Thursday Night Is A Work Night

Real estate agents generally work odd hours, never the 9-5 weekday gig of many folks. I’m not complaining, we have flexibility to our schedules others wish they had. But it also means working nights & weekends.

Tonight myself and my co-agent Leigh Maibes are holding an agent-only function at The Lawrence Groups’s South Side Tower (aka South Side National Bank). We may be able to skip the ice for the cocktails on the roof — the vodka may be cold enough just based on the temperature.

Downtown agents will be out tonight for the “Downtown Nights” event -evening tours of places for sale. At another of my listings co-agent Ashley Brands will have open 703 N 13th #401 (Elder Shirts Lofts). That will be open from 5pm-9pm. I’ll be stopping by there on the way home tonight.

No break this weekend either.  Saturday & Sunday I’ll be back at the South Side Tower condos from 1pm-3pm.

Former St. Louis Mayor Vince Schoemehl on Regionalism

A few nights ago I attended a panel where Former St Louis Mayor Vince Schoemehl was speaking on the future of Metro and Prop M.  He got sidetracked a few times and ended up covering regionalism, cities he considered St Louis’ competition while he was mayor (San Francisco & Boston!), how it is “ridiculous to have the Mayors of Clayton & St Louis fighting over the location of a law firm.

Click here to listen to an excerpt of the audio

Schoemehl was mayor from 1981-1993.

Sales Taxes as a Source of Funds for Government Services

Yesterday in response to my post on the upcoming election and the ballot measure for a sales tax to help fun transit operations in the county & city, the following comment was made by regular reader ‘Southsider:’

Yes the City sales tax will go up a like amount resulting in a cumulative tax of roughly 10%.  A figure I find staggering.  I can recall when it was 3 cents on the dollar.  What are the voters thinking I’ll never understand.

All sales taxes should be sunseted and revoted upon every 5 years.

To be clear, the tax in Prop M does sunset – after 20 years not 5.  But the point is a valid one — we can’t fund all local services through sales taxes.  A dedicated transit tax I support but I agree we need to reevaluate our entire tax structure.  We tax ourselves to provide services for ourselves.  How & what we tax is where the difference comes into play.

The primary forms of taxes we pay are income, property & sales.  The city earnings (income) tax is not popular, but what tax is? Other taxes include the gas tax  — a flat rate based on volume not a percentage of price; utility taxes, hotel/ticket taxes.  Related are fees we pay such as a business license fee.

The gas tax isn’t what it used to be, with the federal trust fund running dry.  Efforts to reduce fuel consumption reduces the funds long used for infrastructure.  Often the feds help with capital funds but not those for operations & maintenance.  This is why we often see infrastructure allowed to deteriorate and then a major project to start the process over with new infrastructure.

With Community Improvement Districts, Transportation Development District and such it is easy to suddenly have a local sales tax rate that is “staggering.”  So how do we rework the system to get the funds we need to provide the infrastructure & services we want and demand?

In the case of the tax for Metro it is funding of employee pensions driving some of the projected shortfalls.  We can’t take away people’s pension, this is an obligation we have to them.

I’m no tax expert, I don’t have the solution to this issue.  I do agree that communities should examine priorities and how those are funded.  In the meantime I hope that County voters approve Prop M  – doing so will raise about $80 million from the county and $9 million from the city each year.

Urban Policy in the November Election

Four weeks from today the U.S. will make history — we will either elect the first black President or the first female Vice-President. Neither is a good reason to vote for or against one or the other. We need criteria other than race or gender on which to make our own voting decisions.

For those of us living in urban regions we must look at the Presidential & Gubernatorial election with close inspection of the candidate’s urban policy.

At the national level the respective candidates have vastly differing urban policy objectives. Obama-Biden have Urban Policy as a major issue heading. McCain-Palin’s Urban Policy is non-existent, although you might argue their policy items are scattered among other issue headings such as crime or economic development. I like seeing that Obama-Biden have given urban policy the clout it deserves.

At the Missouri state level we have Democrats Jay Nixon for Governor and Sam Page for Lt Gov with Republicans Kenny Holshof for Gov and incumbent Peter Kinder for Lt Gov. For me their plan for say urban transit is more important than debating the 2nd Amendment and Abortion. You can view the sites and make your own determination.

I’ve been voting now for 20 years. In that time I don’t think I’ve ever voted a straight party ticket. In each election I might like a few Democrats and a few Republicans. Not this year. I’m voting to keep Palin in Alaska. Someone get her a White House tour book — because that is as close as she should ever get to the oval office.

Voters in St Louis County get a say in the future of transit in our region. Metro is seeking much needed funding to keep buses & trains serving thousands throughout our region. Proposition M reads as:

Shall the County of St. Louis impose, in addition to an existing County-wide sales tax of one-quarter of one percent for the same purpose, a County-wide sales tax of one-half of one percent (0.50%) which shall have a sunset date twenty years from the date on which the tax is first imposed, for the purpose of providing a source of funds for public transportation purposes, with the revenues from one-quarter of one percent (0.25%) to be used for MetroLink expansion and revenues from the remaining one-quarter of one percent (0.25%) to be used for the maintenance of existing transit facilities?

• Increase frequency on express routes and arterial routes nearing capacity.
• Implement high-speed bus service between major residential and employment centers.
• Develop express bus corridors into Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines.
• Expand MetroLink to North and West St. Louis County

I’d vote for it if I could. If I’m not mistaken city voters previously approved a tax to fund Metro that will kick in when County voters approve Prop M. For more information see the Greater St Louis Transit Alliance at www.MoreMetroLink.com. Alliance Treasurer Thomas Shrout (of Citizens of Modern Transit) will participate in a panel discussion tonight called Obstacles, Solutions and a Vision for the Future of St Louis. The panel starts at 7pm, just after a reception – both at Cummels on Washington Ave. For more information click here.

Lucas Park Cleanup Inspires Similar Effort for Amberg Park

The recent efforts of downtown residents to tidy up Lucas Park has inspired at least one group in the city to tackle issues in their own neighborhood park. Amberg Park, located on Gustine South of Chippewa, will see a group effort on October 18, 2008. One of the organizers acknowledges the recent efforts in Lucas Park as inspiring their own project.

Technically Amberg Park is listed by the city as being in the Duchtown neighborhood. Dutchtown is its own neighborhood among the 79 listed by the city. You also have the Dutchtown South Community Corp (a CDC) which encompass not only Duchtown but also the neighborhoods of Gravois Park, Marine Villa and Mt Pleasant. Duchtown, the neighborhood, is geographically so large that residents have for years sliced it up into smaller, more manageable neighborhood units; Dutchtown North, Resurrection, & Trinity. Interestingly the Dutchtown Community Corp is located not in the Dutchtown neighborhood but on the corner of the Mt Pleasant neighborhood. You also have the Downtown Dutchtown Business Association.

So back to Amberg Park. It is in that part of Dutchtown listed as in the Resurrection neighborhood on the Dutchtown website. But efforts are also underway to give this area an identity. A site for the ‘Dutchtown Amberg Neighborhood Association’ has been created as has an Amberg Park Cleanup blog.

Rick Bonash over at STL Rising picked up on the new association based on a comment left here on UrbanReviewSTL. Bonash also linked to a recent Suburban Journal article by Jim Merkel on the new group that is forming. An undertone in the article is about the long-time residents and more recent arrivals. I know from my own personal experience, if you were not born & raised in the neighborhood or haven’t lived there since Eisenhower was President you are a newcomer. This attitude is really unfortunate because a lot of people may have ideas and want to contribute but are discouraged from doing so.

Some in an old guard praised the leadership of the group. But they have their concerns about youthful enthusiasm of the organization led by Chris Wintrode, 24, a St. Louis University law and masters in health administration student. They said the group isn’t really new, but the continuation of an organization that long met at the former Resurrection Church, 3880 Meramec St.

Kirner also said the group is the continuation of the old Resurrection Neighborhood Support organization that long met at resurrection as part of the church and community umbrella organization Churches United for Community Concerns. Pat Sullivan, 75, a lifelong neighborhood resident who has led the organization, said that Chris Wintrode and others essentially came in and took over meetings.

I see, by saying it is a continuation of an old organization that diminishes the new effort. Kirner is Dorothy Kirner who defeated me for 25th Ward Alderman in March 2005, she was an incumbent. Her term expires in April 2009.

Personally I’m glad to see a new crop of residents take some action to actually do something, anything.
I’ll be stopping by Amberg Park after 10am on the 18th to see how the cleanup project is going.