Poll: Should schools be forced to take students from unaccredited districts?

The poll this week is an exact duplicate of a poll run by the St. Louis Business Journal in June:

Should schools be forced to take students from unaccredited districts?

• Yes, education is that important
• No, it isn’t fair to taxpayers and students

I couldn’t come up with any better phrasing, so it’ll have to do.

Unaccredited schools are now paying overcrowded schools to accept transfer students. The transfer process was chaotic. Is this really the best we can do as a region?

The poll is in the right sidebar for a week.

— Steve Patterson

Please Help Me Raise $75 For A Bus Ticket For A Homeless Young Man (Goal Reached!)

Early Wednesday morning, on the way to/from the grocery store, I saw a young man sitting at a cafe table at a Washington Ave business that wasn’t open yet. As I passed by both times he looked out of place, you just don’t see young men wearing football shorts & jersey at 7am with a couple of bags in tow. He looked out of it.

After I put away my groceries I decided to return to the spot, I brought a banana for him and I wrote the address of The Bridge on a post-it attached to my business card.  I nervously approached him, asking if he was ok. He wasn’t, he was dropped off in St. Louis a day or two earlier by Rolla, Missouri police.  He’d spent the previous night a Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center. They put everyone back on the street at 6:30am.  He was in shock at his predicament: a 22 year old from an upper middle-class family in Washington state now homeless in downtown St. Louis.

I took him to The Bridge at 16th & Olive so he could get something for breakfast and hopefully some assistance. I looked him up on Facebook and friended him, he’d accept later when he got to the library to use a computer for the 2 hour maximum.

He came to Missouri for a year-long drug & alcohol rehab program located in Cabool MO (south of Ft. Leonard Wood), but got kicked out after 10 months for failing once to comply with their rigorous schedule.  He’s clean & sober, trying to rebuild his life. He’s trying to get to Milwaukee WI where another young guy he met at the rehab center lives with his parents, they’ll take him in and help him get work.

You’re right to be skeptical about his story, but everything he’s told me checks out. His family on Facebook want nothing to do with him.

Thursday I bought him travel-size toiletries, let him shower, shave, made him lunch, let him do laundry, and use a computer. He stayed through dinner when he returned to NLEC for the night. He tried Travelers Aid on Tucker, they’ll only pay 25% less a $10 fee.

So I’m trying to get this young man on a bus, and off our streets. I’m afraid to much time in his current situation and he’ll return to alcohol & drugs.  My goal is $75 total, $65.50 for the ticket and $10 in pocket cash/pre-paid card.
Here’s how I got to $75:

Donation Total:

I’ll update the donation total below and delete the donation buttons once the $75 goal is reached. If 15-16 people would give $5 each this morning I can have him on a bus this afternoon!  In the event something happens and he doesn’t need a ticket I’ll donate the funds to The Bridge. Thank you for your help!

— Steve Patterson

Donation Total after PayPal fees:

• $0.00 (5:45am)
• $72.52 (6:01am)
• $81.93 (7:35am)

Now I just have to track him down! – SP

The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum Opens Today in Midtown

The International Bowling Hall of Fame left St. Louis a few years ago, but we’ve more than made up for the loss by attracting the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence, the World Chess Hall of Fame, and this year, the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.

IPHF was founded in Chicago, in Oklahoma City for a while, and now at 3415 Olive in midtown. This is the 2nd floor space over Triumph Grill.

Today is your chance to see it for free:

The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum is pleased to announce that it will celebrate the museum’s GRAND OPENING on Friday, October 4, 2013.

In conjunction with First Fridays in Grand Center, the IPHF will be providing FREE ADMISSION to the general public to celebrate its grand opening and will have extended hours from 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM. Regular museum hours and admission prices will begin on Saturday, October 5th from 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM. You can find more information to help plan your visit on our website www.iphf.org/contact/plan-your-visit/

The fall exhibition, The Past, Present and Future of Nature Photography, will run from October 4, 2013 through January 25, 2014 and features Hall of Fame inductee Peter Dombrovskis, Noppadol Paothong, a photojournalist from the Missouri Department of Conservation, and select images from the National Geographic Young Explorers (ages 20-28) and North American Nature Photography Association High School Scholarship Students (ages 14-19). (source)

I had a chance to see the IPHF a few days ago, speaking with Executive Director John Nagel and board president Robert Wagner. Wagner is from Kirkwood, but is a practicing attorney in Oklahoma City.

I’ll suggest they add transit directions to their website, the #10 MetroBus will get you there from the Central West End, Downtown, and from much of south city. And the #70 MetroBus is very close.

— Steve Patterson

Presentation: Neighborhood Change in the St. Louis Region Since 1970; What explains neighborhood success?

Two local professors will attempt to answer the question in the headline when they present their research findings one week from today:

The older parts of the St. Louis region have faced serious challenges in the past 40 years. Some neighborhoods have done better than others. Hank Webber, Washington University, and Todd Swanstrom, University of Missouri–St. Louis, will present their findings on St. Louis neighborhoods that rebounded from decline. The “rebound communities” will be the subject of future UMSL “What’s Brewing” breakfast forums that will take place in the neighborhoods with local activists telling their stories of neighborhood resilience.

Is there a secret formula for success? We can find out Thursday October 10th from 7pm-8:30pm, followed by a reception. The event is free.

The event will be held in the Lee Auditorium, lower level of the Missouri History Museum.

— Steve Patterson

Poll Results on Vehicles Per Licensed Driver

There are many ways to measure and compare regions/states on how auto-centric they are. For the poll last week I selected number of vehicles per licensed driver. The results of the poll are near the end but first I want to share other data.

Examples of vehicle miles traveled per capita in 2005:

• 1) New York City metro: 5,889.9
• 11) Chicago metro: 7,540.5
• 22) Seattle metro: 8,552.6
• 37) Wichita: 9,237.2
• 46) Minneapolis metro: 9,585.0
• 55) Austin metro: 10,220.3
• 64) Kansas City metro: 10,726.2
• 77) St. Louis metro: 11,511.4 
• 88) Nashville metro: 12,275.4
• 92) Oklahoma City metro: 12,325.0

I see this as good evidence our region is too auto dependent, 76 metro areas had less vehicles miles per person than we did in 2005! But maybe we’ve peaked:

When adjusted for population growth, the number of miles driven in the United States peaked in 2005 and dropped steadily thereafter, according to an analysis by Doug Short of Advisor Perspectives, an investment research company. As of April 2013, the number of miles driven per person was nearly 9 percent below the peak and equal to where the country was in January 1995. Part of the explanation certainly lies in the recession, because cash-strapped Americans could not afford new cars, and the unemployed weren’t going to work anyway. But by many measures the decrease in driving preceded the downturn and appears to be persisting now that recovery is under way. The next few years will be telling. (New York Times)

Even if we’ve declined since 2005 like everyone else, we’re still driving considerably more miles per capita than 76 other regions.

Here are the results from last week’s poll:

Q: How many vehicles per licensed driver in your household?

1. One+, but less than two 33 [45.21%]
2. Less than one, more than zero 21 [28.77%]
3. Two+, but less than three 9 [12.33%]
4. Zero 6 [8.22%]
5. Three+ 4 [5.48%]

I’ll admit I broke an important rule when it comes to polls — keeping the answers uniform. It appears the readers who responded don’t have an excess of vehicles, with over 8% saying their household has zero cars per licensed driver.

— Steve Patterson