Shame has become an inescapable undercurrent in the daily life of St. Louis. Mayor Tishaura Jones, once celebrated as part of a progressive trio with former prosecutor Kimberly Gardner and former congresswoman Cori Bush, now stands as the last member of a vanguard whose radical policies have shadowed the city and region.
Though she calls herself a “reluctant leader,” Jones is no stranger to St. Louis’s infamously corrupt politics. Her father is a local political stalwart who propagated minority contracting as the city’s comptroller before resigning in disgrace and pleading guilty to federal tax fraud for embezzling from his juvenile nephew. In 2021, the younger Jones was elected as the city’s first black female mayor amid vainglorious hype about “black girl magic.” She previously served in the Missouri statehouse and as the city’s treasurer.
Jones’s administration has been marked by incompetence and mendacity. Early in her term, she made good on her campaign promise to cut $4 million from the city police budget. As resources dwindled, police headcount reached record-low levels. Rather than re-fund the police and ramp up recruitment, Jones sought to punish business owners for crimes committed on or near their properties. The mayor has called for stricter gun laws to address the city’s gun-crime epidemic. Leaked communications, however, indicate her skepticism about the effectiveness of such laws and recognition of the city’s inability to prosecute violent crime.
Despite a background in finance, Jones let the city squander millions from its share of the historic $790 million NFL settlement involving the St. Louis Rams’ move back to Los Angeles. She left funds to languish in low- or no-yield accounts for at least seven months. And she backed a proposal that would spend the money on welfare and infrastructure—an ambitious plan undercut by accelerating population loss, particularly among black residents fleeing the city by the thousands.
While Jones ran on a platform of ending “business as usual,” her tenure has been marked by scandal. A nanny camera caught city building inspectors shaking down daycare owners; the incident is now the subject of state and federal investigations. Jones tried to oust the city’s personnel chief after the chief’s husband endorsed Cori Bush’s political opponent, resulting in allegations of political retribution. Federal investigators are also probing claims of an influence-peddling scheme at City Hall involving the mayor’s father and his former girlfriend, a local construction contractor.
Further complicating matters, a whistleblower has accused the city’s economic development agency of mismanaging federal pandemic relief funds. The mayor signed legislation broadening eligibility for those funds, championed by an alderwoman who also serves on the agency’s board of directors. Shortly afterward, the city awarded nearly $1.3 million to organizations, led by the alderwoman’s family members, that had previously failed to qualify.
In response, concerned citizens have launched a petition urging a state audit of the mayor’s office. Amid the growing scrutiny, newly proposed legislation seeks to establish a City Administrator role, which would significantly curtail the mayor’s authority.
The corruption is rampant. In 2022, three city aldermen pled guilty to federal bribery charges, and former city prosecutor Kim Gardner entered into a federal pretrial-diversion agreement for misusing public funds. A much-anticipated audit of Gardner’s office revealed further misconduct. She spent seven weeks, for example, pursuing a nursing certification during business hours.
Schoolchildren have not been spared St. Louis’s problems. Most recently, the city fired the superintendent of St. Louis Public Schools, a DEI devotee, amid allegations of financial misconduct, questionable contracting practices, and extravagant spending on district credit cards. The superintendent and her staff spent $1.6 million on travel and entertainment, including charges for Hooters, Massage Envy, and first-class airfares. Over the same period, the district spiraled from a $17 million surplus to a projected $35 million deficit. More than half of the district’s students were chronically absent.
Jones inherited a city in decline, but her progressive policies have done nothing to slow or reverse the trend. The city’s population has dropped to its lowest level since 1950. Financial watchdog Truth in Accounting gives St. Louis a “D” grade, warning that reported improvements using outdated pension data mask deeper liabilities.
Businesses that once formed the backbone of downtown continue to move out. In the last year alone, 600 state employees abruptly relocated to the suburbs, a major public relations firm announced its departure, and the city’s remaining television affiliate decided to relocate from its longtime downtown station, citing employee safety. Local billionaire Bob Clark, who founded one of the nation’s largest privately held construction companies, refuses to move his company’s St. Louis operations downtown because of concerns about violent crime.
The mayor has touted declining homicides, but an investigation revealed that the St. Louis Police Department has been systematically misclassifying dozens of murders as justifiable homicides, in several instances contravening explicit FBI reporting guidelines. Recent audio recordings revealed the city’s sheriff forcing his deputy to roll a pair of golden dice to keep his job—and fired him anyway despite winning.
“The indifference of politicians toward the real concerns of their constituents and only working on what gets them the best soundbite is frustrating,” one Washington University graduate student who grew up in St. Louis told me. “There seems to be no way to change it.”
And yet, residents voted for this mess. As St. Louis celebrates over 75 years of single-party rule, it remains a symbol of murder, mayhem, decline, and disinvestment. Public policy alone cannot rescue a city determined to harm itself. The challenges facing St. Louis are the product of choices that its citizens have made. Only they possess the power to chart a different course.
Top Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images