St. Louis Allocates Rams Cash: North City, Downtown, Infrastructure

A bill allocating the $255,000,000 St. Louis City received from the Rams Settlement Bill has been signed.

The final bill, after years of attempts and multiple amendments, allocates $120 million towards North City and tornado recovery, $80 million towards citywide infrastructure improvements and the remaining $55 million towards revitalizing downtown.

The bill was not without criticisms, most notably from a number of activists who demanded North City receive $150 million. Mayor Spencer says this is a bill that came out of compromise, and not one single issue got enough funds to solve all its problems.

Another criticism of the bill was how susceptible previous city led North City grant programs to were to fraud, with the North City business ARPA program being mentioned. Comptroller Donna Baringer says they will keep a close eye on all funds to make sure they go to those in need.

"Our [Board of Estimate and Apportionment] secretary will maintain a public running total of the Rams Settlement dollars that have been encumbered giving residents a clear view of how these historic funds are being invested."

Some funds, like those for tornado relief and the water division are expected to move quickly, with tornado relief programs up and running while the water division has dozens of "shovel ready," projects lined up. Other funds, like for downtown revitalization will be deliberately slow.

"It will be a little bit longer as we really build out the strategic plan," says Mayor Spencer, "We'll be working with [Greater St. Louis Inc.] and the Arch Park Foundation and other stakeholders to match those dollars and make sure that we're getting them done right."

The signing ceremony also served as a moment to look back on the long process the City went through to get here. From losing the Rams over a decade ago, to filing what some City leaders at the time deemed to be a longshot lawsuit, to the eventual settlement being reached. Alderman Shane Cohn.

"We knew that we had the prospects to be able to put this fight forward. We have a tremendous legal team that worked with the City to get this across the finish line and get us to where we are today."