Never. Read. The. Comments.
That’s the advice I often pass on to the people I write about, particularly when the topics involve race or poverty or politics. A couple of years ago, when I was editorial page editor, I for a period of time on opinion content because, like a growing number of editors across the country, I believe the comments section to often be a place where the newspaper business has inadvertently contributed to the nation’s often uncivil discourse.
But this week, I broke my own rule. Alerted by an editor, I read the comments on about Khaled Salameh, the ºüÀêÊÓƵ business man who owns a $1 million home in Wildwood but votes in the city, listing a car lot on North 14th Street as his residence.
People are also reading…
There was one about me.
“Well, I for one expected this article to be about Tony Messenger. Boo!†wrote one commenter.
Yes, I live in Wildwood. No, my house is nowhere near worth $1 million.
But regular commenters on the were in on the joke.
You see, every time I write about the city, or poverty, or race, or Ferguson, or anyplace that isn’t Wildwood, there are some commenters who use it as an occasion to take a potshot at me.
“Why don’t you just stay in Wildwood?†they’ll say. Or, “what do you know about the city?â€
Or, as an emailer wrote me after my most recent column pointing to the need for city-county unification, “You, who live in far west ºüÀêÊÓƵ county in Wildwood, are leading this charge. Great example of ‘Do as I say, not as I do’! What a hypocrite you continue to be!â€
I’m not even sure what that means. There are people who live all over the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region who believe that our economic fortunes would be improved — in Wildwood, in Ladue, in Ferguson, in the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ — if we got rid of the city and county governmental boundaries that divide us.
One of those people is ºüÀêÊÓƵ Blues owner Tom Stillman. At the news conference announcing the Blues plans to seek taxpayer help to modernize the city-owned Scottrade Center, that the effort would be much easier if the city and county were unified. There’s a larger tax base and more opportunities to tap funding sources that wouldn’t necessarily have a negative effect on public safety funding, or taxes that disproportionately affect the poor, for instance.
Jake Hollander, who lives in Chesterfield, by the way, reminded me that this was not a new position for Stillman. Hollander is the founder of , one of the nonprofits that is pushing for some sort of city-county unification. On its website are numerous statements from civic leaders who live all over the region who believe that ºüÀêÊÓƵ would be better as one large city, rather than a city within a county that also has 90 separate municipalities. They were originally published by UniteSTL, another of the many unification movements that have come and gone over the years.
“Reunification would just reflect reality: We are one community, and we are going to sink or swim together. We can continue with more than 100 jurisdictions, often working at cross-purposes, or we can unite and work together to build a stronger community and a brighter future,†Stillman says on the website.
Numerous other business leaders weigh in with similar sentiments. Dave Peacock. Maxine Clark. Thomas Schlafly. Brian Murphy. Jim McKelvey. Jorge Riopedre. Cheryl Jones.
On Wednesday night, Hollander made his own statement.
He went to the Chesterfield City Council meeting and there that their opposition to unification is rooted in the sort of small-mindedness that might cause a commenter to suggest that somebody in Wildwood couldn’t possibly know anything about life in the city.
“Outside of our region, when folks ask me where I am from, I never mention Chesterfield — because none of them know it. I state — sometimes proudly and sometimes sheepishly — I’m from ºüÀêÊÓƵ. Chesterfield and ºüÀêÊÓƵ are where I’ve witnessed the backwardness and corrosiveness of fragmented politics crack along socioeconomic lines; where I’ve observed adults act like children and children die like adults,†Hollander said, according to the printed statement on his website. “My life would be utterly different had I been born a dozen miles from here. What your resolution to oppose a city-county combination plan of any kind, or to even discuss the issue, indicates is your failure not only to see the larger picture as a non-partisan elected official or business leader, but also as a human. We are connected to our neighbors in the deep, whether we like it or not. Lines on a map, skin tones, political parties, and other divisions are illusions of the mind. We all hope for and fear the same things.â€
Hollander hopes for a day when Khaled Salameh’s home and businesses end up in the same jurisdiction, where his vote for mayor of ºüÀêÊÓƵ affects his tax rates in a wooded neighborhood at the western reaches of what might be the eighth largest city in the country, and where the tax revenue generated by his home would benefit the people who live in the region’s urban core.
“Republicans, Democrats, suburbanites and urbanites, blacks and whites have come together in Nashville, Indianapolis, Louisville, and elsewhere to combine services in order to grow their region and eliminate redundancies,†Hollander told the City Council of the city where he was born. “I urge you to reconsider your decision and be open to the free market of ideas.â€