Sunday Poll: Should St. Louis Police Continue To Be Required To Live In The City?

For the nearly 30 years I’ve lived in St. Louis all city employees must live within the city’s limits. This has included members of our police department.

This may change — for the police only.

“Right now, we have a clean bill,” Hicks said in a committee hearing on the proposal on Tuesday. “We have a good path through the House; we have a good path through the Senate right to the governor’s desk. He himself told me he’ll sign the bill if we can get it there the way it is written.”

Currently, St. Louis police officers must live inside city limits for at least seven years. This legislation would allow officers to live anywhere that is within a one-hour response time to their precinct.

Mayor Lyda Krewson and Police Chief John Hayden would like to see the requirements changed. They both believe this will help with retention and recruitment problems the city is experiencing. (St. Louis Public Radio)

Police residency is the subject of today’s poll.

This poll will close at 8pm tonight.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Was the Airport Privatization Process Ended Too Soon?

Last month St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said the effort to privatize St. Louis Lambert International Airport was over.

Krewson’s surprise decision followed almost three years of controversy over the possibility of farming out all operations of the airport, which is owned by the city, to private managers. Proponents said such a deal could pay the city hundreds of millions of dollars. Opponents said the city was selling out to private interests, and doing it behind closed doors.

Friday’s announcement brought quick accolades and criticism. Comptroller Darlene Green, a long-standing opponent of privatization, said the airport is well managed and the mayor did the right thing. (Post-Dispatch)

On Friday Lewis Reed, President of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, spoke up.

This is the subject of today’s poll:

This poll will close at 8pm tonight.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Should The Feds Allow Illinois & Other States Opt Out Of Changing Clocks Twice Per Year?

Daylight Saving Time will start again on Sunday March 8, 2020 — giving us an extra hour of daylight in the evenings. It’ll end on Sunday November 1, 2020. Nearly 8 months of the year, with the rest being standard time. Now Illinois is considering a major change from neighboring states like Missouri.

The idea of having Missouri and Illinois in different time zones is circulating after the Illinois Senate approved legislation earlier this year that would make daylight saving time the standard in Illinois.

Although the proposal still needs approval in the Illinois House, as well as the signature of the governor and an OK from the federal government, it has residents and business owners on both sides of the Mississippi River thinking how it might affect their lives. (Post-Dispatch)

The Illinois Senate passed bill 533 last month, it was introduced by state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill.

Originally enacted as an energy-saving measure during World War I, daylight saving time reached its 100-year anniversary in 2018. While initially reserved as a local decision, the practice became law nationwide when U.S. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966.

As such, states that approve proposals to end the clock change must first get approval from the federal government before they take effect, according to Manar. “The only two ways that it can change in Illinois, ultimately, even with this bill becoming law, is either Congress gives us an exemption as a state or Congress implements a uniform standard presumably different than what we have nationwide,” Manar said, according to the Illinois Radio Network. (Illinois Policy)

Today’s poll is about the federal government and states wishing to make changes to DST in their states.

This poll will close at 8pm tonight.
— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Will The City & County Population Increase or Decrease With The 2020 Census?

The new year will bring with it the decennial U.S. Census:

The U.S. census counts each resident of the country, where they live on April 1, every ten years ending in zero. The Constitution mandates the enumeration to determine how to apportion the House of Representatives among the states. (U.S. Census Bureau)

After the 2010 Census Missouri lost one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Today’s poll isn’t about Missouri, but the population of both the City of Saint Louis and St. Louis County.

This poll will automatically close at 8pm tonight. My thoughts and the non-scientific poll results on Wednesday morning.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Is ‘Die Hard’ A Christmas Movie?

There are many films out that are undisputed Christmas classics. Esquire recently published a list of the top 40 Christmas movies, here’s their top 10:

• 10. A Christmas Carol, 1951
• 9. The Muppets Christmas Carol, 1992
• 8. Bad Santa, 2003
• 7. Miracle on 34th St., 1947
• 6. Scrooged, 1988
• 5. Home Alone, 1990
• 4. White Christmas, 1954
• 3. A Christmas Story, 1983
• 2. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, 1989
• 1. It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946

Further down the list is Meet Me In St. Louis, at #16:

Vincente Minnelli’s 1944 musical is comprised of vignettes set during a variety of seasons, but none are as famous as the one featuring star (and Minnelli’s future wife) Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” (Esquire)

You can watch Garland sing this here.

Today’s poll is about the movie at #25 on their list — Die Hard, 1988. Here’s an intro to the plot:

On Christmas Eve, NYPD detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles, intending to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly, at the Christmas party of her employer, the Nakatomi Corporation. McClane is driven to the party by Argyle, a limousine driver. While McClane changes clothes, the party is disrupted by the arrival of a German terrorist, Hans Gruber, and his team: computer hacker Theo, Karl and Tony Vreski, Franco, Alexander, Marco, Kristoff, Eddie, Uli, Heinrich, Fritz, and James. The group seizes the tower and secures those inside as hostages except for McClane, who slips away, and Argyle, who gets stranded in the garage. (Wikipedia)

And this is the trailer:

I can’t think of a movie that has been debated more about being a Christmas movie or not.

This poll will close at 8pm tonight.

— Steve Patterson