Poll: How Many Vehicles Per Licensed Driver In Your Household?

It has been nearly a year and a half since I sold my last car. In that time I’ve managed fine without a car, except for 2 times this year when I rented a vehicle to go out of town. Not having a car has got me thinking about cars I have owned over the 30 years I’ve been driving.

Growing up in suburban Oklahoma City our driveway could hold nine vehicles, with two more in the garage. Pretty consistently we had more than one vehicle per licensed driver.   Yes, not a typo — our driveway was 3×3.

I once owned three Volvos at one time, later I owned two Saabs concurrently. Now I don’t have a car, but my boyfriend does. Years ago my personal household had a peak of three vehicles per licensed driver, but now it is 0.5 vehicles per licensed driver. But for the most of the last 25 years on my own I’ve been one driver with one car.

For the poll question the week I’d like to know about the number of vehicles per licensed driver in your current household. The poll is in the right sidebar, I’ll post the results on Wednesday October 2nd.

— Steve Patterson

Update On Participatory Budgeting St. Louis From 6th Ward Ald Christine Ingrassia

Guest post from 6th Ward Ald Christine Ingrassia

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. Participatory Budgeting Saint Louis (PB STL) seeks to empower residents via direct participation in the allocation of public monies in order to expand civic and political participation of citizens; and increase government transparency, with a focus on inclusion of historically disenfranchised or uninvolved populations. While PB is a fairly new concept in the United States, it is already being implemented in Chicago, New York City and Vallejo. ??During St. Louis City’s 2013 municipal primary, Michelle Witthaus and I, both candidates in the 6th Ward’s Aldermanic race, learned there was an interest on the part of residents to feel more connected to the political process and to see greater governmental transparency and accountability. After a training MORE’s (Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment) Zach Chasnoff received and reported on, Michelle thought PB could address this interest. After the election, we decided to form a Steering Committee, which first met in May 2013, to bring PB to St. Louis City. I set aside $50,000 this year and will do the same next year, so that $100,000 of 6th ward capital improvement funds for fiscal year 2015 will go towards a pilot project to introduce St. Louis to this new endeavor.

From May through September the PB STL Steering Committee worked on rules for implementation, created a fundraising plan and canvassed in low voter turnout areas of the 6th ward. We are now ready to host Neighborhood Assemblies in October. Residents will learn how PB STL will work in its inaugural year and will have the opportunity to volunteer to plan projects the rest of the 6th Ward will vote on.

Trainings for budget delegates (volunteers planning projects) will occur in November and over the winter they will work with the Steering Committee and me to create project proposals. In March 2014 Project Expos will held. At these expos presentations of proposals will be made to the 6th Ward and changes can be made to them, as needed. ??Voting will occur in several different forms over the course of 1 – 2 weeks in April and will hopefully include an online option. In May 2014 winning projects will be provided to the City’s Board of Public Service to be included in the fiscal year 2015 budget. In June 2014 we will undertake evaluation of our first year’s efforts and the projects we voted on will begin to be implemented in July.

I’m hoping this project will increase community participation, act as an agent of government accountability and will spark an interest on the part of residents regarding how the budget process works.

Here is a listing of our upcoming assemblies; PB STL would love to see you at one.

1. Monday, October 7th
   Jefferson Warehouse
   2501 S Jefferson Ave
   Koken Art Factory (location change as of 9/29)
   2500 Ohio Ave.
   6:30pm-8:30pm
2. Wednesday, October 9th
   Barr Branch Library
   1701 S Jefferson Ave
   12:00pm-2:00pm
3. Monday, October 14th
   Stray Dog Theater
   2348 Tennessee Ave
   6:30pm-8:30pm
4. Wednesday, October 16th
   Lafayette Park United Methodist Church
   2300 Lafayette Ave
   6:30pm-8:30pm
5. Saturday, October 19th
   Barr Branch Library
   1701 S Jefferson Ave
   10:00am-12:00pm

Courtyard Apartment Buildings Gracefully Add Density

St. Louis, like most cities, has a variety of housings types. I’m rather font fond of this type of apartment building.

It has 18 apartments, 6 one-bedroom & 12 two-bedroom, on a lot measuring 91 feet wide  x 120 feet deep. That’s 18 units on a quarter acre lot! To the west is apartments over commercial storefronts and to the west single family detached homes, all from the late 1930s.

These were new modern light-filled apartments, a contrast to the old tenement slums in the old part of the city. This was the suburban ideal at the time. You’re thinking it can’t be called “suburban” since it is in the city. Wrong, it was sub-urban compared to how flats were built decades earlier.

Many of these exist in St. Louis, north & south, as well as in the inner ring of suburbs. Though I’ve never lived in one, I enjoy seeing them as I pass by.

— Steve Patterson

Independence & Pedestrian Access

As a disabled person, my independence is very important. I assume no matter the disability. independence is important. Thus it isn’t a surprise to me to see it mentioned in mission a statement:

St. Louis Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired enhances independence, empowers individuals and enriches the lives of people who are blind or visually impaired and their families.

Yet their website illustrates auto-centric thinking, not independence:

The Society is located at the southeast corner of Brentwood Blvd. and Manchester Road. The corner of Brentwood and Manchester is approximately 2 miles south of the Galleria shopping mall. The Society’s facility is approximately 12 miles west of downtown St. Louis.

There are signs visible from all four directions at that corner indicating the “Society For The Blind Building”, with all addresses (8764 – 8798) of occupants of the building below the name. The Society’s entry is clearly marked above the main entrance.

There are reserved parking places in front of the main entrance, as well as handicapped parking next to the building.

Where’s the information from  public transit? I often encounter blind & visually impaired riders on transit.

It would help their independence if the Society made a slight modification to provide an pedestrian access route separate from the auto driveway. It would be fairly straightforward:

As you can see from the image above, building a pedestrian route would be a fairly simple proposition for them. I sent them a message a couple of days ago suggesting this. I’ll keep you posted if anything happens.

— Steve Patterson

Readers: City & County Should Reconcile

More than ninety percent of readers that voted in the poll last week favor some form of reconciliation between the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County.  Voting was nearly double the usual.

Q: Should St. Louis City & St. Louis County Reconcile? If So, How?

1. St. Louis City should rejoin St. Louis County as the 91st municipally 65 [36.31%]
2. St. Louis City & St. Louis County (and all its municipalities, schools districts, fire districts, etc) should become one government body 52 [29.05%]
3. St. Louis City & St. Louis County (and all its municipalities) should become one government body 45 [25.14%]
4. St. Louis City & St. Louis County should remain separate, but partner more 12 [6.7%]
5. St. Louis City & St. Louis County should remain completely separate (no change) 5 [2.79%]
6. Unsure/No Opinion 0 [0%]

More than 54% favor some form of consolidated government, not just becoming the 91st municipality. If St. Louis became the 91st municipality it would be the largest in terms of population and 2nd largest in land area, Wildwood is slightly larger in area.

For years I’ve favored a super consolidation  — all municipalities, school districts, fire districts, etc being made into one. But I recognize this wouldn’t be a magic bullet to solve issues of poverty, unemployment, stagnant/declining population, in the city & county. Some regional problems would be solved, but others would be created in the process — unintended consequences tend to pop up.

What needs to take place isn’t a discussion of solutions, but a discussion of problems facing the region. From there we can work toward a collective solution(s). Our history has been a group or individual has pushed a change in governance out of selfish interests. There’s been some mild effort to give the appearance of a grassroots movement rather than what it is.

I want change, I think the region needs change.  But we must learn from the consequences of other city-county consolidations.We shouldn’t do this so one person can get his wish to end income taxes and fund government largely through sales taxes. As a low-income person I know the burden sales taxes place on the poor. I’m not willing to suffer so millionaires can reduce their obligation to society.

Here are some groups currently working on consolidation/merger:

• Greater Gateway Alliance
• St. Louis is a World Class City
• Missouri Council for a Better Economy

Right now I’m still research each to see if they’re legit, or just a front. Part of that includes reading from a variety of sources, for example:

If the city’s current system of having “county” offices that operate independently of the city is an absurd waste of resources and duplication of services, then what is to be said of a county that has 43 fire districts and more than 60 police departments? Compared outright to St. Louis County, St. Louis city is a model of economy and streamlined public services. It may be ridiculous that the city has a comptroller, treasurer, collector of revenue and license collector, but for many of its square miles the county is nothing – governmentally speaking – more than a speed trap that feeds money into one strip mall city hall or another. (St. Louis American)

I believe we can have a better government structure that makes us competitive with other regions, bettering the lives of everyone, not just a few.  It’ll take open dialog to get there.

— Steve Patterson