Poll, Street Vendors in St. Louis

One of the great things I love about dynamic cities is the diversity of choice when it comes to dining. These cities have a range from affordable street food to cloth napkin fine dining.   Here in St. Louis we’ve got the latter nailed but we are lacking on the former.  Street food, in my view, is a prerequisite for achieving the 24/7 downtown our leaders speak about.

Last year around this time I wrote on the same subject.  My intro was:

Bustling sidewalks and numerous food vendors are hallmarks of great urban streets. Food vendors sell everything from hot dogs, pretzels, nuts, ice cream, water/soda, kabobs and all sorts of other street food. In St. Louis our laws severely limit food & other street vendors leaving our sidewalks less than lively than they could or should be.

Downtown St. Louis has a limit of 10 vendor permits.  Outside of downtown there are only a couple of spots where vending can legally take place.

This week’s poll (upper right of main page) is about street vendors.

So take the poll and use the comments below to share your thoughts on the subject.

Street vendors come in all shapes and sizes.  Some form of regulation is certainly necessary but I feel we’ve gone too far by limiting the number of permits to 10 for the central business district.  I’ve never seen all 10 out at the same time.

If you agree that downtown and other parts of the city could benefit an increase in the number of street vendors, please take a moment and contact 7th Ward Alderman Phyllis Young.  Politely ask her to introduce legislation before the Board of Aldermen to allow more street vendors so that we can begin to activate our sidewalks.

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Poll; How Long Is Your Commute to Work?

For nearly five years now I’ve worked from home.  My commute is as long as it takes me to walk from bed to my computer, 20 feet away.

Granted, I do have to stop by the real estate brokkerage on South Kingshighway as well as meet buyers at properties and planning clients at their offices.  But for the most part my daily commute is measured in seconds, not minutes or hours.

I’m the exception, not the rule.  Most of travel further than your bedside computer.  Take the poll on the upper right corner of the main page to share your commute time & mode.Use the comments below to share your thoughts on commuting.

Weekly Poll; How Much Do You Mail?

This week’s poll is about the use of the U.S. Mail.  We all receive mail but my question is how how much you send out.  Take the poll in the upper right hand corner of the main page.

The post office ended its first quarter — October 1 through December 31 — with a net loss of $384 million caused by a drop in mail volume of 5.2 billion pieces. The 9.3 percent drop was the eighth consecutive quarter of volume declines, the agency said. (Source: CNN)

In a typical year I stamp and mail fewer than 10 items.  Where possible I try to receive mail electronically.  Payments are done online.  I’m going to try to get my condo association to have a paper recycling bin near our mailboxes to make it easier to pitch junk mail.

To save costs one option is reducing delivery from six days a week to five.  The postal service needs Congress to authorize that change.

Poll, Population Goal for St. Louis in 2050

The population of the City of St. Louis is currently less than any point in the 20th century.  Our population is what it was way back in the 1880s.

Our population decline was as spectacular as the climb.  Both were the result of a number of factors.  My poll this week, visible in the upper right corner of the main page, is asking what St. Louis’ target population should be by 2050.

“The U.S. has nearly 305 million people today, and is projected to reach 400 million by 2039 and 439 million in 2050.” [Wikipedia]  With the U.S. population expected to rise substantially in the next 40 years, mostly in larger regions, what might we expect for the City of St. Louis and the St. Louis region?

I think St. Louis should work to keep pace with the overall growth in our national population.  That would put us at 508,000, roughly, by 2050.    Such an increase isn’t going to happen overnight and it won’t happen if the regional population doesn’t increase as well.

Greater St. Louis has a population of 2.8 million.  If our region were to grow at the projected national rate we’d have just over 4 million by 2050.  Of course some regions will grow more while others will grow less. If the city and region do not grow at all that would be shocking and very telling of major issues.

I think at both the core and regional level we can take actions today to ensure things are rosey by 2050.  A strong urban, walkable, transit-cvonnected core is important to the future health of the entire region.  Our actions could have the reverse impact — causing us to miss a great opportunity to fill in our core (city + inner suburbs).

So thae the poll and share your thoughts below.

Poll, Should St. Louis’ Municipal Elections Go Non-Partisan?

St. Louis likes to pretend like we have multiple active political parties.  We don’t.  This year the Green party has a Mayoral primary but that is it.  For decades now the real election has been the Democratic primary with the general election a month later simply being a formality — an expensive formality.

We have no good reason to continue to have partisan primary elections followed by a general.  None.  It costs taxpayers additional money and requires two trips to the polls when one would suffice.

In the 23rd Ward we have seven candidates in the Democratic primary.  Reading their answers to my questionnaire you can tell that not all are Democrats.  But to win an election in this city, it is said, you must run as a Democrat. When I ran four years ago I remember talking to an older man going in to vote.  “I’m voting for the Democrat, ” he said.  It was the primary and both candidates were Democrats. There was no Republican, Green or Libertarian ballot as an option.

Please vote in the poll in the upper right corner of the home page and share your comments below.