Given the obvious challenges, downtown St. Louis is at a crossroad in its history.  Will we be able to build on the energy and investment that rebuilt much of downtown over the last 15 years and remain relevant as the region’s center, or will downtown simply be a place where people attend sporting events, conventions, and special events and then leave?  Will downtown be able to maintain its attractiveness to diverse populations, or will its demographic focus narrow?  Can we leverage a growing residential population to once again make downtown attractive for retail and office users?  The path we ultimately take will depend largely on how effectively we mobilize our available resources -- financial, civic, and political -- to address critical issues like public safety, social services, and infrastructure.   

To many of us, the existing institutions (Downtown St. Louis Community Improvement District, and the City of St. Louis, etc.) are not providing the leadership, the strategies, or the resources that will put downtown St. Louis on a sustainable path to growth.  There is a lack of urgency to quickly and effectively address emergent problems.  The collective organizational structures and decision-making processes now in place inhibit creative, smart, and rapid response to problems.  Nor are there sufficient accountability and performance measuring mechanisms in place to recognize when strategies and tactics are not working and course corrections are needed.  Problems need to be addressed aggressively, and we believe that our existing institutions have not been agile or effective enough to do so.