GRIFFIN March 2025

March 2025 • CWEA GRIFFIN • 3 Happy 2025 to the 9th Ward and all of St. Louis. While the news feels overwhelm- ing, and decidedly unhappy in many ways, I want to offer a mes- sage of hope. Here in St. Louis, we are no stranger to problems, and while the world may seem upside down in many ways, I want to highlight some of the good things that are happening around our ward and city. First, the Board of Aldermen has entered its Spring Break. I am very proud of some of the work we got done this session. Creating our city’s first Department of Trans- portation is a game changer for our streets, from better-maintained roads to improved safety for all road users. I want to also highlight three bills passed in our last meet- ing that were done in partnership with Alderwoman Pam Boyd of North city and Alderwoman Dan- iela Velazquez of South City. Together, we introduced three bills to address vacant properties in St. Louis. Vacant buildings are a problem that impacts every neigh- borhood in our city, with nearly 23% of properties that are con- sidered vacant or abandoned. In and so much more. Additionally, Steinberg Rink will be undergoing a $100M restoration. When com- pleted, the re-imagined space will include water features, shade struc- tures, fire pits, a new restaurant and community space. It will be a public amenity that is accessible year-round. The repaving work of Kingshigh- way along with traffic calming im- provements will reach the Central West End in the coming months. Those improvements will feature bump-outs, medians and other fea- tures that make it safer for all road users, including special attention given to the intersections with Lin- dell and Delmar. This work is being funded through the American Res- cue Plan Act dollars that St. Louis received from the federal govern- ment after the pandemic, and it should result in safer, more walk- able streets when completed. The Tower Grove Connector starts construction in May. This separated cycle track will be con- structed in two phases. The first phase will start at Tower Grove Park and work its way toward For- est Park Southeast on Tower Grove Avenue, Vandeventer and Sarah Street. Construction on Phase Two will begin immediately after Phase One is completed and will complete the connection up to the Cortex Metrolink station via Sarah these bills, we increased fines for a number of issues related to vacancy ranging from failure to properly board up a property to illegal demo- lition, and topped it off by allowing unpaid fines to be added to a special tax bill that will help motivate negli- gent absentee owners to fix up their property or sell it, or else they will lose it. The goal of these increases is compliance, so the improvement of neighborhoods is first and fore- most. Administrative fines collected will go toward the Impacted Ten- ants Fund, which helps tenants find new housing when they lose their current housing through no fault of their own. Other fines will go to- ward the Building Division’s Vacant Building Initiative Fund, which will finance code enforcement and pro- vide grants to reduce and prevent vacant and blighted properties. It’s a big step forward in tackling this problem and I’m proud of the col- laboration with my colleagues. As the days start to get longer and warmer, expect to see lots of activity in and around the ward. The East Waterways Project in Forest Park is almost done, turning Jefferson Lake and Bowl Lake into destinations for learning, fishing, bird-watching Street, where it will connect with the Brickline Greenway. The proposed Albion tower at Lindell and Kingshighway looks to break ground this year. I am excited to see the activation of a corner that has been an empty parking lot for my entire life. As mentioned before, not all news is happy. While there are many signs of progress, there is a serious threat to the ward and the city if federal cuts become perma- nent. Through his executive or- ders, the U.S. president is illegally freezing funds that were allocated by Congress, who has the power of the purse per our constitution. These are our tax dollars that fund everything from homeless services to law enforcement. Thousands of jobs will be in jeopardy both in government and in local institu- tions, and the city stands to be sig- nificantly damaged. I go into this subject in depth in my new policy newsletter. You can sign up for it to be delivered to your inbox by going to BrowningSTL. com/policy-newsletter. My goal is to provide information and context by addressing a subject in depth each month so that people can un- derstand what is happening at their local government. As always, I can be reached by email (BrowningM@StLouis-MO. Continued on Page 8 9th Ward Report By Michael Browning, 9th Ward Alderman