Reading Caught in the Middle, a new book about the economic challenges facing cities and towns in the Midwest, I was stunned that author Richard Longworth wrote of St. Louis (p.158) "Traffic downtown peps up on the eighty nights or so when the Cards play at home. Otherwise, a visitor has the feeling that he could liedown in the middle of any downtown street at two o'clock on a weekday afternoon in perfect safety."
From today's Eye: since September 2007 about 15 African Americans have left the newspaper, and the Post has hired just one African American during that time.
Our reader writes, “Let’s look at the scorecard for the daily paper that is covering a diverse city:
? No African Americans in senior editor positions.
? No assistant Metro editors of color.
? No assistant editors of color in any department.
? No blacks covering the city; the only black reporter on the Metro staff covers North County (and how many stories from North County have you seen in the daily paper?) .
? No blacks writing editorials.
? No blacks on the copy desk (copy desk chief Courtney Barrett is black, but his is an administrative job, although he reads some copy)
It's hard not to compare the American's coverage (front page, editorial and Political Eye) to the Post-Dispatch's. It demonstrates both the racial divide in the city and the important role of a strong Black press.
