Last week readers selected their favorite two institutions in the Zoo-Museum District (original post) .
Missouri Botanical Garden, June 2011St. Louis Zoo
Here are the results:
Q: Which TWO (2) institutions in the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District are your favorites?
Missouri Botanical Garden 98 [31.61%]
Saint Louis Zoological Park 94 [30.32%]
Saint Louis Art Museum 77 [24.84%]
Missouri History Museum 22 [7.1%]
Saint Louis Science Center 18 [5.81%]
Unsure/No Answer 1 [0.32%]
The botanical gardens are my favorite, but I’ve spent a lot of time at events at the history museum. I haven’t been to the zoo in 20 years, but I’ll go again this year.
Most likely you’ve seen recent TV commercials talking about utility surcharges and regulations. These are sponsored by groups on opposite sides of Missouri Senate Bill 207 (link):
SCS/SB 207 – Currently, gas corporations may file a petition with the Public Service Commission for rate adjustments to recover costs incurred for infrastructure replacement projects. This act allows electrical corporations to follow a similar process to recover costs for infrastructure replacement projects. The types of costs that can be recovered include certain work on electric plants, certain capital projects undertaken to comply with environmental or safety regulations, and costs of facilities relocation due to public works projects.
This act details the process that an electric corporation and the Public Service Commission must follow in reviewing applications for infrastructure system replacement surcharges. If surcharges are approved by the Public Service Commission, this act requires electric corporations to submit to the Commission a reconciliation noting the differences between infrastructure system replacement revenues and appropriate pretax revenues. Additionally, this act modifies the amount of revenues that may be produced from an infrastructure system replacement from no less than one million dollars or half of 1% of the corporation’s base revenue and no more than 10% of the corporation’s base revenue. While the electric corporation is collecting an infrastructure system replacement surcharge, they may only adjust the rate two times every twelve months. If an electric corporation files a petition or change to an infrastructure system replacement surcharge, it shall not be considered an increase in the electric corporation’s base rate.
In other words:
The measure would let Missouri’s three investor-owned electric companies — Ameren Missouri, KCP&L and Empire District Electric — put the cost of replacing infrastructure on customer’s bills without first needing to get approval from the Public Service Commission. (St. Louis Business Journal)
Supportive viewpoint:
Under current law utility companies have to go through the Public Service Commission to increase rates to pay for infrastructure and other additional expenses. This process can take months. They said this bill fixes that regulatory lag and allows utility companies to invest faster while interest rates are low. Supporters said this will give the companies better credit ratings, which could make utilities cheaper in the long run and make infrastructure projects more attractive to investors. (KMOX)
Opposition viewpoint:
The Fair Energy Rate Action Fund, an opponent of the legislation, said the changes are not near enough to protect consumers. Executive Director Chris Roepe said the proposed expiration date is lengthy, the cap still would allow for significant costs and proving a case to get the refund would be difficult.
“It’s still a really terrible bill for Missouri businesses and families,” Roepe said. (Southeast Missourian)
The poll this week seeks to find out how readers feel about this issue. The poll is on the right sidebar, mobile users need to switch to the desktop layout to vote in the poll.
The poll this week is pretty straightforward — pick your two (2) favorite institutions in the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District. Here are the five institutions, as listed on the ZMD website:
Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum is rated as one of the principal art museums in the United States and is visited by up to a half million persons every year. Click here for website
Saint Louis Zoological Park The Saint Louis Zoological Park is recognized as a leading zoo in animal management, research, conservation, and education. Admission is free, although there are fees for some activities. Click here for website
Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the oldest botanical institutions in the United States and a National Historic Landmark. Click here for website
Saint Louis Science Center The St. Louis Science Center is among the largest of its type and, like all science centers, is intended to be a place of informal science education for all ages. Click here for website
Missouri History Museum The Missouri Historical Society was established in 1866 to rescue “from oblivion the early history of the city and the state.” The Missouri History Museum houses a variety of exhibits and educational resources. Click here for website
Please vote in the poll located in the right sidebar, picking two of the provided answers. New poll 8am Sunday March 31st, results presented on Wednesday, April 3rd.
Plans were presented to the public last week to built a 7-mile modern streetcar line in St. Louis that would:
Circulate in the downtown central business district.
Head west on Olive/Lindell past Midtown to the Central West End.
A north-south segment would connect at 14th Street & Olive, initially going north Florissant Rd to St. Louis Ave. and south to the Civic Center MetroBus Center/MetroLink light rail.
Open in 2016/17.
Artist rendering of streetcar in downtown St. Louis
Metro is part of the planning process and this would become part of our transit system. But I know some of you still question the effectiveness of the streetcar over the bus. To be fair, here is a skeptical view that I happen to agree with.
Streetcars that replace bus lines are not a mobility improvement. If you replace a bus with a streetcar on the same route, and make no other improvements, nobody will be able to get anywhere any faster than they could before. This makes streetcars quite different from most of the other transit investments being discussed today.
Where a streetcar is faster or more reliable than the bus route it replaced, this is because other improvements were made at the same time — improvements that could just as well have been made for the bus route. These improvements may have been politically packaged as part of the streetcar project, but they were logically independent, so their benefits are not really benefits of the streetcar as compared to the bus. (source – highly recommended)
He’s right that streetscape improvements are just as important as the mode of transit, but funding realities mean a complete makeover of 7 miles for a bus isn’t very likely. Even if it was, a streetcar is a better choice for other reasons:
Streetcar vs. Bus
Buses are excellent local and regional public transportation options, but they will do little to spur redevelopment and economic investment in Downtown LA. This is due to the inherent flexibility of bus service, as routes change regularly to accommodate varying needs; in addition, buses contribute to nerve-racking pedestrian experiences due to heavy street-level emissions and noise pollution that discourages active use of sidewalks. Streetcars do the exact opposite. They provide developers and business owners certainty that the routes will not change, and are considered preferable to buses by residents, visitors, and employees as they offer more amenities, highly reliable routes and timetables, and enhanced urban experiences.
Buses and streetcars do, however, work together to connect access points within regional transportation networks. For example, sidewalks can be designed to specifically accommodate both vehicle configurations; in return, a transit stop effectively doubles its value within a regional transportation network. (LA Streetcar)
And…
While it’s true that streetcars require a much larger initial capital investment than buses, that capital cost is offset by significant operational savings year to year. In the long term, streetcars are more affordable as long as they are used on high ridership routes.
Streetcars have higher passenger capacity than buses (even bendy ones), which means that if there are lots of riders on your route, you can move them with fewer vehicles. Fewer vehicles means more efficient use of fuel and fewer (unionized, pensioned) drivers to pay.
Streetcar vehicles themselves are much more sturdy than buses, and last many decades longer. While buses must generally be retired and replacements purchased about every 10 years, streetcars typically last 40 years or more. For example, Philadelphia’s SEPTA transit system is still using streetcar vehicles built in 1947. (Washington Post — recommended)
Even in Portland the value of streetcars have been debated, critics questioning claims of Mayor Hales:
So that brings us to the ruling. Hales said “streetcars carry more people than buses … you attract more riders who don’t ride transit now, and actually the operating costs are not any greater than the bus.” Whether these arguments make a persuasive case for the necessity and usefulness of a streetcar system is, of course, up for debate. The statement itself remains factual. While, there’s some missing context, it’s nothing significant. We rate this claim True. (PolitiFact Oregon)
For a detailed look at operating costs of streetcars vs bus click here. Labor tends to be a big factor why streetcars are cheaper to operate.
For the poll this week I want you to vote on your preferred route. I’ve included “don’t build” as an option as well as my idea of Olive to Vandeventer to Delmar: described here.
ABOVE: Blue was my original route idea, red is my variation, green is continuing on Lindell, purple is a north-south line on Vandeventer. Click image to view post. Note: This image added to this post at 10:30am on 3/10/2013.
The poll also has the two options from the study (p17):
Option 1 includes double track on Taylor south to Children’s Place/CWE MetroLinkOption 2 continues to Euclid, to Forest Park Blvd to Taylor back to Lindell
My views on a St. Louis streetcar are evolving, more on Wednesday March 20. The poll is in the right sidebar (mobile users need to switch to the desktop layout)
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