Celebrating the New Year

Remember 10 years ago when everyone was worried about “Y2K“?  The new year starts later this week and as we go from 2009 to 2010 we don’t have the same concerns as when we went from 1999 to 2000.

Y2K had people stocking up on supplies and moving to rural parts to avoid the predicted chaos in cities:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFt8hMi32Jk

Oh the good ole days.  Y2K came and nothing much happened.   The last 10 years haven’t been the best, no doubt.

My poll this week asks where you’ll be celebrating as we start the new year.  Will you be at home, the home of others, out at an event or at a business? Perhaps in another city?  I’ve done all of those over the years.  This year I’ll go up to the roof to see the city skyline and watch the fireworks.

I had a great New Year’s celebration in Chicago as we started 2001 (I think).  The drive up from St. Louis was slow due to snow & ice.  I was driving  and seeing all the cars wrecked along the highway was a bit unnerving.  Once in Chicago my car was parked and we took the El and walked through lots of snow as we tried to find a place for dinner.  We didn’t have reservations but we ended up at a great little place.  As the new year came in we were at one of many neighborhood bars (gay) in Chicago.  I recall the fresh snow on New Year’s morning and the sound of the snow plow in the alley next to the Bed & Breakfast (map).  Residential streets in St. Louis don’t get plowed, much less alleys.

Speaking of getting plowed, no matter where you are, please party responsibly this week.

– Steve Patterson

Readers mixed on highway name, biggest group favors I-64 only

Last week’s poll asked what you thought we should call the rebuilt highway through St. Louis, officially known as I-64:

• I-64 only: 74 (45%)
• Highway 40 only: 42 (26%)
• Either Hwy 40 or I-64: 38 (23%)
• Unsure/no opinion: 9 (6% )

163 people voted and as you can see no answer received a majority vote.  The biggest group voted for the official name only, I-64.  But the second biggest group voted for the original name only, Highway 40. Not far behind are those who are fine with either name.

When I moved to St. Louis in 1990 I found the two names confusing.  I thought Highway 40 should be dropped in favor of I-64.  But now, nearly 20 years later I have changed my view.   Inner cities will always have limited-access/high-speed roads but interstates should have gone around cities rather than through them.

So, from my view, we shouldn’t celebrate I-64 cutting a swath through the center of the St. Louis region. We should downplay the interstate so outsiders just passing through the region take the highway loop around the region.  Keep the highway for local traffic.

– Steve Patterson

Consolidating school districts the answer?

Schools in the City of St. Louis, and in much of the region, need help to improve performance and perceptions.  On December 17th the state took action to help one such district:

The Missouri Board of Education today voted to merge the Wellston School District in St. Louis County with the larger nearby Normandy School District.

The Wellston District lost state accreditation in 2003. And despite recent improvements in graduation rates, state officials say the district has continued to struggle academically and financially.

The Wellston School District will officially cease operations after the current school year ends. (source: KWMU)

Some would argue more districts, like municipalities, need consolidation.  One reason:

In the 2006 issue of “Where We Stand” published by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, the St. Louis area ranked as number one for the highest number of independent school districts per 100,000 population when compared to 33 other metropolitan areas of similar size and characteristics. (source: Renewing the Region)

Others have argued districts should not be larger than a single high school.  I’d imagine there is a point where a district can be too small or too big.  The poll this week asks your opinion – should Missouri consolidate more school districts in the region? Vote in the upper right sidebar and share your views in the comments below.

– Steve Patterson

Readers: Christmas is a secular holiday

To some Christmas is about the birth of their savior, Jesus.  But in the reader poll last week the majority of those planning to celebrate Christmas this year indicated, for them, the holiday was more about family & friends than the birth of Jesus.  Christmas, it seems, has become a secular holiday.

This has always been the case for me.  As a kid we’d go out to visit the grandparents on Christmas Day.  My maternal grandparents, both Mennonite, were deeply religious.  We’d have a single present per person, a big meal (with a prayer at the start) and spend time together.  They never had a Christmas Tree as far back as I can remember.  Too flashy.  Some years we didn’t bother to put up a tree either.

The poll results show those who view Christmas as a religious holiday are in the minority.

Q: December 2009 I will celebrate:

1. Christmas (Dec 25th/Family/Friends) 75 (46%)
2. Christmas (birth of Jesus) 59 (36%)
3. Festivus for the rest of us 9 (6%)
4. Winter Solstice 6 (4%)
5. Hanukkah/Chanukah 5 (3%)
6. Other answer… 4 (2%)
7. No holiday 3 (2%)
8. Kwanzaa 1 (1%)
9. The Hajj 0 (0%)

Of the 162 responses, 134 (83%) indicated they’d celebrate Christmas. But of those 134 celebrating Christmas, 59 (44%) indicated it was about the birth of Jesus for them.  This is just 36% of the total.  Total unique visitors during the poll period was 2,7,91.

– Steve Patterson

Readers believe Post-Dispatch online editor Kurt Greenbaum should be fired

Kurt Greenbaum didn’t like the repeated anonymous comment from a reader on the website of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  He saw where the comment came from (a school) so he contacted them – a violation of a portion of their privacy policy:

We will not share individual user information with third parties unless the user has specifically approved the release of that information. In some cases, however, we may provide information to legal officials as described in “Compliance with Legal Process” below.

Compliance with Legal Process
We may disclose personal information if we or one of our affiliated companies is required by law to disclose personal information, or if we believe in good faith that such action is necessary to comply with a law or some legal process, to protect or defend our rights and property, to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our web sites or to protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public.

He claims the person that submitted the comment resigned his job when confronted by his employer.  The alternative of putting the school’s IP address on a blacklist was ruled out by Greenbaum because he says it would prevent others at the same location from commenting on the website.  The truth is it means any comment submitted would have just been held until approved by him or someone else.

He either doesn’t know what he is talking about or lied to get the public to side with him on the issue.  Either way it was enough for me to vote in last week’s poll that he should be fired.

Q: Recently Kurt Greenbaum took action that allegedly caused a person to resign their job. Greenbaum should:

• be fired 78 (54%)
• resign 37 (26%)
• keep doing his job 21 (14%)
• unsure 9 (6%)

Total votes was 145 out of 2,463 visitors during the week.

Putting information out for public consumption and moderating comments is not an easy job.  I’ve been doing it here for over five years now.  It takes a lot to earn the trust of readers and Greenbaum made that more difficult for online readers of the Post-Dispatch’s website, stltoday.com.   Traditional print media needs to do all it can to cultivate online readership as fewer and fewer get their news in printed form.

– Steve Patterson