Where blame rests for NGA decision

Apparently the News-Democrat Editorial Board is to blame for National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency chief Robert Cardillo picking North St. Louis for his agency’s new western headquarters, according to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin.

In a letter to the editor, Durbin points out that the St. Louis parochialism decried in our editorials was actually our fault. We repeatedly pointed out the high murder rate and drug activity in North St. Louis, noting that “you’ll have a tough time finding a crack dealer in Greater Mascoutah.”

Ignore the fact that the New York Times just profiled our neighboring “murder city” and the cheap Mexican heroin flooding the streets of North St. Louis. The heroin epidemic is leading to little old ladies being shot through the walls of their homes and children becoming collateral damage if they play in the streets at the wrong time. The 157 homicides last year gave St. Louis the nation’s highest murder rate and was nearly 20 percent higher that the prior year.

Of course, last Sunday we also took a poke at Durbin for rolling over and playing dead after the announcement. We called on our community to rally and fight the NGA decision, not accept it as a done deal like Durbin’s tweet indicated he had.

So how does Durbin open his letter to the editor? “I am disappointed that the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency’s western headquarters will not be built in St. Clair County.”

Freudian slip? Twice?

This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Where blame rests for NGA decision."