Watch Out For the Aldermanic Motorcade

Thumbing through this week’s RFT I read the brief story titled A Cherry on Top: VIP motorcades are no big deal — they’re just illegal. The story talks about events between an Anheuser-Busch party and the Mayor’s Mardi Gras Ball at City Hall on February 24th. Among the guests of the A-B party were several aldermen:

So was Dave Drebes, editor and publisher of the local political tabloid Arch City Chronicle. Drebes, who also writes a weekly column for the St. Louis Business Journal, referenced the soirée in the March 3 Business Journal. Noting that pomp reigns as power wanes among city lawmakers, Drebes described “whizzing through stoplights” with three (unnamed) aldermen in a motorcade from the hotel to city hall as sirens and flashing red lights attached to the caravan’s lead car helped clear a path through traffic.

Gregali, Florida and Kirner say the February 24 motorcade was orchestrated and led by the private security firm Special Services Inc. The aldermen and Drebes followed in Gregali’s Mercury minivan, with Gregali behind the wheel. The aldermen say they don’t know who else was in the procession.

Nice. Our aldermen are so special they are part of a caravan of people going a short distance in such a hurry that can’t wait for the traffic signals. If the signals are such an issue perhaps they should work a little harder to get the signals timed correctly.

What I find great about this topic was Drebes’ editorial in the St. Louis Business Journal where the subject first came up. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Drebes be so frank about local politicians:

It was three levels lower than stupid. A handful of aldermen were receiving an escort from the Grand Renaissance over to City Hall, a total distance of probably seven blocks. The siren and flashing lights were shaving a half-minute or so off the commute.

Perhaps in a world of diminishing power, such tiny perks as breezing through downtown once in a while is an acceptable pay-off for the looming proposition of irrelevance.

Power shifts, even when the actual structure of government hasn’t. Aldermen used to really be something in the city of St. Louis, but today they’re are small potatoes and getting smaller. At this rate, they’ll be nuggets soon.

Dave Drebes offers a lot more commentary on the diminishing power of aldermen in the full article. It is a must read, hitting home points about the role of aldermen is basically to answer citizen complaints about stop signs and dumpsters or hand out shrinking Federal Block Grant funds. Good job Dave!!!

Florida, Kirner and Gregali are certainly in the top 5 of my list of aldermen that need to be replaced. Not at all surprising they were among the group being wined and dined by A-B and then part of an illegal motorcade. Gregali is up for re-election in March 2007 but we are stuck with Florida and Kirner until 2009. Well, 2009 unless the recall Florida talk over Drive-ThruGate or her unbalanced campaign finance reports moves up the date.

In the meantime watch out for the aldermanic motorcade.

– Steve

St. Louis Not Prepared for Oil Crisis

SustainLane has created a ranking of “50 Largest cities Ranked by Readiness for an Oil Crisis” (see list at right). St. Louis didn’t even make the list! My hometown of Oklahoma City, known for its massive sprawl, was ranked ahead of St. Louis at #50.

From SustainLane:

SustainLane analyzed commute trend data within major cities–how many people rode, drove, carpooled, walked, or biked to work. Then we looked at how much people rode public transit in the general metro area, and metro area road congestion. Sprawl, local food, and wireless connectivity made up our final areas of data analysis (see chart below for weighting of these criteria). The index did not take into consideration energy impacts associated with heating or electricity, which would be largely dependent on non-oil energy sources, such as coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy. Only one U.S. city in our study, Boston, uses a significant amount of heating oil. For this reason Boston, ranked #2, gets an asterisk: if heating oil usage were used as a criteria its rank would be somewhat lower.

As fuel prices continue to rise the St. Louis region will lag behind these other regions. The time to act is now.

What Can The Most Vulnerable Cities Do?
It’s not impossible for cities that are now the most vulnerable to an oil crisis to become more prepared.

One city that is taking comprehensive actions to lessen its economic and physical dependence on the automobile is Denver. Ranked #15 on our oil crisis preparedness index, Denver has bet its future on new multi-modal public transportation as part of an economic strategy known as Transit Oriented Development.

The city passed the largest regional transportation funding measure in America’s history in 2003. The measure, which was led by Mayor John Hickenlooper and regional mayors, garnered 73 percent voter approval for a $4.7 billion initiative that combines funding for multiple new light rail, commuter rail, and bus rapid transit lines. There will even be a ski train to zip adventurers into the nearby constellation of Rockies resorts.

While other regions are funding and building state of the art transportation systems we are looking at spending massive sums on rebuilding an existing highway and building a new bridge. Our priorities need to be changed. We also need a leader to help guide the region to a more sustainable model.

Full Story here. Thanks to reader Jim Zavist for the link.

UPDATE 4/11/06 @ 6:45pm
The rankings have been called into question for this study. From the methodology on their related US City Rankings we know they considered all cities with a population greater than 100,000. With the City of St. Louis in the mid-300s we would have part of the study group but simply failed to make a showing on the top 50 list. As evidence, the City of Arlington TX has a population less than the City of St. Louis but appears as #43 on the list. I’ve sent SustainLane an email asking to clarify the ranking of St. Louis.

UPDATE 4/12/06 @ 7:45am
Well, turns out I was wrong and Publiceye was correct. Warren from SustainLane added a comment below to clarify the methodology for their sustainable cities project was different than that used to rank cities for oil crisis preparedness. In short they took the top 50 cities by population figures. Arlington TX was behind St. Louis in the 2000 Census but by the 2004 update that was used they had pulled ahead. So we don’t really know where we’d rank because we are too small to be counted.

– Steve

Rumor: St. Aloysius Demolition to Start This Week

Sadly, it sounds like demolition of the lovely St. Aloysius Gonzaga will begin later this week. I don’t have any details but I’ve heard rumors that someone was in talks to buy the property as-is from the current developer but a deal never materialized. I have been unable to confirm this information.

This unique setting is to be replaced by 25 ordinary homes as part of a development called Magnolia Square.

Just how spectacular will the view from Magnolia be next week? From all over the neighborhood one can see great views of the steeple. I have a feeling that many of the people that didn’t think this would be a big loss will wake up one day and realize they’ve lost a great view.

… Continue Reading

Dates Set for Protest & Appeal on McDonald’s Drive-Thru

Citizens opposed to the proposed Suburban McDonald’s will meet on the sidewalk at 3708 S. Grand at 12:30pm on Saturday April 15, 2006. The media is expected around 1pm. Organizers will have signs but feel free to make your own. A petition will most likely be available as well.

The protest is a lead-in to the appeal of the conditional use variance for the drive-thru. The appeal of the variance will be heard at 1:30pm on Wednesday April 19, 2006 in Room 208 of City Hall.

It is important to have a large crowd at both events. We need to send a strong message to Ald. Florida, Pyramid Construction, McDonald’s, Ald. President Shrewsbury, and Mayor Slay that we will not tolerate prior redevelopment ordinances being trampled by a few with enough cash to get what they want.

On a side note, Ald. Florida’s measure to restrict efforts to recall Aldermen failed at the polls on Tuesday. If I were her I’d be worried, very worried.

Mark your calendars: Saturday 4/15 @ 12:30pm and Wednesday 4/19 @ 1:30pm.

– Steve

A Tale of Two Cities (aka Wards)

While discussing plans for a hotel in the red hot east Loop area a friend asked why Alderwoman Jennifer Florida couldn’t be more like Alderwoman Lyda Krewson. Good question. If you’ve read my prior posts on Florida you know I’m not a fan but I came to her defense. Lyda Krewson is working with Loop visionary & developer Joe Edwards. Or more correctly, Krewson is assisting Edwards create a vibrant urban street, Delmar.

Florida, given a Joe Edwards-type visionary, might just come off looking as good as Krewson does. Sadly, Florida is stuck with John Steffen’s Pyramid Companies. So instead of getting hip bowling alleys or boutique hotels like the Delmar Loop, Grand gets a relocated McDonald’s drive through surrounded by a sea of parking.

The mistake Florida made is to accept what they offer and assume that is the best we can get. Pyramid’s best just flat out isn’t good enough. It a company doesn’t get what an urban street in a city should look like then they shouldn’t be operating in the area. I’m sure some municipality in St. Charles County would love to have this McDonald’s.

Pyramid’s developers must look at this section of Grand and just see parcels of land. An Edward’s type developer that understands the urban model can look at the same part of Grand and see how many residential streets feed into the area, how it intersects with Gravois and Chippewa, that the region’s most popular bus line serves the area. This type developer can see the benefit of a good long-range plan to build up the street to an urban model, the way it was before the city let just anything be built.

It is make or break time. Florida is pushing hard for her lack of vision developer Pyramid. If they prevail it will be a sad day for St. Louis. It will mean we are not willing to become a strong urban city but one that will accept anything and everything just to say we’ve had so much development in our ward & city.

Pyramid’s proposal sickens me. Reminds me of the in-fill housing they built in the city with front facing garages a number of years ago (Delmar west of Vandeventer).

People won’t literally move away because of the McDonald’s but I think we will continue to lose urbanists to other cities if we keep following this path. Similarly, we will not attract the population that seeks an urban city. Cities that are following a more urban model such as Portland and Madison, WI will continue to gain while we are stagnant.

– Steve