Congress Wake Up & Let Farmers Grow Industrial Hemp!

One of the most green products in the world, able to be fabricated into many diverse products, is banned in only one industrial nation — the United States. Sure, we can import product made from Hemp such as all manner of clothing, bedding, ropes, paper, and so on, but our farmers cannot grow this product as the feds fear the farmers or others might grow its hallucinogenic cousin, pot.

Both industrial hemp and pot are members of the cannabis family, although the latter has a mind-altering impact when injested that the former does not. Under this logic we need to ban gardeners from planning the lovely poppy plant and stop the sale of poppy-seed bagels at St. Louis Bread Co because some folks use a cousin of those to manufacture heroin. Unlike a pretty flower or a damn fine bagel variety, industrial hemp has so many uses in society. Similarly, pot and heroin are not even in the same league.

I’ve smoked pot all of one time — and yes I inhaled (see post). It still smells funny to me. So while I have little desire to run out and buy pot I think we need to let up. I say we just legalize it — that will certainly remove allure to do something illegal. It will also remove the stigma of getting caught as well as pull the rug out from under the street value. But, this post is not about pot, it is about industrial hemp.

More so than a quick toke I want to buy clothing made from hemp. It’s available, but boy is it pricey. How does $40 for a t-shirt sound? Some of it is borderline reasonable but a far cry from being affordable. If the US were growing industrial hemp the raw materials would be much more affordable — manufacturers could continue to pay their workers decent wages and still sell at a profit, even when the retail price drops. Basic supply and demand at work. The problem is the demand is there but the feds have forced a market shortage on the supply side.

Recently farmers in North Dakota sued the federal government for the right to grow industrial hemp.  The judge, however, said they need to take it up with congress.  From a Reuters story:

“Obviously we are disappointed with the decision,” says Eric Steenstra, President of Vote Hemp, a grassroots group working to bring industrial hemp farming back to the U.S. “The Court’s decision shows it understands that the established and growing market for industrial hemp would be beneficial for North Dakota farmers to supply. Yet the decision overlooks Congress’s original intent – and the fact that farmers continued to grow hemp in the U.S.for twenty years after marijuana was banned. If the plaintiffs decide to appeal the case, we would wholeheartedly support that effort. We are not giving up and will take this decision to Washington, DC to prompt action by Congress on HR 1009, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007, which would clarify a state’s right to grow the crop,” adds Steenstra.

If you share my concerns, contact your U.S. Representative, and your U.S. Senators, to ask them to support industrial hemp farming.  All those candidates for President and all the state-level folks need to be asked about positions on industrial hemp as well.  It is about time we once again grew one of the products that helped get this country through WWII.

St. Louis Buys 2nd Leadership Award, Mayor and Planner Get London Trip to Accept

Last night Mayor Francis Slay and Planning Director Rollin Stanley were in London representing the city at the World Leadership Awards. St. Louis was a finalist in the area of housing. Yesterday the Mayor’s blog noted this much. They also had a little note at the end:

Note to Editors: The World Leadership Forum (WLF) is a not-for-profit organization which promotes leadership internationally — especially in the areas of science, technology, education, communication and the arts — by spotlighting the work of exceptional leaders and achievers in a host of disciplines.

See, by adding a note at the end it gives the group some legitimacy. From where I see it, this organization is all about award shows and by paying money to “win” an award it is self funded. Sure, they have no entry fees but they notify the short list of people later and they must fork over some cash to offset costs. The price tag last year was £3,000 ($5,900).

So you are asking yourself, how can I be so sure this is all rigged? Well, I cannot prove anything. First, it is the price tag which raises a big red flag. World leaders seldom have to pay to be recognized as such. References to this have been removed from their website. Last year their site indicated:

Cities reaching the shortlists (from two four in each category) will be required to pay a fee of £3,000 to cover the presentation and judging costs (venue hire, audiovisual equipment, crew, catering, judges travel expenses etc.), as well as the cost of a table at the award ceremony (the table seats up to ten guests and includes complimentary cocktails, dinner, wine programs etc.).

Cities which fail to pay the fee within 30 days of the invoice date will be disqualified from the awards.

Cities that do not reach the shortlists will not be charged any fees.

Second, the sponsoring organization refuses to disclose how many entries are received in each category. Was it just the two-four on the shortlist or was it 10 or more. They indicate they refuse to disclose the entries not shortlisted because they don’t want to embarrass those cities. Well, they don’t want to disclose the number of entries as it would likely prove embarrassing to the winners. Furthermore, while claiming to promote leadership and give awards to cities so that it might help others, they don’t publish the winning entries.

Speaking of winners, The City of Las Vegas was the big winner last night. The unsustainable city in Nevada got three awards for Transport, Leisure & Sport as well as the American City of the Year. Yes, Las Vegas the American City of the Year! That has to tell you something!

We were a finalist against City of Ahmedabad, the capital city of Gujarat, India. Their submission was called Housing for the Poor.
Our submission? The title was, “Vacancy to Vibrancy.” Did we win? Uh, yeah. You don’t think we are going to send the Mayor and a key staff person to London if we weren’t going to win? (Wink, wink).

Last year the St. Louis PR spin machine was in full swing using words like “nominated” — as if someone suggested we deserved an award. They also said things like ‘out of 400 entries’ to imply it was a crowded contest. In actuality, it turned out to be the organization sent mailers out to over 400 cities asking them to submit entries. You can read last year’s post here and review last year’s entry here. I’ve already sent over my request for the latest entry via the Missouri Sunshine Law regarding open records.

Aldermen Pass Legislation to Approve 10-Year Tax Abatement for Strip Center

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen just “perfected” Board Bill #257 giving the suburban strip mall at 2000-2014 South 7th (aka Broadway to most of us) at Russell 10-year tax abatement. Basically the building, built as part of a prior redevelopment plan, was considered “blighted” because it was vacant.

Last month the project added a sidewalk connecting a portion, but not all, of the storefronts to the public sidewalk system. For more information click here.

Century Building Case Continues Wind Through Court System

Yesterday I spent a half hour sitting in a courtroom listening to lawyers support and counter arguments in the case against two friends of mine, Marcia Behrendt and Roger Plackemeier.  Each filed lawsuits a number of years ago once it was realized developers sought to raze the historic Century Building for a parking garage.

Ultimately the developers got their financing and began demolishing the long-standing building — the very one the city had only a few years earlier told the then owner it should not be razed for parking. That started on the evening of October 20, 2004 — they had to quickly damage the building beyond repair.  As Behrendt & Plackemeier had sought to save the building, the one remaining and active suit was dropped.
In April 2005 the state (via the Missouri Development Finance Board) the city (via the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority), the developers NSG Developers LLC and St. Louis US Custom House and Post Office Building and Associates (aka Steve Stogel and Mark Schnuck) decided to sue Behrendt & Plackemeier, claiming “malicious prosecution.”

Recently they are asking the court to name attorney Matt Ghio as a defendant as well.  By doing so, he could represent himself but not B&P.  Doug Down, now representing NSG and the Post Office Associates, made Ghio out to look like an evil lawyer run amuck – handing out bad advice to B&P.  Dowd then told judge Donald McCullin that they’d sue Ghio individually if he were not added a defendant.  Ghio, in rebuttal, indicated this simply proved the developers, state and city sought to separate Ghio from defending B&P.  Ghio, having been involved in these cases for a good five years or so, knows all the issues quite clearly — that removing him would “prejudice his clients.”

Before Judge McCullin now are motions from each side.  The plaintiffs (developers, city, state) seek to add Ghio as a defendant (a motion to leave) as well as add another charge of “abuse of process” to B&P.  The defendants (B&P) filed a “motion for summary judgment” — asking the judge to throw out the case all together.  I’ll keep everyone posted once the judge makes his ruling on these motions.

[Photo by Alan Brunettin from Remember the Century pictorial.]

Schmid Names All Association Members to Nominating Committee In Marine Villa Neighborhood

It’s been a tough year for Alderman Craig Schmid. The old guard controlling the Cherokee Station Business Association were ousted (see post). Schmid then faced a primary opponent to keep his seat (which he did) and neighbors in the Marine Villa neighborhood, where he serves as President, have been pressuring him on the leadership of the organization.

Neighbors have been pushing for open elections, per the 1969 bylaws they finally got a copy of earlier this year (see post). These bylaws call for the President to create a “Nominating Committee” of an unspecified number of persons. So what does Schmid do? He mails out a letter to all members stating they are all on the nominating committee. He is asking them to mail back to him their nomination.

Several things I should note about this, I received copies of these mailings via an anonymous email account. The mailings were sent out in official Board of Alderman envelopes, despite not being official aldermanic business (image at right, click to see larger version in Flickr). Presumably city tax payers bought the envelopes for official business? The mailings were stamped so we don’t really know who funded the postage. Ditto for the return envelopes which had postage affixed.

Despite this questionable use of taxpayer funded materials (envelopes at a minimum) the mailed out form listed all six positions up for nomination. However, it gives the member only one place to nominate for a single office. Must these members run out to Kinko’s to make multiple copies of this form to nominate someone for each office?

One last thing the sender pointed out to me — the materials sent have conflicting boundaries for the neighborhood. The bylaws state Jefferson as the Western boundary and I-55 as the Eastern boundary. However, a flyer for their next meeting on January 28, 2008 indicates California (street) as the Western boundary and the river as the Eastern boundary. Maybe the first order of business at the next meeting might be to nail down those boundaries once and for all?

Click here to view the 3-pages mailed to members (I’ve circled the boundary sections on pages 2 & 3). Their next meeting is on the 28th of January although the flyer doesn’t list the time. Their website says 6:30pm. I’m thinking this will be an interesting meeting to attend.