Out of the rubble, East St. Louis once again is trying to save itself. The city has long been a basket case, crippled by poverty and inept government. But the mayor who took office last May, Gordon Bush, now has the city moving. The state and federal governments recently bought the city five new police cars. Developers are talking about building a 54-hole golf complex on the city’s riverfront. And the long-awaited garbage clean-up should be underway later this month. Says local NAACP leader Johnny Scott: “We’re on a roll.” Maybe, but saving one of America’s most desperate cities won’t be easy. Although Bush, a lifelong East St. Louis resident, has a master’s degree in urban planning, no textbook could have prepared him for this.
Bush succeeds controversial 12-year mayor Carl E. Officer, who vehemently objected last year to being ticketed for driving 105 mph. “I was doing 140,” he bragged. While Officer was speeding, his city was going nowhere fast. Since 1980, more than a quarter of East St. Louis’s residents have left, and 65 percent of the 40,944 who remain receive some form of public aid. During the Officer years, the city couldn’t afford new radios for a police department fighting one of nation’s highest per capita murder rates; cops had to use pay phones to call dispatchers. Last year, as the city’s debt approached $50 million, the state stepped in to take control of the budget process. “I’m just more and more amazed at the problems we seem to find,” Bush said before his inauguration.
Undaunted, Bush reached out to leaders from surrounding communities, who had been alienated by the contentious Officer. “Gordon is healing wounds, not driving wedges,” says John Baricevic, chairman of the St. Clair County Board. One result: the county funded a $100,000 environmental-impact study of riverfront development. Bush’s campaign promises were carefully modest–for example, regular citizen meetings. Such touches are inspiring a fledgling confidence. “People had lost all hope and faith in the government,” Scott says. “Now they feel [Bush] is a man they can talk to.”
Popularity doesn’t pay the bills. But Bush’s administration also stands to benefit from an innovative court settlement crafted by the local U.S. Attorney’s office. The Wall Street firm of Matthews & Wright agreed early this year to pay $7 million over seven years as penalty for its involvement in a fraudulent bond offering with the city. The money is going into a “community fund” overseen by a civilian panel. Already the fund has paid for the reinstallation of the city’s 911 system, which had been repossessed. East St, Louis also hired an interim city manager last week to handle day-to-day government operations. That should free Bush for what many see as his primary role: luring development. Support for a golf course is mixed, but civic boosters dream of turning the vacant riverfront into parks and luxury apartments, with St. Louis Gateway Arch providing a dramatic backdrop just across the Mississippi.
Big dreams are nothing new in East St. Louis, so its not surprising that many residents remain skeptical. The city has been sliding since industry started fleeing in the 1950s, taking the tax base with it; riverfront developments has long been hailed as the city’s savior. “maybe it will take off [this time],” says Charles L. Leven, an economics professor at Washington University in St. Louis. “But I wouldn’t hold my breath.” Black contractors are grumbling that they’re being left out of the garbage cleanup–reigniting fears among the overwhelmingly black population that a recovery would mostly benefit “outside” (that is, white) interests. The city manager appointment strained relations between city aldermen and Bush, who complained he’d been left out of the process and threatened legal action. But Bush and others expected some pitfalls along the way. Says community leader the Rev. Jerome Jackson. “We’re at a strategic point in our history where some real important things are happening. We’re not going to screw this up.” East St. Louis may not have another chance.
