This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 21, 2011 - In a move that surprised no one, Gov. Jay Nixon took up the topic of job creation last week in his State of the State address, with a plan Republicans dismissed as weak and wasteful. NPR chose St. Louis as its prototype of a city struggling through the Great Recession for a six-part discussion of unemployment. And when St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnists Tim Logan and David Nicklaus posed the question "Can St. Louis Compete?" in a yearlong series under that title, the ensuing response inspired the St. Louis Urban Corps to take up the discussion for their second Great Debates event on Tuesday, Jan. 25 at the Missouri History Museum.
While St. Louisans have certainly asked "What is a Winning Strategy for Economic Development in the St. Louis Region?" before, the event's sponsors -- a partnership between KWMU, the Nine Network of Public Media, KETC/Channel 9, Washington University in St. Louis, The Missouri History Museum and The St. Louis Urban Debate League -- believe it is at least as topical and as urgent as ever. Despite recent modest gains in manufacturing and services, speculative citizens and professional analysts agree that the regional economy has a long ways to go before anyone can claim recovery.
And for Logan and Nicklaus, the keynote speakers at the event, just "recovering" from this particular recession might not be enough. According to Census data, St. Louis ranks near the bottom of the country's 40 largest metro areas in terms of economic output per capita, and reports some of the slowest overall growth. Through interviews, editorial meetings and follow-up letters to the editor, readers realized that additional pressures of globalization, educational disadvantages and city-marketing might mean that creating a working definition of "winning economic development" requires a grassroots rethinking of the economy as a whole.
To that end, the Urban Corps put together a panel including Kathleen Osborn, executive director of The Regional Business Council, Henry Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration at Washington University, and Gilbert Bickel, Morgan Stanley senior vice president and founder of St. Louis Arch Angels. After they present their ideas in a conversation moderated by KWMU's Don Marsh, audience members will break into facilitated discussion groups.
Organizers structured the event to offer participants an opportunity to express opinions and build networks, in hopes that they will act on what they hear. The first debate, held at Washington University in October 2010, featured a panel discussion on whether the city of St. Louis should re-enter St. Louis County.
"We are not here to go after the low hanging fruit," Evan Weiss, executive director of St. Louis Urban Corps and one of the Debates organizers, said in a recent press release. "We want to give St. Louisans the opportunity to take on some of the most important and challenging issues that our community faces."
The event is free and open to the public, but organizers recommend registering in advance at www.stlurbancorps.org is recommended to ensure a seat. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for a 7 p.m. start.
Ariana Tobin, a student at Washington University, is an intern with the Beacon.