STLPR0%
North St. Louis residents call for $150M of Rams settlement funds for tornado recovery 16%
By Kavahn Mansouri59%
6/4/2026, 5:34:44 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 15 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Pessimism Bias, and False Dilemma, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 15.9% saturation with 135 hits. Analysis detected 636 faulty-reasoning hits from 851 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 32% and a BS Rank of 16% (17,850 of 21,198 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 84.20% of the article peer group.
North St.
Louis residents called for a larger portion of the city’s Rams settlement money to be used for tornado relief at a public hearing Wednesday night.
The Board of Aldermen's Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee hearing at the Julia Davis Library on Natural Bridge came as city officials debate a plan to allocate funds throughout the city received in the 2021 settlement.
Currently, the city plans to allot roughly $110 million to tornado relief in neighborhoods affected by last year’s May 16 tornado that damaged an estimated 5,000 homes and buildings and caused major upheaval in north city neighborhoods.
But residents who attended the hearing said $110 million is not enough to put a dent in a recovery effort the city has estimated could cost $1.6 billion to $2 billion.
Residents and grassroots tornado recovery groups like Action St.
Louis and the People’s Response who have been helping with tornado recovery since it happened want the city to allocate $150 million to recovery efforts.
“Underfunded recovery, when we have the funds to begin to rebuild, sends a message to the north side that, in addition to downtown interest groups like Greater St.
Louis, not giving a damn about them or their livelihoods, but also that their city government couldn't care less about them either,” said Michael McLemore, a tornado survivor and member of the People’s Response.
“That is completely unacceptable.”
Greater St.
Louis Inc. has advocated for a portion of the settlement funds to go toward revitalizing downtown and has told city officials it would match the city’s funding.
The city received the funds as part of a $790 million settlement agreement among the city, St.
Louis County, the region’s sporting authority and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke and the NFL after the team's departure from St.
Louis in 2016.
Under Mayor Cara Spencer and the Board of Aldermen’s current proposal, north city sees the lion’s share of the remaining $230 million of Rams settlement.
About $65 million will go toward the city’s ailing water system and $55 million toward downtown revitalization efforts.
All 30 community members who spoke at the meeting called for more money for north St.
Louis or described their situation post-tornado.
"We all know that the tornado caused $1.6 billion in damage, but downtown received approximately zero in damage from the tornado, yet they're receiving almost 50% of what the north side is receiving in order to revitalize them,” said Reid Chunn.
“This is not fair, this is not equitable.”
Others said the city needs to move faster to deliver the funding, more than a year after the tornado hit.
"It's a year later, and people are going through all these darn changes now — they need to just go on and allocate the money,” Fourth Ward resident Vivian Brown said.
“We shouldn't have to come here a year later, having a meeting and worried about where the money needs to go.
You need to send the money in the city where the storm did the most damage.”
A city survey of residents by the Board of Aldermen asking how the city should spend the Rams settlement funding mirrors the message from many speakers at the meeting: Tornado recovery should be a priority for the funding.
Of the roughly 1,400 people surveyed on the spending plan, tornado recovery ranked as the highest priority for just half the participants, according to a report prepared by board President Megan Green’s policy director, Cristina Garmendia.
Funding for the city’s water department rated second in importance, and citywide infrastructure was third.
It’s currently estimated the city’s water system needs roughly $700 million in upgrades.
Residents surveyed listed demolitions of condemned buildings, sidewalk repairs, tree replanting and stump removal and home repair as top priorities for tornado recovery funds.
“I'm deeply troubled by the lack of urgency shown by the city government in getting support to North city for tornado recovery,” a resident said in their survey response.
“We're watching the next chapter of disinvestment in real time, and we have access to a different choice.
Even if we can't do everything, that shouldn't mean we do nothing.”
Downtown revitalization, vacant building reduction and bolstering the city’s reserves had the lowest average rankings of importance.
As the hearing concluded, Green said that she agreed with the residents at the hearing that the current allotted funding isn’t enough for tornado-affected communities but that it will help get more money.
“I think most folks in this room know that I'm in agreement, that I think that $110 is not enough, $150 is not enough, $250 is not enough,” Green said.
“We know that we are looking at an almost $2 billion need, and so you know, $110 million that is proposed here is not going to 100% fill that need, but it will help us access additional money to fill those needs.”
Green said she expects amendments to the current proposal.
The committee will meet again at 11 a.m.
Tuesday in the Kennedy Room in City Hall.
Speakers
4speakers32%attributed speech582writer words
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100%flagged-word coverageReid Chunn
49 attributed words18% of attributed speech34% writer coverage
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