Sunday Poll: Rate The New Mississippi River Bridge

Years in the making, one year ago today Illinois & Missouri cut the ribbon on a new bridge over the Mississippi River at downtown St. Louis, officially named the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge.  The name, like everything about the project, is a compromise between interests in each state.

For budget reasons the bridge has fewer lanes than originally desired, in downtown it feeds into Tucker rather than a West bypass loop. Now that a year has past I’d like you to rate the overall bridge project. How did Illinois & Missouri do?

The exact question is: Rate the new Mississippi River Bridge (aka The Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge) based on your overall impression.

The 1-5 rating scale will be presented in random order, the poll is in the right sidebar on the desktop layout. The Sunday Poll closes at 8pm — 12 hours from now.  Note: your feelings for the late Stan Musial shouldn’t be a factor in your rating of this major infrastructure project.

— Steve Patterson

Free Tax Filing Options Through IRS.gov

It’s that time of year: Mardi Gras? Sure, but it’s also time to start filing our annual income tax return. Sure, the deadline isn’t until April 15th — but why wait? You likely have most of the documents you need to file by now. Maybe you wait until you can afford to buy software or pay someone to file your return? If so, pay attention because you may qualify for free filing options from the IRS.

As you can see above, those individuals making up to $60,000/year can use commercial software to file their taxes for free. Yes, free!

You’ll need to select from the 14 software sites listed, each has different qualifications so you’ll want to read the descriptions carefully. Last year I tried a couple of the software sites for our individual returns, I ended up using the free TurboTax because the other one wasn’t as easy and it couldn’t handle my investment 1099. Try a couple to see which you like best.

My husband’s employer uses a payroll service — I was able to download a PDF of his W-2 and by entering the employer number TurboTax was able to populate the fields for his income so I didn’t need to enter it! For the first time in my life, I’ll file a joint return — saving us hundreds of dollars.  See the IRS FAQ for married same-sex couples for answers to questions you may have. Will finalize our 2014 tax return as soon as I receive one last 1099.

Nobody likes paying taxes, but filing for free is good news in my book. Please avoid those storefront businesses charging you to file your return and then charging you again to process your refund.

Enjoy the weekend, see you Sunday with a new poll.

— Steve Patterson

The 1876 City Limits Were So Far Out In The Countryside

From its founding in 1764 the city limits of St. Louis kept expanding as the city grew in population. Each time they annexed land in the rural fields surrounding the city.

The 1860 census recorded 160,773 residents — more than 100% growth from 1850s census figure of 77,860. The 1870 census saw the population nearly double again — to 310,864 (Wikipedia). When St. Louis divorced itself from St. Louis County in 1876 the limits where set far out in the countryside.  The leaders at the time must not have thought we’d reach those limits as quickly as we did, or leapfrog them as happened.

Though Maplewood wasn’t incorporated until the 20th century, people like James Sutton settled the area in the early 19th century decades before St. Louis split with St. Louis County.  From Maplewood’s history:

In 1876, the limits of the City of St. Louis were extended to their present location. This limit line shows no consideration for the buildings in Maplewood, but ruthlessly bisects many of them. It cuts off the eastern triangle of the Brownson Hotel and runs right through the middle of the old Maplewood Theater, (now gone) putting the projection booth in Maplewood and the screen in St. Louis.

On one street, however, the limits do not interfere with the house. This is along Limit Avenue which was plotted with half of its width on either side of the limits line (St. Louis on the east and Maplewood on the west).

This divorce bought change to the county left behind:

When the new county was organized, a Maplewood man, Henry L. Sutton, son of James C., was chosen as its chief executive officer, or presiding justice of the county court. The first three meetings of this body were held at the Sutton home on Manchester. Then in 1877, the patriarch of the neighborhood, James C. Sutton died. He left nine children and his land was divided between them. One of the daughters, Mary C. Marshall, seems to have been the first to think of selling her tract for a subdivision, for in 1890, she sold to a company organized by Theophile Papin and Louis H. Tontrup, two St. Louis real estate men, and managed by Robert H. Cornell.

If only we could bring the 1870s leaders into the present day to show them the consequences of their actions. If so, St. Louis would likely  be part of St. Louis County with limits out near the present-day I-270.

— Steve Patterson

Readers: Children Should Be Required To Be Vaccinated

As a child of the  60s (barely) and 70s I received all the normal vaccines available at that time, so the news that some parents today don’t get their kids vaccinated came as a shock. The measles has returned to the US as a result:

Scientifically, there is no debate. The measles vaccine is effective. Most of those who contract measles, unsurprisingly, are those who are unvaccinated. 

But a conversation about the current measles outbreak brings up other ideas — on personal and religious freedoms, skepticism of scientific findings, reach of government regulations — that are inherently political. And here is where the arguments arise. (CNN – Measles outbreak: How bad is it?)

Kids too young or too sick to receive the vaccine are placed at risk by healthy but unvaccinated kids.  Here are the results from the Sunday Poll:

Q: When it comes to childhood diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough, should all children be required to get vaccinations?

1. Democrat: require vaccines 18 [51.43%]
2. Independent: require vaccines 10 [28.57%]
3. Republican: require vaccines 4 [11.43%]
4. Independent: allow opt-out 2 [5.71%]
5. Democrat: allow opt-out 1 [2.86%]
6. Tie: 0 [0%]
   1. Republican: allow opt-out
   2. Democrat: don’t know/decline to answer
   3. Republican: don’t know/decline to answer
   4. Independent: don’t know/decline to answer

Over 91% —  across the political spectrum — agreed with requiring vaccines. This is different than a recent national poll where only 60% supported requiring, with 37% for opt-outs.   Nationally Democrats favored requiring vaccines at a higher rate (65%) than Republicans (58%) and Independents (48%).  Not enough votes here to draw any conclusions other than Democrats make up over half the readership.

— Steve Patterson

Thankfully Biondi Wasn’t Allowed To Immediately Raze The Pevely Building

A few years ago Saint Louis University was determined to raze the Pevely Dairy building at Chouteau & Grand (see Pevely Dairy Fate to be Decided Today, or Not?). The city said they could raze the building — once they apply for a building permit for the medical building they intended to build to the South — the site of the Pevely Dairy was to be lawn and driveway. Many of us who fought against demolition felt defeated, eventually they’d submit plans for an awful new building set far back from the road and the historic warehouse would come down.

However, their project didn’t go forward! Thankfully the city’s Preservation Board had the good sense to require a real project before allowing the demolition. See SLU May Pass on Pevely Site for New Medical Facility.

So now it’s three years later, Biondi is no longer SLU’s president.  Maybe I missed it, but I haven’t see any news about the fate of the building and the acres of vacant land to the south. I’d love to see it get a new use as part of a larger project. I’d also like to see the big red letters spelling PEVELY returned to the rooftop sign. Pevely Hall?

— Steve Patterson