Some Thoughts On The November 4th Midterm General Election

The television commercials before the August primaries were constant; especially Steve Stenger vs Charlie Dooley and Bruce Rauner attacking Pat Quinn, rather than his primary opponents. I’d hoped for a little relief between the primary and the general election, three weeks from today. It seems like right after the primary ended the election commercials continued, except for St. Louis County Executive, those only picked up again recently.

Illinois

Both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of Enyart and Bost. And one of the worst-kept secrets in national politics is that when those committees get involved in a contest, the messaging becomes largely indistinguishable from other hotly contested races throughout the country. (St. Louis Public Radio)

It’s clear from both sides that Bost is a Tea Party conservative, the type that shut down the federal government a year ago:

In a truly misguided display of chutzpah, some members of the Tea Party are congratulating themselves over a supposed “historic victory” in the government shutdown debacle. Yet the shutdown gang led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas extracted no concessions and instead hurt the GOP’s nationwide reputation and shaved GDP growth. (Forbes)

Bost wouldn’t change Congress at all, he’d have no impact on spending other than adding to it by refusing to extend the debt limit. Vote Enyart!

Republican Bruce Rauner falsely claims in a TV ad that Illinois leads the Midwest in “job losses” under Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. In fact, Illinois has experienced job growth — albeit small — since Quinn took office. (FactCheck.org)

Rauner’s big push is taxes — cuts for billionaires like himself. You think Illinois has fiscal problems now, it’d be far worse if Rauner got his way:

Once again we are testing the question: Can tax cuts pay for themselves? The answer– yet again– is a resounding no.

We’ve tried this experiment time and again. And tax cut proponents such as economist Art Laffer continue to insist they can turn fiscal dross to gold: Cut taxes deeply enough and the resultant boom in economic activity will boost revenues. Magic. Painless. Everything a politician would ever want.

Except this is fiscal snake oil. Over the past few years, Brownback and the Kansas legislature have gone all-in on this theory. The good news: They have left little room for ambiguity (though Brownback and his defenders are scrambling to find some, given the dismal results of their ambitious experiment). (Forbes)

Bruce Rauner reminds me of embattled Kansas Governor Sam Brownback.

Kansas suffered by far the largest decline in overall year-over-year receipts — a fall of 21.9 percent. The U.S. average drop was only 1.7 percent.

The institute said Kansas’ decline was “mostly attributable to legislated tax changes.” The state had a stunning 42.9 percent reduction in individual income tax revenue in the April-June period compared with a year earlier. The national decline was just 7.1 percent. (Kansas City Star)

Please don’t vote for Rauner!

St. Louis County

The August 9th shooting of Michael Brown, just four days after the primary, is affecting the general election for St. Louis County Executive:

The schism among St. Louis County Democrats split wide open Wednesday with the endorsement of the Republican nominee for county executive — Rick Stream — by a coalition of black officials angered over what they characterized as “years and years of disrespect” by party leaders. (Post-Dispatch)

For those unfamiliar, Democratic nominee Steve Stenger is close with Prosecutor Robert McCullough, whom many think should’ve recused himself in the Michael Brown/Darren Wilson case.

I personally don’t care for Stenger or Stream. The race includes Libertarian Theo (Ted) Brown, Sr and Constitution party candidate Joe Passanise.

Missouri voters also have to decide on some constitutional amendments, I’ll post on those before the election.

— Steve Patterson

The Solution To Reduce Parking In MetroBus Stops Exists In Front Of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Headquarters

At various MetroBus stops all over the city motorists decide it’s ok to park in the stop, forcing the bus to stop in traffic to pick-up/drop-off passengers.  I’ve shown a couple of examples before, both on Market St:

The ideal solution to prevent all motorists from blocking access to bus stops is to push the sidewalk out so vehicles can’t physically park there. However, that would be very expensive and then buses would block traffic. In looking for a low cost solution I turn to the police. No, not enforcement — to the new police headquarters. You see, the entire north side of Olive between 19th & 20th is reserved for police but it seems even they anticipated problems enforcing a no parking zone in front of the entry.

Let me repeat, they took extra steps to make sure police didn’t park in a no parking zone!

I’m not suggesting we paint the street in front of thousands of MetroBus stops throughout the region, that would be costly and unnecessary. However,  at 10-20 of the most problematic bus stops, this should be done immediately! If the police can’t otherwise enforce no parking in front of their headquarters we can’t expect them to do any better elsewhere.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: Thoughts On The Aventura Apartments South Of BJC/Cortex

For the poll this week I want to know what readers think of the Aventura apartments.  The site, 4431 Chouteau, previously had a gasometer.

The poll is in the right sidebar, mobile users need to switch to the desktop layout.

— Steve Patterson

Writing About Improved Pedestrian Access For A Decade, Before Becoming Disabled

In the nearly ten years I’ve written this blog I’ve consistently argued for improved pedestrian access, even before I became disabled in February 2008. Newer readers may have forgotten my early advocacy for walkability, here are some reminders:

• October 2004: Kirkwood Station Plaza, another great idea with questionable execution
• December 2004: Gravois Plaza Less Pedestrian-Friendly than previous center
• January 2005: Loughborough Commons will be Common indeed!
• February 2005: McDonalds May Move Across Grand to Former Sears Site
• June 2007: St. Louis Restripes Bad Crosswalk, Enforcement Needed

The above posts were all before my stroke! I’m particularly proud of pushing for pedestrian access at Loughborough Commons, it’s a better than planned project because of my pushiness.

Loughborough Commons would’ve been better had the city, developer, and engineers planned for pedestrian access & internal circulation from the start. They didn’t, but by pushing throughout construction I helped the project be just a little accommodating to pedestrians.  In one post I even said something like “I hope I don’t become disabled” when arguing why it was important for new development to welcome pedestrians in edition to motorists.

Yes, I’ve posted about crosswalks & pedestrian access since becoming disabled — but they’ve been a regular topic since that first day I started writing: October 31, 2004.

— Steve Patterson

Independents Trounce Partisan Nominees In 15th Ward Special Election

The unofficial results from Tuesday’s special election in the 15th ward are interesting to me.  First, the turnout was a decent 17.5%. By contrast, the December 2011 special election in my ward, the 5th, just 10.37% of voters participated.

Here are some recent participation rates for the 15th ward:

• August 2014 primary: 23.95%
• March 2013 primary: 22.72%.
• November 2012 general: 73.71%

Huge difference between big national elections, state elections, and a special local race. Here are the unofficial results from Tuesday:

• MELISSA MCDANIEL (D) 123 [10.82%]
• JOSHUA SIMPSON (R) 63 [5.54%]
• MEGAN GREEN (I) 521 [45.82%]
• RHONDA SMYTHE (I) 427 [37.55%]
• Write-in Votes 3 [0.26%]

I made the following visual:

There was a time that being the democratic nominee meant easy victory, that may still hold true in many wards.  Not in the 15th this year, Melissa McDaniel only managed to get 11% of the total. Ouch!

None of the four candidates received a plurality, but we don’t have runoffs or instant runoff voting. Megan Green will be sworn in as the next 15th ward alderman. In early 2015 she’ll have to defend the office, in March if she switches to the Democratic party, or April if she remains an independent. I still want to see all local offices become nonpartisan.

— Steve Patterson