Nineteen year ago I started this blog as a distraction from my father’s heart attack and slow recovery. It was late 2004 and social media & video streaming apps didn’t exist yet — or at least not widely available to the general public. Blogs were the newest means of …
The new NGA West campus , Jefferson & Cass, has been under construction for a few years now. Next NGA West is a large-scale construction project that will build a new facility for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in St. Louis, Missouri.This $1.7B project is managed by the U.S. Army …
Book publisher Island Press always impresses me with thoughtful new books written by people working to solve current problems — the subjects are important ones for urbanists and policy makers to be familiar and actively discussing. These four books are presented in the order I received them. ‘Justice and …
This post is about two indirectly related topics: the new Siteman Cancer Center building under construction on the Washington University School of Medicine/BJC campus and an update on my stage 4 kidney cancer. Let’s deal with the latter first. You may have noticed I’ve not posted in three months, …
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A lot of space in St. Louis is designated for vehicles, with a little for pedestrians. As a result, I get upset when a vehicle reduces the sidewalk space further.
If your vehicle can’t be parked without being part way on the sidewalk I suggest you find a different parking spot. If you’re a motorist do please watch for motorcycles, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
— Steve Patterson
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The weekly poll here isn’t scientific, the participants self select. Still, the number of participants is pretty consistent week to week. But when last week’s poll, Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Archbishop Robert Carlson?, had more votes in the first 24 hours than most get after 7 days I knew an effort was on to distort the outcome of the results.
Clearly obedient Catholics in St. Louis have a very favorable opinion of Carlson, however, the early results showed twice as many readers had a very unfavorable opinion as those with a very favorable.
The priest, realistically considered, is the most immoral of men, for he is always willing to sacrifice every other sort of good to the one good of his arcanum — the vague body of mysteries that he calls the truth.
— H L Mencken, Treatise on the Gods (1949)
The very first comment said I “hate the Catholic Church and its teachings.” I view all religions pretty much equally, man-made constructs to control the masses. To me it doesn’t matter is someone is a Baptist, Jehovahs Witness, Muslim, Jewish, Scientologist, Mennonite, Presbyterian or Catholic — all are the same to me.
Another comment said St. Louis is a “Catholic city”. Yes, I had my alderman (Dorothy Kirner) once ask me what parish I lived in. Huh? I wasn’t here long before I realized you’re assumed catholic unless stated otherwise.
A small Arkansas town illustrates the problem with this group mentality. Beebe AR is apparently a Christian town, the mayor doesn’t want to allow a Pagen Temple.
If God is the mystery of the universe, these mysteries, we’re tackling these mysteries one by one. If you’re going to stay religious at the end of the conversation, God has to mean more to you than just where science has yet to tread.
I know one group that doesn’t have a favorable opinion of Archbishop Csrlson: SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests):
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) describes Archbishop Robert Carlson’s deposition statements as “mind-boggling,” “stunning,” and “shocking.”
“That Archbishop Carlson says he doesn’t know when he figured out it was a crime to rape a child—that is a frightening statement,” says SNAP’s Barbara Dorris.
Dorris says that Archbishop Carlson contradicted himself by claiming he didn’t know it was a crime, but also admitting that he advised a bishop to claim memory loss if asked about any case. (KMOX)
Attack me all you want, it only reinforces my view of the religious.
— Steve Patterson, Pastafarian
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SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM.
The weekly poll that started on Sunday morning is about parking, but there’s more on the subject. First, St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones is hosting an open house tonight:
The City of St. Louis Treasurer’s Office will conduct a town hall meeting to give the public the chance to meet the vendors participating in the parking technology field tests in downtown and the Central West End.
The meeting will be June 24 at the Central Library in downtown. A meet and greet with the vendors will take place at 6 pm, with a presentation to begin at 7 pm. The companies participating in the town hall are: Xerox, Duncan Solutions, Aparc Systems, and a joint proposal submitted by T2 Systems, Inc., Republic Parking System and Digital Payment Technologies. (source)
As of yesterday morning, tonight’s open house still wasn’t listed under the “Upcoming Events” heading. The above quote is from the blog post listed under “News” 0n May 29th, not holding my breath they’ll list the event as an event. The open house seeks feedback on the field tests of new parking meter technology. First, a little help with some of the jargon you’ll hear.
“Multi-space parking meters” includes two very different types: pay-per-space and pay-and-display. With the former each parking space is assigned a number for you to use when paying at a pay station, the latter you pay at a pay station but get a receipt to stick inside your car window to show payment, spaces aren’t formally designated. The pay-and-display form of multi-space parking meters aren’t being tested in St. Louis. Everyone should be familiar with single space meters.
A flaw recently occurred to me in the design of the pilot project to study two types of technology (Single space meters & Pay-per-space/multi-space stations) from four vendors. Two areas areas of the city were selected to try these: the Central West End (CWE) and Downtown. The problem is someone decided to test both vendors with single space meters in the CWE and two out of three pay-per-space stations downtown. One vendor, Xerox, being tested at Euclid & Laclede, has both single space meters & pay-per-space stations. To control for different conditions, users, etc. one of each type of technology should’ve been placed in each neighborhood, no single space meters are being tested downtown.
The most recent numbers compares the four vendors to each other, with no reference to historical revenues for the test areas with the current meters. Is one higher because of the technology or because that spot is busier?
As you can see above payment by coin (red) is larger than credit card (blue), with mobile payments barely registering. It’s expected after a system is selected that credit card and mobile payments will make up the bulk of the revenue. None accept bills.
Thankfully the Treasurer’s Office realized they need parking professionals to guide the city into the future…at least with respect to parking, they recently announced a firm to act as a consultant:
Desman Associates responded to a request for proposal (RFP) to hire a consultant to evaluate the City’s current on and off-street parking programs and to recommend improvements to the parking system. Desman Associates has conducted several parking studies in St. Louis, including studies for Ballpark Village, the Peabody Opera House, Grand Center, and Washington University.
“The parking study will be used to reform the current parking system and offer guidance as we look to implement new parking technology and modernize an outdated system,” said Tishaura O. Jones, Treasurer of the City of St. Louis. “We look forward to working with Desman Associates to create a first class parking operation for the City.”
Desman Associates is based in New York:
DESMAN Associates, is a professional corporation with more than 100 professional and technical personnel. The firm is a leading national specialist in transportation improvements and the planning, design and construction administration of functionally efficient, attractive and cost effective parking facilities. Since the firm’s inception in 1973, DESMAN has served public, private and institutional Clients and Owners throughout the U.S. and abroad and has provided planning, design, and restoration services for over 1,500 parking projects.
DESMAN operates from the nine following office locations:
- New York*
- Chicago
- Cleveland
- Washington, D.C.
- Hartford
- Boston
- Denver
- Ft. Lauderdale
- Pittsburgh
DESMAN Associates is also recognized as a certified Minority-owned Business Enterprise (MBE) by many states, municipalities and other government and public agencies that may help clients meet or exceed their affirmative action goals and policies.
* Corporate office
I’m not sure if representatives from Desman Associates will be at the open house tonight, I’ll be there (Central Library) to meet the four vendors at 6pm and see the presentation at 7pm. Remember, when Tishaura Jones ran for the office in 2012 she said repeatedly she didn’t want to be a “parking czar.”
UPDATED 6/25/2014 @ 7:30am, after talking with teams last night:
— Steve Patterson
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Absentee voting in Missouri’s August 5th primary begins tomorrow. In the city there are six different sample ballots:
Let’s look at each:
The Libertarian Party ballot includes:
The Constitution Party ballot includes:
The Non-Partisan ballot includes:
The Green Party ballot includes:
The Republican Party ballot includes:
The Democratic Party ballot includes:
The St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners has sample ballots of all 6 here. However, two of the six are wrong due to last minute certifications from Secretary of State Jason Kander:
Lots of different party ballots, very few seats challenged within the respective party. I count 41 candidates total, all but 9 will win the nomination of their party on August 5th if they manage to get just one vote. This means in November we’ll see quite a few contested races.
The 5 ballot questions are:
Tomorrow I’ll be voting against the first three, at this point I’m still unsure about the last two. I’ll take a Democratic ballot so I can vote in the two challenged citywide races (license collector, recorder of deeds), though I’m still undecided on both.
Voters in St. Louis County can review a 47-page PDF of ballet content. If you’re not registered to vote, you can do so through July 9th.
— Steve Patterson
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The following letter to the editor ran recently in the Post-Dispatch:
My wife, who is a cancer survivor, attended the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure walk on Saturday. We parked on the street at 17th and Locust to join the event. No one paid the meter; we were the last space on the block, so we assumed the city waived parking fees.
Two hours later, we arrived back at the car and saw every car was ticketed. The city and Mayor Slay should be ashamed! Attila the Hun had better PR techniques. When 30,000-plus people come to downtown for such a worthwhile event, all meters in the area should be free for the morning hours.Tom Carpenter • Shiloh
This prompted a response from Treasurer Tishaura Jones:
The St. Louis City treasurer issued a statement on Tuesday addressing parking meter enforcement during Saturday’s Susan G. Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure. Some people were ticketed during the race, and this is the first year parking meters were enforced since the office decided in July to start charging for metered parking on Saturdays.
Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones defended the meter enforcement, praising the race and the other events held downtown, and pointing out that if they offered free metered parking for one event they would have to offer it to everyone. (stltoday)
The poll this week asks if you think the St. Louis treasurer should suspend parking meter enforcement during downtown events. Parking meters are enforced Monday-Saturday, no charge on Sunday. The poll is in the right sidebar.
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