City Employee Parks City Vehicle Next To Fire Hydrant

If you or I parked blocking a fire hydrant it wouldn’t be long before our car was ticketed and towed away, resulting in big fees.  But a city employee driving a city-owned vehicle, it seems, can get away with doing what we can’t.

I’m sure it was just for a few minutes but anyone could use the same excuse.  The fact is the city isn’t going to ticket or tow away it’s own vehicle.  This employee likely didn’t face any disciplinary action for how they parked.  As a matter of policy, city employees operating city vehicles need to be held to the same standard as anyone else.

Some vehicles mention the department on the door but this one didn’t so I assume it is a pool vehicle that can be checked out as needed.  This makes me wonder, who manages the vehicles? What does the employee agree to when they check out a car?

– Steve Patterson

New Downtown Rain Garden Reduces Sidewalk Width Too Much

Here is an addition to downtown you may have missed, here was the press release:

ST. LOUIS, November 10, 2010 – The Downtown Community Improvement District (CID) has installed its first demonstration Rain Garden at the corner of 11th and Pines Streets. One of the CID’s goals for this project was to catalyze a trend toward more sustainable streetscapes in the city. The 11th Street pilot project employs a new segmental wall and curb system, called Freno, that offers a cost-effective, modular method of building an urban rain garden.

This rain garden was designed to capture rain water from the gutter and adjacent parking lot, prior to reaching the sewer system. This sustainable landscape does not require watering and gives back to the environment by specifically designated plants and soil mix that filter out 80-90% of the pollutants from car fluid and road treatment chemicals.

Rain gardens have been designated in the downtown St. Louis streetscape plan and they are gaining popularity in downtowns across the nation and abroad. With this in mind, the need for sustainable landscapes in downtown is becoming more and more important.

The materials and labor that went into the construction of this rain garden has been 100% donated by the City of St. Louis Department of Streets, HOK, Midwest Products, St. Louis Composting, Forrest Keeling Nursery, and the Downtown CID.

This Downtown Next priority is brought to you by the Downtown CID – dedicated to a cleaner, safer, more vibrant and greener Downtown. Downtown St. Louis is a regional leader in sustainable practices.

I like rain gardens, they do a great job of reducing water runoff.

But I also like sidewalk space and this new rain garden consumes way too much of the width of the sidewalk.  Eliminating a driveway into the adjacent parking lot is a very good thing but with the reduced width of the sidewalk I’m concerned about cars parking too far forward.

Ideally there would be fencing to prevent cars from parking so their front ends don’t further squeeze the sidewalk space.  Simple wheel stops in the parking lot would solve the problem on the cheap.  The rain gardens on 9th & Market (Citygarden) extend out from the curb line into what is normally the parking lane.  Here, on 11th, parking is not permitted next to the rain garden so the street width is excessive for the two travel lanes.  The curb to curb for the roadway is too wide but the sidewalk width was cut in half. Typical.

The problem of trash will be ongoing.  Good intentions, poor execution.

– Steve Patterson

Readers: Use Cards To Educate Rather Than Shame

The poll last week got lots of diverse responses but the biggest group thinks I should use a bit of guilt (“I’m disabled…”) but should otherwise educate those who park in disabled spaces, block crosswalks, etc:

Q: How should I phrase cards to leave on cars blocking disabled parking spaces, pedestrian crosswalks, curb ramps, etc?

1. I’m disabled, how you’ve parked can make things difficult for me and others. 74 [43.53%]
2. I’m disabled, I don’t like how you’ve parked, the authorities have been notified, pic posted on Twitter & Facebook 36 [21.18%]
3. Don’t leave anything, just let it go 14 [8.24%]
4. Other answer… 13 [7.65%]
5. Forget a card, key their car 11 [6.47%]
6. I’m disabled, I don’t like how you’ve parked, the authorities have been notified 10 [5.88%]
7. You insensitive jerk, I hope you end up disabled like me someday 7 [4.12%]
8. Unsure/no opinion 3 [1.76%]
9. I’m disabled, I don’t like how you’ve parked 2 [1.18%]

All of the answers I provided in the poll were things I thought at times I encounter a poorly parked car.  I’d never damage anyone else’s property but for a brief moment just the thought of keying an offending car brings satisfaction.  Mostly I do nothing other than take a picture but I want to have a pre-written card with me to cover those times I don’t want to let it go.

The 13 other answers were:

1. attach a chain to the axle “American Graffiti” style
2. Choice 4 with the Facebook and Twitter part added.
3. kiss or kill me. you pick.
4. Collective Action: No
5. I like the car you’ve got – but recommend posting it with tenacious adhesive
6. I’m disabled, how you’ve parked can make things difficult for me and o Monday,
7. If you have the balls to leave a card, you better put your conact info on it too
8. Grow up
9. move your piece of crap
10. the first option with an image of you in your wheel chair giving them the finger
11. just call the cops, be(come) the squeaky wheel
12. Good idea, but it also sounds really whiny.
13. I would print out the MO code for this and leave it on their car

The following are just some of the other examples where a card would have been nice to leave behind:

I’ll be ordering the revised card soon so I will have them with me when I run into more examples.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Help Me Determine The Message To Leave On Some Cars

For the poll this week I’m asking what should be printed on the cards I’m going to get to leave on cars parked like this:

I see things like this often and I want to do something about it but 1) the police are too busy, 2) parking violations is closed, 3) I can’t wait for the person to come back, 4) and if I had paper & pen I can’t write legibly.

Here is one example of what I was thinking:

To harsh or not enough?  I have listed several ideas in the poll, all have come to mind.  The poll is at the top of the right sidebar.

– Steve Patterson

Two Years Remaining On Disabled Placard

I got this disabled placard in May 2008, after three months in the hospital, following a massive hemorrhagic stroke.  At the time I still couldn’t move much of my left hand & arm but I was still getting back function so I was hopeful that by the time the permit expired I wouldn’t qualify for a renewal.  I have better stability now, I walk around the house often without my cane and sometimes without wearing my leg brace. But it is now clear to me that I’ve reached a plateau in my recovery, I’m permanently disabled.

When I registered my car two month later, in July 2008, they asked me if I wanted disabled plates.  I said no since I had the placard and I had every plan to not need the permanence of disabled plates.  When I renew my plates in July 2012 I will switch to disabled plates so I no longer have to remember to hang the placard when I park somewhere, driving with it hanging is illegal.

No doubt you’ve seen someone that doesn’t appear disabled using a permanent disabled placard.  Who qualifies for one?

Section 301.142.1 RSMo defines “physical disability” as listed below::

1. The person cannot ambulate or walk 50 feet without stopping to rest due to a severe and disabling arthritic, neurological, orthopedic condition, or other severe and disabling condition.
2. The person cannot ambulate or walk without the use of, or assistance from, a brace, cane, crutch, another person, prosthetic device, wheelchair, or other assistive device.
3. The person is restricted by a respiratory or other disease to such an extent that the person’s forced respiratory expiratory volume for one second, when measured by spirometry, is less than one liter, or the arterial oxygen tension is less than 60 mm/hg on room air at rest.
4. The person uses portable oxygen.
5. The person has a cardiac condition to the extent that the person’s functional limitations are classified in severity as Class III or Class IV according to the standards set by the American Heart Association.
6. The person is blind as defined in Section 8.700, RSMo.

For a while 50 feet was a long walk for me but it is #2, above, that will always apply to me.

If I live as long as my dad did, 78, that means I’ll have 35 more years as a disabled person.  That is rather hard to comprehend as it has only been 25 years since I graduated from high school.

Despite my disabilities, I love my life.  I don’t want pity. I know so many people, able-bodied & disabled, have far worse issues to deal with. My life is charmed in comparison.

– Steve Patterson