TO EXIT: depress red button and push door simultaneously

Leaving a parking garage recently I encountered a security measure I hadn’t faced since my stroke.

But there was the sign, just push the button and the door at the same time.   My left hand isn’t too useful and in my right is my cane.  I often hold the cane with the left while I do things with my right hand.  I ended up leaning against the door handle then pressing the red button with my right to exit onto the sidewalk.  So much in society assumes all are able bodied.

– Steve Patterson

St. Louis’ official flag designed by a Yale professor in early 1960s (updated)

To my eye the official flag of the City of St. Louis is quite striking, the colors and composition are excellent.

In looking at the flag recently, I began to wonder about its history.  A number of websites listed the same information, from the same source.  So I went directly to that source: The Revised Code of the City of St. Louis:

“1.20.010 Description.

The design submitted by Professor Emeritus Theodore Sizer, Pursuivant of Arms at Yale University, and now on file in the office of the City register is approved, adopted and designated as the official flag of the City. The flag with a solid red background has two broad heraldic wavy bars, colored blue and white, extending from the left top and bottom corners toward left center where they join and continue as one to the center right edge. This symbolizes the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Over the point of confluence a round golden disk upon which is the fleur-de-lis of France (blue) calling attention to the French background of the early city and more particularly to St. Louis of France for whom the City is named. The golden disk represents the City and/or the Louisiana Purchase. (Heraldically, the disk is a “bezant” or Byzantine coin signifying, money or simply purchase.)

The flag’s colors recall those of Spain (red and yellow or gold), Bourbon France (white and gold), Napoleonic and Republican France (blue, white and red), and the United States of America (red, white, and blue). (Ord. 52322 § 2, 1964: 1948 C. Ch. 1 § 5: 1960 C. § 6.020.)”  (1.20.010)

I had long assumed the flag was from the 19th century but the years listed above include 1948, 1960 and 1964.  Unsure of the meaning of these I turned to David Sweeney, Clerk at the Board of Aldermen. He pulled two ordinances that further clarify the history.

First is the ordinance (#52322) that denotes the current flag as the official flag, approved on February 3, 1964:

It repealed an earlier ordinance that was approved on January 2, 1946 that made a 1916 flag official – 30 years after the fact:

I’d like to see a picture of this 1916-1964 flag.  What is still not yet known is if St. Louis had flag prior to 1916.  The creator of our current flag, Theodore Sizer, was born in 1892 and he died 75 years later in 1967.  He was an art history professor at Yale.  My guess is a competition was held for the design.  Flags don’t seem to be the important symbols they once were.

UPDATE: 2/13/2010 @ 10:00AM:

Thank you to Michael Allen (Ecology of Absence) and Daniel Glossenger (Bygone St. Louis) for looking up additional information on the 1916 flag.  In the January 25, 1916 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch it was announced that Edward A. Krondl won a $100 prize for his entry.

Krondl was a 27 year old unmarried commercial artist living in a 4-family located at 2317 Indiana Avenue.  More than 200 entries were submitted. But the Pageant Drama Association that organized the competition felt the blue was not blue enough and the orange not orange enough.

On May 20, 1916 the Post-Dispatch published the winner of a new competition:

The winner of the $100 prize this time was A. P. Woehrle of 3214 Gustine Avenue.  But it was disclosed the winner was actually Edward Krondl, the winner from earlier in the year.  Krondl submitted his new design using the name of a friend because he “wanted to win on merit and not the prestige gained by winning the previous contest.”   The Board of Aldermen passed a resolution to adopt this latest entry as the official flag — the first for the city from what I can gather.  Here was the best line, “Alderman Fett asked to be excused from voting, on the grounds he was too patriotic to vote for for any flag except the stars and stripes.”

– Steve Patterson

City Hospital once part of a dense neighborhood

Cities, and the neighborhoods within them, slowly change over time.  Old photographs and written accounts are our best window into life before we existed.  When I arrived in St. Louis in August 1990 the old City Hospital complex on Lafayette was long vacant.  Now the main building is The Georgian condos but two other structures were razed for the condo project.

From Paul Hohman of Vanishing St. Louis:

The aerial photo below from 2002 shows the City Hospital site as a fairly dense urban village with the old Administration Building along Lafayette, the 13 story Tower Building at center fronting on Carrol Street (notice how Carrol connects to the residential area to the west), and the 6 story former Malcolm Bliss Mental Heath Center along Park Avenue. In late 2002 demolition began on Malcolm Bliss and the Tower Building prior to the conversion of the Administration Building into the Georgian Condominiums by Gilded Age.

Last year I brought the following photo which shows the construction of the now-razed tower building.

This was an era of increased building possible through rail transit (streetcars).  I know perceptions were changing anyway, but I can’t help but think the demise of the last streetcar in 1966 contributed to further decline.  Eight lines were closed in 1946/47.  Cities like New Orleans, San Francisco and Toronto kept their lines running and that has paid dividends for them.

– Steve Patterson

Readers not impressed by St. Ann’s new speed camera

In the poll last week (post: St. Ann’s speed camera begins February 1st) readers were clear: a speed camera in the school zone is not the best way to make the street safe, it is about revenue for the municipality.  In this case the suburb of St. Ann.  For the most part I’m not bothered by speed & red light cameras because I tend to follow traffic laws to the letter.  However, safety on the streets, especially for pedestrians, is a high priority for me.

Q: This week St. Ann begins school zone enforcement using speed-zone camera technology. These are:Bad: will only increase revenues for St. Ann: 35 [40.7%]

1. Good: will increase safety in the school zone: 21 [24.4%]
2. Other: better solutions exist to slow traffic: 21 [24.4%]
3. Neutral: won’t have much of an impact on safety but it doesn’t bother me: 5 [5.8%]
4. Other answer… 2 [2.3%]
5. Unsure/no opinion. 2 [2.3%]

The two “other” responses were:

• compensating for taxes lost from NW Plaza Foreclosure/Wal-Mart leaving
• need mass transit not more speed traps this is bs

For me the question comes back to performance.  If the cameras are successful then fine.  But do they? Trying to find unbiased information is impossible. On the pro-camera side is the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:

“Do speed cameras reduce travel speeds?

Institute studies show that automated speed enforcement can substantially reduce speeding on a wide range of roadway types. Institute studies in Maryland, Arizona and the District of Columbia found that the proportion of drivers exceeding speed limits by more than 10 mph declined by 70, 95, and 82 percent respectively. Research conducted outside the United States also shows large effects of speed cameras on traffic speeds. For example, in Victoria, Australia, speed cameras were introduced in late 1989, and police reported that within 3 months the number of offenders triggering photo radar decreased 50 percent. The percentage of vehicles significantly exceeding the speed limit decreased from about 20 percent in 1990 to fewer than 4 percent in 1994.

Are there other technologies that could aid in enforcing speed limits in both urban and suburban areas?

Yes. Roadside electronic signs that display vehicle speeds to warn drivers they are speeding may reduce speeds and crashes at high-risk locations. Institute research found that mobile roadside speedometers can reduce speeds at the sites of the speedometers as well as for short distances down the road.16 When used in conjunction with police enforcement, the effect of speedometers can last longer. Signs warning truck drivers that they are exceeding maximum safe speeds on exit ramps also show promise, as they reduce the numbers of trucks traveling greatly above maximum safe speeds.

Two emerging technologies are being used to enforce speed limits. Intelligent speed adaptation links a position of the traveling vehicle via Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and computerized maps with speed limits to determine if the vehicle is speeding. The system may work as an advisory system for the driver or an intervention system that automatically reduces the vehicle’s speed to comply with the speed limit. Point-to-point speed camera technology records the time it takes a vehicle to travel between two camera locations to compute an average speed and compare it to the posted speed limit. This system uses optical recognition technology to match the two photographed vehicle license plates. Point-to-point speed cameras are being used to enforce the speed limit on the Hume Freeway in Victoria, Australia. In the UK, point-to-point speed camera systems are known as “Distributed Average Speed” camera systems and have received government approval.”

Cities that have tried speed cameras offer a different perspective.  One community in Arizona has removed speed enforcement cameras:

“Pinal County supervisors Wednesday bid goodbye to photo enforcement.

Their vote to terminate their contract with Redflex, the company that operates the cameras, came at the recommendation of the county’s top law-enforcement official, new Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

“I’m against photo speed enforcement completely,” Babeu said, walking the three-member panel through a detailed PowerPoint presentation. “Here in Pinal, it’s failed miserably.”

Babeu said speed cameras created dangerous road conditions and offered little financial benefit for the county. He plans to boost traffic enforcement through additional manpower.” (Source: Pinal County shelves speed-camera program)

To me these cameras are more about revenue than safety.  Better ways exist to slow traffic and raise awareness of the presence of school children.   Ticketing was to begin on February 1st but the Post-Dispatch reported on the 4th that warnings will continue through at least the end of the month.

– Steve Patterson

No longer bus-averse

I no longer have issues with taking a bus if that is that is the only public transportation choice I have.  This was not always the case with me.  I still prefer streetcars to the bus but many times the bus is better than a private car.

Before moving downtown I would sometimes bike a few blocks over to the #40 Broadway bus to catch a ride downtown.  I was nervous the first time I used the bike rack on the front of the bus but I quickly got used to it.  Taking the bus downtown allowed me to arrive sweat-free.  Returning home I could bus or bike back, depending on my level of energy.

Once I used a combination of modes for a meeting in Granite City, IL.  I drove my only vehicle,  a 49cc motor scooter, to MetroLink station for a light rail train across the river to East St. Louis where I got on a Madison County bus to Granite City, IL.

After I moved downtown I had to attend a breakfast meeting on Delmar in the Loop. It was cold and rainy and I didn’t feel like riding the scooter.  I had two choices via public transit.  Light rail on MetroLink or the bus.  While I prefer rail transit, the bus was closer to my house and final destination: I walked two blocks from my loft to catch the bus and it dropped me off across the street from my destination.  Learning the bus routes near my loft helped me understand where I could get to via the bus.

I’ve ridden buses on vacation as well. My last trip to New York City I rode the bus from the airport into Manhattan.  In Seattle last year I rode a bus into downtown and back from the Capital Hill neighborhood.  In October 2009 I tried out the new downtown circulator (see post).

The bus serves serves a function just as other modes do.  The private car isn’t going away but neither is the bus.  Neither should go away.  What we all need to remember is we need the option of various modes in order to make a choice.  Too much of our region has no choice at all — if you want to leave your house it will be by private automobile.

– Steve Patterson