Poll, Will Mayor Slay Get Charter Reform, Police Control, City into County During 3rd Term?

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, in his address after being sworn into office for a 3rd term, said, in part:

We can no longer afford to compete against each other. We must combine our resources and talents to figure out solutions to regional issues as complex as race relations, poverty, transportation, and creating jobs in new industries – and to regional tasks as simple as writing smoke-free laws, sharing public services, and building bike paths.

The world is changing at a dizzying pace, accelerated by a brutal economy. The City and our region will be very different four years from now. They can be better – but not by accident. We have to make it happen.

The City must reform its charter. The City, the inner suburbs, and outer suburbs must combine services. And, I strongly believe, that we must begin to lay the groundwork for the City of St. Louis to enter St. Louis County.

All of these changes — to help those struggling in this economy, to reorganize city and regional government, to find better educations for our children, to reinvest in our neighborhoods, to improve our quality of life, to create jobs in new industries, to engage young college graduates, to build contemporary infrastructure — will require that we talk to each other more often, more directly, and in different ways.

The past eight years have been an awakening—we have shown what we can accomplish if we dream great dreams and if we work together to make them reality. The next four years will see just how far we can really go.

So the poll for the coming weeks asks how much of Mayor Slay’s agenda will get accomplished by the end of his 3rd term which ends in April 2013.  He seeks 1) Charter reform in the city, 2) local control of the police deptment (has been goverened by the state since the Civil War) and 3) get the City of St. Louis back into St. Louis County.  So how many will he get done?  All three?  Two?  One?  Or nothing?  Take the poll in the upper right corner of the main page and then share your thoughts below.  For my post from the Mayors 3rd inaugural with the full text of his speech click here.

Poll, Where Was Your Car Assembled?

The world auto industry has taken a beating in the last 12 months.  Chrysler just entered bankruptcy.  Auto dealerships, auto suppliers and many others are hurting.  The “Buy American” sentiment can be heard from local dealer ads on the radio to the President. But what defines an American car these days?  Place of assembly?  Not entirely.

Cars.com each year publishes a list to help out car shoppers.  From their most recent 2008 report last July:

Ford and GM continue their reign in this summer’s American-Made Index, but two new automakers — Chrysler and Honda — have joined the list, raising the number of manufacturers on it to five. That’s the most carmakers the AMI has featured in the two years we’ve been compiling it.

How did those two make it? The Alabama-built Odyssey minivan led Honda’s charge thanks to its high domestic-parts content rating, which indicates the percentage of U.S. and Canadian parts, by cost, in a given vehicle. The 2008 Odyssey’s domestic content rating went up to 75 percent, compared to 70 percent for the ’07 model, which comprised a sizeable chunk of last year’s sales.

Chrysler, meanwhile, has had a tough time making the index because a number of its strongest sellers — the Dodge Ram pickup and Grand Caravan minivan, for example — are either assembled mostly in Canada or have comparatively low domestic-parts content ratings. That’s not the case this time: The Chrysler Sebring sedan and convertible, both built in Michigan, pushed a number of others out of the way to make it to ninth place on the list.

In Chrysler’s wake? Among a few models to drop off the list this time around was the Ford Escape, long an AMI staple; it’s domestic-parts content rating fell 25 percentage points (from 90 percent to 65 percent) when it was redesigned for 2008. Last winter, Ford spokesman Wes Sherwood couldn’t give a reason for the domestic content drop, but said Ford is “proud of the domestically produced parts that go into our vehicles … but there are changes from year to year.”

GM has always been a strong player, but that’s true for different reasons this time. The Kansas-built Chevy Malibu moved from an unremarkable 33rd ranking in year-to-date sales in December to 15th overall today, and its 85 percent domestic-parts content rating is as high as any vehicle we surveyed. It jumped to third place in the AMI, up from ninth. Making the opposite trip was the Silverado, whose sagging sales and increased production in Mexico and Canada knocked it down to eighth.

Other GMs, from the Chevrolet Cobalt to the Pontiac G6, generally held steady. So did Toyota’s two entrants, the Sienna minivan and Tundra pickup. Stagnant sales, meanwhile, pushed the aging Chevy TrailBlazer off the list.

For this particular index, Cars.com surveyed the country’s 58 best-selling models through May 31 of this year. Of the 30 trucks, vans and SUVs in that group, 23 are assembled in the U.S. (though not always exclusively; some models are assembled both in plants here and in other countries), but just half of the cars on the list — 14 of 28 — are built here.

“I’m not sure this is likely to change much, although with the general downsizing of more cars and trucks here, that may lead to globalization of more production. Ultimately the objective of any manufacturer is to maximize utilization of all production assets — that is, operate at 100 percent of capacity or more.”

Globalized production, of course, also means that a number of popular models already aren’t as homegrown as you might think. Take cars like the Ford Mustang, Chevy ImpalaChrysler 300: The Michigan-built Mustang has a disappointing 65 percent domestic-parts content rating, while the 300 and Impala are built in Canada. What’s more, America’s beloved retro hatchbacks, the Chevy HHR and soon-to-be-discontinued Chrysler PT Cruiser, are built in Mexico. The pint-sized Chevy Aveo is built in South Korea. and

Not that import automakers fare any better: Hyundai’s Alabama-built 2009 Sonata has just 43 percent domestic content, while the Ohio-built Honda CR-V comes in at just 10 percent. That portrait of urban frugality, the Toyota Prius? It’s imported from Japan — and so are suburbanite favorites like the Nissan Murano and Toyota RAV4.

Editor’s note: In today’s global economy, there’s no easy way to determine just how American a car is. Many cars built in the U.S., for example, are assembled using parts that come from somewhere else. Some cars assembled in the U.S. from strictly American-made parts don’t sell very well, meaning that fewer Americans are building those models. Cars.com’s American-Made Index highlights the cars that are built here, have the highest percentage of domestic parts, and are bought in the largest numbers by Americans.

There are a few options for determining a car’s domestic-parts content. We went with the figure that appears alongside the window sticker of new cars as a result of the American Automobile Labeling Act, enacted in 1994. The AALA mandates that virtually every new car display the percentage, by cost, of its parts that originated in the U.S. and Canada. We deemed cars with a domestic-parts content rating of 75 percent or higher eligible for the index.

So depending upon the model the foreign car might just be more American than the American car!  I looked at the window sticker on my 2004 Toyota Corolla but I didn’t see anything about the percentage of American or North American content.  It was assembled at a joint GM-Toyota assembly plant known as New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc or NUMMI for short  (official site, Wikipedia), located in Freemont California (map). My oldest brother’s office is less than a mile and a half from the plant.

Besides the Toyota Corolla, the plant makes the Toyota Tacoma pick-up and the Pontiac Vibe.  Is the Pontiac Vibe more American than the Toyota Corolla from the same plant?  Maybe, but that comes back to percentage of U.S. parts.  The Corolla is also made in Canada alongside Vibe’s twin, the Toyota Matrix.

So the poll this week about your car.  While it is hard to know the parts content it is easy to know in what country your car was assembled.  I want to know about your nameplate (American vs. foreign) and if your car was assembled in the U.S.  You may need to do some research.

For example, did you know the Pontiac G8 was assembled at a GM plant in Australia?  The Saturn Aura sedan is built in Kansas City while the Saturn Astra hatchback is built outside the U.S. and imported.  That American Buick LaCrosse was assembled in Canada.  That Ford Taurus is made in the Chicago area but the Crown Vic in Canada.  Dodge Challenger pony car?  Canada.  Chevy Camaro?  Canada.  Mitsubishi Eclipse?  Normal, Illinois.  Go figure.  M-class Mercedes-Benz SUV?  Germany?  Wrong,  Tuscaloosa, Alabama! The new Volvo XC60?  The Swedish company Volvo Cars is owned by American company Ford, but the XC60 is produced in Ghent Belgium.  Confused yet?

Numerous foreign nameplates operate manufacturing plants in the U.S., employing 55,000 workers (source)

If you are unsure about where your car was assembled look it up on Wikipedia.  The poll is located on the upper right corner of the main page.  Of course I’ve included an answer for those of you lucky enough to not own a car.

Poll, Which Social Media Do You Use Weekly?

There are thousands of social media networks in existence today.  Among them are Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.  The poll this week is simple, which of these do you use on a weekly basis? For example, I have a LinkedIn profile but I seldom use it.  Twitter & Facebook, on the other hand, are used daily.

The poll is in the upper right hand corner — check all that apply.  And be sure to follow UrbanReviewSTL on Twitter!

Poll; Local Politics on the Small Screen

The poll for this week is about your TV viewing habits.  Specifically, if you watch the St. Louis Board of Aldermen on the city’s channel 10 on cable, STL TV.

STL TV provides government related informational television programs to the residents of the City of St. Louis. The channel, which is available to basic cable subscribers, serves as a vital link in making local government more accessible to the community via cable television.

STL TV is operated 24-hours daily and has logged thousands of production hours in pursuit of its mission to inform, educate and promote City government operations.

For the past several years, STL TV has produced original programs tailored to inform and promote the City of St. Louis. Weekly coverage of the Board of Aldermen meetings (beginning in 1993), Mayoral Press Conferences, public events and other government-related programming has been a major function of STL TV since 1991.

Do you watch the weekly live broadcast of the Board of Aldermen?  Do you get TV10?  The poll is located in the upper right corner of the main page.

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Poll, What Does”Merge the City & County” Mean to You?

The City of St. Louis was located in St. Louis County until 1876.  St. Louis, not Clayton, was the county seat.  That year the city became its own City-County, or “independent city.”

Prior to 1877, St. Louis County encompassed the City of St. Louis plus all other areas within the county boundaries including such towns as Kirkwood and Florissant. During that time, the county seat was the City of St. Louis. Often called the “Great Divorce,” the split occurred after the citizens of St. Louis County (that included both city and county) voted on the question of whether the City of St. Louis should separate from the county and become an independent city.

The vote took place 22 Aug 1876, and the initial count indicated that the separation question had failed by just over 100 votes. Supporters of separation then brought charges, including fraud, and a recount was ordered. The recount took four months so it was late 1876 before it was determined that the vote for separation had passed.  (Source)

There have been numerous attempts since 1876 to reverse this vote.  All have failed.  This “independent city”  arrangement is part of the Missouri constitution so any change becomes a statewide issue.

Today you will still hear people say we need to “merge” the city & county.  OK, what does that mean?

The landscape is very different today than it was in the late 19th Century.  Does merge mean expand the county boundaries to include the city — making the City of St. Louis a city among the 90+ other municipalities in St. Louis County?  Would Clayton remain the county seat?  That is more rejoin than merge in my view.

Merge would be a bigger task of creating a consolidated government — eliminating most or all of the 90+ municipalities and having one big city-county governement.  If we went this route I think all would agree the resulting entity would be named St. Louis.  But where would the government body be located?  Like other regions that have actually done this, existing buildings throughout the region would be incorporated into the new government structure.

I don’t think for a moment either one will ever happen but it is interesting to ponder.  I’m not neccesarily an advocate of changing the city-county relationship.  I am interested in consolidating the 90+ cuonty municipalities down to less than 10.  Same for school districts, fire districts and such. The St. Louis region

This week’s poll tackles this subject.  So take the poll on the upper right of the main pageand add your thoughts below on how you’d like to see our local governments restructured or perhaps left as is.