AT&T’s Smokers Sidewalk

Except in local restaurants & bars, smokers are often forced to take their addiction outside.  This typically means the public sidewalk.  I can generally avoid the addicted feeding their habit but when I head to Citygarden I’m forced to deal with it. I typically take 10th Street South from Washington Ave to reach Citygarden.  I may need to find an alternate route.

Sidewalks along 9th & 10tth at the AT&T building adjacent to Citygarden are covered by the building, as you see above.  Smokers congregate in these enclosed areas, making passage very unpleasant.  Even on weekends when employees are not present these sidewalks reek.

When the building was built the public sidewalks were moved inwards to allow ramps for the underground parking garage:

As with smoking near building entrances, I’d like to see smokers kept out of these areas.   It is not their private smoking lounge — others need to pass through as well. Let them smoke in un-covered areas where the smoke dissipates.

When you pass through here in a wheelchair it is worse than walking because you are down at the level where they hold the cigarettes.  I can’t yet place my left hand over my face and my right hand is controlling the chair.  I may need to get a mask to wear when I pass through.  Do you think they’ll get the message?

Somehow, someway, this situation needs to change.

– Steve Patterson

Mobile Billboards Pollute, Regulation Needed

Most of us have seen them, mobile billboards:

These two weren’t rolling when I passed them twice the Saturday before the All-Star game.  Yet both had their diesel engines running as they sat outside Flamingo Bowl.  I also spotted the Red Bull Mini Cooper a couple of times — it was not parked but cruising around — wasting gas and polluting.

Mobile advertising has become a big industry.  I actually don’t object to the commercial messages but I do have a problem with the environmental impact.  I think the Board of Aldermen should investigate to see how other cities have sought to curb the carbon footprint of this form of advertising.

Annual Farm Aid Concert Coming to St. Louis Region in October 2009

Last week Farm Aid announced, at Soulard Farmers’ Market, their 2009 concert will be held at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Maryland Heights Missouri (a St. Louis suburb) on Sunday October 4, 2009.

Farm Aid’s mission:

To build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual concert to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family-farmed food. Since 1985, Farm Aid has raised nearly $35 million to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.

Some interesting facts from the press kit:

• St. Louis County has 276 farms sitting on 32,292 acres or almost 10 percent of the county’s land.
• The average St. Louis County farm has average gross sales of $86,203, while the average net income per farm is $20,587.
• With 107,825 farms, Missouri ranks second in the country for the state with the most farms. more than 96% are family-owned.
• 96% of the 691,235 farms in Missouri and neighbors (Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, & Tennessee) are family-owned and operated.

Basically we have many family-owned farms around us, more than I thought.

Online many noted that the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater is built on former farm land protected from flooding by levees.  Not exactly a natural choice but I can’t think of another outdoor venue in the region that could host this annual fund raising concert.

Once rich farm land is now parking and casino.  The proportion of parking to destination is shocking when viewed from above.

I welcome Farm Aid to the St. Louis region.  Their message of strengthening the family farm and eating good food is needed.

– Steve Patterson

Congress May Need to Settle Water Dispute

Here in the St. Louis region we are fortunate to have the Missouri & Mississippi Rivers as water sources.  Not all regions are as fortunate, just ask folks in Atlanta, GA:

A federal judge on Friday [7/17/09] ruled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been illegally reallocating water from Lake Lanier to meet metro Atlanta’s needs, but he’s not turning off the tap just yet.

The judge overseeing the high-stakes case wants a political solution and is sending the fight to Congress.

In the meantime, the current withdrawal levels from Lake Lanier will be allowed to stay the same – but not increase, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson ruled. And if a political solution cannot be worked out in three years, the judge said, his order will take effect.

This means the metro area will not be allowed to use Lake Lanier as its primary source of water supply.

“Thus…only Gainesville and Buford will be allowed to withdraw water from the lake,” Magnuson said in a 97-page order. “The court recognizes that this is a draconian result. It is, however, the only result that recognizes how far the operation of the Buford [Dam] project has strayed from the original authorization.”

Magnuson, of St. Paul, Minn., was picked in 2007 to decide the almost two-decades-old tristate water wars case involving Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

His ruling handed the metro area a crushing legal defeat. The judge found that the Corps of Engineers should have obtained congressional approval before allowing Lake Lanier to be the metro area’s primary source of water supply. (source)

Three states, three cities, one lake.  Atlanta just cannot take all the water in their region leaving the others dry.

The City of St. Louis water system supplies water for much of our region well beyond the city limits.  Many of you in the suburbs may not like our public schools but you sure need our water.  Since the 1830s the City of St. Louis has operated a waterworks system (see history), long before farms surrounding the city became monotonous subdivisions, strip shopping centers and Wal-Marts.

The City of St. Louis Water Division maintains two water treatment plants that draw water from the area’s two main rivers. The Chain of Rocks Plant is located on the Mississippi River about eleven miles north of the center of the City and about five miles south of the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The Howard Bend Treatment Facility is located on the Missouri River, 37 miles above the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and 15 miles west of the City limits. Combined, these two plants have the capacity to treat and distribute 380 million gallons of water per day (M.G.D.).

What if states up river from St. Louis wanted to dam and control the water that we have all long enjoyed?  What if a changing climate meant the mighty Mississippi became just a stream?  But what if the reverse happens and more rain brings more flooding?

Atlanta has sprawled beyond it’s natural resource limits.  Atlanta has greatly benefited from water from Lake Lanier.  Atlanta must change.  In the future we should expect to hear more on this topic from contributor Bryan Oekel, a native of the St. Louis region now living in the Atlanta area.

– Steve Patterson

Street Repaving Presents Accessibility Problem

In the short time span between the opening of Citygarden and the All-Star game the city repaved Chestnut street between Citygarden and AT&T.  Generally new paving is a good thing, except for those of us using wheelchairs.  Certainly during the time that old asphalt is removed and new installed streets can be difficult to cross.  But once the new asphalt is down it should be good, right?  Wrong.

The repaving changed the relationship with the ADA ramp at 10th & Chestnut.  As you can see in the above picture the footplate on my chair now hits the ramp on approach from the street.

Similarly, the footplate hits the asphalt when attempting to enter the crosswalk from the ramp.   I’m alerting the appropriate officials about this issue so the excess asphalt at the corner can be shaved off.

This is not the first time I’ve had to do so — it is a recurring problem.  It is hard to capture in a photo without a chair as I’ve done above but anyone with any sense should be able to see the problem.  The street paving crews must be reminded to pay attention as they are putting down new asphalt — now many other ramps out there have the same issues?  I can’t check each and every ramp in the entire city.

Thanks to my friend Marcia Behrendt for taking the above pictures.

– Steve Patterson