The St. Louis region is a great metropolitan area. Our many wonderful assets include Forest Park, Washington University, Cortex, the Danforth Plant Science Center, the Fox Theatre, and the St. Louis Symphony, to name a few. We also have a pretty good baseball team, a rich fabric of neighborhoods, the finest arch you’ll find anywhere, and a vibrant Jewish community. But we could be better.

Among what holds us back are racial divides and disparities, too many local governmental units, and stagnant population growth. These challenges are nothing new. They have plagued St. Louis for decades. So, why have we failed so miserably to address them?

Why do we continue to have a city of St. Louis that is not part of St. Louis County, leading to inefficient duplication of services and a lack of city/county-wide financing mechanisms for supporting regional projects? 

Why do we continue to have a dizzying array of cities, school districts, fire districts and police departments — few of which are able to achieve excellence and efficiencies — and which leads us to live in silos, and move commercial developments around the region in a zero-sum game?

Why do we continue to be one of the most racially segregated metropolitan areas in the country? And, why do African-Americans continue to lag well beyond the white population in enjoying the fruits of our economy? 

ADVERTISEMENT

It’s not for lack of obvious solutions to these challenges. Thoughtful plans have been proposed for readmitting the city of St. Louis to St. Louis County. And, Forward Through Ferguson has outlined a path towards racial equality, consisting of a number of priorities and calls to action.

Similarly, solutions to our political balkanization are evident and known. They involve consolidating governmental units, or superimposing over our present system of fragmented local governments new regional governmental bodies, empowered to perform significant governmental functions on a regional basis.

And, if birth rates and migration patterns are not producing population growth in St. Louis, an obvious alternative approach towards growth is to be more welcoming towards, and actively pursue, immigrant populations. Indeed, immigration is how St. Louis was built during the late 19^th and early 20th centuries. The Bosnian community in the city of St. Louis is a more recent example of how immigration can bring growth and vibrancy to a city.

What holds the St. Louis region back from successfully addressing its challenges is not a lack of solutions, but rather, a lack of leadership in implementing evident solutions to our challenges. Many of our community’s leaders have been too focused in recent years on parochial interests, and not enough on moving St. Louis forward as a region. We have too few leaders who can articulate a regional vision for St. Louis and move the needle on making that regional vision a reality.

To be sure, part of the problem is that many citizens of our region seem content with the way things are and lack the will to support significant changes. Overcoming that inertia represents a great part of the challenge. But, that’s what strong leadership is all about – articulating a vision and then making it happen, even if the populace is not immediately united behind the vision. Leadership, by definition, places leaders out in front of their followers.

So, why should this matter to the Jewish community? It’s because the St. Louis Jewish community comprises only a small fraction of the region’s population, and the Jewish community cannot thrive as an island unto itself. As recognized in the Jewish Federation of St. Louis’s recently adopted strategic plan, we cannot have a thriving St. Louis Jewish community without a vibrant larger St. Louis community.

Also, if the current leadership void is to be filled, people from many different parts of the St. Louis community will need to step up and exercise leadership. Members of the Jewish community already play leadership roles in various arenas in the St. Louis region, including government, business and a variety of civic and non-profit institutions. Jewish leaders can and should play significant roles in meeting the challenges that face us and moving St. Louis forward as a region.

I call upon our St. Louis Jewish community — especially those in leadership positions, or who otherwise have the ability to bring positive influence to bear — to exercise leadership in taking on and overcoming the major challenges facing the St. Louis region, including racial divides and disparities, governmental fragmentation, and stagnant population growth. As the sage Hillel said, if not us, who? And, if not now, when?

Gerald P. Greiman is a local attorney with the St. Louis office of Spencer Fane LLP and Board Chair of Jewish Federation of St. Louis.