Sunday Poll: Which Merger Plan (if any) Do You Prefer?

The 2020 election cycle has started. I’m not talking about presidential race either, I’m talking about competing efforts to determine how — if at all — the St. Louis region is organized.

Local mayors and elected officials made official Thursday night their effort to stop any forced consolidation of municipal governments in St. Louis County by a statewide vote and to keep any decisions about the shape of government in local residents’ hands.

The voice vote came without dissent at a meeting of the Municipal League of Metro St. Louis at Chesterfield City Hall. (Post-Dispatch)

This is to counter a statewide vote on a plan backed by a nonprofit called Better Together. See St. Louis city and county: Divorced in 1876. Remarried in 2020?

This is the basis for today’s non-scientific poll:

This poll will close at 8pm, any efforts to swing the poll outcome will result in early closure.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Should Leaders Prioritize St. Louis’ Central Corridor?

The City of St. Louis stretches a long distance from the Northern-most tip to the Southern-most tip, following the curve of the Mississippi River.

St. Louis radiated out in all directions from its starting point on the riverfront, but the most coherent and focust development happened along a spine running due west from downtown.

Starting with Market Street, then changing over to Olive and then Lindell, a loose axis developed over the course of the 1800s. Along this axis would rise many city landmarks – its two most prestigious universities, its entertainment district, its most fashionable neighborhood, and its largest park. A second skyline developed in Midtown. The axis is symbolically capped by Washington University’s Brookings Hall, which visually terminates Lindell just beyond city limits. (Built St. Louis)

This pattern continued into St. Louis County, from Clayton to Chesterfield.

Today’s non-scientific poll applies to both St. Louis city & county.

This poll will automatically close at 8pm tonight. Wednesday I’ll share my thoughts and the results.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: How Did The Road Crews Do?

If you’re in the St. Louis region, you got snow.

St. Louis, which caught the brunt of the storm so far, recorded 10.1 inches, forcing the closure of sections of Interstates 44, 64 and 70 around the city. More than 11,000 customers were without power in Missouri as the heavy snow snapped branches and downed power lines.

Parts of central Missouri, around Harrisburg, reported up to 17 inches of snow.

Columbia, Missouri, was buried under 13 inches of snow, more than doubling a 109-year-old record for snowfall with more expected Saturday. (USA Today)

Here are some headlines before & during the storm:

• MoDot prepares for weekend winter conditions, urges motorists to be safe on roads
• Live updates: 4 killed amid largest snowstorm in St. Louis since 2014, major travel disruptions across central US
• MoDOT: Don’t travel unless it’s necessary
• Massive winter storm dumps heavy snow, tying up traffic for hours

Today’s non-scientific poll asks your impression of conditions outside during/following the storm.

Today’s poll will close at 8pm.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Border Wall Worth a Partial Government Shutdown?

As you likely know, the federal government has partially shut down because of a disagreement over $5 billion in funding to build a border wall.

The partial shutdown of the federal government that began just after midnight Saturday won’t be ending anytime soon. The Senate has adjourned with no business in the chamber anticipated before Thursday afternoon and, maybe not even then, if congressional leaders and President Trump can’t reach an agreement over the president’s demand for $5 billion in funding for his border wall.

The House and Senate convened at noon Saturday, but no votes were scheduled and many lawmakers have already left town. House GOP leaders have advised lawmakers that they will be given 24 hours’ notice of any planned vote. (NPR)

With the long holiday weekend most of us haven’t noticed…unless we tried to visit the Arch or Old Courthouse:

The Arch, museum and Old Courthouse are all closed indefinitely during the shutdown as part of the National Park Service. The partial shutdown affects nine of the 15 Cabinet-level departments, including Interior, which runs national parks, and Agriculture, which runs national forests. About 16,000 National Park Service employees — 80 percent of the agency’s workforce — are being furloughed.

Congress held a Saturday session in a failed attempt to find a compromise in the battle over President Donald Trump’s request for $5 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The government agencies will remain closed until at least Thursday, officials said. (Post-Dispatch)

The partial shutdown is the subject of today’s non-scientific poll:

Today’s poll, like usual, will close automatically at 8pm tonight. Any effort to flood the site with voters will only result in increased revenue from ads displayed.

I’ll share my thoughts on Wednesday.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Think An Earthquake Will Strike St. Louis During Your Lifetime?

Last week two earthquakes, 4.4 & 3.3, hit Eastern Tennessee (source).  You’re probably wondering when Eastern Tennessee has to do with St. Louis Missouri, right? Nothing, directly.  It seems they’re in a dangerous fault zone.

The only other regions east of the Rockies with that much hazard potential are in the South Carolina Seismic Zone (limited to South Carolina’s central coastal area) and the New Madrid Seismic Zone (which includes much of West Tennessee as well as smaller areas of Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Illinois). (Knoxville News Sentinel)

Oh right, so are we.  Yeah, but were’s not California, Washington, or Alaska.

In contrast to California, however, the consequences here could be more far-reaching because faults in the Mississippi Valley are buried under sedimentary deposits up to a mile deep. These conditions allow seismic waves to travel as much as 20 times farther than they do in California. As a result, a moderate New Madrid quake would shake a seven-state region — Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Indiana — like a bowl of jelly. (Riverfront Times)

Our neighbors in Louisville KY are taking notice:

In 2008, the U.S. government announced that an earthquake on the New Madrid Seismic Zone could cause “widespread and catastrophic” damage in the area and “the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States,” according to Reuters.

“The big thing we prepare for is with New Madrid,” Bobel said. “Depending on the significance of an earthquake, Memphis, Tennesee, would be gone, St. Louis would be wrecked.” (Louisville Courier-Journal)

Of course, nearly every article mentions the big earthquakes that happened over two centuries ago:

The 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes were an intense intraplate earthquake series beginning with an initial earthquake of moment magnitude 7.5–7.9 on December 16, 1811, followed by a moment magnitude 7.4 aftershock on the same day. They remain the most powerful earthquakes to hit the contiguous United States east of the Rocky Mountains in recorded history. They, as well as the seismic zone of their occurrence, were named for the Mississippi River town of New Madrid, then part of the Louisiana Territory, now within the US state of Missouri. (Wikipedia)

While none of us can accurately predict when, or if, an earthquake will occur I thought this would be a timely topic for a non-scientific Sunday Poll:

There’s no right or wrong answer to today’s poll.  As usual, this poll will close at 8pm tonight.

— Steve Patterson