A week ago 60 Minutes did an interesting story on the homeless:
Please vote in the poll, located in the right sidebar
Giving apartments to homeless people who’ve been on the streets for years before they’ve received treatment for drug or alcohol problems or mental illness may not sound like a wise idea. But that’s what’s being done in cities across America in an approach that targets those who’ve been homeless the longest and are believed to be at greatest risk of dying, especially with all of this cold weather.
They’re people who once might have been viewed as unreachable. But cities and counties affiliated with a movement known as the 100,000 Homes Campaign have so far managed to get 80,000 of them off the streets. Local governments and non-profit groups do most of the work. The money comes mostly from existing federal programs and private donations, and there’s evidence that this approach saves taxpayers money. (100,000 Homes: Housing the homeless saves money?)
St. Louis has been setting up apartments for the chronically homeless for a while for a while now, I’ve been a skeptic but I’m slowly seeing the value. I’ll share more thoughts on Wednesday February 26th when I post the results from this week’s poll. Please vote in the right sidebar.
I’m learning more and more about the “unbanked” and “underbanked” citizens in our community. From September 2012:
The percentage of households in the St. Louis region that are ‘unbanked’ rose to an estimated 9.7 percent in 2011, according to a survey released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Wednesday, an increase from 7.6 percent in 2009, when the survey was last conducted.
The percentage of unbanked African-American households soared to 29 percent locally, among the highest rates in the nation, though down slightly from the last survey.
Nationally, 8.2 percent of U.S. households, or about 10 million, are unbanked, an increase of about 821,000 households since 2009. (stltoday)
A year ago a local effort was made to spread good financial literacy:
Financial institutions, community based organizations, social service and faith based agencies, community leaders, local and state officials, advocacy groups and grassroots members formed to create the St. Louis Regional Unbanked Task Force. The Task Force’s mission is to identify and address systemic and individual barriers that prohibit unbanked and under-banked households from utilizing traditional banking products and services. The Task Force is using data from sources such as the FDIC, Neighborhood Data Gateway, and data collected by individual member banks in a variety of ways: to understand and educate people about the need, to help set goals for the number of unbanked households who will open and maintain new accounts, to target marketing and outreach initiatives, and to measure their progress. The Task Force’s first major initiative, driven by data about the specific needs of the unbanked and underbanked in the St. Louis region, will be BANK-On SAVE-Up, which is launching February 21, 2013. (source)
Six years ago today a tragic shooting took place in the Kirkwood City Hall during a city council meeting:
After storming the meeting and killing five people Thursday night, Charles Lee “Cookie” Thornton was fatally shot by law enforcers. Friends and relatives said he had a long-standing feud with the city, and he had lost a federal free-speech lawsuit against the St. Louis suburb just 10 days earlier. At earlier meetings, he said he had received 150 tickets against his business. (CBS News)
Mayor Mike Swoboda was severely injured, he died 7 months later:
Mr. Swoboda’s health deteriorated following a fall he took in early May, according to his son. He also had cancer. Mr. Swoboda was moved to a hospice on the campus of St. Anthony’s Medical Center on the Tuesday prior to his death. (Webster-Kirkwood Times)
I don’t remember news of the shooting because I was in the intensive care unit at Saint Louis University Hospital, my doctors had put me into a drug-induced coma on the 2nd, after my stroke the day before. I first learned of the shooting when I transferred to SSM Rehab at St. Mary’s on February 25th. At this same time the news was reporting Swoboda would be transferred to a rehab hospital, like the brain injury unit where I’d just arrived.
I spent nearly a month at the brain injury rehab unit at SSM/St. Mary’s
Swoboda ended up being treated for his brain injury at another facility. Not all patients in therapy had brain injuries, some had been in car accidents, had limbs amputated as a result of diabetes, etc.
I thought of the Kirkwood shooting when I recently read last month about Castle Rock, CO now allowing guns to be openly carried into public buildings & parks:
The Castle Rock Town Council heard several hours of public comment on Tuesday concerning the repeal of the firearm open-carry ban before its vote of approval.
According to the Denver Post, Town Manager Mark Stevens favored repealing the ban. A majority of the police department and town staff were opposed to the repeal. (Source)
For decades the Metropolitan St. Louis Police Department has had nine districts. Effective last Monday the number was reduced to six. A week ago Chief Sam Dotson wrote on his blog:
The redesigned police districts will be more fully staffed, more streamlined, more efficient and more precisely balanced in terms of calls-for-service and crime numbers. The new system more readily lends itself to our core strategy of hot-spot policing. The transition has given us an opportunity to re-assign key personnel and give the new districts more cohesive and well lead management teams.
And yet for all the history-making significance of redistricting, the impact on the public will be so minor, I doubt most people will even notice.
I know St. Louis often resists change, so the poll this week asks for your thoughts on the number of St. Louis Police districts being reduced from nine to six. You can take the poll in the right sidebar.
More than 65% of those who voted in the unscientific poll last week indicated they witnessed and/or experienced racial discrimination:
Q: Have You Witnessed or Experienced Racial Discrimination Within the Last Two Years?
Yes, witnessed 31 [36.9%]
No 27 [32.14%]
Yes, experienced & witnessed 20 [23.81%]
Yes, experienced 4 [4.76%]
Unsure/no opinion 2 [2.38%]
When I originally posted the poll my expectations were too optimistic. Part of my optimism is likely because I’ve been out of the office workforce for nearly a decade now. Work remains.
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historic architecture of St. Louis, Missouri – mourning the losses, celebrating the survivors.
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