Demand is growing to spend Rams money on tornado relief — here’s what aldermen say 25%
By Rachel Lippmann0%
4/30/2026, 10:00:00 AM
Keywords: St Louis Tornado, Tornado, St Louis Mayor, Cara Spencer, St Louis Board Of Aldermen, Megan Green, Anne Schweitzer, Tom Oldenburg, Shane Cohn, Bret Narayan, Matthew Devoti, Daniela Velazquez, Alisha Sonnier, Jami Cox Antwi, Michael Browning, Shameem Hubbard, Laura Keys, Sharon Tyus, Pamela Boyd, Rasheen Aldridge, Rams, Nfl, Settlement
BS Summary: This article contains 34 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Primacy Effect, and Confirmation Bias, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 13.4% saturation with 236 hits. Analysis detected 1,801 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,756 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 37.1% and a BS Rank of 25% (12,708 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 75.60% of the article peer group.
In the hours and days after the May 16 tornado that devastated north St.
Louis, it was clear that recovery from the storm would take years and require more resources than the city had available.
That made one particular pot of money especially intriguing – the $250 million awarded to the city over the way the Rams left St.
Louis for Los Angeles.
A deal to spend the funds had fallen apart just a few months before the storm.
The Board of Aldermen worked quickly to set aside $30 million in interest for tornado recovery but never touched the principal.
And as recovery has stalled, demand is growing to spend the entire $250 million in the areas hit hardest by the storm.
St.
Louis Public Radio reporters reached out to Board of Aldermen President Megan Green and the 14 members of the board to ask whether they supported directing Rams settlement funds solely toward tornado recovery and what other plans they have for the money.
Here are their responses.
There's also a response from Mayor Cara Spencer.
Mayor Cara Spencer
During her State of the City address on April 17, the mayor expressed support for dividing the money among three buckets – recovery in north St.
Louis, economic development in downtown and improvement in the city’s aging water system.
“It must do all three,” Spencer said.
“Without all three, our city has no chance – none – of growing or succeeding.
Let’s introduce a bill in May, and let’s get it done.”
Board President Megan Green
Green said in an interview with STLPR’s Rachel Lippmann on April 21 that she was generally supportive of dividing the money among north St.
Louis, downtown and infrastructure.
“I think there's not quite agreement yet on the dollar amounts for each bucket,” she said.
“We’re meeting almost every couple of days to try and hash that out and find something that doesn’t just work for the mayor and I, but also works for the majority of members of the Board of Aldermen.”
Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, 1st Ward
In an emailed response to questions on April 9, Schweitzer told STLPR’s Lacretia Wimbley that the water department was her No. 1 priority for the Rams funds.
“Water is our most precious resource, and our water infrastructure needs significant investment,” she said.
“I’ve been abundantly clear on that.”
Schweitzer added that she would also vote for funding for home repair and infrastructure improvements, calling it “the right thing to do.”
“There’s no shortage of needs, but other important ones include pedestrian infrastructure across the city, especially in downtown, recreation centers and parks, paving and street maintenance, and stabilization of large vacant buildings,” she said.
Alderman Tom Oldenburg, 2nd Ward
Oldenburg told STLPR’s Kate Grumke in an email on April 9 that while he supported some Rams funding going toward north St.
Louis, “I don’t think a good chunk of Rams money should be utilized for tornado impacted areas until we fully exhaust federal state and other relief dollars."
The majority of the Rams funds, Oldenburg said, need to be directed downtown.
“There are a variety of uses [in] Downtown that desperately need investment,” he wrote.
“In addition, proceeds spent downtown will be matched by the business community, allowing investment to go further in areas such as infrastructure, transportation, public safety, and, programming.”
Oldenburg also advised saving a chunk of the money, “at least $50 million,” to be able to use the interest to prop up future budgets.
Alderman Shane Cohn, 3rd Ward
Cohn did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Alderman Bret Narayan, 4th Ward
Narayan told STLPR’s Rachel Lippmann in a text message on April 10 that he expected conversations about the spending of the Rams money to continue.
“Anywhere that these funds eventually go will be a compromise between my colleagues, so putting specific dollar figures forward in the absence of actual discussion on legislation isn’t in the best interest of actually getting these funds allocated,” he said.
Alderman Matthew Devoti, 5th Ward
Devoti told STLPR’s Kate Grumke in an April 7 email that he supported directing a “significant share” of the Rams funding to tornado recovery, saying that was the only way for the neighborhoods affected by the storm to achieve “meaningful recovery.”
But Devoti added that figuring out the exact dollar amounts was the “difficult question.”
“I'd like to hear more information from the Recovery Office about the anticipated need to meet applicants' requests for funds to repair and stabilize damaged homes and the possibility of tapping into other funds to meet those requests,” he wrote.
“In my opinion, we need to consider four allocation centers: North St.
Louis, Downtown, infrastructure stabilization, and a fund for future, unspecified needs.”
Alderwoman Daniela Velázquez, 6th Ward
Velázquez told STLPR’s Brian Munoz in an April 17 text message that the Rams settlement is “a once-in-a-generation resource — and we owe residents, particularly those in North City, a way to begin multi-generational transformation.”
“I support using a significant portion to create a lasting endowment: a permanent engine of reinvestment that funds recovery today and builds North St.
Louis for years to come,” she said.
Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier, 7th Ward
Sonnier was one of the earliest voices to call for more Rams settlement money to go to tornado relief, and she told STLPR’s Hiba Ahmad in an April 10 phone interview that a “significant portion” of the remaining funds need to go to north St.
Louis.
“We have residents who lost everything,” she said.
“We have to support them.”
Sonnier added that water infrastructure and the city’s youth also need investment from the Rams funding.
Alderwoman Jami Cox Antwi, 8th Ward
Cox Antwi told STLPR’s Rachel Lippmann in an email on April 9 that a “substantial majority” of the remaining Rams funds should be directed to tornado recovery.
“We know that residents in the tornado-affected areas have waited too long for help,” she said.
“The city must fill in the gaps until further resources are available from the state and federal government, and allocating Rams settlement funds to recovery is essential.”
Cox Antwi would also set aside funds for downtown, which she represents along with Rasheen Aldridge of the 14th Ward.
The water department is also on her list of priorities.
“We are facing a massive infrastructure crisis,” she said.
“We must allocate a portion of the Rams' money to ensure clean and safe water can be provided to the city.”
Alderman Michael Browning, 9th Ward
Browning told STLPR’s Kavahn Mansouri in an April 9 phone interview that calls to spend the Rams money entirely in north St.
Louis are not realistic.
The city’s water department is approaching a “shortfall within months that could endanger their ability to do emergency repairs when something breaks,” he said.
Because the Recovery Office is fully funded, he said, water is the most pressing issue.
And while Browning acknowledged the need in north St.
Louis, “just because you have a lot of money doesn't mean you can get it out the door.”
“We're still working with some really tough systems that are not built to move this quickly,” he said.
Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard, 10th Ward
Clark Hubbard’s ward was among those hit hardest by the May 2025 tornado, with damage in all eight of the neighborhoods she represents.
She told STLPR’s Kavahn Mansouri in an April 10 phone interview that while tornado recovery was a top priority, she knew it was not realistic to spend the entirety of the remaining funds in north St.
Louis.
To get enough votes at the board, Clark Hubbard said, the money has to go citywide.
That’s where spending on infrastructure, especially the water system, comes in.
But she added that she was encouraged by conversations with her colleagues and media reports that “we're moving towards at least the awareness that a big bulk of this money needs to go towards tornado-impacted areas.”
Alderwoman Laura Keys, 11th Ward
Keys told STLPR’s Hiba Ahmad in an April 10 phone interview that she did not support spending the entirety of the $250 million at one time.
The city, she said, needs to be able to draw on the interest for future projects.
But what is spent, she said, needs to be directed to rebuilding the parts of the city hit by the storm.
“At this point, nothing is more important than to restore communities that have been destroyed by this tornado,” said Keys, who suffered damage to her house and car.
“The killer,” she added, “is that it’s not enough money.
We’ve got almost $2 billion worth of damage.”
Alderwoman Sharon Tyus, 12th Ward
Tyus did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Alderwoman Pamela Boyd, 13th Ward
Boyd told STLPR’s Andrea Henderson in an April 8 email that the city’s first priority needed to be spending the $30 million in Rams interest it had already allocated to tornado relief.
“The process needs to be streamlined to ensure that organizations receiving these funds are capable of completing the work,” she said.
“The city cannot continue to award money to organizations and wait for them to eventually get it right.”
But when officials do move toward spending the settlement’s principal, Boyd said, north St.
Louis needs to receive “at least 55% of the allocation,” with the remainder split between the western and central areas of the city that were also hit by the storm.
Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, 14th Ward
Aldridge told STLPR’s Andrea Henderson in an April 8 phone interview that in a perfect world, all of the Rams settlement funds would be directed to north St.
Louis.
“We are talking about a community that has been disinvested in before the tornado,” he said.
“The tornado really ripped that bandage off.”
But he also acknowledged the request was not realistic.
“Knowing how legislation works and working with colleagues, it’s all in the art of negotiation,” he said.
“I do hope that if a Rams bill were to come, that more than 50% would go to north St.
Louis.”
The north side will not be healed solely by the Rams money regardless of the amount, Aldridge said.
“It will not rebuild a community that’s been disinvested in before the tornado.
But I do think it will help, especially when we don’t know what’s going to happen with the federal government,” he said.
This story was reported by Rachel Lippmann, Kate Grumke, Brian Munoz, Hiba Ahmad, Kavahn Mansouri and Andrea Henderson.
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