Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

Yesterday I watched the new documentary film, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. The film is as one-sided as the critics claim. But when you are up against the world’s biggest retailer you don’t necessarily want to argue their side. The film is a must see.

A public screening of the documentary will be held Friday night at Mad Art Gallery, 8pm. The event is being sponsored by the independent business organization, BUILD St. Louis. From their press release (PDF):

“BUILD hopes the Wal-Mart documentary screening will increase local discussion about the impact of consumer dollars spent at chain stores as opposed to local, independent stores.”

This film is an important work. I felt a number of emotions as I watched: anger & sadness were the top two. BUILD St. Louis & Mad Art are requesting a $2 donation at the screening. Doors open at 7pm and the screening begins at 8pm.

– Steve

MODOT Is Brilliant Strategist.

Never thought I’d say it but MODOT is brilliant, at least when it comes to strategy. The road building agency, faced with several years of complaints from motorists frustrated by navigating I-64 road construction, made a brilliant move: threaten to close the highway altogether.

Everyone from the average motorist to Congressman Clay is speaking out about the suggestion to close the interstate. This public outcry from all corners will “force” the agency to keep the highway open. During the construction process MODOT and the media will counter any complaints about detours and delays by saying, “Just imagine how bad it would have been if we had closed the highway.”

Brilliant strategy.

– Steve

Oklahoma City About to Abandon Chance for Excellent Mass Transit System

No, this is not Urban Review Oklahoma City. But I do return to my hometown a few times a year and keep tabs on what is happening there. Besides, we can learn from looking at other city’s successes or, in this case, mistakes.

At right is the remains of a once great rail system serving central Oklahoma. Like most cities of any size, Oklahoma City had streetcars to serve urban transportation needs. Back in the day a number of municipalities dotted the countryside around OKC and these were served by the “Interurban” rail service.

Behind OKC’s Union Station are these twelve tracks. Yes, twelve. Three long platforms, like the one shown in the foreground, served six of the twelve lines. Passengers entered the Union Station and took underground tunnels beneath the tracks and then came up through stairways to get to their platform.

The platforms had long canopies protecting passengers from the sun and bad weather. It appears to have been a great system, capable of serving many passengers. These platforms and tracks will soon be gone.

… Continue Reading

World’s Second Largest Oil Field Peaks!

If any of you have doubted the upcoming reality of peak oil perhaps this will change your mind:

Kuwait was attempting to push production to 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd) but the field peaked at 1.7 million bpd. More detail in the full story.

Are we as a region, state and country going to be proactive or reactive? We should be rushing to expand our mass transit options for the region and abandoning all expansions of the roadway system such as the proposed Mississippi River Bridge.

– Steve

CBD Traffic Study Becomes Downtown Transportation Plan

From the Downtown St. Louis Partnership:

I have several thoughts:

Two-Way Streets and On-Street Parking

I’m really eager to see how changing a street from one-way with on-street parking to two-way will mean we have to lose the parking and loading zones. I know some of the city buses have trouble with some corners and some bus routes might need to be rerouted. Fire engines likely have the same trouble. We are probably going to hear a bunch of BS from traffic engineers about traffic counts and how on-street parking impedes flow. I’m fully expecting the worst in convoluted logic.

Traffic Flow vs. Pedestrian-Friendly

Anything would be better than what we have now. Some blocks don’t have pedestrian signals at all. Other blocks simply turn off the pedestrian signal because they aren’t programmed to deal with things such as right turn only lanes. Most blocks take so long to change that people cross against the signal. I’ve been at lights on my bike/scooter/car and waited and waited for the light to change when no other cars are even around.

By the way, are you all aware that it is not legal to make a left from a one-way street onto another one-way street. I was one of the people that thought it was legal to do so. I didn’t get a ticket, just heard it at a meeting at East-West Gateway Council of Governments.

One-Way vs. Two-Way Streets:

We need to eliminate every one-way street in the city of St. Louis. An exception might be a few really narrow streets — those that are under 30ft wide. Otherwise they should all be two-way. Two-way streets are more intuitive when you are unfamiliar with an area. And let’s face it, for downtown to continue the rate of prosperity we need more and more folks that haven’t been downtown in a while to stop by. We don’t need lots of confused suburbanites in SUV’s going the wrong way on one-way streets.

Two-way streets are just psychologically friendlier to pedestrians. With traffic going in two different directions it adds a layer of visual interest beyond one-way streets. With one-way traffic the pedestrian is either walking the entire way against traffic or with traffic. Either way it is boring. When walking with one-way traffic you feel like you are not getting anywhere fast because all the traffic is moving in the same direction much faster. Walking against traffic you feel overwhelmed by all the traffic going in the opposite direction, as if you are going to the wrong way. With two-way traffic these forces cancel each other out.
A Study becomes a Plan

A few months ago this was a study and all of a sudden we’ve got a “Downtown Transportation Plan.” This is the first time I’ve heard this called a Transportation Plan. All prior announcements were simply talking about survey, study and updating signals. I’m not so opposed to a plan but I’m wondering how it became a plan from just a study. Did they finally realize just how messed up the current system is and needs a more comprehensive approach? Let’s hope so.

Downtown Now! vs. Downtown St. Louis Partnership

Yes, they really are two separate organizations. Never mind that each executive director is on the board of the other organization. In a continuing tag-team approach the Partnership continues to announce the study which was funded in part by Downtown Now! Sometimes I think they are deliberately trying to blur the lines between them so they both seem relevant.

Sharing Information:

My last thought has nothing to do with the above quote but how I obtained it. First, a regular reader shared the above as a comment today on a prior post on the topic. It seemed more worthwhile than being simply a comment on an old post. So I went to the Downtown Partnership website to verify the information. It is how the Downtown Partnership shares information that I find so…uh….interesting.

Many choices exist for sharing information on the internet, some better than others. I like information sites that incorporate blog technology to have the most recent updates on the top of the page. These news updates can also be sent out via RSS/XML feeds to people like me that like to monitor hundreds of sources. Other choices include updating the web page, perhaps linking to a page with latest news. PDF documents are certainly popular. When sending emails placing the text in the body of an email is popular as is a more deluxe email in HTML format. Attaching a PDF to an email is also common. What isn’t common, however, is the practice of using a fully editable Word document.

Yes, the Downtown Partnership sends out a weekly email with an attached Word document. If you go to their website and seek information such as their weekly notice or even a list of board members you immediately get a Word document downloaded to your hard drive. I happen to have Word and use my own computer so it really isn’t a big deal for me but I have friends that use the computer at the library or other such places where you can’t save documents to a drive or where Word isn’t an available application. The beauty of PDF documents is that a reader is free and is widely available. Does Bill Gates pay the Partnership to keep Word alive? If the Partnership’s website had this information as a PDF document then more people would be able to read the file. Plus, it would not be editable the way their current Word document is.

But PDF documents as a way of distributing news items is really outdated as well. Unless someone saves every week’s file they really can’t search for information reliably. However, as a blog tech site each post has its own unique web address, is searchable and can be found via search engines such as Google. This is not new but is certainly a long way away from the 1996 era of sending out Word documents. Richard Callow — please go over and help bring the Partnership into the 21st Century.

Past Posts and Final Thoughts:

New St. Louis CBD Traffic Study, July 3, 2005

Mayor’s Office Shares Details About the CBD Traffic/Access Study
, July 5, 2005

Downtown Partnership’s Jim Cloar Takes Action to Keep Parking off Washington Avenue, July 15, 2005

What Happened To The CBD Traffic Study?, August 3, 2005

CBD Traffic Survey Limited to Select Few!, August 3, 2005

Given the whole secrecy around the initial survey I’m suspicious about the results. We’ll know more, hopefully, in a few weeks.

– Steve