I recall a warm summer afternoon in the mid-1960’s when I was staying at my aunt’s and uncle’s place, on Juanita between Spring and Gustine, in south city. A strange truck slowly drove down the middle of the street. It had a pick-up front with a body in back carrying a platform where two guys fed newspapers onto a machine which tied a string around each copy. Without looking up, as the truck drove by they tossed the St. Louis Post Dispatch onto most yards, one guy throwing to the south side, the other to the north side homes.
Back then the city had about three-quarters of a million residents and the Post and and/or the Globe Democrat found their way to most homes.
The latest Census Bureau population estimates came out yesterday. The City of St. Louis’ estimated population in 2023: 281,754. [census.gov] The Globe passed years back but even in a one-paper market, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s circulation runs a bit over 48,000 copies a day.
The questions today: will the city stabilize or continue to shed residents, and, will the region still have a daily newspaper in 2030?
Oh, newspapers across the nation keep shrinking. The venerable Washington Post, for example, exists as a civic charity funded by Jeff Bezos.
Yet, here the city’s struggles and the paper’s decline seem especially linked.
Last week I tried to buy a Post at a major gas station in St. Charles. All they had were six copies of the previous day’s edition. I mentioned that to the cashier. He said, “Oh.” I asked how many papers they sold most days: “a couple.” Obviously, most St. Charles folk aren’t interested in a paper centered on St. Louis city.
By the way, the estimated 2023 population for St. Charles County is 416,659 people. With established momentum, it’s possible that west bank of the Missouri River will house 425,000 to 435,000 by the 2030 census.
So, with a booming county still building out infrastructure and schools and such, try not to be surprised when I explain what St. Charles County ‘s state legislators seem to worry about the most…the City of St. Louis. Moves to revert control of the city police to the state, to make the city give-up a third of its tax revenue, to place new, special restrictions on the city’s schools and a host of other mean things have been proposed just this session by St. Charles County legislators!
Back to Tucker and Market. St. Louis can’t find new cops, even priority projects such as updating the Convention Center remain elusive, tax abatements starve the schools of revenue, and, well, residents continue to vote with moving vans.
The city’s population could be less than 270,000 after the 2030 Census. With an infrastructure designed for better than three-quarters of a million, can the city survive with just a third that number of residents? And, the Post’s circulation could drop to 30,000 copies a day.
My view is that we’ve passed the tipping point for the city and its newspaper. Further declines are inevitable. At the same time, the region must have a functioning core and a strong journalistic voice.
Allow me to suggest that the legislature needs to stop attacking the city and buck up. Subsidize city streets, schools, police and such. Yes, the city has bad days ahead but the region requires that the city get life support.
For the Post Dispatch? We do have our own local billionaires. Doesn’t one want to invest in a civic need?
My aunt’s place still looks good on Juanita, the two-family apparently converted to a single family home. But, well, it’s not the same.
Glenn Koenen
Photo Credit – Marcus Qwertyus, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons