ST. LOUIS – A new opinion piece published by the New York Times conveys St. Louis as a city with a “struggling downtown” and suggests that various Missouri laws are not helping the cause.

Kevin McDermott, an editorial page editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, contributed to the opinion piece.

The piece starts by explaining that Downtown St. Louis was “once a buzzy destination for shoppers and diners,” but in present day, “visitors [are] presumably repelled by reports of violent crime, homelessness and blight.” It paints a picture by describing empty storefronts and echoes of sirens and silence throughout the summer.

Later on, the New York Times compares two modern-day situations in San Francisco and St. Louis, both cities which FOX 2 previously reported ranked last in post-pandemic downtown recovery. It hints the path to revitalize St. Louis could be more challenging since the city is “a blue [Democrat-led] island in a red [Republican-led] state.”

The report then cites several examples of how the city has attempted to spark change, only to be countered by state policies. That includes legislation connected with minimum wage, schools, homelessness and gun laws.

Violent crime is heavily tackled in the opinion piece. The feature says, to combat crime rates that oftentimes rank among the top of major US cities, the state attempted to take over control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department from the mayor’s office. It says this unfolded a narrative that the city was too lenient on gun legislation.

In contrast, the article also points out that Missouri’s gun laws are among the loosest in the nation and that and “the state has rebuffed all entreaties from the city to be allowed to enforce some kind of permit requirement.” The New York Times says the Second Amendment Preservation Act, passed in 2021, has challenged gun control rights throughout Missouri and banned St. Louis from enforcing federal gun laws.

Through several similar examples, the New York Times suggests that there’s tension between blue cities (like St. Louis) that exist in red states (like Missouri). It also outlines a “Hail Mary” attempt from St. Louis to impose new gun laws.

Meanwhile, St. Louis metro officials are hopeful to move forward a plan aimed to lower homicide rates over the next several years, based on a report from the Greater St. Louis, Inc. and the Regional Business Council.