We Have Many Police Departments In St. Louis

This post is intended to help out headline writers from outside the St. Louis region. Last week many said St. Louis Police when they meant St. Louis County Police.

Not their fault, they likely don’t know our long history of fragmentation.

The St. Louis region is in two states — Missouri & Illinois. Sixteen-seventeen counties, half per state, make up the Greater St. Louis area. The St. Louis Police was originally formed in 1808. In 1861, during the Civil War, the Confederate-supporting state took control of the St. Louis Police since the city was pro-Union. St. Louis only got back full control from the state in the last year or two.

In 1876 the rapidly-growing City of St. Louis left St. Louis County, to avoid having to support the rest of the then largely rural county. St. Louis, through changes to the Missouri constitution, became an independent city-county. The City of St. Louis, as a city-county, also has a Sheriff’s department.

St. Louis County Police was formed in 1955, absorbing the St. Louis County Sheriff at that time.  You might think the St. Louis County Police patrol all of St. Louis County, but no. St. Louis County has 90 municipalities. Some, like Ferguson, have their own police force. Others, like Jennings, contract through St. Louis County. Jennings used to have its own force, but it was dissolved in 2011. A few other municipalities contract through a neighboring municipality for police services. Unincorporated areas of St. Louis County are, as you’d expect, covered by St. Louis County Police. One tiny municipality, Flordel Hills, recently started its own police force.

With 884 individual units of government, St. Louis ranks 3rd only to Pittsburgh and Denver among our peer regions in ratio of local governments to citizens. (Where We Stand)

I’m not sure how many of the 884 units of government are police, regardless, the St. Louis Police is different than the St. Louis County Police.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Pick Two (2) Favorite Styles Of Pizza

For the poll today I’m asking about pizza styles. Because many styles exist I used the list from 9 Different Kinds of Pizza in the United States:

• The Original: Neapolitan
• California Style
• Chicago Deep Dish (and stuffed)
• Chicago Thin Crust
• Detroit Style
• New England Greek
• New York Thin Crust
• St. Louis Style
• Tomato Pie

See the link above for descriptions of each. The poll is at the top of the right sidebar in the desktop layout. Remember, this poll will close at 8pm Central.

Please pick two from the list!

— Steve Patterson

Business Coming To West Florissant

West Florissant Ave in St. Louis or its suburbs isn’t the most prosperous of commercial streets, still I see local entrepreneurs earning a living, providing needed products & services, and employing others.

For a few months now I’ve seen a vacant building as I pass by on the bus or drive by. The other day I noticed something new.

A “Coming Soon” sign was added. This is very encouraging to see, especially just a mile from the Ferguson city limits. Being next door to a popular Velvet Freeze is probably a wise business decision.

I wish them well.

— Steve Patterson

Mobile Payments An Option At Some Existing Parking Meters

New parking meters are be coming to St. Louis; they’ll accept coins, credit cards, and mobile payments. The mobile payments aspect isn’t waiting on the new meters though, the Treasurer’s office is busy assigning “zones” to blocks so parkers have the option of paying with the Parkmobile app with the existing meters.

When you set up the app you can add your vehicle(s) to your list. You include the license plate number for each vehicle. Parking enforcement now coordinates with Parkmobile so it’ll see your plate is paid for that zone.

It remains to be seen how willing the public is to paying 35¢ for every transaction. When the rates go up this summer it’ll be a good alternative for someone who doesn’t have $3 in coins to park for 2 hours. The app only allows you to pay for the maximum time allowed, usually 2 hours. If you pay for an hour ($1.35 w/fee at current rates) you can be notified 15 minutes before it expires, you’ll have the option to add another hour (another $1.35). Want to stay longer than two hours? Just start a new entry for parking in the same zone. Given the 35¢ fee I don’t think we’ll see downtown workers parking at meters all day and using the app to avoid adding coins every two hours. The new rates should make more consider off-street lots and garages.

The Parkmobile app is available for many mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, and soon Amazon), a web app is also available. Click here for information on downloading an app. Even if you prefer to pay cash, or swipe your credit card once the new meters arrive, having the app on your smartphone as a backup is a good idea.

— Steve Patterson

Readers Prefer Draught Beer

In the Sunday Poll at the start of the week readers indicated a preference for draught beer, with bottles #2. Below are the results:

Q: How do you prefer to drink beer?

1. Draught (draft) in a glass 20 [55.56%]
2. Bottle 9 [25%]
3. Beer Bong 4 [11.11%]
4. Doesn’t matter as long as they keep coming 2 [5.56%]
5. N/A 1 [2.78%]
6. Can 0 [0%]
7. Plastic cup 0 [0%]

At right is a comparison between these results and the poll I used as the basis. The top two answers in both are the same but then they diverge. Of course, the Sunday Poll isn’t scientific.

— Steve Patterson