Progressive blogger questions STL County Executive Charlie Dooley’s “vision.”

The very progressive blog Show Me Progress had some unusually harsh criticism for St. Louis County executive Charlie Dooley. As we wrote after the primary election that Mr. Dooley is hemorrhaging support among Democrats, this harsh piece seems to be another indication of that. The progressive blogger “Hot Flash” really takes issue with Dooley’s plan to open up 3,000 acres of land on the Missouri river floodplain:

Look, nobody wants to drive a major employer like MasterCharge out of town, but what Dooley fails to mention is how the last development of the floodplain in St. Louis County turned out. Mills Mall was built. With only two anchors–Marshalls and Burlington Coat Factory–it has dozens of shops … and few customers. Acres of mostly unoccupied parking spaces that need to be leveed against floods have supplanted wildlife habitat and natural flood control.

“Hot Flash” doesn’t stop there. They don’t seem too think much of the highly touted China Hub plan for Lambert Airport:

Dooley consiglieri John Temporiti

That same outdated mode of thinking characterizes the other project Dooley is pushing. Much as he wants businesses on that floodplain, that’s a minor vision as far as he’s concerned. What he’s really high about is the China Hub. St. Louis honchos and, in fact, Missouri legislative bigwigs (both senators and the governor) have traveled to China trying to lure Chinese trade to Lambert “International” Airport–to make the airport’s name no shameless exaggeration for the first time…..The China Hub, according to Dooley, could put us back in the big time. China could send us its stuff and we could put beef on the return trip to a nation literally hungry for steaks.

I guess I’ll sound all Grinchy about it if I point out that wasting jet fuel in these times of impending climate change to send cheap, often contaminated, plastic goods halfway around the planet does not strike me as visionary. How many Chinese American flags do we really need? And as for sending beef to the Chinese, the planet is already groaning under the load of methane that cattle emit. Let’s not create a new billion people strong market….Mother Nature is going to swat humans upside the head for their stubborn insistence on ignoring her. Then a different way of life will happen or we as a species will disappear. A visionary leader would get that.Read more…

“The planet is already groaning under the load of methane that cattle emit.” Oh my God, are these people serious?

Related:

Dooley: “My Pre Primary Poll is More Accurate Than Corrigan’s AFTER Primary Poll”

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