he's been able to acquire. He had insurance. His insurance has since dropped him. He went through FEMA, got less than what he needed. He hired a contractor that screwed him over. This is not an anomaly story. This is the norm in North City. And so when we say that we want $150 million of the Rams Fund to go north, it is not an arbitrary number. It is rooted in applications that have been submitted to the city based on the allocation of $50,000 per home. It is possible, it is doable, and it is the correct and right thing to do. Right now we're sitting at 110. It does not make sense for the city to have a $25 million reserve fund of the RAMS fund when the city has 150 plus million dollars in actual reserves. Some of that needs to go to water. We support water. We all support water, yes. We love being a city that has the best water in the country. So let's split the reserves, 15 north, 10 to the water department. We need to take some of these arbitrary dollars from downtown, where it's just 15, 15, 15, 15. That's not actually what they need for that amount. They don't actually have a plan for some of those allocations. And we actually have a true need that has a quantitative amount that we need to raise. So we're calling for money to come out of downtown. The infrastructure pot that is not water, inside of the infrastructure pot, I'm really interested to understand the conversation between Ward capital for infrastructure and what that infrastructure pot needs. There's been lots of conversations in North City about all their people who have high reserve or high allocation amount of Ward capital, but I really think the pathway to 150 is doable. Cut the reserve amount. $25 million won't respond to any emergency. We just had an emergency. We've seen what the $30 million has done. It's not enough. So let's use it to rehouse people so people like Mr. Brown are not suffering 365 days later. We have talked to people across North City. I want to address some of the rumors. The South City supports this. I live in South City. I don't know how many people here live in South City, but there's massive support in South City for this. There's massive support from downtown residents who support this. People in each of your wards support this. So there is no reason to not allocate more money to North City. And we really do get one shot at this. The last thing I'll say, I chair the Reparations Commission. These neighborhood plans are beautiful in thought. One neighborhood plan is like a $6 billion plan, right? What is the money going to do for the neighborhood plan except be a drop in the bucket when we could fix someone's home? We have to prioritize what is the immediate need and do that. So I think there needs to be some intra reallocations of the money to North City and more money from the other pots to North City. I think it's doable. It is possible. We're not asking anyone to cut anything else. completely eliminate it we can still give downtown money even I don't think we should but they because they have their own money we can still fund water because we all drink it and we can take care of the people who've asked for support and not have to choose between one resident and another with the $50,000 with this allocation we're currently at thanks so much

Hi, my name is Kim Johnson. I'm from the 10th Ward. Before I get into my story, I'm asking you to reallocate all the funds from downtown, the public infrastructure, and the $150 million from the RAM Fund to North City. I am a homeowner. Let me rephrase that. I used to be a homeowner. My home was destroyed in the city of St. Louis. I applied for all the programs they had me apply for, but the damage to my house... Let me show you a picture. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. And they said my home is passed. The $50,000 rehabilitation bill restabilized. And they want to... They want to... demolish and remove the debris. December 6th I had a mini stroke because I was overwhelmed and worried about what I was going to do. I have mold in my system which keeps me stuffed up. I can't breathe. I'm living with my daughter and right now my roof, two walls, they all collapsed. But then I applied for the program My home is too messed up. And then they just send me an email. Less than 30 days I have to let them know whether or not I want them to demolish and remove the debris to my home. 30 days is not enough for me to make that decision because I was under the impression that I was going to receive some help. So I'm asking you to reallocate the funds to the city.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Thank you for holding this for us to have the opportunity to stand here and speak to you about the needs of the citizens in this area. North City St. Louis has been absolutely devastated by this event, and we most certainly need the assistance from all of you. The funds allocated to downtown St. Louis, I will second the motion of the last... I think that all of those funds need to go to North City for the rebuilding and the bringing back of the residents and the people in this neighborhood. As city officials, you take an oath to the Constitution, and that's to uphold and support the Constitution, which means support and uphold the people. And under that oath, you're supposed to actually do what we say do. In a representative government, you all are supposed to repeat what the residents say. And if the residents say, we need these funds for our health to keep us secure in our neighborhoods and in our communities, because most of these homes that we've been in are generational homes. There have been great-grandmothers who have been in these homes, and we don't want them torn down. As we know, we have the best infrastructure in the world in St. Louis. And this area, I actually domicile right over here. So I get to see the eyesores and the buildings that are almost falling down, and the debris, and when there are storms, all of the debris that is blown around. And we want to see that rebuilt, and we want to see All of that come back to our area because, to be honest, we are the ones who fund downtown. You talk about tourists, you talk about attractions for downtown, we fund that as well, even when there are no games. We, from this North City, go downtown in other areas. And so we need to bring everything back here. And we also need businesses in this area. So some of those funds need to cover businesses for those who are actually in this area so that we don't have to always live in a food desert. Because many of these issues were present well before this tornado hit. and we know that we were already in a dire situation. This is not the first time we've needed buildings torn down that have been vacant because we understand that most of those buildings that fell, especially the ones made of brick, were because that they were vacant. And so we need to do what the people say do because that's really what your job is, not for us to beg you for anything. That's your job.

Thank you.

Next, we have Earline Walker.

My name is Maurice Davis. I stay in this neighborhood. And we getting, I mean, what we paying taxes for if we don't get our stuff fixed? Right? If the shoe was on the other foot, would you want your stuff fixed? I think they would. I think y'all would. Y'all would want it, right? You know what I'm saying? So treat us like you want us to treat you. They play games with the mail. So you can't get your bill on time. I'm right now. My house was hit in the storm, but at the same time, my electric didn't get knocked off. So why you acting like I ain't got no bill? Why you act like I don't got no account? I've been in my house over 25 years, so why is it that you saying I don't have a meter on the side of my house? You ain't been on the side of my house. I'm talking about Amber. You know what I'm saying? So they playing games with us to make us try to leave our house. I ain't going nowhere. I own my house. And my stuff got fixed as far as my tuck point. My window, I can do that myself. My door, I can do that myself. Why we get so many harassment calls? You know what I'm saying? Talking about trying to get you a loan, trying to get you this, trying to get that. The phone is ridiculous. And y'all can stop that. Everybody getting our number, calling our number consistently. You know what I'm saying? Like they fainting. So that need to stop. You know what I'm saying? I got a business. I can't even answer my phone because I think it's a spam. Sometimes they just hold the phone. And then you hold it with them. Then they feel like they want to, oh wait, we gonna hold, I'm on there 20 minutes, hold the phone. Then they want to say something. They know, so all of them ain't spam calls, they know what it is, what they doing. Y'all need to stop that. If we want them to have our number, we the gave them our number. If we wanted to reach out, we know how to reach out. We know how to go downtown town and reach out to them. It's sad what we going through, you know. And, I mean, you guys set an example with what's going on here with the youth. I mean, you ain't setting a positive direction. The guns need to go. The streets need to be cleaned up. You know what I'm saying? If you ain't out here... doing something positive, it need to be a curfew. Because there's too much going on out here. And a lot of black people getting killed. That need to stop. Y'all got cameras up everywhere. Yeah, cameras on the streetlights. Consistently running the streetlights. Consistently. But that camera up there, that camera see you. It ain't working on, they say, but that camera see you consistently. That's creating crime. Why you ain't getting no ticket in the mail? I stayed in California. They had the same cameras. So after you running, you get that ticket in the mail. They talking about they unconstitutional? No, they not. Them cameras need to be gone. That's why there's so many accidents because people is not, you know what I'm saying? They letting them. They not preventing crime.

Excuse me. That's your time. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Can you call the name that you called next? And can we make sure Mr. Davis' name is scratched off?

Thank you.

And the next person. I know. You know I know. And who's after Ms. Walker? Okay. Oh. What are the next three names so that they can be lined up?

Sylvia Woods-Griesley, I believe, or Grisby. Is this Sodan Hopkins? Adam Hopkins? Okay.

Thank you so much. If you could just be prepared to come up so that the person can pass the mic right to you so we can make sure we hear from you. Thank you. Okay.

My name is Vivian Brown. I'm from the Fourth Ward. And my concern is that it's a year later and people are going through all these darn changes. Now they need to just go on and allocate the money for the people's homes to get fixed or built. All of the above. It don't make sense that we got to come here a year later, people, water ain't running, floors falling down, houses fell down, and there's nothing being fixed. We shouldn't have to come here and do this. You all know this is done. Do you know this happened? This was not our act. This was an act of God. So why we got to come here a year later and not have nothing? People sick, having strokes, dying, and all kind of stuff going on. And nothing is being done. And you're having a meeting. You're signing your name. You're giving some food away. Okay, but we need our stuff fixed. We need it repaired. We don't need to hear another meeting and another talk. They need to go and give us this money. People need their stuff fixed. That man came on TV talking about his water ain't working and all this kind of stuff. This is crazy. This lady come up here and say she had a stroke. We should not be here a year later having a meeting and worried about where the money need to go. You need to send the money in the city where the storm did the most damage. That's the end of that. It ain't got to go north side and south side. You know what happened in the city of St. Louis. All we need to do is show our ID. Look, I lost my darn insurance and all this. They don't even want to insure you. This is crazy. It needs to be done, and it needs to be done right now. That's all I got to say.

Thank you, ma'am. And what was your name again? My name is Vivian Brown. I live in Fort Worth. Okay. If Vivian Brown was on the list, make sure that we scratch her out. Thank you. Please proceed.

Good evening. My name is Earlene Walker, and I have lived in the Northside community for the... You can't hear me? Can you hear me now? Okay. All right. I've lived in North St. Louis for the last 45 years. We bought a house and renovated it, and I became active in the community. I am not looking for any notoriety, but I assisted in getting this building built. the Julia Davis branch. Dr. Davis was 102 years old when she cut the ribbon at the grand opening. Commerce Bank donated this land. I worked with Jonathan Reed in order to get this done. I assisted Mr. Martin Matthews in developing the girls program so that we could prevent teen pregnancies in our community. I also was the president of the O'Fallon Community Organization and assisted in getting the YMCA in O'Fallon built. I am a community person and what I see going on in our community is frightening. We have had meetings. You met at the O'Fallon building to talk about the resources that were available. You put the, what is that, STL recovery. You call down there and the people won't even answer the phone, okay? You have no follow-up. There's no communication going on. I don't know if you think that we are oblivious of planning and implementation. But we need to do something. All these meetings and talking about things, it's not doing anything. You need to take some action. I have never tried to go on TV to note the things that I have contributed to this community. But what I am concerned about is why you keep having these meetings and you're not doing anything, okay? That's frightening, okay? We've invested our money. You're talking about all of the things that could be done, but you're not doing anything. There's no communication. And the resources that you put available to us The people don't even respond. They don't call you back. They don't send out letters. STL Recovery, they have all these meetings over here at this Commerce Building over here. They said, well, we'll notify you. We'll notify you. I mean, do you think that because we live in north St. Louis, we're stupid? No, no, no, no. I graduated from St. Louis University. My background is health information management. and i assisted central medical center hospital to build that facility over there i worked with the architect to get it done now it's the windows are broken out i mean it's just constant constant deterioration in our community and we have no leadership and we have no level of accountability from the people that we put in office so when are we going to do something thank you

And thank you for your decades of commitment and service to the city of St. Louis.

Thanks, Ms. Walker.

Absolutely.

Hi, my name is Sylvia Grisby. I have been living in North St. Louis City for the last past 25, 30 years. A little short story.

I had just paid the house off.

Just paid it off. All these years I've worked, I've just paid the house off. Torn head to head, no insurance, okay? Go and try to get some assistance. Send us coverage. We're going to get you. We're going to help. We're going to assist. What's that, over a year ago? Like she said, you call them. Oh, your case manager going to call you back. That's been a year. And all I would like to know is, When? When? When? Ask yourself, when? When are we going to stop just having all these meetings? Because at this point, I don't trust. I really don't trust that anything's going to happen. But one thing about it, you all may not do it, but I got a high power that will. I may right now not have my home, and I might have went through some depression. But one day it's going to put on one of your hearts and say, okay, we're going to go to the fight. Let's release this money. Let's fix up these homes. These people need it. I want my home. I'm a retired nurse. I could have got a home. But that's where my family lives. Right. That's where we grew up at. That's my legacy. And I would like to live in North St. Louis. I had some company come and visit from California. And they came down North St. Louis City. And you get embarrassment. And all I can say is, they don't care nothing about us. That's all I got to say. They don't care. They don't care.

Good evening, everybody. Can everybody hear me? Good. My name is Adam Hopkins, born and raised in the 79th District. My family has been here for four generations. My cousin, a father of five, rented a home on the 4200 block of Sacramento. The tornado took his roof. He stayed a couple days in a house that was open to the sky, then took what he had and left and never came back. The landlord got the house repaired and got relief money. The man who actually lived there got nothing. His story is not an isolated one. There is a fund built for exactly that gap, to close that gap. For the renters and displaced families FEMA dollars can't or won't reach, Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery, CDBGDR. Missouri has won it four times. Once in 2011, Joplin got $110 million. The 2017 storms got $110 million. The 2022 floods got $82 million. The 2019 storms got $30 million. From the same fund, this tornado got zero. And nobody told us. No one office was elected that gave us information. No agency we fund. It took a researcher out of Houston's recovery after Harvey to surface it, almost by accident. Well, now we know. The RAM settlement is not a pot of gold. It is the only tool you still hold to make this right. You are offering $110 million for North City. We are demanding $150. That is a floor, not a favor. The gap is 40 million. 25 million of it sits in the reserves right now. Spend the reserve, send it to the people, not just the buildings, and put on record whose office was supposed to fight for that money and why it stayed silent. Thank you.

That's good. Thank you. That's good comments.

Next we have Justin Logan. Rose. Henry, I think this is White.

Good evening, Henry White.

And then Thomas, I can't make out your name, Connelly or Connors.

Henry White, I've lived in St. Louis all my life, and I heard the well-meaning words that you're talking about. They need to be put into action. We are taxpayers. We don't deserve this, but we don't. Even the money that the last administration had, $40 million, we are north of the West End. They're south. Money goes that way. North is where we are. We get nothing. and now this is happening here, listen, just do a little beautification at a time. Clean the streets or the alley. That alley back over here where you got all the stuff, cut the grass. See, that didn't take much to do. When you roll by there, just cut the grass and pick that alley, trash it, but just small things. When you ride through the cities and see that, my friends of mine said, man, listen, don't say anything. See? I mean, they look, we see the same thing. See, we work. We don't just walk the streets. There's too much drugs around here. See? They come in and out. You're treating us like drug addicts. They do nothing. We need help. What do they do? See? And the state and the federal monies that they have, where are they in all this? You're showing us all the $50 million. Where's the state at? Listen, when they're in Jefferson City, when those little cities have problems, guess what they do? They pass those bills. And they get it done. We don't hear about them, but I know they do. We don't get it at all, nothing. You know, time out for that. I mean, everybody said what they needed to say, and I'm just repeating myself right now. We've heard already, we knew everything, so it just matters, just get it done, just do something, okay?

Thank you. Thank you. Is Justin Logan in the room? Is there a Rose? Thomas? Beverly Goodlin. Emily Simple or Siple. And after Tamika Stigers or Stigers could stand in line. Beverly Goodlin. Donna Cutelli. And Roslyn or Roslyn Guy.

Hi, I'm Emily Seiple and I live in Ward 9. I'm here to urge the committee and the Board of Aldermen to reallocate the funding and BB22, I think 150 million at least should go to Northside Recovery for a lot of reasons. Just kind of speaking the language from the presentation, I would think about match and I would think about infrastructure. It's frankly incalculable how much Northside has invested in its own recovery over the last year and in its own neighborhoods over decades of neglect and disinvestment. They don't have the luxury of waiting for a local match before other funds come, and so I really think they deserve every penny that they can possibly get. And conveniently, the survey results show that Downtown revitalization is not highly supported for the use of this money, and $40 million could come from that. I think it's kind of offensive to have tourism on the same screen as tornado recovery. There are people who want to return to the city who have lived here for generations. They deserve that chance. They deserve that dignity. We don't need to spend money on people who want to come here for a game and leave. And then for infrastructure, a understandable reason that the city has talked about a lot is that we didn't have the infrastructure to deal with something this big. Downtown does have infrastructure. There's SLDC. There's Greater St. Louis Inc. They literally have a paid lobbyist. There are other community improvement districts, other SIDS and bids downtown and layers upon layers of tax incentives. There are strategies that can invest in downtown. They can invest in themselves. Again, all the money should go to building disaster recovery infrastructure and supporting the infrastructure that has kind of flourished out of necessity. The organizers, the individuals, the grassroots organizations, many of whom are in this room. Yeah, they deserve it all. I'm done. Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Tamika Stigers. I am in the 10th ward. And as I sat here listening to a lot of the people that came before me speaking about the inefficiencies of the departments not calling back, not reaching back out, it made me feel all the more, realize all the more how important it is that I read this resolution. This resolution was sent to all of our aldermen, our mayor and our comptroller. We had at least three of our alder people sign a petition to say that we need to audit the city of St. Louis. Not just the financial audit, they do that already. We need a full performance audit of the city because the money is not coming down to the people. Where is getting lost at? Google, building division, St. Louis, corruption. You'll see there's an audit already going on for the building division because there was fraud. Look at SLPS. They've been audited. Why are people fighting the audit? We'll find out. So I'm going to read this resolution. The audit people have received it already, but I really want to read this so that the people, the citizens of St. Louis know what the resolution says. Whereas, the city of St. Louis is presently undertaking significant physical and public policy decisions that will impact the residents of the city of St. Louis for years to come. Whereas public debate concerning North St. Louis tornado recovery efforts, public safety funding, water system infrastructure financing, redevelopment policy, and the overall allocation of public resources has intensified the need for transparency and accountability in municipal government. And whereas the city has acknowledged deficiencies and concerns relating to certain grant administration programs, while additional questions regarding redevelopment practices and fiscal oversight and government efficiency have been raised publicly and reported in the media. And whereas the city of St. Louis has received and continues to manage substantial public funds, including federal COVID relief funds, also known as ARPA, and proceeds from the RAM settlement. make strong financial oversight and public confidence critically important. And whereas residents of the City of St. Louis exercise their rights under Missouri law by organizing and circulating a citizen petition seeking a performance audit by the Missouri State Auditor and numerous elected officials, including members of the Board of Aldermen and a majority of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, signed said petition. And whereas disputes have arisen concerning the certification of petition signatures by the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners, including concerns regarding the methodology used in evaluating signatures and whether certain ballot signatures were improperly rejected. And whereas the Missouri Secretary of State has reportedly requested that the Board of Election Commissioners re-examine aspects of the signature review process, and whereas regardless of ongoing procedural disputes, the citizens of St. Louis City have demonstrated substantial public interest in obtaining an independent review of the city's operations, financial practices, and administrative efficiency. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis does the following. The Board of Aldermen respectfully calls upon Scott Fitzpatrick, Missouri State Auditor, to promptly commence a performance audit of the City of St. Louis consistent with the intent expressed by the citizens who support the petition effort. The Board further expresses its support for transparency, accountability, fiscal integrity, and public confidence in the administration of city government. The board requests that all relevant city departments, agencies, boards, and commissions cooperate fully with any audit or review conducted by the Office of the Missouri State Auditor. We need accountability. We need transparency. There is no reason that we should be sitting here trying to divvy up funds when we know they're going to disappear before they get to the people because it's done so already.

My name is Beverly Goodlow. I'm from the 12th Ward. I'm a homeowner. I've been in my home for 40 years. This is the first meeting that I've come to, but I've been sitting around the ladies talking to different ones and hearing all the stories, and it mimics mine. FEMA didn't give me a dime, St. Louis, STL. hasn't given me a dime. Nobody has helped me with anything. I pay taxes like everybody up in here. But you need to just don't hear the stories. You need to do something about it. I know probably your home wasn't affected, but what about us? We matter. We matter. Go back, do the right thing, give us this money. Look at, go to every house. That's nothing. On my house, I live in a double block. How could they... put stickers on 4500. I live 4600 Ashley. They put stickers across the street. They put stickers next door. My house, they totally skipped over and went two doors down. And I'm told that, you know, that's how you get on list. I've been told that I'm not on any list. But I've gotten emails that say, hey, we got you, but we can't give you nothing right now. But, I mean, my story mimics a lot of people in this room, a lot of people that aren't even here. I appreciate it if you just hear everybody and go back and do the right thing.

Thank you.

Hello, can you hear me? Yeah. My name is Donna Cotelli. How many of these do we have to have before we make an ethical right decision? How was the city going to pay for all of the infrastructure challenges if the RAM's money wasn't allocated? How were they planning on doing that? I'm here because I'm angry, and anyone who else has walked through the neighborhood since the tornado hit should be angry too. When the storms tore through St. Louis, it didn't check budgets, it didn't compromise, it tore off the roofs and shattered families, and it left our people picking up the pieces of their lives in the dark. We are out here doing hard, exhausting work, helping one another survive. Well, we are here debating the worthiness of these funds for people's lives, and they are at stake. The settlement money belongs to the people of St. Louis. I repeat that, the settlement money belongs to the people. It does not belong to committees or departments. It doesn't belong to pet projects or to a bureaucratic abyss. It belongs exactly where devastation is deepest in North City. But certain people are promoting safe, comfortable numbers But safe numbers don't feed people. Safe numbers don't put a roof over families' heads before the next storm hits. And safe numbers don't rid the houses of infestations that caused bureaucrats dragging their feet. We need to stop begging for crumbs from our own table. We need to demand a full uncompromising, bare minimum, 150 plus poured directly into tornado recovery and neighborhood stabilizations. And we need black people at the table to help make these decisions when this money comes through. If we divide this money into tiny visible pieces, we are abandoning our people all over and over and over again. A half-funded community is a dying community, and we refuse to sit back and watch a community die because of people's chronic lassitude and laziness. We have the resources right now to completely change the trajectory of these neighborhoods to give people back their security, their dignity, and their homes. St. Louis is a city of survivors. We stay, we fight, and we rebuild. but we shouldn't have to do it with our hands tied behind our backs while millions of dollars sit in a bank account. Stop managing the decline. Stop underfunding North City survival. Put at least 150 million plus where the damage is, oh man, I'm just angry, I'm sorry. 150 million plus where the damage is. Stand up for the people who actually make the city run and let's rebuild these people's homes. I'm sure people want the trees removed, I'm sure, the trash, but people's health, as I heard, is more of a priority to us than a tree stump being removed. Anything short of this just promotes utter disdain for black people, hatred, and racism. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

This is Roslyn Guy. Nix Campbell. It's your turn, Ms. Guy. Okay. Good evening. We're just calling up the person after you.

Yesterday, I walked my comments downtown, and you'll copy the Alderman President, okay, and the Mayor, and the Comptroller. Okay.

Okay, this mic is heavy.

Okay, okay. No, yeah. Okay, I've been listening, and I concur with everyone that's speaking, and I am asking, no, I'm okay. And I am asking, well, some of us are here in support of Ms. Sharon Williams. She's the president of the Homer G. Phillips Dignity House Apartments that we live in. And she has been conducting marches, been begging and pleading with people. And all I'm asking is for you to give us $3 million of the ram settlement money to invest in your property homer g phillips is owned by the city someone should have been checking to see that the people that you have leased that property to was putting money back into it to keep it up it has said for twenty three years without any major upgrades some of us don't have hot water some of us don't have uh... heat or air conditioning and we can't we don't need a piecemeal job we don't need uh... window units in in uh... in our apartments, that's ghetto fabulous. If you can let them renovate AT&T or whatever, they're not gonna put window fans in there, window things in there. But I'm speaking because I was in the workforce. I was the housing coordinator for the Shelter Plus Care Program for the Eastern Region of Missouri. I helped house over 270 people. And I know from the way we put together our policies and plans that things can be changed in a blink of an eye if people really want to work and do something, okay? I've made some notes now that I can't read, but... My major concern is that y'all will come together. I am in support if you give us our money, okay? But I want to thank the lady from the first ward. While I was downstairs walking halls at City Hall, I happened to see two inspectors. And I told them, my health is deteriorating because I have mold. I was exposed to mold at Webster School Senior Apartments in North St. Louis. The Missouri Housing Development Commission cited them. The city of St. Louis building inspection cited them. But they were rubbing arms and smiling with people, and they've gotten away with things. So yesterday, these two gentlemen said that up until just this month, I believe, they had not been able to enforce any violations. So I hope y'all will work on that. And I just, I thank y'all for being here. But we need our money. And Homer G. Phillips is one of your assets. Y'all need to do it. It's a national landmark, okay?

Thank you.

Historical landmark. Thank you so much.

So next we will have Mix Campbell, Patricia Williams, Darionne Hunton, and Bob Williams? Go ahead.

Hello. My name is Nix Campbell. I live in the 9th Ward. I'm a social worker, and I provide mental health services in our public schools. I still remember the day the tornado hit St. Louis last May. I still remember hiding as far from my windows as I could, holding onto my roommate's dog. I remember the drop in my heart reading the pleas on Facebook from people begging for help because people were trapped in collapsed parts of the Fountain Park Church, and the city was not responding. I join neighbors, community members, and organizations like Action St. Louis to help with cleanup efforts. As a former Red Cross volunteer, I've responded to disasters around the country. And in those weeks following the tornado, I asked something I've never asked at another disaster site ever. Where is the city? Why are we the only people out here? Over the past year, we've realized more than ever that the only people we can rely on are each other, our neighbors. Over a year later, I drive through North City every day on the way to work, and it looks like a snapshot in time from last May. There's still houses destroyed. There's still cars that are undriveable. Soul's Meat Market and other local businesses that were run by and provided food and other needed services to our community are still destroyed and closed. I've had friends, neighbors, clients, alongside thousands of North City community members whose lives have been permanently changed by this tornado. Money for North City is long due by the city of St. Louis. $150 million is needed to at least fulfill the applications that the city itself has accepted for assistance. We don't have guarantees on how much of that $30 million infrastructure pot will go to North City. $55 million to downtown? Downtown does not need urgent and immediate assistance. There's a hierarchy of needs where housing, food, and safety should come miles ahead of entertainment. Tourism, downtown events, and the riverfront pale in comparison to people left without homes, without their businesses, without the places they went for food and other basic needs, with crumbling sidewalks that make it impossible to get to where they need to go, to get to the doctor. Downtown has investment from developers with the interests of downtown residents and property owners in mind. North City does not, and quite frankly, we don't trust developers to have our interests at heart. North City needs, deserves, and is owed at least $150 million.

Thank you.

How are we doing? My name is Darion Hutton. I live right on Wabata. I've been living there with my family for about six years now. We bought an old house when my sister did. She bought an old house and been loving it ever since. So to see Well, to work and to live in the community, I work right on Archwell, right off Euclid, right on Auburn. A lot of my members come from Homer G. A lot of my members just live in the community. So to see them devastated every time they come in. I have a member, her name is Miss Turner. She's went without her house or being able to live in a home, to go anywhere since it happened. This is the first time, the first week she's been able to come to the clinic because she's comfortable actually coming to her situation. And she lives 40 minutes away from where she once was, where she called her home. It's gone. Nothing left. And we continue to have meetings. We continue to sit here and talk about where funds will be allocated rather than where they actually are going. I've seen so much turmoil in North City over the past couple years, so much devastation, so much just complete neglect. That's the word I've heard so many times here, neglect. That's horrible. That means no attention. We're not a priority, and it shows. The city as a whole isn't a priority. We see St. Louis. We hear how they talk about us. I've lived in Kansas. I've lived in Arizona. I've lived in Michigan. And every time I tell them I'm from St. Louis, I get this dirty, disgusting look.

Wow.

And it's because the people that we elect, the people that we say are gonna fight for us, are gonna speak for us, are going to uphold action for us and do not. They continue to have meetings and do the run around and they say they ask questions. Guess what? Before the tornado happened, I was part of the St. Louis city planning development, right? Couple of you guys probably heard of that. I've probably knocked on a couple of your doors. that is still stagnant. That was supposed to happen from May to August. That's still stagnant. All of this talk, there's never any action. Morally, does that not say something? Morally, does that not feel wrong? That again, I've heard it multiple times, that you guys, I guarantee, don't live anywhere close to this part of town. St. Charles, Chesterfield, Central West End even, and the fact that we have to sit here and talk to you guys about what you should do for us. When we're asking, we're telling you what you should do for us. We're saying it out loud, and we're still being left on deaf ears. I see, when I look at the faces of our- Excuse me, that's your time. I appreciate you guys, thank you. Thank you, black man.

Wow. It's good to hear from our young people. I'm telling you, they got that energy. Now, if they listen to us elders now, we have some wisdom. We have survived. We messed up along the way, so when they kill each other now, it's not too good. I'm Brother Bob. God willing, I'll be 84 years old in July next month. I've traveled all over with Dick Gregory, security for Angela Davis, and with this beautiful sister, Black Queen. We worked in Basel administration. My budget was $10 million in early politics, believe me. I think everyone here will agree with me that we need to come up with solutions now rather than continue to treat the symptoms. Ain't too many problems money can't solve, am I right? St. Louis has been the majority of the population black for many years. Now something ain't right with this picture. Do you all remember the team four plan? Please. Now, if we do not get funding, it'll mean that our community is dying. And I think that is part of why our babies, we do not have, we created jobs for them. I deal with their Bible. I think that's gonna have to become first. We got to learn how to hold elected officials accountable. Well, how do you hold elected officials accountable? We vote them in, we vote them out. We can impeach like they did Donald Trump, slick Willie Bill Clinton. We can get a recall petition like we did against Francis Slade. He got rid of Chief Sherman George, Vietnam veteran. head of the fire department, and hired his relative. Come on. So now I think that if we're gonna be serious about coming up with some solutions, we're just gonna have to have people that's gonna be elected that's gonna be true public servants. The round money is very important, but we had 521 million, 31 million of COVID money. Where'd all this money go? Central West End look damn good, don't it? Downtown is steady building. I think in South St. Louis, they get enough money, they'll vote you out. We keep voting the same crooks in. Before the tornado, a lot of North St. Louis was like modern day Ukraine, like Syria over here, like they drop bombs. We have talked with the mayor quite often, and one of the things we said, we'd like to help to revitalize St. Louis, block by block, with the families, business by business. Are we going to get funds to do things like that? Are we going to get funds that we're going to create jobs for our babies? Do you know we've got to create jobs that AI can't do? If our babies are seven years old can learn this 33rd rap music, don't you think they can learn how to hammer nails? We're working right now with John here at the library. We need to start teaching them before COVID. We were talking about setting up. But we just teach them. Introduce them to the bill of trade. Thank you.

Thank you.

We're going to call Paula Vickers, Xavier Phillips, Armand Walker, Candy Boyd, and Etna Taylor. All in opposition.

Hi. My name is Paula Breon Vickers, and I am a resident of the 12th Ward right around the corner on Ashland and Taylor. And my family has owned our home for 80 years. I am here as a resident and as a mother to call for the full $150 million demand to be allocated in order to not cut corners, which are continuing to increase health risks in our communities. Cutting corners with demolition costs of even city-owned properties releases toxins such as lead in the air. Lead causes permanent developmental delays and health issues for children, pregnant women, and senior citizens, potentially leading to later environmental lawsuits. The home demolished next door to me has now made my home unlivable again for health and safety concerns to my family. It was demolished nearly a month ago, and the rubble still sits and has not been cleaned up. I've had my property tested for lead within the last week and it's overwhelming the spans of lead contamination my home now has and prior to the tornado, my home did not test positive for lead. If you're a parent of a young child, you know lead tests happen annually and this has never been a concern of mine. This half-done recovery would not happen in other neighborhoods. And with the full funding of $150 million, we can make North City whole and do it right the first time. It is exhausting to have to pay rent in the county while paying utilities to a home that is owned but not safe to live in because of city-owned properties surrounding it releasing toxins into the air. I told myself and my children we would need at least a year for the city to get cleaned up. We were ready to go home and the gut punch that came when we drove up to the house at the beginning of May to see a home quickly torn down just in time for the anniversary to say something was done and just be left there creating yet another barrier. To think about funds going to just the idea of bringing in new residents when the taxpayers who subsidize the cost of the stadium are being neglected is unreal. I am still a city taxpayer, and I am still a city voter. Thank you.

Thank you, Paula.

There's somebody in front of me. There are two more people. Okay. Well, good evening, everyone.

Can you state your name?

Pardon? State your name.

I will.

My name's Candy Boyd. Okay. And I live in the 12th Ward. And yes, I live on Labadee and Whittier. I love it. And I'm so happy to be here. But this tornado, we need to rebuild, rebuild, rebuild, repair. $150 million is what we need from you now, but we need more than that. When the tornado happened and ever since, I've kind of been in shock because I've been saying, why aren't we rebuilding? Instead of putting blue tarps up, Why aren't we putting on roofs? If we put people in their houses, then we don't have to pay for their hotels anymore. They can go back to work and they can buy their own cans of green beans. So what we need from you all, and I appreciate the job that you do, is we need some real leadership in reaching out for more than the money than the city has. And I realize the city of St. Louis has been disinvested as a whole. But we need you to reach out to the other 90 municipalities in the area. I think University City is debating whether to spend money on this or that. Hey, we could use a couple million. Are you telling me, I mean, certainly town and country has the money and the generosity to rebuild our area after this tornado. I worked with Katrina. I went down there and worked with the Houma Nation. I worked in St. Charles on the floods and the reparations and repairs after the 93 and 95 floods, and people were rebuilding. So one day I went into FEMA across from St. James AME. And here's a list of the nonprofits. And I looked at it. And I said to the young man from FEMA, I said, why isn't anybody, besides Mike Avery, rebuilding? I mean, here's people giving away this and that. And he seriously said to me, he said, because they don't want this area rebuilt. this is something that we have to acknowledge that Paul McGee knows because Kenlock is gone and there's an industrial park in the area with 90 plus municipalities in the st. Louis metro area and we know why there's so many they they don't have Every municipality is buying for each other. So the hope is the Ville, Greater Ville, is the heart and soul of the city. We can be the heart and soul of the St. Louis metro area. We are possibly the heart and soul of the nation. St. Louis has been a bellwether before. I promise you, if we can rebuild North City, We'll have tour buses coming in here, because we've got so many people famous from Sumner High School, just like they've got going into Harlem. We can do this, and we can be an example for the nation. Thank you so much. But we've got to get over our institutionalized racism. So help us, and folks, we might have to do it by ourselves.

First, praise God. I appreciate the opportunity. Second, I hope that he allows me to steal my tongue and open your ears so you hear what I'm about to say. Okay? I'm a brick mason. My family's from Kinloch. I know what happened to Kinloch. My family were educators and aldermen in Kinloch. I know what happened to Mill Creek. I know what happened to Clayton. We're not going to happen this time. It's not going to happen this time. All right, so that's my first thing. Now, I'm running for U.S. Congress as an independent. I'm 1,500 signatures away from being on the ballot in November. Swear to God. I'm under oath, right? Yes. State your name. Xavier Phillips, y'all. Now, I'm a brick mason. On May 16th, I was working on Washington Avenue. At about 2.30, that was the end of my day, at about 4 o'clock, I was off Enright rebuilding houses. I've rebuilt more houses than anybody I know in St. Louis with my own hands. $186,000 worth of work I did with $26,000 that these people gave me. That's all they had. And I made it work. So here's what I'm going to tell you now, okay? The solution is real simple. You hold the sword to the office. If you guys cannot figure this out, I will personally ensure every single one of your positions are contested the next time you run. Alright? If you cannot figure this out, I personally will go find some lawyers to explain why this was an injustice and go get that money from you. If you cannot figure this out, I promise you I will find someone to run against you. I promise you. All right? I have no need for violence. I serve a most high God, and I have no need to beg you for this money. So my name is Xavier Phillips, and I'm going to leave you all with this. In the book of Isaiah, God wrote, I make calamity. You need to understand this, that he has routed us so that we stand together to do something that has not been done before. And this is your time. I demand y'all to take it. Thank you.

Amen to that. All right. My name is Armond Walker. I used to reside in Ward 9. I currently live in Ward 2 under Tom Oldenburg. And I am in opposition to Board Bill 22 because of the inaccurate funding. So first I want to explain that during my day job, I'm a project manager at a software company. My job is to manage the limited resources that my team receives and balance that with the wants and needs of the stakeholders that we are held accountable to, while producing the best possible final result for our, or the final product for our end users. And if I mismanage those resources, then I'm not doing my job. I'm sure you get the analogy. It is therefore necessary that I am always doing the work that has the highest impact, but the lowest cost to the company. Finding solutions to pressing emergencies is more important than addressing a deadline that is months away. This is called triage, and it's a common practice in the medical field. If a soldier is about to die from blood loss, that's more important than his collapsed lung. North City is dying, and y'all are offering subpar solutions. Board Bill 22 proposes $55 million for downtown St. Louis while families are sheltering under moldy, tarped roofs, and the freezing cold and the sweltering heat. And downtown may very well generate tax revenue for the entire city, but we don't have time for Reagan-era trickle-down economics. That does not meet this moment. North City needs help today, and we have the tax revenue to help them. Even then, as many have acknowledged, we know that we need more to address the $1.6 billion in tornado damage. I'll paraphrase the words of Board President Megan Greene from a previous meeting. She said, paraphrasing, that matching funds from corporate and philanthropic partners are absolutely necessary to meet the extraordinary needs for reinvestment in tornado impacted zones. So y'all know it's bad. Y'all know we need more money. Stop begging and start demanding. Tax the rich. St. Louis has a dozen Fortune 1000 companies. You've heard of Fortune 500, Fortune 1000. Among them is Ameren, which reportedly earned nearly $1.2 billion in profit. Not revenue, but actual profit. In 2026, recent data, Stifel Financial reported $731 million. Peabody Energy reported $370 million, all in profits. These are all companies with headquarters and buildings and businesses and employees here in St. Louis. Meanwhile, we're arguing about whether or not we can afford to repair our grandma's house or fix crumbling water infrastructure. This is why I'm a socialist. Capitalism is stupid. It's a stupid, stupid system. It's manufactured scarcity. We live in the richest country in the world, and that money comes from our labor, our hard work, but we let a small group of CEOs and shareholders, like the ones downtown, decide if we can afford clean drinking water and groceries. I don't even have the stats for companies like Boeing, Purina, Monsanto, Budweiser. Make them all pay their fair share and give at least, at least $150 million to North City. Further, the board should reject Mayor Spencer's 7% increase for police wages. How dare she offer them more money right now? Are you kidding me? Excuse me. That's your time. May I finish this current statement?

Go ahead and finish your thought. Thank you.

A year after the tornado, she hasn't even funded SEMA, and while we're at it, how dare she spend $25 million of our tax dollars on SLS Co., a Texas company for debris removal and home repair, instead of investing that here in St. Louis. We have skilled labor and experienced residents right here that are ready to work. And this is my final statement. If you're not pissed off about that, then you don't represent me, you don't represent the people in this room, and you sure as hell don't represent the people in this city.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Eda Taylor. I don't have a whole lot to say. I live in Ward 7. So I kind of actually just want to take a little bit of my time to let everybody kind of digest everything we've heard so far. Because I know I've heard a lot, and it's a lot. And I know it's going to continue for a long time. I meant tonight. I think that we need to send $150 million to Northside, period. I don't know, you know, downtown revitalization can be next year. It can be never. I don't, you know, downtown's had revitalization since I've lived here. It never seems to... work and do anything a few businesses come in and mostly you know they cater to the tourists but then they don't stay open because only the baseball fans go to one game or one restaurant or whatever stupid thing goes on like it's not it's it's not giving us what the north side is um i live on the south side and i know if i if this had happened on the south side we would have money by now like this is the stupidest thing like i love the north side like i ride a bicycle i like to come up and watch go to the velodrome and watch the races i love riding through the north side because it's so beautiful or at least it used to be and it can be again if we actually give them money if we actually give the people doing the work money not random disaster contractors that aren't accountable and let Unspeakable things happen. Anyway, so I am opposed, and I think screw downtown revitalization, and please give $150 million minimum to the north side.

Thank you. Next we will call, I believe this is Taylor or Tyler Taylor, Velma Bailey, Devonda McElroy, Jacoby Ray, Maria Thompson and Drew Falge.

Hello, Taryn Taylor, Seventh Ward. I'm here again. Told you, you see a lot of me. You hear a lot from me. And I'm pretty sure the last time I stood in front of none of you but Rasheen last time, I told y'all the North remembers. A line from Game of Thrones. And this is how you treat the North. You give them a little room in a library when you have Ample amounts of buildings. You have money to get them transportation to go downtown to bigger rooms, bigger offices, bigger buildings, stadiums that are empty and being utilized for conventions. So to sit here and see how you've turned off the TV with all the numbers, how you had St. Louis City TV bring a broken mic stand for the people of North City. If we had a million dollars for every one of the stupid looks on your faces every time someone passes off this mic, North City would be funded by now. Especially you, Michael Browning. you have the most disgusting look on your face.

Sir, we're going to go ahead and stage your name to Board Bill 22.

Okay. Well, for Board Bill 22, support the north side, give them a minimum of $150 million, and then go and eat the rich. Because if you don't, we will, and then we'll eat you too. Thank you.

How y'all doing?

How you doing?

I'm Kobe. I'm a... sorry about that y'all um i'm kobe i'm 23 years old i got a lot to say i don't live out here that's first off so i don't know the struggle that y'all going through but i do because i had a church right here on sacramento that's been hit by the storm that i watched my uncle bill from the ground up and to see a grown man cry that i've never seen cry before Because, you know, he said the church was for the community or whatever the case may have been. And I'm not going to get into politics because of the simple fact I know that y'all throw the rock so we all can look over here while y'all do something over there. See how you're looking at me? I understand, man. I'm 23 years old, and I've seen it a lot in my 23 years. I'm up here. I'm kind of nervous to speak. I'm sorry about that. Who's the scientist? I feel like they deserve more than $150 because of the simple fact a lot of times people can do a lot of things when they hurt. I'm pretty sure they're not coming out to St. Charles or Richmond Heights to break in houses because they don't have homes. I see a lot of homeless people sleeping in these abandoned buildings, man. I see a lot of people, and I know a lot of people don't care because they're not from down here. Because I was talking to my cousin the other day, like, man, I want to buy up some of these houses. I want to get into real estate. I said, I want to buy up some of these houses and help these folks. He said, man, I don't care. They don't got nothing to do with me. You know what I'm saying? Because I don't live out here. That's why you said that. It's what I sold them. He's like, well, I don't give a damn. I got bills. Excuse my language. And I said, I understand you have bills, but these people need help. So I just want to come out here and support my community. And I see the problem. As I'm looking, it's more black folks out here in North St. Louis than it is white folks. And when you look in Richmond Heights and all that, it's more white folks than you see black folks. My cousin used to say, it be your own people. They get a thrill to turn you down, but they never gossip about how you help them. So I support my people.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Drew. I am from the 9th Ward. I am under your administration, Browning. As a volunteer with Action St. Louis, I have consistently been on the north side since day one. I spoke to people. I have a state rep that's from the north side, Kimberly Collins, and seeing her home get hit said a lot to me. Knowing that I got people close to me who are still struggling to this day to get help is frustrating. Again, like somebody else said, we have multiple homeless people on the north side. I help the homeless consistently every day. I've been helping the homeless for over 15 years. I've never seen homelessness this bad. Put 150 million into the north side and see what happens. I bet you nobody will be homeless by then. It's too many people out on the streets to be talking about, oh, we got money, but we can't put it nowhere else. Oh, you can put it somewhere else. Put it to the north side. Don't let us get stuck again. We've been stuck time and time again. We've been left behind time and time again. We've been forgotten about time and time again. We've had our homes taken from us time and time again. Don't let this be the one moment where we lose everything to you guys. Risk your relationship with the mayor if you have to. Risk your relationship with the mayor if you have to. I mean that. I don't give a damn. Risk it. Save us and stop saving the mayor.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Marie Thompson. I am a lifelong resident of City St. Louis. I was born and raised in my house. Been there for 58 years. I actually am an educator in the public school system. I actually teach right around the corner from where I live. I was at work the day of the storm. We had scarcely got the children out of the classrooms and into the hallways for their safety. One of the windows in my classroom even blew out. The window doors were just moving. We had screaming children in the hallways. The power went out. We were there until probably about 7.30 at night until all the children could get home. We couldn't get out of the parking lot because trees and power lines were down and nobody to come and help us. The men in the building had to move the trees and the power lines to get us on. I knew I didn't have power because the school didn't have power because I live around the corner from where I work. Thank God, structurally, my house on the outside looks fine. If you came past my house, you wouldn't think it. But that Monday when we had that torrential rain, the Monday right after, exposed what happened with the bricks in my, I mean the roof to my home. The house to the right of me, the whole porch collapsed. The house to the left of me, there bricks fell on my house and all around my house. Both of those houses are two-story homes. Mine is a one-story. So me being in the middle of them, I think, helped with me. But I have problems. I need help and assistance. This money would help that. No, I didn't have my insurance lapse, and I'll tell you why. In the last two years, I spent about 10 new tires. because of the city streets and the holes. And I had to buy rims, because my rims in my car keep cracking because of the streets. I want my house. It hurts to see that Forest Park got trees in the cities. The neighbors in North St. Louis had to get trees for O'Fallon Park. It hurts to see Jefferson, what I call a concrete monstrosity, where they have greenery that they're going to plant in front of the NGO. But if you go down Natural Bridge, it's just all concrete. And it's scary coming down that street, especially at night and all that concrete. We need help and assistance. It's just time out for treating African Americans wrong. It's just time out. We deserve better. We have helped build this country. We have helped build this city. We have been loyal taxpayers. There is no reason in this world that we should be having to have meetings to say that we need this help. Just like there was another young lady that said it just wouldn't have happened like this if it was South St. Louis. It just wouldn't have. You know it. We know it. Every time it rains, I got water coming in because the rain has just messed up my kitchen. So now I have more problems. Please help. That's all I can say. Just help.

Thank you. Thank you for being here. So I think Ms. Velma Bailey's name was called. She's the last name that was on the list for us to hear from. We appreciate everybody taking the time and just trust that when we leave here, it doesn't mean it stops for any of us. This is real for us. We live this the same way it was mentioned. Not the same exact experience, but through the stories, through the neighborhoods, through the families, and through our commitments, personal commitments to these communities. I just want to make sure that people know that, Ms. Bailey. I didn't want to interrupt from you, but I had to say that I didn't want anybody to think we was going to walk out of here and wasn't going to answer a call or still listen, even on the parking lot when we leave here. After Ms. Bailey speaks, President Green will close us out, and then we will have to exit. We were told 745 is 747. So again, we want to be respectful. I think President of the Board of Aldermen, when she chose this location, she had a good faith effort to be here in community. And so the fact that these challenges came up, we just didn't know. But thank you so much. And then when you close out, we'll exit.

Did I see you on Facebook saying you have a meeting on June 9th?

yes ma'am the meeting on june 9th is the next hoods hearing and board bill 22 will be on there that's another opportunity for us to hear from you and i will start with that because of the challenges would you like for me to present there thank you miss bailey thank you so much i appreciate that with that we'll um i'll go ahead and take a motion to uh you could i'll take a motion to excuse uh all the women sign yay for necessary absence It was moved by Alderman Browning and seconded by Alderman Schweitzer that we excuse Alderman for necessary absence. We'll let President of the Board of Aldermen, Megan Green, close us out, and then we'll adjourn.

Just before we exit tonight, I want to thank everyone for your time and coming out this evening. And I also want to apologize for the small space. As some of you probably know, we're a public body. We have to have all of our meetings recorded live streamed for sunshine requirements. And so finding places that work with STL TV and what their requirements are can sometimes be a little bit challenging in finding spaces. So I appreciate us, everybody kind of getting in here close together today to make this happen. And also appreciate all of the testimony that we heard today. I am in agreement and I think most folks in this room know that I'm in agreement that I think that 110 is not enough, 150 is not enough, 250 is not enough, right? We know that the needs here are immense. And I think there were some things that were said tonight. I took a lot of notes here. But I think talking about triage and talking about how we look at the hierarchy of needs and I think all of those things very much resonated with me personally tonight and I just want to thank everybody for sharing their stories. This does not end tonight and I agree that we need action and we need action quickly. The Board of Aldermen has been doing monthly budget meetings under the leadership of Alderman Aldridge to create some accountability around that first $30 million that was sent out because the other thing that I know that the Board of Aldermen is committed to is we don't want to give folks false hope that things are going to happen tomorrow when we have seen firsthand that it has not been happening At the speed that it needs to. And I think through our conversations with the mayor's office, we feel like we're at a point now where the systems are in place where the city is starting to move faster. And so we feel like we are able to move forward, allocate money, and know that it's going to get out there. in a faster way than that $30 million. Because all of us, I think, up here recognize that the way that the first $30 million was rolled out was not acceptable and has not met the amount of need that is there with the urgency that it deserves. And so my goal in getting this bill over the finish line, and our goal is to have this passed out before the Board of Aldermen goes on summer recess on July 11. And we want to make sure that these funds are quickly getting into the hands of the community and that we're not hearing from folks six, nine, 12 months later that they still haven't gotten aid and support. And so your testimony is really important in shaping this, making sure that we are allocating funds to the right places that we are allocating the right amount of funds to the right places and so no you know I've taken a lot of notes at both of the hearings this is not the end we will be meeting again on Tuesday and I expect that we'll start to take up some amendments on the bill from there and and continue the conversation but I really just want to thank everybody for your time and for coming out this evening and my staff and I will stick around outside of the building to anybody that wants to talk further. But thank you for your time and thank you for the committee members for coming this evening.

Thank you so much. The meeting on June 9th will be in the Kennedy Room at City Hall on the second floor at the Board of Aldermen. But please, if you have something that you want to share, you don't even have to wait. I know you said you organized. So you can email us. You can call the Board of Aldermen. Call your auditor. All of those things get added to the drive for these meetings. You don't have to wait until June 9th, but June 9th is the next opportunity where we will meet as hoods in the Kennedy Room on the second floor in City Hall. 11 a.m. Okay, with that, I'll accept a motion to it. Oh, I do want to thank our staff, STL TV staff, and the St. Louis Public Library for this opportunity to meet here in community this evening. With that, I'll accept the motion to adjourn. It was moved by Alderman Aldridge, seconded by Alderman Swyser to adjourn with a call for previous role with no objection. Everyone have a blessed evening and get home safe.