Please vote in the poll, located in the right sidebar
The poll this week is an exact duplicate of a recent Gallop Poll. Note, the headline differs slightly from the exact poll question:
Which of the following do you think is the best long-term investment?
Bonds
Gold
Mutual funds
Real Estate
Savings Accounts/CDs
Stocks
The six answers above are listed in alphabetical order here, but will be randomized in the poll, see top of right sidebar. As usual, I have some points that I’ll make when I present the final results next week.
Recently a friend posted the following status on Facebook:
I discovered that there are 111 parks in the city of St. Louis–112 when you include Tower Grove Park which is privately owned. I decided that I will visit each of them this summer. Serendipitously, there are 112 days from today to Labor Day. So each day I will post a few pics from one of my visits. #112parks112days
A few hours later he posted three images from the first park he visited.
His text read “Lyon Park is across the street from the Budweiser plant. Nice paths, a well-used baseball diamond and a statue of General Lyon who kept the St. Louis Arsenal from falling into the hands of secessionists during the Civil War. #112parks112days” Photo by Jeff Wunrow
This prompted a discussion about the role of St. Louis & Missouri in the Civil War, including learning more about the park namesake, Nathaniel Lyon:
In February of 1861, Lyon was made commander of the Union arsenal in St. Louis, Missouri, where tensions grew between the Union soldiers stationed there and the secessionist governor of the state, Claiborne Jackson. When the Civil War broke out, Jackson refused to send volunteers from the state to fight for Abraham Lincoln. Instead, Jackson had the militia muster outside the city to begin training in preparation to join Confederate forces. On May 10, 1861, Lyon and his troops surrounded the pro-Confederate Missouri militia under General D. M. Frost, and forced their surrender. While marching his captured prisoners through St. Louis, many citizens began to riot, and provoked the Camp Jackson Affair, during which Lyon ordered his troops to fire into the rioters. On May 17, 1861, Lyon was promoted to brigadier general and was given command of Union troops in Missouri.
On August 10, 1861 the Union forces met a combined force of the Missouri Militia and Confederate troops under the command of Ben McCulloch near Springfield, Missouri, during the battle of Wilson’s Creek. Nathaniel Lyon was killed during the battle while trying to rally his outnumbered soldiers. Although the Confederate forces would win the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Lyon’s efforts prevented the State of Missouri from joining the Confederacy.
Here is the list of parks he’s visited so far, in order:
Lyon Park
Cherokee Park
Benton Park
Minniewood Park
Laclede Park
Marquette Park
Gravois Park
Amberg Park
Joseph Leisure Park
Christy Park
Sherman Park
Marie Fowler Park
For privacy reasons his Facebook posts aren’t public. What’s great about Jeff’s project is he’s getting out everyday, seeing a new park. You might not want to do the same, but it’s appealing. Jeff’s project will last over three and a half month. At one park per week it would take someone over two years to visit them all. I hope to convince Jeff to turn this project into a blog, visible to everyone.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, aka stltoday.com, now has some digital-only content for subscribers.
Full digital access includes 24/7 digital access to STLtoday.com, mobile web, mobile apps for iPhone and Android smartphones, an iPad app, e-Edition and stlEXTRA! which is additional premium content and exclusive storytelling on STLtoday.com (source).
I know many current & former staff at the Post-Dispatch, I like the idea of paying for content to support their work. That said, I’m 47 and have never had a newspaper subscription. My parents got the Daily Oklahoman delivered everyday, but it was a habit/expense that never interested me. I’d bought a few papers over the years so I knew they were more expensive, thinner, and smaller. Still, I had no clue how much a newspaper subscription cost. In my mind, however, I thought digital access should be less.
No trees to cut down to make newsprint, no need to run the presses, no need to deliver the paper to my address. Apparently the folks at the Post-Dispatch/Lee Enterprises see this differently.
Retrieved on Thursday May 22, 2014Retrieved on Thursday May 22, 2014
For $13.50/month, or $162/year, you can get the Sunday edition delivered and get “full digital access” described above. Or for the exact same $13.50/month ($162/year) you can get the “full digital access” without the Sunday paper. Put another way, the Sunday newspaper is so worthless they can’t charge anything for it over and above digital access. Is the norm?
So I started to look at subscription rates in other cities:
Digital-only: first month 95¢, $9.95/month thereafter. This is $109.45 for the first year, $119.40/year thereafter.
Wednesday/Sunday/Digital special offer: $1.00/week + tax
Print 7-days/Digital special offer: $/month, $/year
“26-week Home Delivery Options Offer limited to regular carrier-delivered routes and valid only for new subscribers who have not subscribed within the past 30 days. Subscription will continue at the prevailing full-price rate once introductory special expires unless The Star Co. is notified otherwise.” I have no idea what the “prevailing full-price rate” is.
“Subscription rates include a separate fee for delivery. Tax rates vary by location and will be reflected on your billing statement.”
Special offers for new customers, below are their regular rates
Digital-only: $2.99/week, $155.48/year
Sunday/Digital: $4.24/week, $220.48
I was unable to find the rate for 7 days of the print edition.
After these four I’ve had enough, it’s clear to me newspapers use the same tricks as phone & cable providers to hook you with low introductory offers. The other thing I see is they’re pricing their digital options so people will take at least the Sunday print edition too. Some may like the idea but as a person who doesn’t want a physical paper I don’t see the value in a digital subscription. The rates are structured to offer a bonus to print subscribers, but aren’t attractive to me as a person who’s never subscribed before.
I like the idea of a digital subscription for our household, 5 devices is perfect (we each have a computer & iPhone, plus a shared iPad). Our internet is included in our condo fee, we have separate contracts with AT&T for our smartphones, our television service is free (over the air), but we do pay for NetFlix streaming plus one DVD at a time. I’m not sure how much per month I’d be willing to pay for digital access to the Post-Dispatch, but not $13.50/month!
Ok, I decided to look up one more newspaper, The New York Times:
According to Mashable, 61% of NYT subscriptions are digital.
I tend to use the Post-Dispatch iPhone app daily, but I rarely use their iPad app. For me I’m willing to pay say, $5-$8/month, $60-$72/year. In fact, I’d be interested in paying for 6-12 months up front if it saved me a little over the monthly price. I just don’t see newspapers doing anything to convert this non-subscriber into a subscriber. Giving me the bulky Sunday paper that’ll quickly fill our recycling is a disincentive to subscribe.
Of course, the Post-Dispatch has no obligation to try to please me. But I’m not alone:
The mobile audience skews young; the median age of an adult newspaper mobile user is 17 years younger than the print reader.
Those who are newspaper mobile-exclusive—that is, those who access newspaper content on mobile devices only—are younger by four more years (with a median adult age of 33). That audience grew 83% in 2012 compared with a year ago.
The annual Annie Malone parade on Sunday was a nice family event, but one entry drew jeers not applause from spectators.
Schnucks parade entry was an undecorated semiOne man near us stood to voice anger over the closing of the North Grand Schnucks location, click image to see prior post on the subject
It was nice to see his passion, especially after all the businesses in the parade. After visiting the now-closed Schnucks store I understand the business decision. I do think Schnucks, through their development company DESCO, could’ve been working on building a new location for years. Closing the north Grand location because a new store opened nearby would’ve gotten Schnucks a different reaction from those at the parade.
Nearly half the readers that voted in last week’s non-scietific poll picked the two answers that suggest creating a level playing field, a rising tide lifts all boats view. By contrast, just under 16% took the ‘I got mine screw everyone else’ approach. Here are the results:
Q: Chesterfield is unhappy with the St. Louis County sales tax sharing system, what’s the solution? (pick 2)
Consolidate all STL County municipalities into one 36 [25%]
All sales tax into pool, distribute by population 32 [22.22%]
Eliminate the sales tax pool, let municipalities sink or swim 23 [15.97%]
Restrict municipal use of TIF financing 22 [15.28%]
3/4 cent earnings tax so county is less reliant on sales & property taxes 12 [8.33%]
Leave it as is 8 [5.56%]
Other: 7 [4.86%]
Turn 64/40 to blvd
f*ck stl county (edited)
send them to st charles
Simplify the system. The 1% countywide tax gets pooled, the rest doesn’t.
relook at POS & pool cities – times change!
Make it easier for munis to dissolve/merge, but not necessarily into one
Let them go. Might be just the thing to encourage incorporating STL.
Unsure/No Answer 4 [2.78%]
Less than 6% said to leave it as is, which suggests to me St. Louis County needs to have a productive dialog about taxation policy and acting together as a county, not just 90 separate municipalities plus unincorporated areas. Who in St. Louis County could lead such an effort to reach a consensus? Chesterfield Mayor Nation isn’t the right person, he’s already resorted to childish threats of taking his marbles across the river to St. Charles County.
A former elected official from an affluent suburb recently suggested to me that St. Louis County should institute a 0.75% earnings tax to reduce dependance on sales taxes. Get the city to reduce its earnings tax from 1% down to a matching 0.75%, then pool all the earnings tax revenue and distribute by population. This would put St. Louis City & County on a level playing field, where collectively we’d be stronger. Certainly worth examining.
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