Poll, How do you receive TV?

Earlier this month the U.S. completed the decade long transition to digital television. The weekly poll, located in the right sidebar, asks how you receive television.  Over the air, internet or a paid option?  From an urban perspective it doesn’t really matter.  Or does it?

At two prior residences I had satellite service.  In both cases I had the installers located the dish out of sight. But we’ve all seen places with an out of place dish.

When I moved downtown in November 2007 I didn’t move a TV.  A few months ago I purchased a small HDTV.  But rather than spend a ton on cable or satellite I stuck with free channels over the air.  I was fine with not having tons of channels except that my reception wasn’t so good.  Some channels wouldn’t come in.  With a digital signal it is either all or nothing.  On some channels I had nothing.  My old antenna just wasn’t doing the job it had done with digital.

I recently received a digital antenna from antennasdirect.com for review.  The ClearStream antenna (Cleastream 1 Convertible, $79.95) is compact and is discrete.  Once I rescanned the channels they all came in.

PBS in St. Louis has four channels – World (9.3) and Create (9.4) are awesome.  It is said over time each region can expect up to 60 free channels.    With this news I have no regrets about receiving free television rather than pay huge monthly fees.  Now if I can just get Charter Communications to stop mailing me solicitations to get cable.

– Steve Patterson

KDHX 88.1FM Considering Eliminating All 4 Hours of Weekly Talk Programming

I’ve received word the KDHX 88.1FM programming committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday June 25th at 6pm to consider eliminating all talk programs.  Talk programs on KDHX make up only 4 of the 168 hours of the week.  I’m a frequent guest on the Monday 7pm program Collateral Damage.

KDHX is member supported radio.  Their tag line is “your community, your media.”  Earthworms with host Jean Ponzi, on the air for 20 years, for example, would be cut.  Community radio should certainly have room for discussion about the community.

If you’d like to see KDHX continue to offer the 2.4% talk format mixed in with the 97.6% music please contact Co-Executive Directors Beverly Hacker (bhacker at kdhx dot org) & Nico Leone (nico at kdhx dot org) to let them know how you feel.

St. Louis’ Juneteenth Celebration in Fountain Park June 19-21

St. Louis was sympathetic to the Union but slaves were bought & sold in St. Louis in the 19th Century.  Humans being treated as property.  Beyond me how slavery ever existed in a “civilized” society.

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.  (Source: juneteenth.com)

History buffs will correctly note that the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863:

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves. (Source: Wikipedia)

So two and a half years later troops enforced the proclamation.  In St. Louis the celebration will take place in Fountain Park (map):

June 19-21, 2009 – Neighbors of Fountain Park Association – will celebrate its third annual Juneteenth Community Awareness Event As Neighbors of Fountain Park Association our mission is to empower, educate and promote healthy living by connecting the community to resources. the weekend is dedicated to making a difference in the community. The Event will host live music, guest speakers,children activities, free food, community education resources, voter registration and much more…
Location: Fountain Park St. Louis, Missouri
Dates: Friday June 19th 3:00p.m.-9:00p.m
Saturday June 20th 9:00a.m.-9:00p.m.
Sunday June 21st 10:30a.m.-8:00p.m.
Activities: games, face painting, entertainments groups, and guest speakers.

I’m going to stop by on my way to the screening of scenes from the upcoming documentary on Pruitt-Igoe (see post).

– Steve Patterson

Screening of Select Scenes from Documentary Film on Pruitt-Igoe

Saturday June 20th scenes from the still in-production documentary film on Pruitt-Igoe will be screened.

The 33 buildings known as Pruitt-Igoe only stood for two decades. The bulk of the site has been vacant now nearly twice as long.

Here is a short clip from a 1981 program entitled Trouble in Utopia:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd7VOz_Wstg

Pruitt-Igoe’s architect was Minoru Yamasaki.  Yamasaki is best known for the World Trade Center project that was destroyed on 9/11/2001.

The scrrening location is the Des Lee Auditorium at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park at 5700 Lindell Blvd (map).  Bike parking is presumably available and access is easy from the Forest Park MetroLink light rail stop.

– Steve Patterson

Darst-Webbe Public Housing Project Long Gone

The old high-rise housing projects that used to ring downtown are gone now.   One such project that struck me upon my arrival was Darst-Webbe.  The J.M. Darst Apts., opened in October 1956,  consisted of four 9-story towers and the A.M. Webbe Apts., opened in May 1961, consisted of two 9-story, one 12-story and one 8-story towers.  Darst was bounded by Lafayette, 12th (now Tucker), Hickory and 14th.  Webbe was to the North bounded by Hickory, 14th, Chouteau, and 12th.  To the West, across 14th, was the Clinton Peabocy Terrace 2 & 3 story apartments which opened in July 1942.  Click here to see a map of 12th (Tucker) & Hickory.

I took the above picture a few months after my arrival in St. Louis.  I believe this is the Webbe Apts. located North of Hickory. The housing in the background still exists.

• Darst/14.75 acres/645 units built/683 units razed
• Webbe/12.27 acres/580 units/578 units razed
• Clinton Peabody/27.49 acres/657 units/687 units razed

All of the above information is from an early 1970s St. Louis technical report titled, History of Urban Renewal.

Thanksgiving of 1990 I had visitors from my home state of Oklahoma visiting St. Louis for the first time.  Driving them around my newly adopted city I took them past Darst-Webbe.  I said, jokingly, “maybe we’ll see a fire.”  Guess what?  There was a large fire in a dumpster near one of these towers.  In the years that followed I’d drive by and see lights on in a few of the apartments.  I was shocked that people lived in what appeared to be ruins.

The reasons high rise public housing failed are numerous and complicated.  But very simply we would have been better off had they left the old slums in place rather than razing them for the new slums.  Hindsight is a wonderful teacher.

– Steve Patterson