Macklind Ave Is An Inaccesible, Incomplete Street

At the start of this month I had an appointment with an orthopedic specialist, to get a cast made for a new ankle-foot orthosis (AFO).  Orthotic & Prosthetic Design is located at 5467 Highland Park Drive, off of Macklind Ave. between Manchester & Oakland. I’d been there before, usually driving. Once via the #59 MetroBus on Oakland — which goes as far East as the Central West End. With my husband at work with our car, I decided to take the #32 MetroBus — no transfer needed. I boarded at 14th & Washington.

I did reach the bus stop on Oakland — in front of Paraquad.

When the Humane Society of Missouri opened their new headquarters nearly 18 years ago it seems nobody worried about pedestrians reaching the property — no sidewalk to the South and no curb cut to the North. Not sure how long the Pasta House Company has been in their location. And what if my destination had been on the East side of Macklind?

This morning I’ll email a link to this post to various people with the City of St, Louis, Metro, the Humane Society, American Pulverizer, the Pasta House Company, St. Louis Community College, Paraquad, and 24th Ward Alderman Scott Ogilvie. Hopefully they can collectively figure out a plan to make this area comply with the American’s with Disabilities Act of 1990. Twenty-five years is long enough, this shouldn’t still be like this.

— Steve Patterson

Readers: Daylight Saving Time Is No Longer Necessary; Patterson Says Keep Clocks Ahead One Hour All Year

Sunday’s poll was a chance to compare to the nearly identical poll last March.  This 2nd time a greater percentage are willing to do away with Daylight Saving Time.

Q: Is Daylight Saving Time Still Necessary?

• No 32 [71.11%]
• Yes 9 [20%]
• Neutral 3 [6.67%]
• Unsure/No Opinion 1 [2.22%]

While we’re early risers, and I go to bed early, I don’t like the idea of a Summer sunrise 4:36am and the latest sunset at 7:29pm. On the other hand, July 4th fireworks could start earlier!

Others suggest we switch to Daylight Saving Time (ahead one hour) and don’t go back to standard time.

Making daylight saving time permanent — by never “falling back” again — could save the country billions a year in social costs by reducing rapes and robberies that take place in the evening hours, according to a forthcoming paper by researchers at the Brookings Institution and Cornell University.

In 2007, Congress increased the period of daylight saving time (DST henceforth) by four weeks, adding three weeks in the spring and one in the fall. “This produced a useful natural experiment for our paper,” authors Jennifer Doleac and Nicholas Sanders write at Brookings, “which helped us isolate the effect of daylight from other seasonal factors that might affect crime.” They found that “when DST begins in the spring, robbery rates for the entire day fall an average of 7 percent, with a much larger 27 percent drop during the evening hour that gained some extra sunlight.”

Today, November 4, 2015, our sunrise is at 6:31am and our sunset will be at 4:58pm. If we stayed on DST they’d be 7:31am & 5:58pm, respectively.  I like the idea of not changing clocks twice a year, I’d just prefer to keep them ahead one hour.

— Steve Patterson

Voting In Missouri’s 2016 Presidential Preference Primary Begins In Less Than Three Months

Today is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. This doesn’t mean much today, but in a year it will. If you’re registered to vote in the City of St. Louis you should’ve received your motor registration card in the mail, along with the following calendar:

Due to difficulty getting to my polling place on election day, I vote by absentee ballot — which I can do in less than three months. For most voters March 15, 2016 is Missouri’s 2016 Presidential Preference Primary.

From June 2014:

Missouri’s chaotic history with presidential primaries may finally be settled, now that Gov. Jay Nixon has signed into law a measure that sets the state’s presidential primary date in March.

Under the new law, Missouri’s once-every-four-years primary would be held on the second Tuesday after the first Monday. In 2016, that date would be March 15 – the first day allowed by the two national political parties without incurring penalties.

Setting a firm date that complies with the parties’ rules also might help Kansas City to land the 2016 Republican National Convention. The city is among the finalists. (St. Louis Public Radio)

Cleveland, not Kansas City, was selected for the 2016 GOP convention. For some reason the Board of Election Commissioners listed the last day to register after the election date — the deadline to register primary voters is February 17, 2016!

In Illinois, voters who will be 18 years of age on or before November 8, 2016 can register and vote in their primary — which is also Tuesday March 15, 2016. For more Illinois voter information click here.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Is Daylight Saving Time Still Necessary?

It’s November, we got an extra hour of sleep last night. Well, unless your kids were up all night high on sugar. Today’s poll is very similar to a poll from last Spring:

This poll is simpler — no qualifying statements associated with each answer. The answers are presented in random order, the poll will close at 8pm.

— Steve Patterson

Readers: Missouri Should Stay With Front & Rear License Plates

In the unscientific Sunday Poll more than half of those who voted supported sticking with front & rear ;oceans plates.

Here are the final results:

Q: Thirty-one states, including Missouri & Illinois, require front & rear license plates. Nineteen states only require rear-facing plates. Where do you thi [poll cut off the end]

Front & rear 15 [51.72%]
Rear only 11 [37.93%]
No plates at all 2 [6.9%]
unsure/no opinion 1 [3.45%]
Front only 0 [0%]

I’d like to see better enforcement of front plates, people shouldn’t be allowed to view it as optional if they don’t like how it looks.

— Steve Patterson