St. Louis plan doesn't need political baggage

There seems to be little, if anything, that can be said or done to change the minds of opponents of state assistance for a new Cardinal stadium in St. Louis.

So this is for Missourians who believe economic development is better than decades of benign neglect. All you have to do to see a good example of the latter is to look at what's happened to the city of St. Louis since its heyday as one of America's biggest and best cities in the 1950s. Thanks to unfocused efforts to thwart urban flight, the city is all but a shadow of its former glory.

Without the baseball stadium, downtown St. Louis would sink even further into the mire of inner-city neglect. The proposed stadium and its related development would be an anchor for a revitalization of the city's heart.

That being said, taxpayer involvement in sports complexes needs to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Tying the fortunes of the St. Louis plan to the wish list of sports needs in Kansas City and elsewhere makes good political sense, but little else. St. Louis supporters of the new Cardinals stadium have done a good job of putting together a sensible plan. They have worked long and hard to negotiate a satisfactory cost-sharing arrangement with the state.

Now let Kansas City and Springfield do the same, instead of riding the "Me too!" coattails of the St. Louis plan.