Cherokee Street is dangerous.
It is not the cliche definition that we see all over the nightly news. It threatens the status quo of St. Louis politics. Despite little attention from City Hall the street has grown from absentee landlords into a vibrant, multicultural community. It is easy to see that places like the Saint Louis Zoo and Saint Louis Art Museum, Cardinals, and the Arch are the most prominent in national coverage of St. Louis. They have large budgets and therefore get a lot of attention. Cherokee Street is the most prominent St. Louis icon despite only having a fraction of the financial resources of these other icons.
Cherokee Street is not only ignored by City Hall but also has never received tax abatements for the amount of money spent on the Central Corridor. Cherokee Street runs through the heart and soul of South City. I found 16 tax abatements. The street still thrives despite receiving very little tax relief. I started to wonder why this was so. If tax subsidies were necessary to encourage development in the Central Corridor then why didn’t growth occur in the Cherokee Corridor? These are my observations after watching the street grow over the past decade.
Independent initiative without the help of or in defiance of the political leaders in the area. Mexican Americans arrived on Cherokee Street to open restaurants and shops. This revitalized a corridor that had been largely neglected. As has been proven over 250 years, this city was always nourished by immigrants. Their contribution has not been overlooked for nearly as long as it has. The first buildings built on Cherokee Street in decades were constructed by Mexican Americans.
Hard work and tax incentives can’t replace. Take a look at the work involved in renovating Cherokee Brewery. The Earthbound Beer team turned a historic brewery into a modern microbrewery, despite not receiving any tax abatements. It was amazing to see the amount of work involved, especially in the summer when I saw a continuous stream of dirt and rocks pouring out of a functional but rusty conveyor belt from the bottom. Earthbound was able to clear out an old lagering cellar that had been filled with rubble for over a century, thanks to the efforts of several friends. Earthbound, unlike other major developments in the Central Corridor is now even drawing international attention.
A sense that there is a greater purpose than profit. I am not saying that businesses shouldn’t worry about fiscal sustainability. It’s far from the truth. However, I have learned over the years that people can sense if someone is only in it for the money. Blank Space makes me feel special and connected every time I enter it. STL Style is more than a T-shirt shop. It’s a place where the Vines brothers have built a business that supports their community. I feel calm and peaceful when I enter Teatopia or the Hop Shop. I am reminded of the fact that Yaqui’s Pizza was once home to his class ring, decades ago, as I enter Yaqui’s Pizza.
It must be confusing for City Hall’s bigwigs: A thriving community without excessive tax incentives. Ironically, it made my mind reminisce about the days I spent playing Sim City, and how I used a cheat code to get free money. What did you do with the money? Because it was free money, I spent it recklessly. Problem was, that I built too fast for tax revenue to catch up. My little simulation city, which was flooded with electronic subsidies, eventually ran out of money. The cheat code was not allowed to be used to obtain more money. If the cheat was misused too often, the game’s developers would cause an earthquake. I would be out of pocket, and the city wouldn’t be able to pay its costs due to subsidized development. That was the case when my power plant collapsed, it was 50 years old. It was slow organic growth that I realized would be the best way to win City. Tax revenues should match development. Although it took longer, it was ultimately more rewarding.
Do you sound familiar? It’s not surprising that our city has given away nearly $1 billion in tax subsidies for development, which should never have happened due to market demand. Even worse, many projects could have been successful without subsidies and still received them. As in Simcity, taxes can only be raised so high that people stop leaving. St. Louis has its power plant, the Convention Center. The cost of updating it is in the hundreds of millions. There isn’t any money. There is no money.
Return to the beginning of the article. Cherokee Street is dangerous. City Hall insists that it is dangerous because they believe we are obligated to spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars otherwise our city will not see any new development. Cherokee Street is a shining example of how individuals can work hard, dream big, and experiment to make a difference. For politicians to hear this must be very humbling.
