Unable To Use All MetroBus Stops

I have no problems using most of Metro’s bus stops using my power chair, bus there are exceptions that I can’t.

I’m a huge fan of on-street parking, the fixed cars provide a nice buffer between pedestrians and moving vehicles. Unfortunately, this buffer becomes a barrier to anyone that can’t just step out into the street when the bus comes.

I’m thinking most days vehicles aren’t parked here and I’d have no problem using this stop. If so, that means an entire lane sits empty except for when a bus has to use it to pickup or drop off a passenger. But when cars are here the stop is useless to disabled riders. The solution?

Allow on-street parking, set up meters and generate revenue. In the space that would have one car build out the sidewalk so disabled riders, seniors and others can reach the bus stopped briefly in the travel lane.

— Steve Patterson

Signs: Not Just For Blocking Sidewalks Anymore

Businesses have to attract customers to stay in business, I get that. I’ve written before about Shrinking Sidewalks where businesses place their sign directly  in the pedestrian route. Earlier this week the problem was moved to the crosswalk at 14th & Washington Ave.

This is the only time I’ve seen this sign in the crosswalk, later in the week it was on the sidewalk mostly out of the way. Hopefully it won’t be back in the crosswalk.

— Steve Patterson

Really Get A Life!

“Really get a life!” was a comment left on a imagine I posted to this blog’s Facebook page Monday afternoon, I was complaining at the offices of St. Louis Parking about them pushing snow off their private parking lot and subsequently blocking the public sidewalk. The photo got 19+ likes by Monday evening but “Yippee Skippee” felt differently:

I get such a comment every so often when I’m speaking out about what I feel is an injustice.  What is the meaning of such a comment?

“Get a life” is an idiom and catch phrase usually intended as a taunt, to indicate that the person being so addressed is devoting an inordinate amount of time to trivial or hopeless matters. (Wikipedia)

So basically Yippee is a bully that’s unwilling to use his real name on social media. Here is the pic he commented on.

Have a great day!

— Steve Patterson

Campbell House Museum Open For 70 Years

The Campbell House Museum at 1508 Locust Street opened 70 years ago today.

Since opening on February 6, 1943, the Campbell House Museum has served the greater St. Louis area as one of the region’s premier historic property museums.

The Museum not only preserves the Campbell’s house, but also their collection of original furniture, fixtures, paintings, objects and thousands of pages of family documents. Included in these documents is a unique album of 60 photographs of the interior of the house taken in about 1885. In 2005 the Museum completed a meticulous five-year restoration that returned the building to its opulent 1880s appearance, when the house was one of the centers of St. Louis society.

How many museums do you know that have been open for 70 years?  Like the Scott Joplin House, the Campbell House is a look at how people lived in earlier times, wealthy in this case.  Regular hours resume on March 1st, well worth a visit.

 — Steve Patterson

Readers: Name New Bridge After Stan Musial

As expected a majority of readers think we should name the new Mississippi River Bridge after baseball legend Stan Musial, but he barely got more than 50% of the vote:

Q: Name New Bridge After Dred & Harriet Scott, Stan Musial or…?

1. Stan Musial 100 [53.19%]
2. Dred & Harriet Scott 30 [15.96%]
3. Don’t name it after a person(s) 22 [11.7%]
4. Other: 13 [6.91%]
5. Sell the corporate naming rights 12 [6.38%]
6. Unsure/no opinion 7 [3.72%]
7. Wait until the bridge opens to decide 4 [2.13%]

Hardly a consensus. The other answers were:

1. Mullanphy Bridge
2. Sacagawea
3. Mounds Heritage. The footprint of the bridge on both sides are mound sites
4. geographic name
5. President Barack H. Obama
6. General Pershing
7. Andy Gammon, worker who died on the bridge (His family is hoping for this.)
8. “Taxpayers” – we’re paying for it!
9. The Gateway Bridge
10. Bob Cassilly Bridge. Love Stan, but too much emphasis on sports in stl.
11. Nikola Tesla
12. Dred Scott seems appropriate since the bridge links two areas mostly AA occupied

A couple of comments on the original post referenced the PSB (Poplar Street Bridge) being formally the Bernard F. Dickmann Bridge, named after former Mayor Dickman.

Will be interesting to see what formal name is given to the bridge and what we end up calling it over the years.

— Steve Patterson