Please Vote in the RFT ‘Best of’ Poll

The Riverfront Times is conducting one of their ‘Best of’ polls and the first item on the list is ‘Best Blog.’ I was very honored last year when the RFT editors named Urban Review the ‘Best Civic-Minded Blog.’ This year they are opening up the category and asking for votes.

St. Louis is fortunate to have many talented bloggers creating original content on their sites. While this makes for heavy competition is also makes for a more enlightened city.

Here is why I think you should vote for Urban Review. This week Professor Charles Bohl from the University of Miami’s School of Architecture summed it up quite well:

You are providing what 99% of communities in the U.S. lack – a critical perspective that directly takes up community design. The layperson often can’t visualize or articulate the shortcomings until someone starts revealing them as you are doing.

Indeed my perspective is not necessarily the majority but it is sparking discussion about place, a worthwhile exercise in any community. Furthermore, your comments, now numbering over 5,000, show the level of interest in the topics covered by Urban Review. The number of readers, just under 20,000 unique visitors in August, also shows the widespread level of interest in subjects that many may have thought to be too specialized. All this interest & discussion makes an impression on decision makers from local elected officials to bureaucrats to real estate developers. Collectively we are creating change in the local mindset — something other blogs cannot claim.

Vote here.

Thank you! – Steve