Thoughts After a Food Drive

I spent two hours Saturday morning collecting food donations. Overall it was a rewarding experience, helping others often is. But I have some mixed emotions. First the bad.

Some people couldn’t be bothered. Saying “no thanks” as a response to my “good morning, I’m collecting food for the hungry.” Really? No thanks? WTF!?! Yeah, a 39¢ can of tuna or a $1 can off green beans is asking way to much. How dare I trouble them to help others eat?

While I was upset by how uncaring some were, I was blown away by the thoughtfulness and generosity of others.

Early on a security guard put cash into the collection jar. An hour later he put in some more, probably $4-$5 total for both times. When I thanked him the second time he said something that really made an impression, something like “I may need help myself someday.” He was paying it forward.

One mom had her daughter, who was probably 4-5, put the items they purchased in the donation cart. It was so sweet and a good lesson for the little girl about the joy of helping others.

Some donations came from visitors who were downtown for a convention. How great is that? People that don’t even live here were willing to donate food to help our hungry citizens.

The store was very busy, I wasn’t able to talk to every person as they entered the store. As one woman was leaving she came over to ask what I was doing, so I explained. She already had 3-4 bags of groceries and was on her way out the door. I told her I’d watch her bags as she went back in to get cash. A few minutes later she came back and deposited a crisp $20 bill. She said she was fortunate and wanted to help others. I was astonished!

It seemed the most generous were the once who didn’t appear they could afford to help others. Conversely, those who seemed most able to afford to buy an extra item didn’t.

I hope that none of the people I talked to ever need a free meal or food from a local pantry, but the odds are they just might.

The Saturday Jubilee collected food to help pantries throughout the region. I bought $4 worth of stuff before 9am to put into the cart to get the ball rolling, I was afraid the cart would be empty at the end of my two hour shift. The food & cash collected at Culinaria and three Schnuck’s locations in St. Louis County went directly to The Bridge.  A long list of organizations benefitted from the event.

Many voted in Toyota’s “100 Cars for Good” contest the next day as Operation Food Search won a new Toyota on day 84 of the contest, beating out 4 other worthy organizations. Here was how they planned to use a new vehicle:

Our dietitians and their volunteers currently travel within a 75 mile radius around the bi-state region with food and cooking supplies to provide nutrition information to more than 4,000 low-income families. Our Cooking Matters team needs reliable, secure transportation, with ample space for their gear and staff, to continue their hands-on outreach program in our community. The families and individuals we reach rely on our team to learn how to keep their children healthy on a tight budget. Our current vehicle has nearly 190,000 miles on it and is falling apart. A new vehicle would be an asset to not only Operation Food Search, but to strengthening our community as a whole.

The positives certainly outweighed the negatives, looking forward to next year!

– Steve Patterson

Small, More Fuel Efficient, Vehicles Gaining Popularity

I’ve long been a fan of European cars. I was just 4 when an older brother got a “New Cars for 1971” magazine, for years I’d thumb through the pages skipping over the Mavericks and Novas to reach the foreign section.  There it was, the new Peugeot 504 sedan.   I’ve never had a Peugeot, but I have had 3 Volvos, 2 Saabs, 1 VW and 1 Audi.

I loved each of these European cars even though they weren’t fuel savers, or cheap to operate.  When the Mini Cooper came out nearly a decade ago I test drove one, same for the smart four two, and just recently, the Fiat 500. All cute, stylish and fun.  But the fuel economy just isn’t what you’d expect in such a small package. This will change:

After decades of fighting higher federal gas mileage standards, the big automakers have agreed to new standards that will require a average of 54.5 MPG by 2025.

High gas prices, new energy-efficient technologies and strong sales of small, high-MPG cars this year may have convinced the companies that the new standard — which is being announced today and will affect all vehicles an automaker sells in the Untied States — was both desirable and feasible. Automakers are already on their way toward meeting a 35.5 MPG average for 2016.

One reason Ford, GM and Chrysler may have gone along with the new regulation is that they got a lower standard for their profitable pickup trucks. The cumulative 2025 standard for cars is 60 MPG. But the lower truck requirement brings the overall average down to 54.5. (The White House had originally been pushing for a 62 MPG overall average, but Ford, General Motors and foreign automakers managed successfully lobbied for the lower figure.) (CBS MoneyWatch)

Auto makers already have vehicles and engines that will help them meet the new standards, they just aren’t sold here yet. Not everyone is happy though:

Volkswagen AG didn’t sign the agreement to support the Obama administration’s proposal, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker said in an e-mailed statement. The “positive impact” of so-called clean diesel, used by the company’s mid-size Passat TDI, which can get 43 mpg on the highway and travel almost 800 miles on a tank of fuel, doesn’t receive consideration in the proposal, Volkswagen said. (Washington Post)

Maybe in 2030 I can buy a used 2025 model of something with great milage? In the meantime I just might buy a lottery ticket now and then so I can get a new Fiat 500.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Missouri Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday a Good Idea?

Can St. Louis Learn From Newark NJ & Cory Booker?

I’ve seen Cory Booker  on TV and in the news. Booker is the young mayor of Newark NJ. To some of you, 42 may not be young, but anything younger than me (44) is young in my book.

I’ve been to Newark once.  More accurately, I saw the highway exit as I was driving to Rhode Island in January 2008. I wanted to stop and visit, but my schedule didn’t permit.

Troubled cities are attractive to me for some reason, perhaps the challenge of reversing negative trends? Newark, like Detroit and St. Louis, has serious issues.  I knew in 2008 that Newark had this new mayor, 37 when he was elected mayor. Booker’s lost to 4-term incumbent Sharpe James in 2002 but when James didn’t seek a 6th term in 2006 Booker won the non-partisan election.

As I watched Street Fight, the documentary of the 2002 race, I couldn’t help think of parallels to St. Louis:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8jtAASYdLw

Old urban city with a large African-American population, poor performing public schools, poverty & high crime, entrenched machine politics and the dirty tricks that go along with that to discourage challengers.

Famed urban engineer Harland Bartholomew worked for Newark before coming to St. Louis.  We’d have been better off had he stayed there.

Newark does have some differences from St. Louis. Their elections are non-partisan, their municipal council has only 9 members – five from wards and four at-large. Corruption in Newark is so bad “where every mayor since 1962 (except the current one, Cory Booker) has been indicted for crimes committed while in office.” (Newsweek)

I plan to learn more about Newark’s efforts to reduce violent crime, improve schools and attract jobs. I’ve started watching episodes of Sundance Channel’s Brick City series.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Should Scrap Metal Dealers Be Required To Mail Checks Rather Than Pay Cash?

The poll this week relates to a bill at the Board of Aldermen:

The ordinance would force scrap yards to stop dealing in cash and to computerize records of what they buy and from whom. They could only accept air-conditioner coils from certified technicians and could lose their business license if they violate the ordinance.

It is the first item — requiring scrap dealers to pay their customers by a mailed check — that is causing the most consternation. But that’s the one element police say is a must if the city wants to curb scrap metal thefts that are costing property owners thousands in repairs and driving rehabbers out of St. Louis.

Since 2010, the city has seen more than $6 million in scrap metal thefts, $1.5 million of that since March. Police say drug addicts who steal scrap and sell it to support their daily habits would lose interest without the immediate payout of cash. (STLtoday.com)

Board Bill #86 sponsored by  16th ward Ald Donna Baringer on June 3, 2011. Co-sponsors listed are Troupe, Arnowitz, Wessels, Boyd, and Cohn:

An ordinance pertaining to the purchase or resale of scrap metal; repealing Ordinance 67424, presently codified as Section 15.159 of the Revised Code of the City of St. Louis, pertaining to electronic database requirements, purchasing HVAC scrap metal, establishing licensing requirements and rules and regulations for persons doing business in the City of St. Louis as scrap metal merchants; containing definitions; a penalty clause, a severability clause and an emergency clause.

I’ve read opposition on Facebook, saying this bill, if passed, will hurt legit guys who collect metal for a living. The argument is they depend on cash to buy food and pay rent.

I don’t have a strong opinion, but I’d like to see how readers feel about this issue so this is the poll topic this week. As always, the poll is in the upper right corner of the blog.

– Steve Patterson