Readers Not Rams Fans

Next year professional football will return to St. Louis when the XFL league begins play in 8 cities.  Can it compete with the NFL, will it outlast its initial 3 years of funding?  Hard to say, but it seems the NFL isn’t the sure thing it once was:

The lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history turned off fans Sunday, with the matchup between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams drawing the game’s smallest TV audience since 2008.

TV’s most-watched annual event drew 98.2 million viewers, down 5% from last year when 103.4 million viewers watched on NBC, according to Nielsen data.
 
Counting those who watched the game on streaming platforms, CBS put the total audience at 100.7 million viewers, down 4.5% from the 105.4 million who watched on all platforms last year when the Patriots played the Philadelphia Eagles. (Los Angeles Times)

On Sunday we asked Siri a couple of times for the current score, but we didn’t watch the game at all. Yawn.

Here are the results from the non-scientific poll:

Q: Who do you want to win in today’s NFL Super Bowl?

• Don’t care: 16 [53.33%]
• New England Patriots: 9 [30%]
• Los Angeles Rams: 4 [13.33%]
• Undecided: 1 [3.33%]

More backed the Patriots over the Rams, still far less than the “don’t care” crowd.

One Kansas City politician has a solution to the lack of an NFL team in St. Louis:

City Councilman and mayoral candidate Quinton Lucas told St. Louis television station KMOV that if it comes down to losing a home game, he thinks the Chiefs would be better off trying to build a regional footprint rather than an international following.

“I don’t think it’s just a pie in the sky thing,” Lucas told a St. Louis reporter.

The Chiefs lost a home game to play against the Detroit Lions in London in 2015.

The Chiefs were scheduled to play an away game in Mexico City in 2018 only to have that game moved to Los Angeles due to poor field conditions. They’re scheduled again for an away game in Mexico City in 2019.

Lucas thinks the team would be better off playing across the state than across the world. (KMBC)

Interesting. Given that the XFL plays at a different time of year than the NFL there wouldn’t be a venue conflict. The NFL’s reason for playing a home game abroad is an attempt to compete with football (aka soccer).

— Steve Patterson

Understanding Vehicle Size Classifications

Later this week we’re taking the train to Chicago, our annual trip to the media preview of the Chicago Auto Show. So I have vehicles on my mind right now.

One aspect I find interesting is the various size classifications of passenger cars, trucks, and SUVs.

The size class for cars is based on interior passenger and cargo volumes as described below. The size class for trucks is defined by the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR), which is the weight of the vehicle and its carrying capacity. Fuel economy regulations do not apply to heavy-duty vehicles, so they are not tested.  (FuelEconomy.gov)

Below is how cars & trucks are classified:

The 2015 Hyundai Sonata we bought last year competes in the mid-size class with vehicles such as the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, and Nissan Altima. Chevy & Ford are getting out of the midsize sedan market, each to cease production of the Malibu & Fusion, respectively.

Our car, however, it’s not a mid-size — it’s a large (full) size!

Prior to this car I’d owned subcompacts, compacts, and one mid-size (87 Volvo). I’d never even driven a full-size (large) car until January 2013 when Enterprise upgraded the rental I needed to attend an uncle’s funeral in Amarillo, TX. It seemed huge, as did our car last year. I’m used to it now, the extra interior room makes it easier for me to get in/out of the car.

Trucks are different. Back in the 70s pickups were either regular or a tiny compact (think Mazda-based Ford Courier). Today’s mid-sized pickups are bigger than the full-size pickups of my childhood.

Many SUVs on the road today are car-based crossovers, like the Honda CR-V. It is based on the compact Honda Civic platform. True SUVs have body-on-frame construction, not unibody like passenger cars. Even still, you get SUVs based off different sizes of truck chassis.

Used to be every car maker trying to compete would have at least one passenger car per size classification.  Now, that’s optional — but they must have an SUV/CUV in every possible size & price point.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Which Team (if any) Are You Rooting For In The Super Bowl?

I’ve said before I’m not a sports fan, that’s still true. To me the most interesting thing about the Super Bowl is the commercials — I can watch those online now.

This year is more intriguing for some reason. Maybe it’s because of the unique stadium architecture, news stories talking about the age difference between the quarterbacks, or the Patriots’ recent Super Bowl record:

The team owns the record for most Super Bowls reached (nine) and won (five) by a head coach–quarterback tandem, and most Super Bowl appearances overall (eleven). Currently, the team is tied with the 49ers and Cowboys for the second most Super Bowl wins with five, after the Steelers, who have six. (Wikipedia)

It’s in my nature to root for the underdog, give someone else a chance. Then we turn to the St…uh…Los Angeles Rams.

The franchise has won three NFL championships, and is the only one to win championships representing three different cities (Cleveland in 1945, Los Angeles in 1951, and St. Louis in 1999) (Wikipedia)

Three championships…but only one Super Bowl…when they were still the St. Louis Rams. Of course the Rams were again in the Super Bowl the year after their only win…to lose to the New England Patriots. They meet again.

If you’re like me you’ve seen reports of loyal Rams fans still in St. Louis, as well as lawyer Terry Crouppen’s new ad critical of Ram’s owner Stan Kroenke. So today I’m curious which team you’re rooting for…or if you care.

Today’s poll will close at 8pm.

— Steve Patterson

Last Meeting of St. Louis Board of Aldermen Before Spring Elections

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen will meet at 10am today, their 31st meeting of the 2018-2019 session. This is their last meeting before the March 5th primary and April 2nd general.

Since no new bills could get through the process before the end of the 2018-2019 session, there are no new bills being introduced. Today’s agenda includes a long list of bills that will likely get passed and sent to the mayor for her signature.

The meeting begins at 10am, past meetings and a live broadcast can be watched online here. See list of all board bills for the 2018-2019 session.

— Steve Patterson

Opinion: Better Together Merger Plan Doesn’t Go Far Enough

I moved to St. Louis in 1990, at age 23.  I was born & raised in Oklahoma City, OK.

As a child OKC was the largest U.S. city. Better put, it was the biggest in terms of land area. It had annexed itself into this position. As of 2016 it had fallen to the 8th largest — still capable of holding 7 major cities within its boundaries.

For most U.S. cities, annexation was the norm. Between 1764 and 1876 St. Louis grew in physical size through annexation. But after The Great Divorce the boundaries of the City of St. Louis were locked into place. At the time they thought it would be many decades before development pushed up against the rural city limits. They were very wrong.

Had the divorce not happened, allowing St. Louis city to exist outside of St. Louis County, the city would’ve annexed small towns, villages, and unincorporated areas. Cites that could annex — did. This enabled them to grow physically and keep outward moving population within the tax base.

Without the ability to annex, it has suffered greatly. Population loss, topping crime rankings, etc. By extension, the region has also suffered greatly. For the region to attract investment, employers, etc we must take action. A unified city is the only answer.

By creating one big St. Louis we change the outside perception of St. Louis as a dying core city that lost most of its population and is among the most dangerous places. The new St. Louis, the size of the city & county, would become the 10th largest U.S. city, by land area — still smaller than OKC (8th) and Houston (9th).

Let that sink in. If we combined St. Louis city & county the total land area (588 square miles) would still be smaller than Houston and 8 other U.S. cities.  Total population would move us up as well.

It will cause problems too. There will be less elected officials, including minorities. However, I think having more investment, jobs, opportunities, etc is worth eliminating fiefdoms.

At this point I’ve only browsed Better Together’s 160 page report, but I’m disappointed by the fragmentation it would leave in place. Zoning & trash hauling, are two examples.

Here are the non-scientific results from the recent Sunday Poll:

Q: Which “merger” plan for St. Louis do you prefer?

1. Consolidate St. Louis City and all St. Louis County municipalities into one: 23 [53.49%]
2. Add St. Louis City back into St. Louis County, along with all the existing municipalities: 13 [30.23%]
3. Other: 4 [9.3%]
   1. Merge and include the schools the city schools need the funding.
   2. Require any “city” to have its own fire department, otherwise disincorporate.
   3. incremental cooperation
   4. merge city and 4 counties
4. Unsure: 2 [4.65%]
5. None, leave things exactly as they are: 1 [2.33%]

No doubt this topic will consume a lot of attention over the next year plus.  The Great Divorce was a huge mistake, with huge negative consequences — it’s going to take a huge solution. My gut feeling is it needs to be bigger than proposed.

— Steve Patterson