Moonlight Ramble® Raises Thousands for Hosteling, But Where is the Hostel?

Since 1964 the Gateway Council of Hosteling International has held the “world’s oldest and largest night-time bike ride” known as the Moonlight Ramble®. For years the event has been a huge success attracting thousands of riders. This years ride is Saturday August 20th at midnight. But I’m not here to promote the ride. Instead, I’m questioning where the money has gone each year.

“The Gateway Council is the local branch of Hostelling International located at the corner of Big Bend and Clayton road in St. Louis. This office serves a region that includes Missouri, Northern Arkansas, Eastern Kansas, and Southern Illinois.

Recent history has seen the Gateway Council take its place as a leader among councils in the United States. Outdoor recreational programming has been and continues to be the strength of the local council. This strength lends recognition and vitality to the organization that now begins the task of adding a strong hostel and travel component to the mix.”

“Now begins the task of adding a strong hostel?”

WTF? The organization covers all of Missouri as well as parts of Arkansas, Kansas and Illinois and they are looking to add a hostel? That is right! This “hosteling” group that has been holding a major fundraiser for four decades has no hostel in its service area including major cities of St. Louis and Kansas City not to mention smaller cities like Springfield & Jefferson City, Missouri.

This is not to say we don’t have a hostel in St. Louis, we do. The Huckleberry Finn Youth Hostel is located at 1904-08 South 12th Street
Saint Louis, MO 63104 (314) 241-0076. Before I get people saying this hostel is part of Hosteling International or that it is closed let me set the record straight.

I called the Huck Finn hostel and spoke to a very friendly woman that gave me some insight on their operation. This hostel has been privately operated by Tom & Sheela Cochran for over 20 years. In 2005 they severed their association with Hosteling International. The hostel is dorm style with over 30 beds available for $20/night. A $5 key deposit is required. A kitchen is available if people want to cook their own meals. Most occupants arrive in St. Louis via Greyhound bus. As a result most are dependent upon our mass transit while in our area. Some, like a recent visitor from Japan, arrived via Amtrak with his bike. Another recent visitor was from Korea. I think it is fair to say that traveling youth often judge a city by its hostel.

What does it say that our Hosteling International Council operates a hugely successful annual fundraiser yet doesn’t operate a hostel? To me it says we’ve been suckered into supporting a ride with the impression that we’re supporting hosteling. In defense of the Gateway Council they do seem to appear to have a long list of local bike rides and hikes. Outdoor activities is certainly a part of the mission of Hosteling International.

Reading through the Gateway Council’s newsletter archives I found a number of references to a new hostel. All reference hoping to open a hostel by 2007. It appears attempts were made to purchase and renovate one of our many closed schools for a hostel. A 2003 annual report (page 2) says the national organization is not focusing on creating new hostels so the local group is on their own. I found one site on cheap places to say in the St. Louis area which said, “They have just signed a contract on a building in downtown St. Louis and hope to have a 100 bed, year-round facility close to Union Station by the spring of 2002.” So they’ve been trying to open a hostel for quite a few years?

Volunteers? Well, not exactly. The current newsletter lists a number of staff members. Their office is located at 7012 Clayton Road, 63117. Their website has a link to donate which switches you to a site where you can see detail about the organization before you make a donation. This site and report is located here. It is quite telling.

At the end of their 2003 fiscal year (March 31, 2003) they were over $18,000 in the hole (liabilities vs assets). A year later they were ahead by over $6,000 with an annual profit of over $24,000. Not bad but certainly a long way away from building and operating a hostel. Unfortunately this site has not been updated with their financials for the year ending March 31, 2005. With numerous corporate sponsors and over 12,000 riders a year I’m baffled more money isn’t available to fund a hostel.

Registration this year is $25 for adults and $10 for children for probably at least $200,000 in registration fees. Corporate sponsors add another $20,000 to the take. Booth rentals bring in additional money.

I’ve only done the Moonlight Ramble® once and I have to say it was fun. Seeing that many bicyclists in one place is inspiring. So if you plan to do the ride I think you’ll enjoy doing so. Just don’t be fooled into thinking you are supporting a local hostel.

[UPDATE 9/20/05 @ 7:30AM – A couple of additional thoughts I didn’t mention above. Hostels are a key ingredient to local tourism. Collecting hotel tax on expensive hotel rooms is important to our tax base. Having a steady stream of young folks interested in using our mass transit and learning about out city cannot be ignored. These young people are potential students at our educational institutions and more importantly they are potential residents. Supporting a local hostel should be a priority to St. Louis.

I don’t know if this means helping the existing Huckleberry Finn Youth Hostel or aiding the Gateway Council of Hosteling International in acquiring and operating a new hostel. If the latter it is clear they will need to set up a capital campaign and hopefully earmark a portion of the funds raised from future Moonlight Rambles® to go into this fund rather than their general operating budget. This capital campaign may also require some corporate and foundation support. I’d like to see some assistance from the hotel community and the Convention & Visitor’s Commission.]

– Steve

CBS’ ‘Sunday Morning’ To Look At Landmark/Preservation Issues

Sunday August 21, 2005 Martha Teichner, Sunday Morning Senior Correspondent, will look at three recent landmark/preservation issues in New York City, Chicago and St. Louis.

NYC’s Two Columbus Circle, a 1964 modern building designed by Edward Durell Stone, has been the center of controversy among preservationists over a plan to raze/alter the structure. The Landmarks Preservation Commission has, so far, refused to even hold a public hearing to consider the building for Landmark status.

Chicago’s North Shore has seen a rash of McMansions built on the sites of more modest houses, including some significant mid-century modern homes.

In St. Louis preservationists lost a battle to save the Century Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, for a parking garage. Much of the controversy around this project was the fact the National Trust for Historic Preservation sided with developers in razing the historic marble-clad structure citing it was necessary to save another historic building, St. Louis’ Old Post Office.

‘Sunday Morning’ airs at 9A.M. Eastern/8A.M. Central.

– Steve

Old Post Office To Have A “Major Branch” of the St. Louis Library

A new brochure from Webster University marketing classes at the St. Louis Old Post Office is making some bold claims about future tenants:

“Along with Webster, the Old Post Office will house the 8th District Court of Appeals, the St. Louis Business Journal, a major branch of the St. Louis Public Library, a restaurant, and other offices and services.”

A major branch of the library? Did I miss something from the earlier descriptions as a “satellite” branch? As best I can find the library will be leasing 7,000sf of space in the Old Post Office — a mere five blocks East of the magnificent main library. To put this new “major” branch into perspective the fairly new Schlafly branch at Euclid and Lindell is 25,000sf as is the renovated Carpenter Branch on South Grand. One of the smaller branches is the Kingshighway branch. At 12,000sf the Kingshighway branch is more than 70% larger than the proposed Old Post Office branch.

Of course we don’t need a larger branch at the Old Post Office. Calling it a “major branch” is simply stretching the truth. Certainly not the first time we’ve seen such stretches around this project.

Some, myself included, question why we need a satellite branch of the library at all. Is the thought that young loft dwellers won’t walk to the existing library? Who is the intended user of this new branch? Will the new branch sabotage support for the main library? Does the library system have the funds to staff yet another branch? The people I’ve talked to say the library’s budgets are already stretched thin. The general consensus is the the developers needed more space leased to make the financing work and somehow the library we roped into going along with the scheme.

We should be encouraging residents, workers and visitors to walk around downtown and check out all the assets (of which we have plenty). The Old Post Office project is supposed to be the anchor of the area yet they seem to be catering to people not willing to park a block away, much less support businesses in the area.

Can someone tell me why this was worth sacrificing the Century Building and giving away millions in tax credits to wealthy developers?

The Real Link To The Downtown Gallery Walk

Last night I was looking up future St. Louis events and stumbled across a listing for the popular Downtown Gallery and Design Walk. This is one of my favorite events and if I am in town I make sure I’m downtown for all the fun.

The listing, shown at right, is from the St. Louis Convention & Visitor’s Commission website www.explorestlouis.com. What I found interesting was the website link for the event. Downtown Now!? What do they have do with it? If you go to their website you find zero information on events.

The site has links to a proposal for connecting the Arch to downtown, Loft district guidelines and a downtown development plan. The latter has a whole section on the Old Post Office District which includes the following:

Read the plan — it is a good one. But when developers come calling and want to raze a historic building facing the Old Post Office the plan is conveniently ignored. What is the point of having people develop plans to be ignored?

But, back to the issue at hand. Downtown Now! is not the organizer of the Downtown Gallery and Design Walk. I don’t think they are trying to get credit for it either. I think the CVC made a mistake on their site. At least I hope that is the case. But given how interconnected the CVC, Downtown Now! and the Downtown St. Louis Partnership are this type of mistake is inexcusable. To it’s credit the Downtown St. Louis Partnership has the correct link on their site. What I do find annoying on the Partnership site is when you click on their “events” menu. You don’t get events starting in August 2005 and later. No, you get January 2005 events and you must scroll down to find current events. OK, not a huge deal but given their budget you’d think they’d be able to make it a little more user friendly.

And to set the record straight the Downtown Gallery & Design Walk is organized and promoted by the owners of the gallery and design business on the walk. No huge budget, no big time salaries. Just business owners promoting themselves. Information can be found here: www.downtowngallerywalk.com. The next Downtown Gallery & Design walk is Friday September 2, 2005.

– Steve

Missouri: Headlamps Must Be Used With Wipers

On occasion I’ve mentioned some traffic safety tips for drivers on our streets and highways. One of my biggest pet peeves is people not using their headlights except when it is pitch black outside. Folk, your headlights are just as important for others to see you and for you to see out.

Depending upon weather conditions you are also required to use your headlights:

“When lighted lamps are required” means at any time from a half-hour after sunset to a half-hour before sunrise and at any other time when there is not sufficient light to render clearly discernible persons and vehicles on the highway at a distance of five hundred feet ahead. Lighted lamps shall also be required any time the weather conditions require usage of the motor vehicle’s windshield wipers to operate the vehicle in a careful and prudent manner as defined in section 304.012, RSMo. The provisions of this section shall be interpreted to require lighted lamps during periods of fog even if usage of the windshield wipers is not necessary to operate the vehicle in a careful and prudent manner.

The requirement of using your headlamps at times when your wipers are in use was passed in 2004. Enforcement is now the key. This is similar to an Illinois law that was passed a number of years ago.

And for those of you that have “daytime running lights” on your vehicle those are intended for daytime visibility but not conditions requiring wipers. The law requires your lights on if your wipers must be used. Also, the definition above makes note about fog as well.

Please turn on those lights so you can bee seen!

– Steve