On Thursday's "The Show," St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann confirmed a thought that Chris Rongey and Amy Marxkors shared: that crime in St. Louis City has an effect on the entire region.
Ehlmann said around half of St. Charles County residents didn't grow up there — they moved from St. Louis County or from the city. And, he added, many people move to St. Charles County and feel relief.
"In the short term, that was possible; in the long term, that's a bad attitude to have," he said. While St. Charles County may be currently doing well, he pointed out, the region as a whole needs to be considered.
"If the region — which only grew at like 1.3% population — if the region doesn't get its act together, and we can't get the whole region growing, eventually everybody who wants to move from St. Louis County to St. Charles will do it. And then we'll have no growth, too."
Ehlmann explained that things like the Cardinals or the Blues doing well can have a positive impact on the region — St. Louis is on national TV, and the region gets good attention. But in the same vein, when St. Louis is represented as a city rife with crime, the whole region suffers.
"A couple years ago, the State Chamber polled its members and 85% of its members in the city of St. Louis thought crime was the number one problem," he said. "Five or six years ago, the International Institute did a study of international businesses and asked them about coming to St. Louis, there was two main problems: number one was the lack of direct flights to Europe, which we have actually done something to address. But number two was crime."
He added, "And again, it's not it's not the entire region. But when people hear St. Louis, they don't understand that that's 300,000 people out of a very large metropolitan area."
Hear more from St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann on how crime in St. Louis can shape the entire region:
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