School district boundaries are arbitrary, but many act like they’re etched in stone. Thankfully slightly more than half the readers who voted in the unscientific poll last week are ok with forcing districts to take students from unaccredited districts:
Q: Should schools be forced to take students from unaccredited districts?
Yes, education is that important 38 [54.29%]
No, it isn’t fair to taxpayers and students 32 [45.71%]
This is the opposite of the results from the original poll on the St. Louis Business Journal where only 37% voted yes.
That said, the process this year was anything but ideal. Hopefully state & local leaders can find ways to ensure every child gets a good public education.
Jefferson Ave has been a major 6-lane roadway for decades, but with substantially fewer residents and interstate highways, it has been excessively wide. Recent work along Jefferson between Chouteau and Market have reduced the number of travel lanes to four, with plus bike lanes added to the mix. Unfortunately, the road is still too wide.
The new-ish viaduct over the railroad tracks has four wide high-speed lanes. Yes, the bus stop here gets used. Note the faded markings in the bike lane.Left over road width, as wide as the sidewalk, is just paintedAt the new bridge over I-64 the unused roadway width is wider than the sidewalk!
This was the perfect opportunity to place the curb in a position to give excess width to the sidewalk, giving room for street trees to separate pedestrians from passing cars.
I’ve now attended three meetings of the St. Louis Parking Commission (July, September, October). Here are the minutes from the prior meetings that were distributed:
These minutes are not available online so I scanned and uploaded them. Hopefully they will, in the interest of transparency, upload these in the future.
A sign facing Euclid near Lindell highlighting the fact these meters accept credit card payments.
The “Liberty Meter” parking meter test being conducted in the Central West End has been mentioned each time. In October specific reports were handed out showing payments by coin vs credit card. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t add up. The August total for credit card payments was copied into September, and other totals & percentages are incorrect. Still, from the data presented we can see the use of credits cards during this trial are higher than the previous trial a few years ago on South Grand. We can also see credit card use has been increasing each month. It’s hard to know for sure given the spreadsheet errors.
Since I sold my car 18 months ago I haven’t had a chance to use these new meters, but I still think I’d prefer payment machines to individual meters. Anyone have any thoughts?
At the October meeting they went into closed session to discuss a recently issued Request for Proposal for an Integrated Parking Management System:
The City of St. Louis Treasurer’s Office is soliciting proposals from qualified companies to furnish and potentially install an easy-to-use on-street parking system that allows payment flexibility and convenience for users while allowing real-time monitoring, reduced cost of operating, increased flexibility in changing rates and increased compliance.
It was also announced that four “Town Hall” events are scheduled for the coming weeks:
The City of St. Louis Treasurer’s Office will host four town halls dedicated to the current and future state of parking in St. Louis. The Treasurer’s Office issued an RFP for parking meter management and processing on October 4 in efforts to modernize operations.
“We promised the citizens of St. Louis that all existing contracts would be reviewed and examined for their operational and financial efficiency. This is another step we’re taking to propel the office from the 19th Century to the 21st Century,” said Treasurer Tishaura Jones.
The town halls will provide more information on the RFP selection process and opportunities for citizens to provide feedback on the direction of parking in St. Louis. The RFP selection will consist of two phases. During the first phase a review committee will rank and score the proposals based upon the evaluation criteria. The Treasurer’s Office will select a limited number of vendors to proceed to the second phase which requires vendors to perform a six (6) month on-street field test evaluation of their equipment before a final selection is made. The field test will include installing parking equipment on both sides of one or more contiguous city blocks. Based upon the results of the trial and citizen feedback, the Treasurer’s Office may decide to proceed with an offer to one or more companies to furnish and potentially install units on a long-term basis throughout the City.
The town halls will take at the following locations:
Schlafly Branch Library, 225 N Euclid Ave.
Wednesday, October 23, 6:00pm-7:00pm
Central Library, 1301 Olive St.
Tuesday, October 29, 6:00pm-7:00pm
Carondelet Park Recreation Complex, 930 Holly Hills Ave.
Wednesday, November 6, 6:00pm-7:00pm
O’Fallon Park Recreation Complex, 4343 W Florissant Ave.
Tuesday, November 12, 6:00pm-7:00pm
Unfortunately, all are scheduled for 6pm on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Due to work schedules, not everyone will be able to attend. With four events it would’ve been nice to see four days of the week covered rather than just two, as well as other times besides 6pm-7pm.
Last week one of our busiest bridges was renamed/rededicated:
The span, colloquially (but inaccurately) known as the Poplar Street Bridge, was originally named for Dickmann, a former St. Louis mayor. It was renamed Monday for Clay, the former Democratic congressman from St. Louis.
In a rededication ceremony downtown, with Gov. Jay Nixon, Mayor Francis Slay and other dignitaries looking on, Clay and his son, current U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, pulled away a black veil to reveal the white-on-green sign announcing: “Congressman William L. Clay Sr. Bridge.” (stltoday)
This will make the traffic reports on TV & radio significantly longer, if the new name is used.
This highway bridge over the Mississippi River was completed in 1967
When I moved to St. Louis 23+ years ago it took me a while to figure out what the “PSB” was. Ah, Poplar Street Bridge…but it was actually the Bernard F. Dickmann Bridge. Confusing.
The poll question for this week asks what name you’ll call the span in the future. Here are the choices in the poll:
Bernard F. Dickmann Bridge
Poplar Street Bridge
PSB
Congressman William L. Clay Sr. Bridge
Other
These will be presented in a random order in the poll (right sidebar).
Imagine residents in your ward coming together to suggest ideas on how to ward spend capital improvement funds. Dream on, right? People are apathetic and don’t participate, according to the usual narrative. Well, residents of the 6th ward don’t have to imagine, they just need to show up with ideas — and they have been. On Wednesday I got to witness the 2nd participatory budgeting assembly in the 6th ward, a very reaffirming experience at a time when democracy is breaking down nationally. Watch this brief video for an overview and go to pbstl.com.
Briefly Zac (left) and Michelle (center) introduced the process to the 15 participantsEveryone broke into two groups, with trained volunteers getting participants to open up and share what they’d like to see the money be used forExtensive outreach through various methods, including door knocking, resulting in a diverse group of participantsAt the end each participant got three dots to vote on their favorite ideasAt the end everyone came together as a representative from each group explained their topics.
If you’re a resident of the 6th ward and want to participate, you’ve got a few more opportunities this week:
Have an idea but can’t attend? No problem, email your idea.
Once all the ideas are collected, volunteer budget delegates will work with city departments to turn them into projects, with real budgets. Then, in April 2014, 6th ward residents will get a chance to vote to see what gets funded. Will they pick one $100,000 or five $20,000 projects?
No matter what gets funded, citizens are participating in their community.
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