ALDERMAN SHANE COHN: PUBLIC SERVICE. NEIGHBORHOODS. PROGRESS.

THIS WEEK ON THE RUNDOWN

Alderman Shane Cohn joins Rene Knott for a conversation about public service, city leadership, and the future of St. Louis.

From neighborhood concerns to the larger issues shaping city government, Cohn shares insight into what it takes to serve at the local level and work toward progress that impacts everyday residents.

This conversation explores civic engagement, community priorities, leadership, and the continuing effort to build a stronger, more connected St. Louis.

Don’t miss this thoughtful conversation on leadership, local government, and the future of our city.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Thank you for joining us for the rundown with Rennie Knott. On this episode, we sit down with Shane Cohn. Right now, he is the longest continuous serving member of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, but he's not ready to call it quits just yet. He's got more things that he wants to do. He's already done something for his own community by standing out as a role model as the first openly gay culture.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Is that the best way to put it? It is. What do you think about that title?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

You know, it's uh something that I've obviously, you know, the last 17 years been uh working with my colleagues, and I'm uh happy that they've instilled confidence and trust in me to you know earn the title of vice president, and uh happy to carry the mantle while President Green is uh recovering, recuperating, and bonding with her newborn baby. That's beautiful. Yeah, that's beautiful. Why politics in your life?

SPEAKER_03 1:50

What what drove you down that path?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

I I don't know if it was necessarily something that drove me in life to get involved in politics, but my family was always very community-oriented. Uh my grandparents, you know, volunteered a lot and uh gave back to you know whatever community that they were living in at the time. And um, my grandfather actually was a town councilman in a very small town down in Florida. Um, so you know, being part of the community was always a really big part of you know my life growing up. Um and some of the virtues that my family instilled were just you know being neighborly. Um, you know, when you move into a new place, meet your neighbors, have conversations with them, um, connect with people, you know, that's really what builds community, and uh community becomes an extension of your family. Um and I think for me also as a young gay person, uh, it was uh the family that you chose, uh that you know, welcoming you into their homes and into their hearts and um are giving you those blessings in life at the same time. And so for me, uh public service and getting into politics was just an extension of what I was already doing in life.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

Do you think that your identity also drove you to want to be representative of a certain community?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

I think uh in general, uh, you know, as a young queer person uh in a marginalized community, you start to understand some of the dynamics in society and how those affect people in a very real-life uh uh applicable way um in terms of policy and government and um how choices leaders make can impact people's lives very um intently. And um, so you know, I got uh I think called into activism because of my uh you know queerness uh being a young gay man. And um for me uh that came in various forms. You know, that was you know, showing up at rallies, showing up at protests, uh organizing events, and also um uh you know getting involved with different organizations that were uh partnering or allied or um advocating for the LGBTQ community in general, um, and which eventually led me to an organization that actually worked on social justice causes across the board, um, fighting bias bigotry, racism, um, isms in general, um, and uh working on social justice and uh equality. And so um predominantly focused on education and healthcare sectors, but um it was uh an organization that I really you know fell in love with and um I think you know helped shape me into the person I am today.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

Yeah. So you're you're pushing as an advocate, you're you're pushing for cause, you're pushing pushing for change. Now you're an alderman. Is it different trying to push now than what it was then when you were just on your own being more of the the activist in the street?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Yeah, you know, politics is not just uh the nature of uh you know being a protester, you know, being a voice, being an advocate, you know, it politics is also relationships and understanding and listening. Um and so there's a balancing act because you're one person, one voice, and that big chamber. And so um, in order to get anything done, not just causes that are near and dear to your heart, but causes that are representative of your constituents and their needs, um, are you know challenges that you're going to have to have those relationships because you have to be able to count to a certain vote count to be able to get things passed, um, or have a relationship with the mayor to be able to get things done as well. Um, and so you know, your advocacy, you know, can remain, but how you use your relationships and your knowledge to navigate those waters um has to broaden a bit in order to get things done. Because if you're constantly agitating, agitating, agitating, um, you're not always the most effective at getting things done in government. And so I think that's where the uh the politics kind of you know uh round things out a little bit more than they you know might have been in my youth.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

Yeah, people go, here's that guy again.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Here you want now. Now some of my colleagues do do that, and uh I can't say that they're always the most effective. Uh you know, sometimes it's uh a little bit of self-harm when you're you know agitating all the time. Um, because then you know people uh the noise drowns itself out, and people are missing the point that you're trying to make when you're constantly yelling or agitating. And so um don't get me wrong, I still do it.

SPEAKER_03 6:25

You know, I try to be smart in terms of how I move and um is it the case of the squeaky wheel when you're when you're there to if if if I squeak, I'll get my oil, but if I'm silent, nothing happens. If if I'm passive, nothing happens.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

You know, I think that that's true for a lot of cities um and you know democracy in general. Um the squeaky wheel usually does get the attention. And um, you know, it's actually something that I talk about at neighborhood meetings pretty regularly here in the city of St. Louis. Um, you know, city government in particular, and I don't think it's exclusive to St. Louis, but um, you know, what I know about St. Louis and city government is it largely puts the burden of services and issues on the shoulder of our citizens. And um, because of that, you know, the citizens that are organized, the citizens that, you know, are using you know their voices to express concern are the ones that get you know the attention. And so um during my time, I've tried to you know coalesce, you know, block building and you know, re-establishing neighborhood organizations since the pandemic certainly um has been a priority trying to help my neighbors find their own voices in the political process and you know at the table in our neighborhoods as well.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Is it tough right now to be in St. Louis politics because no matter who you represent, we we we're one. People see it as as as one place. And you can't help but see the north side and and what's lacking over there and think, you know, the playing field's not even. There's a lot of criticism that's tossed your way. There's uh seemingly always something uh that's more angry than it is, man, I love my my board of aldermen. What is it like to be out there representing the board of aldermen, knowing that there's a certain level of population that does not like you and does not enjoy what's happening in our city?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Yeah, it's interesting. I remember when I first got elected, one of my colleagues told me uh generally in St. Louis, people hate the Board of Aldermen, but they love their aldermen. And so uh because they keep electing, yeah, right. And so uh they've got those relationships with their aldermen, but the board usually gets used as a scapegoat either by the Board of Estimate and Aportionment or the Mayor's Office or you know, other alder people even. Uh, and so I think uh that was uh a message, uh you know, a lesson that really kind of resonated me with me when I first got elected. But you know, I think um, you know, since I got elected first in 2009 when um social media was just coming into the forefront of people's lives, um, and I was, you know, probably one of the first uh alders that was very active on Twitter and Facebook and things of that nature. Um, you know, what I've uh seen evolve over time, you know, the last 17 years is that um, you know, there's more people that have a propensity to, you know, post anonymously or speak silently on a keyboard versus showing up in community and actually wanting to do the work with community to advance those issues. And so people feel very comfortable, you know, just sharing their opinions, you know, through anonymous, you know, or online, you know, ventures, but not necessarily showing up and you know, collaborating with their community and with their neighbors to, you know, get things done. And so, you know, that's frustrating, you know, as an elected official because you really do want people to be participants in the process of you know rebuilding or um you know generally helping to provide guidance and direction on things. And so um you have to use discernment in terms of how to get those things done. And you know, like I said, me as a you know elected official, one of the things that I've tried to work on is you know rebuilding some of those organizations in our community, particularly since the pandemic. But I think uh largely, you know, the board um you know does try its best to and uh you know to engage with people, to listen to folks. Um, you know, the president's office uh you know had recently launched uh Speak Up St. Louis, um, which was an online ideas submission portal. Um and in true St. Louis fashion, some of the submissions were really just uh kind of humorous in nature and not really you know genuine in terms of ideas. But I think you know, some of that is there's a certain level of pessimism, you know, with folks in St. Louis, um, because we continually hear about ideas or you know, concepts or plans, um, and there's not always the uh direct you know uh vision and execution on those. And so then you kind of rinse and repeat and the plans get thrown on a shelf somewhere and don't get really dusted off. Um and so I think you know that frustration is very natural. And then of course you live in a city um that like many Rust Belt cities has seen disinvestment for decades. And you know, when that's coupled with you know depleting city revenue and you know the need to be able to deliver services for our residents, um, it's understandable that people will get frustrated when you know trash isn't getting picked up regularly or potholes are popping up and not getting filled. And so one of the things that I feel like I'm a you know uh you know on a soapbox on at every single neighborhood meeting is you know telling people, you know, if the city's you know, the city isn't just proactively going out and doing anything at this time. We're not an even inspecting property on a proactive basis. Everything is reactive. So if you're not reporting it, if you're not calling it in, then the city doesn't know. The city's not taking care of it unless the citizens are standing up and doing their part. So, you know, it's very frustrating for folks when those types of things are happening and you know, the city doesn't do the best at communicating those things either. Um, so that's something that I've had conversations with this administration and prior administrations around how can we be more direct with our uh our constituents, our residents, um, you know, even just doing a newsletter, you know, that it gets sent out to keep you know, keep people updated. We're doing a lot with social media and things of that nature, but I think that that's more passive. Um and so I think that there are ways that we can make you know strides and improvements and engaging and communicating with our constituents, and I'll continue to push for that myself.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Um I told you I wasn't gonna talk a whole lot of politics with you, but we talked some politics. We'll get to some other subjects in a second. Right now, take a quick break. We'll be right back with more with our acting board of all the presidents. Take it out.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

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SPEAKER_03 13:29

We're talking with Shane Cohn, who is the acting for devolver president. We one day you may need to get rid of the the acting. Maybe maybe one day and goes, you know what, you're doing such a great job, you'll just go ahead and take over. I don't I don't see Megan doing that. But uh you know, maybe one day. You never know. You never know. Kids change. I'm always respecting, so yeah, I'll just put it that way. Um we're we're talking about our city and and things moving slow in our city. And you know, you've been in office back when the Rams were still here in town. Everybody now talks about the Rams money. Where's the Rams money going? Why hasn't the Rams money gone anywhere? When it comes to moving that money into action, why is it taking so long?

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Why is it so you know uh it's interesting. So the Rams money is uh uh item that I've been a part of for many, many years. Um, and I think it's also important to take a step back and remember how we got that money. You know, the money was there because of a lawsuit that we filed against the NFL, because the city of St. Louis and our partners at the time, which were the state and the county, um, put together a plan for a stadium downtown that was rejected by the NFL, even though we did our part per our contract to bring a state-of-the-art facility to the city for the Rams to play in. Um, that wasn't an easy vote for people down at the Board of Aldermen either. Um, but I think there was an understanding that if we were to do that, we knew that Kronke was going to leave St. Louis. Everybody was talking about it. He already had his land out in, you know, California. Um, we knew that he was working the NFL, but we were going to do our best to make sure that we put together a state-of-the-art plan to, you know, propose and had the financing lined up. We had to take votes on that. They were not the most popular or easy votes to take at the time. Um, and of course, then it got litigated. You know, there was a settlement that happened. Um, and uh the important thing I think for folks to remember is that settlement wasn't just in the city. You know, the county also got a portion of it, the RSA got a portion of it. Um, and so it's always interesting to me that people are always talking about the city's allocation of Rams money when we never hear anything about what happened to this county's portion of the Rams money. Um, so you know, for a long time I was always trying to encourage reporters, like, hey, do you mind having a conversation with you know the county council representatives or the county executive? Um, because they got just as much money as the city did out of the settlement. And so um I always think that that's just an interesting dynamic in St. Louis, where you know the city gets a lot of attention on what happens in the city, but you know, St. Louis County has just as much opportunity to invest in things like unhoused settlements and unhoused uh services and you know, providing for people in the county. And here we are talking about these things in the city and leaving out you know, the other half of the well, two-thirds of the region. Um, and so I think it's really important that we kind of acknowledge that with this discussion. But um, the Rams money also, you know, is funds that are unencumbered, they're not tied to you know anything. Um, you know, they're not really, in my opinion, would not really be considered what we would call general revenue. Um, you know, they were uh kind of set-aside funds. And at the time that we received them, we also had hundreds of millions of dollars and federal money that was coming into our city. And so um, largely through ARPA, you know, the recovery programs and so that were established during the Biden administration, we're still trying to spend that money down before deadlines. And so we have a deadline by the end of this year that those monies have to be spent or they're going to be returned to the federal government. And so there was a very conscious effort um a couple of years ago to try and uh have conversations around the Rams money and what that would look like. Those got shut down, and at the time, um, I think there was a concerted uh conversation and um uh uh decision, uh collective decision that was made to essentially let's get through the federal money first, um, because we have to return that if we can't spend it. And I think we've learned that the city only has so much bandwidth and capacity to be able to spend these inordinate, you know, large sums of fun, you know, money. And so um, you know, now we're getting towards the point where the Rams money or uh the ARPA money has already been allocated. It's you know, in its last tranches, we've got deadlines that are coming up, we've got plans in place for that. So now we're at a point where you know we can start having those conversations with the Rams money. Um, we've already done a couple appropriations in the past year since the tornado to move interest money to provide direct services and support to um folks that were impacted by the tornado. Um now with the Rams money itself, the president's office and the mayor's office have really um tried to put together a plan that's going to address you know more short-term and long-term needs with North St. Louis and the you know recovery from the tornado, um, investing in our infrastructure citywide. Um, you know, our water department, a lot of folks I've been talking to at various neighborhood meetings from Hyde Park to the Hill the last few weeks, um, that our water department went through its reserves. And a lot of folks don't necessarily understand that the water department is an enterprise account, it's its own uh accounting processes, bonding processes, and city government. It's it's a little bit of its own entity in terms of its finances. And so um when we uh you know uh put a moratorium on water cutoffs during the pandemic, and we, you know, gave some forgiveness to folks with their um delinquent bills, uh, it really depleted the reserves in our water department. And so they're at a point right now where they need a cash infusion in order to get back on their feet financially so that they can start bonding, so that they can, you know, start doing some immediate repairs, not long-term replacements, but immediate fixes in the system so that we can continue providing services for folks. So part of the Rams money discussion is how do we get that money over to the water department to make sure that they have what they need in order to just maintain what we've got right now. Um and then another part of that is uh, you know, something that I've been personally passionate about is trying to address vacancy in our city. Vacancy touches literally every single neighborhood in our city, um, but particularly North St. Louis and particularly Southeast City, um, where we've seen decades of disinvestment. And so um we've had some partners in state government that have updated laws that allow neighborhood organizations to sue vacant property owners to make improvements to those properties. Um, and there are neighborhoods that are actively doing that right now and they're partnering with legal services of eastern Missouri. Kansas City gives a million dollars a year out of their general revenue to fund vacancy litigation programs with their neighborhoods. And the city of St. Louis, because of my efforts, has done $250,000 the last two years. But we have a, you know, Kansas City has a fraction of the vacant buildings that the city of St. Louis has, and they're giving four times as much out of their general revenue to fight vacancy. And so I think we can do much better to meet our neighbors where they're at and provide that support to them to help them address vacancy in their communities and targeting particular buildings on blocks or that are of significant importance to their community, um, and trying to get those properties in productive, constructive hands and back on the market, back on our tax roll so that they're contributing back to the city coffers and to the you know benefit of our neighborhoods as well. Um, and then you know, in addition to that, there's some money that's uh set set aside for downtown um, you know, specific projects and revitalization as well. I think a lot of people understand that you know the health and wealth of downtown, you know, really helps our region as a whole. Without downtown, you know, St. Louis is a not just a city but as a region falls off the map. And so I think it's important that we keep that in mind as we have these conversations as well.

SPEAKER_03 21:37

I think the downtown thing is is huge because you know what what thriving city doesn't have a thriving downtown? Right. They all do. Um and you know, the whole city-county thing, that's another issue as well. Oh, I'd love to come back and talk about it. I could tell. I could tell uh with your Ram's answer on that one. I want to go back to what inspired you to be a politician. What inspired you to want to make change in this world? And it goes back to your sexual orientation. And was that a difficult thing to do as far as to come out and be your true authentic self?

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Yeah. You know, I don't think that my orientation necessarily was the driving force bev behind me getting involved. Um, you know, that's it's one part of my identity, obviously, but it is something that, you know, is very important to me because it is part of my identity. And um, I would say during my very first campaign, uh, and you know, it's not something that I chose to do in terms of being the city's first openly LGBTQ person, and I wasn't running uh like a Harvey Milk where you know I'm in a predominantly LGBTQ community. You know, my community is one of the most diverse communities in the entire St. Louis region. Um, you know, we we have you know every socioeconomic status, we have every, you know, race, gender, nationality, uh, you know, religion, etc. Um, so for me, it was really important to connect with my neighbors on things that were important to me and them. Um, but you know, as a young queer person, it was something, and at the time, this was when people were passing gay marriage amendments, you know, banning gay marriage, you know, across the country. Um, I remember knocking doors in 2004 in the state of Missouri in the city of St. Louis, you know, trying to get people to vote against the marriage ban and uh having people spit in my face and call me names and you know, just really um horrible experiences with that. And so, of course, when I ran for Alderman five years later in 2009, um, that was still, you know, something that was a fear of mine, you know, getting back out there and knocking those doors and having those conversations. But there were several people that, you know, inspired me in the years leading up to that, um, not the least of which was President Obama. You know, I volunteered on President Obama's campaign in 2008, knocking doors in my neighborhood and you know, building those coalitions to help his election efforts in the city of St. Louis and um met a lot of my neighbors through those organizing efforts as well. And so um, you know, I think for me, uh what came down to, and I was just having this conversation this past weekend with some friends and some new friends, and uh I they were like, you know, how did you handle those conversations, you know, at the doors when you were running the first time around? And one of the things that I love telling my neighbors was, you know, I've got skeletons just like everyone, you know, but I worked hard to get out of the closet and I'm not putting my skeletons into the closet. Mine are in the living room, having some tea and coffee with one another. And every once in a while, one of the bastards likes to go outside, get a breath of fresh air, do a little dance in the front yard, and hopefully I can get him back inside before it causes too much trouble, you know. But it was my way of humanizing, you know, that part of my you know self and my humanity, um, and giving a little laughter to my neighbors, you know, uh that endeared, you know, us and and you know, I think you know, laughter is often something that you know helps people connect and interrelate with each other. So um I've always tried to find a way to you know humanize, you know, folks and have those conversations on a genuine level and breaking down the barriers that would necessarily, you know, unnecessarily divide us.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

Uh I the reason why I asked the question was simply because I know there's a lot of young people who are trying to find their identity and then be their their full selves, and that's not easy to do. Even you know, if if you're just trying to be a teenager, no matter what your sexual orientation is, maybe because of your race, maybe because of your your economic background and things like this, to stand up and be who you truly are. What is your advice that you would give someone who's trying to find the strength to be their true selves?

SPEAKER_01 26:02

You know, everyone is going to encounter resistance in life, either from themselves or from other people, and finding their path in life. Um, you know, whether you're in a marginalized community, you know, uh the LGBT community in particular, um, you know, there was a a mantra that was shared, you know, for many years, you know, it gets better. Yeah. Um, and you know, there's truth to that. You know, it does get better. But as someone who has, you know, uh also gone through many other, you know, ebbs and flows in life, you know, life is really what you're going to make out of it. And uh it's hard to see that sometimes when you're in those deep dark moments in life where you've lost a job, you've lost a friend, you have friends that are making fun of you. Uh you know, I've I've got friends and family member whose kids are you know going through some really challenging times in life. And um, you know, it it's okay to be sad, it's okay to be angry, you know, but try to channel that into something that's constructive for you and your life. And don't try to dwell on what other people are telling you you should or should not be. You know, dwell on what is inside of you and the passion and love that you have in your heart to make the world a better place. And so I really try to encourage folks to just be themselves, be their authentic selves, and bring that love and joy into your life because then it gets reflected into other people's lives. It's about making the community better. Yeah, one person at a time. One person at a time. There you go. Yeah, good stuff. Like maybe good or conversation.

SPEAKER_04 27:47

Hey, we gotta stop before you.