Sunday Poll: Rate The New Mississippi River Bridge

Years in the making, one year ago today Illinois & Missouri cut the ribbon on a new bridge over the Mississippi River at downtown St. Louis, officially named the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge.  The name, like everything about the project, is a compromise between interests in each state.

For budget reasons the bridge has fewer lanes than originally desired, in downtown it feeds into Tucker rather than a West bypass loop. Now that a year has past I’d like you to rate the overall bridge project. How did Illinois & Missouri do?

The exact question is: Rate the new Mississippi River Bridge (aka The Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge) based on your overall impression.

The 1-5 rating scale will be presented in random order, the poll is in the right sidebar on the desktop layout. The Sunday Poll closes at 8pm — 12 hours from now.  Note: your feelings for the late Stan Musial shouldn’t be a factor in your rating of this major infrastructure project.

— Steve Patterson

Readers: Children Should Be Required To Be Vaccinated

As a child of the  60s (barely) and 70s I received all the normal vaccines available at that time, so the news that some parents today don’t get their kids vaccinated came as a shock. The measles has returned to the US as a result:

Scientifically, there is no debate. The measles vaccine is effective. Most of those who contract measles, unsurprisingly, are those who are unvaccinated. 

But a conversation about the current measles outbreak brings up other ideas — on personal and religious freedoms, skepticism of scientific findings, reach of government regulations — that are inherently political. And here is where the arguments arise. (CNN – Measles outbreak: How bad is it?)

Kids too young or too sick to receive the vaccine are placed at risk by healthy but unvaccinated kids.  Here are the results from the Sunday Poll:

Q: When it comes to childhood diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough, should all children be required to get vaccinations?

1. Democrat: require vaccines 18 [51.43%]
2. Independent: require vaccines 10 [28.57%]
3. Republican: require vaccines 4 [11.43%]
4. Independent: allow opt-out 2 [5.71%]
5. Democrat: allow opt-out 1 [2.86%]
6. Tie: 0 [0%]
   1. Republican: allow opt-out
   2. Democrat: don’t know/decline to answer
   3. Republican: don’t know/decline to answer
   4. Independent: don’t know/decline to answer

Over 91% —  across the political spectrum — agreed with requiring vaccines. This is different than a recent national poll where only 60% supported requiring, with 37% for opt-outs.   Nationally Democrats favored requiring vaccines at a higher rate (65%) than Republicans (58%) and Independents (48%).  Not enough votes here to draw any conclusions other than Democrats make up over half the readership.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Should All Children Be Required To Get Vaccinations Against Diseases Like Measles, Mumps, Whopping Cough?

Measles, once largely eradicated in the US, is back:

Ninety-four people have now been infected with measles across eight states; 67 of those cases are linked to the Disneyland park.

“We don’t know exactly how this outbreak started but we do think it was likely a person infected with measles overseas,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Schuchat says the reason for the outbreak is because people are failing to get vaccinated. (Time)

This recent outbreak has intensified the debate on vaccinations, making it a great topic for today’s poll.  Here’s the exact poll question:

When it comes to childhood diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough, should all children be required to get vaccinations?

I’m trying something different today, for each of the three answers I’m asking you to select one based on your political view (Democrat, Independent, Republican) — this will permit comparison to a national poll.  The Sunday poll is at the top of the right sidebar, is open until 8pm.

On an unrelated health note, it was seven years ago today that I had a massive hemorrhagic stroke, the statistics aren’t pretty:

• Stroke is the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease (with which it is closely linked) and cancer.
• Stroke affects more than 700,000 individuals annually in the United States (approximately one person every 45 seconds). About 500,000 of these are first attacks, and 200,000 are recurrent attacks.
• Someone in the U.S. dies every 3.3 minutes from stroke
• Stroke is the leading cause of disability among adults in the U.S.
• While subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) represents only about 7 percent of all strokes, it is the most deadly — with more than a 50 percent fatality rate. Of the survivors, approximately half will suffer permanent disability.

I was very fortunate, enjoy today’s game!

— Steve Patterson

Readers View On Area Race Relations Different From Two Years Ago

No surprise, but two years ago readers were more optimistic about race relations than now:

January 2013: The State Of Race Relations In St. Louis Are…

1. Improving Slowly 62 [38.51%]
2. Holding Steady 35 [21.74%]
3. Declining Slowly 29 [18.01%]
4. Declining Rapidly 18 [11.18%]
5. Unsure/No Answer 13 [8.07%]
6. Improving Rapidly 4 [2.48%]

January 2015: The State Of Race Relations In [the] St. Louis Region Are…

1. Tie  8 [25%]
   1. Holding Steady
   2. Declining Slowly
2. Declining Rapidly 7 [21.88%]
3. Improving Slowly 6 [18.75%]
4. Unsure/No Answer 2 [6.25%]
5. Improving Rapidly 1 [3.13%]

Note that two years ago polls were open for 7 days, now the polls are only open for 12 hours — that’s what the vote count is lower now.  Of course, these polls aren’t scientific.

I actually think things are improving now — because of the events in 2014. Let me explain, I think many more white folks, like myself, now have a much greater awareness of the problems faced by blacks, browns, & tans. There’s more dialog now about problems and solutions. Awareness…

The percentage of Americans naming “race relations” or “racism” as the most important problem in the U.S. has climbed dramatically to 13%, the highest figure Gallup has recorded since a finding of 15% in 1992, in the midst of the Rodney King verdict. In November, race relations/racism was cited by 1% of the public as the most important problem. (Gallup)

Hopefully today’s youth/Millennials will continue to keep these problems in the spotlight so they’ll get addressed rather than swept under the rug.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: The State Of Race Relations In The St. Louis Region Are…

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr. Day — much has happened in St. Louis since this time last year. The poll today is simple: rate the state of race relations in our region: improving, declining, steady?

The poll is, as always, at the top of the right sidebar. Mobile viewers will need to switch to the desktop layout at the bottom to vote in the poll.

— Steve Patterson