Mayor Spencer Vows to Keep Tornado-Displaced Residents in City
Date Posted: May 28, 2025
Posted In: Discussion, News, Regionalism,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Mayor Cara Spencer said Tuesday (May 27) night she is working to keep every single resident displaced by the recent tornado from leaving the city. And she said she would stake her reputation on her success or failure.
Spencer told residents at a church in the Grand Center neighborhood she campaigned on reversing the city’s long-running population decline, and she wasn’t going to waver now.
“We want to keep everybody here in St. Louis,” she said, “and I want my record to be tied to how we keep people here.”
The remarks doubled down on an already audacious objective: City leaders have been trying to reverse population decline since the 1950s without success. When Spencer said during her campaign that she would tackle the problem, even those who wished her well said it would be a steep climb.
Now Spencer aims to do it in the wake of one of the worst storms in the city’s history, a storm that tore trees out of the ground, ripped off roofs, and pulled entire rooms off home after home here.
David Jackson, a North Side resident and advocate for Black contractors who backed Spencer’s campaign, was cheered by her message.
“That shows she’s committed to St. Louis,” he said. “We need these people.