One subtle thing about STL city population decline is

Posted on: June 25, 2024 at 13:36:18 CT

the demographics are changing away from it being a majority African-American city. The Caucasian percent of population has held steady around 43% for the past twenty years, but the African-American population has dropped from a 51% majority to now not even being a plurality, tied with Caucasian at 43%.

Instead, the populations in the city that are growing are the Asian population which has doubled and the Latino population which has more than doubled. While Anglo holds steady.

The reason this has to be mentioned in terms of crime policies is the unavoidable reality that the defund police movement was closely tied to the George Floyd et al protests of 2020, and the African-American voting demographic wound up being a major supporter of that movement.

If the above trends were to continue, a fundamental shift in the crime polices of St. Louis city is not outside the realm of possibility. Doesn't mean the changed crime policies would fix the issues, but it would at least be the Step 1 that you mention.

Edited by McMuffin at 13:39:36 on 06/25/24