Readers Have Mixed Views on Texting While Driving

Some believe the distraction of conversation or texting is as bad or worse than having one hand off the steering wheel. Few of my weekly polls have been as evenly split as last week’s: Texting while driving is a current issue.

Pick the answer below that best describes your thoughts:

• Texting or talking while driving is equally dangerous. 27 (33%)
• The distraction of texting/talking is much worse than having a hand busy holding the phone. 26 (32%)
• Having one hand busy with the phone is worse than the distraction of talking. 24 (30%)
• Texting while driving is not a safety issue. 2 (2%)
• Unsure/no opinion. 2 (2%)

For the entire week the relationship between the answers remained the same.

– Steve Patterson

Finally Back Online (updated)

Originally posted 10/6/09 @ 6:14pm:

My 3rd-party server space has been experiencing issues since last Saturday.  It is back up now obviously.  The problems were completely beyond my control.  Hopefully the host company has the issues resolved.   To stay connected I suggest following the blog on Twitter at twitter.com/urbanreviewstl.  Don’t want to sign up for Twitter?  Just subscribe to the RSS Feed to get updates.    Your patience has been appreciated.

Update 10/8/09 -@ 5:20pm:

Server performance has clearly been spotty.  While I’m hopeful the issues at the host have been resolved I’m not holding my breath.

– Steve Patterson

Chicken or the Egg? Business or the home?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  People with too much time on their hands have laid out a detailed argument here. For this post I am more interested in a question similar in nature.  Which came first, the home or the business?

The reason I pose the query is because a recent news story on my favorite radio station once again mentioned “job centers” with regards to the NorthSide development.  From what I have heard and read, McKee and associates plan on concentrating on job centers to begin the massive project and work on residential in the future.   I do not understand why.  If their goal is truly to redevelop north city, I do not believe job centers are where to begin.  Residential is where they should start, because to answer my own question, I believe the home came first.

I base my view on what I have observed spending a lifetime in suburbia.  A look back at the history of the region sees that the homes almost always come before businesses.  North county grew in the post war years due to massive amounts of housing developments.  The businesses moved in after.  Just compare north Lindbergh between now and twenty years ago. The migration of the suburbanites to St Charles county preceded the explosion in retail.  To understand what I am talking about, try driving down Highway K, which was a two lane road fifteen years ago.  West County filled in with soccer moms and SUVs before Target and Best Buy decided they needed stores in a flood plain.

There is easy explanation for why businesses will always follow homes.  In the words of Mr. Gekko, “Greed is good.”  Businesses are for all intent and purposes greedy entities.  They are only open of the pursuit of money.  Otherwise they are called non-profits.  Stores want to be where the people are located so they can make as much money as possible.  Which is they Home Depot has a store on Highway K and not Cass ave.  Businesses do not need tax incentives to open in locations where there is significant money to be taken from consumers.  Entrepreneurs know that if they don’t open a store in prime locations, their competitors will.

A perfect example of my theory in work in an urban environment is downtown.  Union Station and St Louis Center are illustrations of business development of the past that failed to revitalize the area.  They lead to no growth in the city.  On the other hand, the Washington Loft district exemplifies how businesses move in once there is a critical residential mass.  Downtown even has a grocery store for the first time in decades.  (author’s note:  I know of the now defunct City Grocers.  Just rubbing some loft residents.)

This view of the world leads me to conclude that the starting point for the NorthSide needs to be massive residential development.  I am well aware that homes currently exist in the area.  Obviously these are not homes a majority of people want to live in.  If they were, they would have premium pricing, not rock bottom.  However, an immense fill-in of new family housing would be impossible for greedy businessmen to ignore.  Job/retail centers would be easy to develop without much government assistance when Trader Joe’s wants a store in the area.   Set those areas aside for future development when it is needed.

I assume that the residential development would be an urban style and walkable, but those details are moot.  What is important is the size.  Repeat the example set forth by the suburban subdivisions and build hundreds of homes at once in an urban setting.  View it as a giant planned community.  Few people want to be the first on the street staring at overgrown lots with a promise of more to come.  Seeing homes being built all around would ease some of those fears.  This would only help the existing residents as they see their home values rise.  (In my world it is done the right way, without taking peoples homes, but rather building around them.)  An example of this done on a small scale with success can be seen in the West End just north of Delmar on Enright and accompanying streets.  Now I don’t agree with some of the design choices that were made, but a group of new homes were built and sold for a premium price.  This demonstrates that there is some demand for new housing in the city.

I am aware that the planned job centers are intended to have mixed residential sprinkled in the plans.  However, from everything I have heard and read I get the feeling that the mixed use areas are not Paul’s prime concern at the outset.  Lets just ignore that city schools are currently a hindrance to any residential growth and concentrate on whether McKee should spend time building job centers or homes.

– Kevin McGuire

Texting/Talking on the Phone While Driving

Last week the issue of texting while driving got a high profile new policy:

Oct. 1  — President Barack Obama banned the nation’s almost 3 million federal employees from texting while driving as part of an effort to fight motorist distractions that may have caused 5,800 deaths last year.

Obama’s executive order tells workers not to text while driving federal vehicles, using government-supplied communications devices or in private vehicles on official business, the administration said in an executive order announced today.  (Source: Bloomberg.com)

Since I have good use of only my right hand I cannot drive & text — or even drive and talk on the phone.  I have, before, talked on the phone while driving. Currently I pull off the road to talk on the phone.  Texting or viewing maps on my phone is limited to when I’m not moving — at stop lights, for example.  To be honest, if I had full use of both hands I’d probably drive & talk at the same time.  But with both hands I’d still be driving a scooter, not a car.  Even on a scooter I’d talk on the phone, either holding the phone with one hand or wedging the phone under the helmet.

To me either talking on the phone or texting is  a safety issue because of distraction more so than having a hand busy. I’ve ridden with people who, while talking on the phone, change their driving habits.  They were into their conversation a bit too much.  Using a hands free device would not eliminate the danger from distraction.

The poll this week (upper right sidebar) asks your thoughts on the dangers of talking & texting while driving.

– Steve Patterson

A.G. Edwards to Wachovia Securities to Wells Fargo Advisors in Two Years, Blog Anniversary

Two years ago today A.G. Edwards became Wachovia Securities.  From the Post-Dispatch on the vote the Friday before:

In five minutes it was over.

That’s how long it took Friday for shareholders of A.G. Edwards Inc. to approve the demise of the 120-year-old St. Louis-based brokerage when they voted overwhelmingly in favor of a $6.8 billion purchase by Wachovia Corp.

The final shareholders’ meeting, before a standing-room only audience in the company’s main auditorium, was little more than a formality to announce the results of voting that took place earlier.

Just over a year later, in December 2008, Wells Fargo bought Wachovia.  It was not until May of this year that the Wachovia Securities name was dropped.  Post-Dispatch:

On Friday, the company officially changed the name of the unit from Wachovia Securities.

Wells Fargo bought ailing Wachovia Bank in December, and the securities unit came with the deal. It employs 4,800 people in metro St. Louis, mainly at its Jefferson Avenue headquarters.

The company plans to roll out its new moniker over the next few months. The website will be renamed in June, statements will change in July and the signs on the buildings will switch after that, with the transition completed early next year.

The headquarters on Jefferson now has survived two big mergers without large-scale layoffs. Originally the home of A.G. Edwards Inc., the firm was sold to Wachovia in 2007.

One of my earliest posts was a review of the then A.G. Edwards campus.

On November 22, 2004 I wrote:

We are stuck with a campus better suited to a greenfield site in the hinterlands. The employees drive in from the ‘burbs, park and return to the ‘burbs at 5pm. Of course, some of their employees live in the city but it is likely they drive to the campus. I saw no bike racks – not even at the visitor’s entrance. It is possible employees walk to Union Station or perhaps the Tap Room for lunch – both locations are about six blocks East. I’d be willing to bet most employees either stay within the campus or drive to a lunch destination. When I’ve got a free lunch hour I will observe the comings and goings of the campus during the lunch hours.

Rather than give A.G. Edwards awards we should be shaming them and their long term architects, Raymond E. Maritz & Sons, into changing their ways. This is unlikely to happen. Instead, city life will naturally avoid this vacuum. East of Jefferson a wonderfully urban area is blossoming along both Locust & Washington Ave – extending all the way East of Tucker. West of Jefferson life is quickly emerging along Locust. A small real estate developer on Locust has done more in two years to generate life than Edwards has done in over 30 years at the current location.

Today also marks the start of the 5th anniversary month of this blog.  Halloween will mark the start of the 6th year of UrbanReviewSTL.  Throughout this month I will bring you my favorite posts from the last five years. I’ve had a blast these last four years and eleven months.  I look forward to the next five years.

– Steve Patterson