notmymayor

Unemployment Numbers Remained Abysmal in December

By thomasaduda

What a terrible year. New Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that December was the eighth month in a row that the number of unemployed persons in St. Louis City exceeded 15,000.

Unemployed in St. Louis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2009-December 2009

For some, however, 2009 was a banner year.

• Burger King hit its stride at Loughborough Commons (after having been away for years).
• Francis Slay twice won reelection (with fewer votes than John McCain received in November 2008).
• Citygarden opened!
• City officials, after awarding operation of the new Carondelet Park Recreation Center to the YMCA without a competitive bid process, celebrated the opening of the new facility for residents with a high willingness to pay.
• The St. Louis Board of Aldermen awarded special tax breaks and incentives to Wellpoint, in recognition of the company’s payroll growth of 300 positions.
• Another renovation of Union Station began.
• Culinaria, the grocery store in downtown that does not accept WIC, opened for business (as an unfair competitor).
• St. Louis did, but didn’t, become smoke-free!
• Paul McKee received approval of his TIF from the St. Louis Board of Aldermen (and subsequently proceeded to starve the cash-strapped State of Missouri of $19.6 million in desperately needed revenues).
• The St. Louis Public Library’s Board of Directors authorized a “renovation” for the Central Library, (which will eliminate public access to its unique collections for two years).

I hope that 2010 brings brighter days for residents of our community desperately seeking work, but I cannot say that I am optimistic. After all, Francis Slay and his ilk do not believe in compensating persons for their labor or creating jobs. But they sure have a knack for “development.”

Tags: francis slay, Lewis Reed, Lewis Reed and Francis Slay, mayor slay, Misplaced Priorities, President Reed, Unemployment Crisis, Unemployment in St. Louis City

This entry was posted on February 5, 2010 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Arrogance of Incumbency, Board of Aldermen, Does He Read What He Writes?, Ideology Matters, Misplaced Priorities, Policy Failure, President Reed, Transcendent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Unemployment Numbers Remained Abysmal in December”

1. Comprehensively Incomprehensible: How the PFM Report Set the Stage for Tonight’s Budget Hearing at 6:30PM « notmymayor Says:
   February 10, 2010 at 2:33 pm | Reply

   [...] far fewer jobs in St. Louis City today than in 2000, and I should not need to remind you that our monthly unemployment figures are appalling. Any talk of making St. Louis “better for business” is proxy for destroying the social [...]

2. McKee TIF on Trial, As City Revenues Plummet « notmymayor Says:
   February 17, 2010 at 2:40 am | Reply

   [...] The relationship between diminished sales tax revenues and the increased incidence of Tax Increment Financing is unquestioned, yet it flies in the face of the assertions by Phyllis Young and our depraved Mayor that TIF represents new tax revenue and grows jobs. It does neither. [...]

3. A Red Brick Menace: Lyda Krewson Thinks that Tax Abatement Improves Public Health « notmymayor Says:
   March 5, 2010 at 11:30 am | Reply

   [...] Board of Aldermen’s legislative work is so laughably divorced from the realities of life in our City as to render it incompatible with what one would expect from our Nation’s supposedly advanced [...]