Forget the city-county merger. Don’t call it a consolidation. Even toss out ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor Lyda Krewson’s new word for what most regional leaders believe eventually needs to happen between the city and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County: combination.
On Wednesday, the leaders of the former village of Vinita Terrace and city of Vinita Park found the word that should forever become what defines the future of ºüÀêÊÓƵ:
Marriage.
As the two formerly separate entities in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County became one in the first such ºüÀêÊÓƵ County merger of its kind, courtship and consummation were the themes of the day.
The Rev. Dr. E.G. Shields Jr. stood between Mayor James McGee of Vinita Park and Daniel Clasby of Vinita Terrace, and using the words of a wedding completed the marriage that began more than a year ago in the and was blessed by voters in November.
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There was no kissing of the bride, but a handshake and a salute.
While the merger of two of the county’s smallest of 90 municipalities may seem a minor event — small enough that County Executive Steve Stenger couldn’t find time to attend — the symbolism of the union holds power and promise.
There was McGee, the first black mayor of Vinita Park, standing hand in hand with Clasby, a 72-year-old white man and former chairman of the Vinita Terrace village board, symbolic of the origins of these two suburbs centered on Page Avenue and Midland Boulevard. At that intersection once stood an electric street car stop, Vinita Station.
James Doerr, whose family first settled in Vinita Park in 1939, remembers riding the streetcar for 5 cents to the Delmar Loop. Verna Gremaud talked of her children playing in the woods that would become the industrial area that serves as the financial lifeblood of the new unified city of Vinita Park.
It was a different time.
The streetcar is gone. Getting to jobs is more difficult for the area residents, now a much more diverse crowd than in the early days. The economy is tough. The red brick homes are older, some of the grass a bit longer. But the package store at the corner still promises the “coldest beer in town,†and the area’s residents see hope in a merger that might bring new life.
“I think this is going to be an example for everybody to follow,†McGee said.
Indeed, other mergers, er, marriages, are coming.
Florissant Mayor Tom Schneider, for instance, recently pitched one with Calverton Park.
“You could say I’m starting to date them,†Schneider said after the Vinita Park merger ceremony.
And similarly, Normandy and Glen Echo are further along in their courtship, hoping to jump-start the boundary commission process soon.
“You’re going to see more collaboration on a variety of things,†said Chris Krehmeyer, president and CEO of the nonprofit that has been working with a variety of north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County municipalities on neighborhood development.
The organization created the 24:1 initiative in the 24 municipalities that make up the footprint of the Normandy Schools Collaborative to increase cooperation in the region with the ultimate goal of producing better outcomes for children.
Krehmeyer said the key to what happened in Vinita Park and was being contemplated elsewhere was letting residents determine their own futures.
“You have to develop trust,†he said. “Hard stuff happens when you have trust.â€
Can one tiny marriage of cities help spur a bigger one between the city and county of ºüÀêÊÓƵ?
It could happen, says Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson. He was in town Thursday to speak at a luncheon hosted by the nonprofit , which has been studying a marriage in ºüÀêÊÓƵ similar to the one city and county voters in Louisville approved in 2000.
There is a lesson in that vote tied to what happened this week in Vinita Park.
Voters in Louisville said no to a merger in 1956, 1982 and 1983. In each of those cases, the proposal wiped out the suburban municipalities in seeking to create one united metro area.
Abramson, like me, believes that would have been the ideal solution.
“In a perfect world, that’s really the best way to do it,†he said.
But sometimes, progress needs compromise. In 2000, Louisville voters combined their separate city and county into one metro government. They allowed all 93 suburban municipalities to remain. Since then many have merged, leaving 10 fewer municipalities in a much more unified region.
Over the last couple of years, there has been a fair amount of conflict between the municipalities in ºüÀêÊÓƵ County that want to be left alone and forces pushing for one form or another of consolidation.
Some counseling might be in order, because this marriage is worth saving.
As the vows were consummated in Vinita Park on a sunny May morning, Krehmeyer saw hope for a region.
“It’s a continued affirmation that this place can do better,†he said. “This is progress.â€