Even Governors Need to Wear Seat Belts

As you all likely know, last night New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine was critically injured as his SUV driven by state tropper was involved in an accident. From the NY Times:

Gov. Jon S. Corzine remained on a ventilator and was heavily sedated for pain today as he recovered in the hospital following a car accident Thursday in which it appears he was not wearing a seat belt, his spokesman and a doctor said.

New Jersey law requires the use of seat belts, but more importantly, so does common sense. Children often don’t know any better but adults should understand the risks. If you are traveling, unbelted, in a car (or big SUV) at 60mph and you are involved in an accident you will continue traveling in the original direction at 60mph until something stops you — the dash, the door, the windshield. And don’t count on those airbags to help you out, they are in fact a liability if you are not properly belted in.

Seat belts will not always prevent injury or death. At times, a seat belt will even cause some injuries. Overall, you and everyone in the vehicle is better off wearing a seatbelt. I know it is easy to overlook — I recently didn’t wear a seatbelt when I took a cab from the Civic Center MetroLink station to home when returning from an out of town trip. Perhaps you don’t want to ask a passenger in your car to wear their belt? We all need to remember that in a split second things can change dramatically giving you no time to react.

Please, buckle in those kids and yourself.  Best wishes to Gov. Corzine on a quick recovery.

DPZ To Hold Charette in Dardenne Prairie, MO

Dardenne Prairie, a largely bedroom suburb of St. Louis located in fast growing St. Charles County, is about to hold a week-long design charette with leading New Urbanist firm DPZ of Miami. Bringing DPZ to Dardenne Prairie has been a long effort of Mayor Pam Fogarty and 1st Ward Alderman Scott Kolbe, both seeking to create a sense of place in their community.

Dardenne Prairie originally designated 85 acres for a downtown. Ald. Kolbe on the initial stages:

“While we tested the waters – overall feedback has led to us creating a 285 acre site – I was pleasantly surprised by community feedback”

Ald. Kolbe continues on the feedback from residents, “They are craving that third place.”

The entire week is open to the public, the city has posted a schedule online here. Andres Duany, DPZ’s celebrity boss is not scheduled on the charette but will likely make an appearance at some point during the week.
Scheduled Presentations:

• Opening Presentation on Thursday 4/19/2007; 7pm-9pm
• “Pin-up” Review on Sunday 4/22/2007; 2pm-4pm
• Final Presentation on Wednesday 4/25/2007; 7pm-9pm

Again, the charette is open to the public from 4/19 – 4/25. Except for some tours to be held on the first day (4/18), the event will be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall located at 2199 Post Road, Dardenne Prairie, 63368 (see map).

So what do you think?  I personally love the idea of these residents (population estimate 7,000) creating a sense of place for themselves centered on a mixed-use downtown.  This has the potential to become an interesting and livable area.

Delor Ave Bridge Reopened Six Weeks After Collapse of Railing

It was six weeks ago, on March 1st, that a portion of the sidewalk and guardrail of the Delor Ave bridge over I-55 crashed down onto the roadway, blocking all four lanes of northbound traffic (see post). This past afternoon the barricades were removed and the bridge was reopened to traffic (vehicular and pedestrian).

The light gray portion of railing above is new to replace that which had collapsed. Thankfully nobody was seriously injured when the concrete fell to the interstate below.

From above you can see the new concrete sidewalk and railing. I’m glad the bridge is reopened as this is my direct route from my home to my office. I’ll drive or scooter across the bridge but you won’t catch me walking on that sidewalk!

The remainder of the bridge has small bits of new concrete in places as well as indicators where new steel was set to secure the balance of the sidewalk and railing. Apparently this design allowed water to get into the construction and rust steel that could not be inspected. A large number of other bridges along I-55 and some along I-44 use the same design. All are to be retrofitted to ensure the same does not happen again.

As I indicated last month, I am concerned about the amount of infrastructure we as taxpayers have to pay for. While existing infrastructure rusts we continue to build more and more, often on the outer edges of region. When we do focus on existing infrastructure, it is costly replacement projects such as the “New I-64“.

Rumor: Staff Positions for New President of the Board of Aldermen

Lewis Reed will be sworn in soon as the city’s next President of the Board of Aldermen, replacing Jim Shrewsbury in that role. That much we all know. What we have not yet heard is whom he will hire to the three staff positions to be filled within his office, including Chief of Staff.

One widespread rumor was 15th Ward Alderman Jennifer Florida for Chief of Staff but I’m hearing Florida will not get that job. However, I’m hearing Florida will take the second position as “Assistant to the President”, a job that pays more than current role of Alderman. Fifth Ward Alderman April Ford-Griffin is the name heard most often for Reed’s Chief of Staff. Both were early supporters of Reed’s candidacy.

If this rumor is true, and we will know within a week, that will leave two aldermanic seats open. The 5th ward is where large-scale land speculation is going on (aka Blairmont) and the 15th Ward had the long battle last year over a proposed McDonald’s. Both Florida and Ford-Griffin have been targets of unsuccessful recall attempts.

It Ain’t Easy Being Green

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is getting criticized by environmentalists for trying to bring solar, geothermal and nuclear power from other areas to LA. The rub is the impact of an 85-mile corridor of high power lines going through forests and other areas.

Many preservation and community groups have condemned the mayor for a plan that they say would destroy priceless vistas, natural areas and wildlife corridors. Justin Augustine of the Center for Biological Diversity recently wrote Villaraigosa a letter saying that not only was such energy consumption not ‘green,’ but unacceptable under any name. The ends cannot justify the means, he said.

Further, the anger over the proposed route underscores challenges nationwide over how to ship wind, sun and steam power from remote rural reaches to booming urban centers. (Source w/links to LA Times and other sites)

Wow, tough crowd.

Sunday the CBS News program 60 Minutes had a feature on the return of nuclear plants as a source of green energy — the power plants do not create the greenhouse gases that we get from coal-fired plants. Much of France is powered by nuclear energy. They currently recycle spent rods rather than bury them as we’ve done in the US for decades. The downside is the recycling creates plutonium which can be used for bomb making. Apparently the US Government is researching new methods of recycling the waste without creating plutonium as a by-product. We may well see more nuclear power plants in our future.

Meanwhile back in St. Louis, the Ameren “fact sheet” shows a major reliance on coal & natural gas. Out of a capacity of 16,200 megawatts (mw) only 1,190mw of that is from their single nuclear plant located in Callaway County, MO. Three hydroelectric plants, including the non-functioning Taum Sauk, total 800mw. The remaining 87% of their capacity relies on coal or natural gas. Not exactly green. What are the alternatives for Missouri and Illinois customers of Ameren?

Well, one option is net metering. Per Sustainablog, the Missouri Senate is considering such a bill:

Missouri is one of a handful of states that don’t have a net metering law. In other words, if you install a grid-tied renewable system on your home or business, utilities in the state are not required to credit your electric bill at the retail rate for excess energy produced — the current system that the state government calls net metering only requires utilities to credit energy-producing customers at the avoided-cost rate. That could change as early as this year, as Missouri Senate bill 674, the Easy Connection act, has been introduced, and is now under consideration by the Senate’s Commerce, Energy and Environment committee.

One thing is certain, I don’t hear our regional elected officials speaking on the topic of future energy sources. The LA Mayor may be getting a bad rap over his proposal but at least he is looking for solutions beyond his term in office.