New Years Resolutions for 2025—City of St. Louis
We know that our local elected officials can be quite busy and may not have time to take a step back, assess themselves, and make resolutions for the year ahead. While we feel growing alarm at the City’s inability to solve its most basic problems, we decided that we want to be part of the solution!
Following are some New Year’s resolutions that we developed for our City leaders. We think adoption of these resolutions can make a big difference for all of us.
You’re welcome.
We hope that City leaders will start to improve and unsnarl the bureaucracy by making a few changes:
1. If citizens, other elected officials, or even former elected officials tell me that illegal shenanigans are underway at the Building Division, the City Tow Lot or any City Department, I will not dismiss them. I will immediately go to the police or FBI and relay the complaint(s). And I won’t wait until St. Louis Magazine publishes a story about the corruption to invite in the FBI.
2. When nonprofit organizations and small businesses complain that acquiring licenses and permits is just too hard (think liquor licenses, short-term rentals, and homeless shelters) we will start to look at the City’s internal procedures and work to solve bottlenecks and inefficiencies instead of passing band-aid solutions that strip rights from our citizens. In other words, in the future we will do the hard work of reform instead of pleasing special interest groups by hurting neighbors.
We think elimination of sloppy corruption and potential kick-back scenarios will help St. Louis people feel better about their city.
3. We will no longer suggest that our relatives or even close friends should be hired to ensure access to City government. We know it looks bad and we’ll stop doing it.
4. We promise to show more respect and play fewer games with citizens who testify about legislation and/or advocate regarding City services. We will remember that these people love their neighborhoods, love their city, and are the backbone and spirit of St. Louis. While we may disagree with their priorities, we will stop calling them names and ridiculing their positions.
A bridge collapsed in Baltimore and shut down a major US shipping lane. Maryland, Baltimore and the US reopened that shipping lane within 90 days of the tanker accident. Governments CAN act in a heroic and effective manner when they choose to.
5. We will never, ever close a jail again without a plan for existing and future detainees to be kept safe and inside the jail. The Medium Security Institute (MSI) was closed to fulfill campaign promises made to the activist community. Maybe it needed to be closed, maybe not—that’s another discussion. But subsequent events make it obvious that there was no plan in place for the loss of bed space for 185 detainees. As a result, detainees have been assaulted, raped, and more than a dozen have even died at the facility. Some of the same activists who claim credit for the closure of MSI have begun agitating for the closure of the remaining jail facility—CJC. We promise not to make the same mistake again.
6. When tragedy strikes not once, not twice but three times in the same place, we will fix the place. Neighbors were injured and killed while trying to buy frozen custard three times over the last two years. The City has promised and promised that they would make changes at the site but nothing has happened. We will do better.
We think that if the leadership focuses on basics, boring as they may find that, it will start to make people feel better about local government and feel more pride in the region. Political leadership seems to be bored with residents’ gripes, believing complaints about trash arise because the complainers lack imagination. Not true—they lack reliable trash pick-up!
7. We will all come to work, all the time, and actually work. We will stop traveling all over the country on junkets with dubious value and will, instead, focus on fixing this City.
8. We will redouble our efforts to improve City services so that people can start feeling better about the City again. We will fix things. We will get things right.
We will stop worrying about petty political rivalries and instead refocus on the things citizens actually care about.
9. We will not make policy decisions based on personal or political disputes. Our decisions will always be rooted in what’s best for the City and region, or at least, our perception thereof.
10. We will use our social media accounts to inform residents about our decision-making processes and outcomes, and to constructively engage citizens and colleagues. We will not use them to disparage or antagonize other elected officials or – especially – to demean ordinary citizens.
— Nancy Rice
