The Future Great City podcast

Our guest this week is St. Louis City President of the Board of Aldermen and mayoral candidate, Lewis Reed. Reed became the second official candidate for Room 200, a seat occupied by Mayor Francis Slay for the past 15 years. 28th Ward alderwoman Lyda Krewson was the first to announce a run in June. Listen to Lyda on the Future Great City podcast here.

Reed is currently in his third term as president of the Board of Alderman, a citywide elected office. Prior to that office, Reed was elected to two terms as alderman for the city's 6th Ward. He unsuccessfully challenged Slay in the 2013 mayoral contest. 2013 saw basically a one-on-one primary, while the coming contest could feature a half-dozen or more candidates vying for the open seat.

We plan to invite each officially declared candidate for mayor on the Future Great City podcast and feature interviews on a single page to better inform city voters. Our conversation with Lewis Reed ran well over an hour and we veered off into talking cycling and the city near the end. As a result, this podcast is presented in two parts, with the second half posted next week.

Reed's announcement to run again was made with this video: Lewis Reed for Mayor of St Louis 2017, and accompanied by the following statement:

St. Louis, Missouri-President of the Saint Louis Board of Alderman Lewis Reed released a video today (August 8, 2016) as an introduction to the community on his candidacy. Reed had previously made it public that he will be running for mayor, but this is the official announcement and first campaign communication. In the video, Reed highlights his diverse family life and why it is always best to include diverse opinions & perspectives, compassion and respect for others when addressing an issue.

Also highlighted is his success in spearheading development in Lafayette Square and on Washington Ave as Aldermen of the 6th Ward, creation of Bike St. Louis, creating funding sources for youth programs, and bringing the NextDoor platform to the City of St. Louis.

David will be speaking at SPACE Architecture + Design this Thursday. The event is free and open to the public, but you are asked to please click here to register. The event is presented by nextSTL and Left Bank Books. Copies of Chain of Title will be available to purchase.

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In this episode we speak with David Dayen, author of Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud, published in May of this year. David was awarded the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize, awarded annually to a first-time author who demonstrates a "commitment to exploring aspects of America that are underrepresented by mainstream media".

We discuss the broad, national foreclosure crisis, which was (and is) really is criminal mortgage fraud. The centuries old basic tenant of American land ownership is being undermined. At times, who owns a home can't be proven. Millions of Americans have experienced foreclosure, some are still in their homes, banks have paused proceedings in places where home prices have not yet rebounded. While the "crisis" may seem to be our rearview mirror, its effects are long lasting and will take decades to be resolved.

While centered in the "sand states" of Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and California, where the majority of new home construction occurred in the past decade, cash out, interest-only, and adjustable rate mortgages were (and are) common in Missouri. In St. Louis, mortgage products often focused on the African-American homeowner, who may have had equity in their homes.

David Dayen is a journalist who writes about economics and finance. He is a contributing writer to Salon.com and The Intercept, and a weekly columnist for The Fiscal Times and The New Republic. He also writes for The American Prospect, Vice, The Huffington Post, and more. He has been a guest on MSNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, Russia Today, NPR, Pacifica Radio and Air America Radio. He lives in Los Angeles, where prior to writing about politics he had a 15-year career as a television producer and editor.

Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud

David Dayen recent articles and more on Tumblr

Our guest this week is St. Louis City President of the Board of Aldermen and mayoral candidate, Lewis Reed. Reed became the second official candidate for Room 200, a seat occupied by Mayor Francis Slay for the past 15 years. 28th Ward alderwoman Lyda Krewson was the first to announce a run in June. Listen to Lyda on the Future Great City podcast here.

Reed is currently in his third term as president of the Board of Alderman, a citywide elected office. Prior to that office, Reed was elected to two terms as alderman for the city's 6th Ward. He unsuccessfully challenged Slay in the 2013 mayoral contest. 2013 saw basically a one-on-one primary, while the coming contest could feature a half-dozen or more candidates vying for the open seat.

We plan to invite each officially declared candidate for mayor on the Future Great City podcast and feature interviews on a single page to better inform city voters. Our conversation with Lewis Reed ran well over an hour and we veered off into talking cycling and the city near the end. As a result, this podcast is presented in two parts, with the second half posted next week.

Reed's announcement to run again was made with this video: Lewis Reed for Mayor of St Louis 2017, and accompanied by the following statement:

St. Louis, Missouri-President of the Saint Louis Board of Alderman Lewis Reed released a video today (August 8, 2016) as an introduction to the community on his candidacy. Reed had previously made it public that he will be running for mayor, but this is the official announcement and first campaign communication. In the video, Reed highlights his diverse family life and why it is always best to include diverse opinions & perspectives, compassion and respect for others when addressing an issue.

Also highlighted is his success in spearheading development in Lafayette Square and on Washington Ave as Aldermen of the 6th Ward, creation of Bike St. Louis, creating funding sources for youth programs, and bringing the NextDoor platform to the City of St. Louis.

In this episode we speak with architectural historian Michael Allen about the state of historic preservation and the built environment in St. Louis. His work can be found at his new site, Building Culture.

nextSTL began as the St. Louis Urban Workshop in 2009. Since then, the site has continued to incorporate more voices across more platforms to tell the story, past, present, & future, of St. Louis. Now it’s time to launch the Future Great City podcast.

In this episode we speak with regular nextSTL contributor Greg Johnson. We attempt to cover the boom in development news from across St. Louis from the riverfront westward. From CityArchRiver to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency to the Alverne to Jefferson Arms and on and on, we cover a lot of ground!

With so much happening here, our discussion, recorded a couple weeks ago, is already a bit dated. Visit nextSTL.com to catch up and learn more about how St. Louis is changing. You can find Greg on Twitter @PresbyterianStl.

nextSTL began as the St. Louis Urban Workshop in 2009. Since then, the site has continued to incorporate more voices across more platforms to tell the story, past, present, & future, of St. Louis. Now it’s time to launch the Future Great City podcast.