Remembering The “Revolutionary” Max Starkloff

On Tuesday I attended the visitation for Max Starkloff.

Max Starkloff lived in a nursing home on a hill outside St. Louis from the time he was 26 until he turned 38. The day after he moved out, he did something he knew he couldn’t do and stay in a nursing home: He got married.  (NPR – recommended)

I forgot that my friend & Tower Grove East resident, Christian Saller, is the nephew of Starkloff. The following were his remarks at the funeral Mass:

It’s impossible to summarize anyone you love in 2 or 3 minutes. In the case of my Uncle Max, it is especially difficult to adequately express my admiration for his character and extraordinary understanding.

He recently objected to being characterized as a “super hero”, but it’s difficult to avoid the term when speaking of a man whose dedication and tenacity were heroic.

From the time I was a small child, I always saw my Uncle Max as a person with a strength and dignity all his own. Like other truly strong people, he was kind and generously shared his spirit. When I looked at his paintings I saw him: bold, alive, a formidable force.

He has also been referred to as an activist, but this is as insufficient as any other label. I think a better term for his life and legacy is revolutionary. Activists may add a lot to a discussion, but revolutionaries start the conversation and exert fundamental change. My Uncle Max’s cultural revolution continues.

His work and advocacy were not a bid for accommodation or sympathy, but for recognition that a society that limits opportunity and justice for any of its members ultimately denies itself the full measure of its own potential. He made people understand that. Like other transformational leaders, he made his life a lasting gift we can never imagine not having.

I never knew he spent 12 years in a nursing home before he turned 38 years old!  It was the times, thankfully they have changed.  Instead of spending the next 35 years there he had a wife, three kids, and a career – a normal life basically.

Something like 80% of those who are disabled were not born disabled.  Something happened.  For Max Starkloff it was an accident at age 21 when he crashed his Austin Healey.  Each of you will know someone in your lifetime that will become disabled. Everyday I’m grateful for the work of Max & Colleen Starkloff.

Thank you Christian for sharing your remarks.

– Steve Patterson

Readers: Businesses Will Think They Are Grandfathered On New Smoke-Free Laws

Every year the week between December 25th and January 1st is the lowest readership.  Last week was no exception so I’m not surprised at the low number of votes in the weekly poll.  The current poll had more voters in the first 24 hours than all of last week. Here are the results:

Q: Will St. Louis businesses be ready when the smoke-free law begins on 1/2/2011?

1. No, many will incorrectly think they are “grandfathered” 23 [34.33%]
2. Yes, most will post the required signs but some won’t 20 [29.85%]
3. No, some will post the required signs but most won’t 19 [28.36%]
4. Unsure/no opinion 3 [4.48%]
5. Other answer… 2 [2.99%]

The majority feel businesses wouldn’t be ready for Sunday, but for different reasons.  The two “other” answers were:

1. Stupid poll
2. NO, most will ignore or think they are exempt.

Sunday night I had dinner at Chevy’s in Olivette.  This was one establishment I stopped going to in 2008 due to the fact they permitted smoking in the bar area. It was nice to return for dinner with friends in a smoke-free environment. But like so many businesses, Chevy’s didn’t have the required universal no-smoking symbol displayed at the entrance.

Yesterday I went down both sides of Washington Ave from 10th to 16th trying to find a single business in compliance with the sign requirement of the new ordinance. Like St. Louis County, no smoking signs must be displayed at all entrances.   I’ve yet to see a business in compliance.  You might point out it has only been a few days. True, but both laws were passed in 2009, businesses had all of 2010 to get ready.  Businesses that were already smoke-free just needed to add a universal no-smoking symbol at each entrance.

How can compliance be so bad?  The departments responsible for enforcement got the word out didn’t they?

The St. Louis Department of Health could use a calendar, they think it is still summer. Someone should check on Dept of Health webmaster James A. Heitert to see what he is working on. It sure wasn’t putting out press releases.

Although I shouldn’t put much stock in the City’s Press Release page to be accurate.

It shows one press release from the Mayor’s Office in October 2010 and then March before that.  I know I’ve received many press releases not listed here.  It seems our folks at City Hall are so incompetent they can’t seem to get the word out about a significant new law with over a year to do so.  Or maybe they did but they forgot to archive the press release?

Licensed business owners could have easily received a notice of the new law with their license renewal in 2010, but they didn’t.  Successful compliance begins with communications.  Maybe the aldermen spread the word at well attended neighborhood meetings?  Can we get some real leadership in City Hall?

– Steve Patterson

Reducing The Number Of Aldermen

Many have long thought 28 members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen is excessive for a population of 350,000.  Across the river in Granite City IL they will have the size of their city council go from 14 members to 10 in April.  The numbers of wards will go from 7 to 5, each ward has two representatives.

In the 2011 election, all 10 seats will be up for election for either two- or four-year terms.(source)

The two & four year terms will allow for staggered 4-year terms going forward.  Their thinking was fewer residents so you need fewer elected representatives. If only we’d get wind of such logic on this side of the river!

Here is a list of past decades with the number of residents per St. Louis alderman in parenthesis.

• 2000 (12,435)
• 1990 (14,167)
• 1980 (16,171)
• 1970 (22,223)
• 1960 (26,787)
• 1950 (30,600)
• 1940 (29,145)
• 1930 (29,356)

Were the aldermen of decades past so much more competent that they could represent more than twice as many residents as our current aldermen? Granted, they didn’t need to respond to constituent emails.  Maybe, just maybe, the bureaucracy was such that citizens went there first rather than ring their aldermen? As our population declined the aldermen changed the system so they were thought to be indispensable?

Ald Fred Heitert was first sworn into office in 1979.  After the 1980 census each alderman represented just over 16,000 persons.  If we were to use this number, from the first year of a current alderman, we could go from 28 to 22 (based on 350,000 residents).  1970 was in my lifetime, if we use the 22,223 per alderman figure we would be at 16. Based on the 1950 peak we’d have only 11.

I have no clue what the magic number should be.  Perhaps we should have two aldermen per ward such as Granite City does?  It is time to reexamine how our city government is structured.  If little Granite City IL can do it, why can’t we?

– Steve Patterson

Brentwood Finally Addressing Poor Pedestrian Connections

A friend sent me a link to this alert issued by the City of Brentwood on December 1, 2010:

Brentwood Pedestrian & Transit Improvement Project
The design phase of the Brentwood Pedestrian & Transit Improvement Project is now underway. The City was awarded $664,000 in federal transportation enhancement funding for the project through a competitive grant program administered by East West Gateway Council of Governments. The City of Brentwood selected two engineering firms, CDG Engineers and Crawford Bunte Brammeier, through a competitive bid process to design two miles of new sidewalks connecting the Brentwood MetroLink station to area shopping centers and employers. The new sidewalk starts in the Brentwood Pointe (Dierbergs) shopping center and will continue south along Hanley Industrial Court, providing safe pedestrian access to the south entrance of the Brentwood Promenade. It then connects with the existing sidewalk on Strassner Drive by Memorial Park. The design phase is scheduled for completion by the end of September, 2011. Construction will start in 2012.

I’m glad I saved a PDF of the alert on the 7th, by the 9th it was gone:

But onto the actual issue, connecting the Brentwood MetroLink station to adjacent retail.  I’ve experienced all the retail in this area as a motorist but on one day, 6/19/2008, I experienced it as a pedestrian. What a horrible experience it was too.  Did I get from the MetroLink platform to Trader Joe’s and back without getting struck & killed?  Obviously, but not getting hit by a car is not how you’d describe a good pedestrian environment.

The journey starts with the narrow & long path up to grade from the west MetroLink platform. At the top you see the grim reality of what the pedestrian will find at the top.

I got to to the Trader Joe’s in the next development but it was not an easy task. Below is an aerial showing the route (blue) from the MetroLink station on the right to Trader Joe’s

It was kind of a crazy route because I was trying to find a way other than just through a parking lot. You see on the day I made this trip I was still a few weeks away from driving again post-stroke.  Transit and my power chair was my only option to reach Trader Joe’s.

I felt unsafe going to/from a store that is very close to expensive transit infrastructure.  I talked to a couple of lawyers that take ADA cases.  They liked the case but they didn’t have $30,000 to bring a suit.  I feel Brentwood was primarily responsible since they acquired the land for the developments.  When built next to the rail line they knew future plans called for a station.  The fact it wasn’t built to handle pedestrians is shameful.

The fact another $664,000 tax dollars needs to be spent to improve the area is frustrating. Why wasn’t this built better to begin with? Someone at Brentwood was asleep!  And this project only gets you to the edge, “providing safe pedestrian access to the south entrance of the Brentwood Promenade.”

Once at the south entrance you still cannot safely visit each merchant. Look for lots of money to be spent in the coming decades retrofitting pedestrian access where it should have been in the first place.  I’m not saying this shouldn’t be done now, it just should have been better planned so the best pedestrian route wasn’t the back way through an industrial park.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: What Issues Would You Like The Board of Aldermen To Address In 2011?

There is still some time left in the current session of the Board of Aldermen ends, the last meeting before the Spring break is Thursday February 10, 2011.  A new session begins in April 2011.

My poll question this week asks: “What are three issues you’d like the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to address in 2011?”

The answers are numerous but you have have additional ideas, pick up to three.  The poll is in the upper right of the blog.

– Steve Patterson