We hear a lot from people who think the City of St. Louis is still doing business in the same old way. The reality is that we've made great strides in how the city works with businesses - and now, many important business functions are much easier to carry out in the city than they are in other parts of the region.

In this column, I'd like to call attention to one of these improvements: the "one-stop shop" process for building permits. The only people complaining about our new process are those who process permits in other municipalities - they say we're making them look bad.

In 1999, the city's Building Division established the goal of significantly shortening and simplifying the process for getting a building permit. This initiative is aimed at "same-day permits" - that is, permits issued on the same day that the application is received.

When this effort began in 1999, the goal was to offer 65 percent of all building permits on a same-day basis. This goal was quickly exceeded; as of this May, nearly 78 percent of all building permits are issued on the same day as application. And even when a same-day permit can't be granted for some reason, the wait is now much shorter than it used to be. Virtually all permits are now issued within three to five days after application. We're trying to push this improvement even further, aiming at 80 percent or even 85 percent same-day issuance.

I applaud Ron Smith and his staff at the Building Division and the St. Louis Development Corporation's Business Assistance Center ("BAC") for making this initiative a success. One of the keys to our progress has been the "preliminary reviews" arranged by the BAC. During these reviews, anyone in city government who has anything to say about a building project gathers in one room at one time to let the owner and architect know what will be required. This is particularly important in new construction or rehabilitation projects where code interpretations are sometimes less than obvious.

If you are contemplating a large rehab or new construction project, you can contact the Business Assistance Center at (314) 622-4120 for more details. Typically, a "preliminary review" is held after the architect has completed site plans, floor plans and elevations. It is at this stage in a project that changes or corrections can be made with very little effort, saving you both time and money.

By the way, we're not stopping with building permits. As of last month, you can now find out right away whether a proposed use of a particular piece of property is allowed by the city's Zoning Division. We're in the process of streamlining the design-review process so that a business owner can get one clear set of instructions from one individual who speaks for everyone involved.

We're very proud of our progress, and we're looking for additional ways to make it easier to do business in the City of St. Louis.

I want each and every business in our city to know how much we appreciate you, and I want you to let me know how we can help you - because helping you helps our entire city. If there's a city regulation or practice that you think causes problems for businesses, by all means let us know. Call my office at (314) 622-3201 or e-mail me at www.stlouiscity.com. The Web site also has a link to the Building Division, which offers extensive information about the permit-application process.

I want everyone to know that the City of St. Louis is open for business - and that we mean business when we say we're here to help.

The Ballpark Goes Into Extra Innings …

While I was disappointed that the Missouri Legislature did not pass legislation that would have provided state funding for the new ballpark and Ballpark Village plan, my administration continues to work to ensure that the Cardinals remain downtown. Simply put, the entire city and region stand to gain enormously from a strong downtown St. Louis, and there's no ready substitute for the 3 million visitors who come in each year to catch the Redbirds.

A renewed commitment by the Cardinals to downtown St. Louis would be good for the city; it would help galvanize the many other projects currently underway to turn our downtown into an attractive and vibrant front door for the St. Louis area.

But just as the Cardinals' renewed commitment to downtown would be good for the city, it would also be good for the Cardinals themselves - after all, the City of St. Louis is geographically convenient to the team's entire metropolitan fan base, and is the historic home of the franchise.

This last point, about the historic link between the Cardinals and the City of St. Louis, should not be dismissed. In baseball, more than in other sports, history matters. In no other sport do fans compare players from different eras with such ease and regularity. In no other sport has the so-called "retro look," in everything from stadium construction to uniform design, been so enthusiastically embraced. Baseball's success - as a sport and as a business proposition - depends on its sense of history and continuity.

It is no accident that the new ballparks built in the post-Camden Yards stadium boom have been constructed in teams' traditional home cities, rather than in the suburbs surrounding those cities. (True, the Texas Rangers' new stadium was built in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Arlington, but the team had already been located in Arlington to begin with, so this did not constitute a break with the past.)

These new stadiums have very consciously appealed to baseball fans' strong sense of tradition, and building them in traditional urban centers is part of that appeal. To take the Cardinals - one of the most tradition-rich sports franchises in the world - out of the city where they have played for more than 100 years would seriously weaken the historical bonds that are so important to the success of this team and to the success of baseball as a whole.

To use the vogue business term of the day, history and tradition are essential to the Cardinals' brand. A big part of that history, that tradition, and that brand is the simple fact that the Cardinals - from Rogers Hornsby and Stan Musial to Ozzie Smith and Fernando Vina - play in the City of St. Louis. One of the mantras of modern business is that you shouldn't do anything that will dilute your brand. The owners of the Cardinals are smart businessmen who certainly understand this principle - and that's one of the reasons why I'm optimistic that an agreement will be reached to keep the Cardinals in the City of St. Louis.

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