South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Two would like to be counted in support of a merger of city, county

Letters to the Editor

To the editor:
My brother and I live in the Crestwood area, and we would like to be counted in the number of residents who actually would like to see the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County “merge.”
The first 40 percent of our lives we lived in the city, the last 60 percent of our lives in the county. We have lived in the Crestwood area for the last 25 years.
Our firm belief, like many others who seem to not have a voice, is the merger would be the best thing for our general area.
Nationally, the St. Louis region is treated as a smaller city now and national corporations treat us as an afterthought — not all the time, of course, but enough times that businesses want to move away from here more than they want to move here or invest here.
Rather it be a perception or optical, we are treated as a smaller city and not a large vibrant region.
Locally, we hear too much from the cities in the county, largely from the six- and seven-member boards, and they vote to stay out of the merger process.
This is not all the voices of the cities they have the right to govern. They are a small sample size, and most want to keep their small fiefdoms as they are, instead of being part of the great St. Louis region.
The rich do get richer, and the poor get less and less. We have seen some private high schools in the county get $10 million, $20 million and $30 million gifts from some rich donors. We see public schools in the city and county wonder if they have clean water to drink.
Our schools, our business climate and our image would be much better off if we were all working together instead of being stodgy isolationists.
Wayne Harvey
Crestwood

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