Sitting in a coffee shop in St. Louis.
A representative of Nike and a man working in the STL mayor’s office just finished a meeting to discuss a potential grant from Nike.
Mind you, the Nike man made a point to remind Mayor man to “leave in different directions.” Like that isn’t sketchy or anything.
Anyway, apparently Craig Williams of Nike wants the Key to the City of St. Louis. I guess he’s from here? Seems like a shitty reason to be given the key, but this is politics after all.
Mayor man says it’d be great for him to meet with the Mayor, maybe come to her luncheon. Nike man can’t make that happen because Craig Williams is currently in Paris. But not to worry, Mayor man says he will make sure Nike man’s proposal gets put on the mayor’s desk.
The grossest part about this is that the guy from the Mayor’s office was apparently seeking advice on how to best apply for Nike grant funding for either a St. Louis athletic complex or coach and athlete sponsorships. I found the phrase, “making sure the athlete and the coach are taken care of” suspect coming from the Nike rep. Either there’s something very sus going on with these young athletes, or they are not getting the full grant money/the mayor’s office is getting a cut.
TL;DR: I already knew St. Louis and Nike were corrupt, but the fact these two errand runners were blatantly discussing shady things in the middle of a normal cafe was mind-boggling.
If you’re going to have less than optimal business conversations, don’t do it in a public setting.
IF you're genuine I'm sorry, but this is all just weird.
So you are uncovering some conspiracy between the St. Louis Mayor and Nike? Nike will get the key to city and a grant? And it would be unproper for them to be seen together?... because grants are basically surprises that are bestowed with no prior communication?
I'm prob just out of my depth, because I don't even really know what grants are, but this is all just weird, with a source of "trust me bro".
I’m not going to dox myself. Saying I am in St. Louis is already outside of my comfort zone.
You can choose to believe what I heard or not.
Nike is not getting the grant. Supposedly this guy and the St. Louis government are attempting to get 3.5k to 10k in a grant from Nike for student athletes.
Yes, it’s weird. I don’t understand why they had to leave in separate directions, outside of the fact the conversation got really weird really fast when Craig Williams’ assistant or whatever started talking about trying to get him the keys to the city.
Also, I don’t think the guy working from the Mayor has as much influence as he was trying to tell the other dude he does, but apparently the ArchCity Defenders and other organizations in STL like it “know when people get shot before the cops do. But (we) don’t snitch or turn anyone in. We can make them leave the city, though.”
I’m assuming you aren’t from St. Louis. We have recent history of city leaders taking bribes.
Nike has a history of forced labor and trafficking scandals.
Maybe it’s nothing. But I’ve been here long enough to know STL is like Chicago lite, and the politicians here are not to be trusted.
Okay, maybe I was just missing some context.
It could wind up being nothing. I honestly hope it does and I am reading into it.
But it made me extremely uncomfortable that the guy on the mayor’s side was discussing how he wants to build a gym for the inner city kids to give them something nonviolent to do, and the Nike rep suddenly started listing off places like Boys and Girls clubs and other outreach centers as places they can “make available to them whenever” because they give them so much money.
It also didn’t help that the Nike guy made a point of leaving separately. And they both stared daggers at me as they were leaving. All I did was try to eat lunch in peace.