ABOVE: "The SS Admiral on the St. Louis riverfront prior to its 1940 clearance for the Arch photo from the Library of Congress archives" Source: Vanishing STL on Flickr
By a huge margin the readers who voted in the poll last week want to see the SS Admiral remain on the St. Louis Riverfront:
Q: The SS Admiral’s days on the river may be numbered with the closing of the casino next month. Which best describes your view?
The Admiral is a key part of the riverfront, I’d like to see it retained somehow. 79 [62.2%]
The Admirals’ day is past, it should be removed from the riverfront. 36 [28.35%]
Unsure/no opinion. 6 [4.72%]
Other answer… 6 [4.72%]
Clearly though a large group is ready to let it go. The following were the six “other” answers:
I’d like to see it retained as, say, a museum for St. Louis’ riverboat
It’s not “key” to the riverfront – but it seems like an opportuni
glad to see a casino go but would like the iconic boat to stay
It’s structure is in poor condition and should be removed for safety reason
Dry-dock it somewhere in the city as a restaurant/entertainment complex
Turn it into a floating hotel, restaurant or possibly a floating movie theater.
I personally would like to see the boat remain. I’ve never stepped foot onto the boat so I have no sentimental attachment to the former riverboat turned fixed casino. It has always brought a smile to my face. Now hidden behind casino entrance, the design brings a smile to my face. But how do we save it?
ABOVE: demo of St. Louis Centre pedestrian bridge nearly complete
When St. Louis Centre opened in 1985 it was a success, albeit briefly. But even then the 4-level pedestrian bridge over Washington St between 6th and 7th was been considered an eyesore – downtown’s biggest in fact. But the pedestrian bridge is nearly gone and soon it’s twin over Locust St will also be gone. So that begs the question, what takes on the role of downtown’s biggest eyesore?
I’ve listed some you might consider to be eyesores in the poll on the right. These include a few of my top eyesores such as the I-70 depressed lanes by the Arch, the elevated lanes that will soon be more visible, US Bank’s 1975 parking garage and so on. This week I’ve given you the option to select one or two answers.
When I started blogging over 5 and a half years ago my goal was very simple: focus on something other than my dad who’d spent the month of October 2004 in the hospital after a heart attack. At the time I had no lofty goal about what UrbanRviewSTL.com would be become.
The ongoing conversation of urbanism and historic preservation of St. Louis architecture and its city form is largely fueled by buzzing blogs and their readership. With so much work to be done toward the revitalization of our city, we ask how web-based advocacy of the betterment our built environment plays a meaningful role in that revitalization with the following panel
ALEX IHNEN – blogger, URBANSTL.COM
MATTHEW MOURNING – blogger, STLDOTAGE
STEVE PATTERSON – blogger, URABANREVIEWSTL
Following forty five minutes of panel discussion we will open the floor to audience questions.
The following is some of what I hope to present during the panel. This is basics for web-based advocacy.
Digital strategy:
The blog serves as the centerpiece of your communications. You may think you can do just a basic website or Facebook page. You could do that, but the reach of your message will be considerably shorter. Start with a blog as the base, adding other pieces later.
A blog is a website but the structure is better than a static website that was used in the late 20th century. Blog differ from static websites in that they present information in reverse chronological order. All information remains in the database and can be found when searching. Blogs can include static pages — either as the first page or as additional pages as my blog does.
Your blog/site should have it’s own domain (idea.com) , not a subdomain (idea.blogspot.com, etc). Having your own domain costs very little ($10-$12/year) and looks more professional and is easier to communicate the URL to others. From day one I’ve used UrbanReviewSTL.com even though my blog has been hosted in three different places using three different software platforms.
The feed from the blog will be used to get your message out to the masses. Set your feed to display your entire post, not just an excerpt. This allows people to subscribe to your feed and read your message in their reader of choice. If you provide only an excerpt some will go to your site to read the full post but most will not. Decide which is more important — your message or page views.
If you are an individual with things to say consider trying to be a guest/contributor on established blogs. I’m always looking for people with a passion for writing about the built environment.
If your group wants to get noticed you will want your own site.
In addition to the blog + RSS you also need a presence on both Facebook and Twitter. Don’t pick just one or other, you need to be on both. Software makes it easy for your blog posts to post to both of these. This provides more ways for people to find, read and enjoy your message. Saying, “I’ll just do Facebook but not Twitter” (or vice versa) is saying “I want to limit who gets my message.” Set up both! There are many other social networks where you might want to be but these two are a must. On Facebook you will want a page, not a personal profile. On Twitter be sure to unlock your account so anyone is free to follow you. Never ever talk about the number of Facebook Fans or Twitter followers you have or ask for more.
I decided a few months ago to share another passion of mine — food. In doing so I applied the ideas above to this new effort. Here is a list of what I have:
I then registered BudgetVegFoodie.com so the URL matches the Twitter & Facebook, this URL redirects to the longer name where the site is hosted.
In retrospect I should have started at Twitter to see what names were available and what would fit.
The blog has an RSS feed and the feed includes the entire post.  Thus, someone could read every post I do without ever visiting the site other than to get the feed URL. Many news sites only give you an excerpt because they want you to be so into the post that you visit their site to read the rest. Very annoying!
Comments are another area that must be considered. If you are a business doing posts about your goods or services you do not want comments. If you want to spark discussion about an issue you are advocating, you will need to have comments. Here are some rules:
Make it easy to comment — don’t force someone to have an account with Blogger, Facebook or other service just to add a comment.
Don’t hold comments up for moderation, this significantly reduces the level of conversation.
Allow people to disagree with your opinion.
Not all blog software is equal. I use WordPress and it’s tools for weeding out spam are among the best.
I hope you can make it tonight, it should be an interesting conversation with differing perspectives on the role of blogging in urban advocacy.
June 2, 2010Politics/Policy, Sunday PollComments Off on Readers on resignation of Todd Epsten from the St. Louis Police Board
The poll last week apparently didn’t interest many of you:
Q: St. Louis Police board member Todd Epsten resigned on 5/19/10, well before the end of his appointment. Thoughts? (pick up to 3)
More proof why the state of Missouri should NOT control our police board. 40 [35.71%]
Unsure/don’t care 16 [14.29%]
Mayor Slay was right to back Epsten for board president 13 [11.61%]
Todd Epsten’s abrupt resignation was childish, good riddance 11 [9.82%]
Mayor Slay is a closet Republican which is why he voted for Epsten, who was appointed by a Republican Gov. 11 [9.82%]
Todd Epsten shouldn’t have resigned his appointment to the board 9 [8.04%]
More proof why the state of Missouri should keep control of our police board. 9 [8.04%]
Other answer… 3 [2.68%]
The three other answers were:
at what point to we give up fighting the losing political battle?
Don’t know enough to vote
don’t know enough to make an informed decision
The answer with the most votes shows that political fights between board members appointed by governors of different political parties is another reason to support local control of the St. Louis Police.
Last week the state controlled St. Louis police board had a leadership change:
Todd Epsten, the last Board of Police Commissioners member appointed by Governor Matt Blunt, abruptly resigned on Wednesday after he was ousted as president by a Nixon appointee, Bettye Battle-Turner.Epsten said later he believed the board’s three other appointed members acted at Nixon’s request. Nixon appointed all three, and all came on within the last 15 months.
Nixon denied personally asking his appointees to select a new president, but said he would not be surprised if his senior staff had not talked to those three members.
“I thought it moved more quickly than I perhaps thought it would, but I think it got to where it was going to get, and now my focus is on making sure that we get a quality appointment to fill out the board,” Nixon said. It will be his fourth; the board’s fifth member is fellow Democrat Francis Slay, the St. Louis mayor. Slay supported Epsten in Wednesday’s vote.
The three remaining appointed members, Nixon said, share his philosophy that day-to-day operations of the department should be left to chief Dan Isom. He would not directly answer if he thought Epsten micromanaged.
“I mean we’ve all seen stories over the many years of the police board,” he said. “Obviously I’ve been in law enforcement and elective office for many years. I just think my philosophy has been that this is a board that should provide guidance, should provide support.” (Source: St. Louis Public Radio)
The poll this week asks for your thoughts on this matter. Do you even care? Will it matter on the street? Was Epsten micromanaging as Gov Nixon says?
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