Sunday Poll: Should 9th Street Through Citygarden Remain Closed or be Opened to Traffic?

Ten years ago today Citygarden, an urban sculpture garden in downtown St. Louis, was formally dedicated. No ribbon was cut, instead the water features were turned on.

Citygarden is an urban park and sculpture garden in St. Louis, Missouri owned by the City of St. Louis but maintained by the Gateway Foundation. It is located between Eighth, Tenth, Market, and Chestnut streets, in the city’s “Gateway Mall” area. Before being converted to a garden and park, the site comprised two empty blocks of grass. Citygarden was dedicated on June 30, 2009, and opened one day later, on July 1, 2009.

Citygarden is 2.9 acres (1.2 ha) in size—occupying two square city blocks—and cost US$30 million to develop. St. Louis’ Gateway Foundation, a not-for-profit organization supporting public art, funded the design and construction of the garden. While the city owns the land on which Citygarden was developed, the foundation owns the statues and covers all park maintenance costs except water and electricity. The Gateway Foundation is also in charge of providing additional security for the garden. (Wikipedia)

Two city blocks, divided by 9th Street  In fact it was 9th Street where the stage was set up for the dedication. However, 9th Street never reopened for more than a day or two after the stage was dismantled. The Gateway Foundation had attractive movable barriers made to block off each end of 9th, preventing vehicle traffic from traveling northbound on the one-way street. Eighth & 10th streets are both one-way southbound.

This one block of 9th Street, Market to Chestnut, is the subject of today’s poll.

Today’s poll will close at 8pm tonight. Results and pros & cons on the topic will be online Friday morning.

— Steve Patterson

St. Louis Board of Aldermen: New Board Bills Week 11 of 2019-2020 Session

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen will meet at 10am today, their  11th meeting of the 2019-2020 session. As previously noted, they have the first two meetings labeled as Week #1, so they list this as week/meeting 10.

Today’s agenda includes three (3) new bills:

• B.B #82 – Coatar – An Ordinance Adopting and approving the petition to amend the Petition To Establish The 705 Olive Community Improvement District to add property to the 705 Olive Community Improvement District, finding of public purpose for adding property, and containing a severability clause
• B.B. #83 – Coatar – An Ordinance Approving The Petition Of An Owner Of Certain Real Property To Establish A Community Improvement District, Establishing The Soulard Community Improvement District, Finding A Public Purpose For The Establishment Of The Soulard Community Improvement District, And Containing An Emergency Clause And Containing A Severability Clause.
• B.B. #84 – Coatar – An Ordinance approving and authorizing the execution of a First Amendment to Cooperation Agreement between The City of St. Louis, Missouri and 705 Olive, LLC; authorizing other related actions; and containing a Severability Clause

The meeting begins at 10am, past meetings and a live broadcast can be watched online here. See list of all board bills for the 2019-2020 session — the new bills listed above may not be online right away.

Next week they’ll meet on Wednesday July 3rd due to the Fourth of July holiday. The following week they’ll meet on Friday July 12th — their last meeting before Summer break.

— Steve Patterson

Democratic Debates Begin Tonight: Progressives vs Centrists

The first debate of the 2020 presidential election is tonight, with part 2 tomorrow night.

The debates will be available to watch on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo at 9 p.m. [8pm central] on both nights and will be available to stream for free on NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, and the NBC News app, as well as all Telemundo digital platforms, marking the first time a Spanish-language channel will host a Democratic presidential debate. (Yahoo News)

Tonight will be 10 candidates, tomorrow 10 more. Four candidates didn’t qualify.

In the recent non-scientific Sunday Poll readers think the last four candidates next year will be two progressives (Sanders, Warren) and two centrists (Biden, Buttigieg).

Q: Of the 20 candidates in the first Democratic debate pick the 4 you THINK will still be the last 4 remaining before the nominee is picked.

• Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont: 25 [19.84%]
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts: 22 [17.46%]
• Former Vice President Joe Biden: 21 [16.67%]
• South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg: 19 [15.08%]
• Sen. Kamala Harris of California: 18 [14.29%]
• Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey: 4 [3.17%]
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota: 3 [2.38%]
• TIE: 2 [1.59%]
  • Former Housing Secretary Julián Castro
  • Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii
  • Former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado
  • Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas
  • Entrepreneur Andrew Yang
• TIE: 1 [0.79%]
  • Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado
  • New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
  • Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York
  • A candidate that didn’t make the 1st debate
• TIE: 0 [0%]
  • Former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland
  • Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington
  • Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio
  • Rep. Eric Swalwell of California
  • Author Marianne Williamson

Remember, a lot can happen in a year.

Debating tonight will be following:

• Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey
• Former Housing Secretary Julián Castro
• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
• Former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland
• Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii
• Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
• Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas
• Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren

Warren is doing very well lately, but we won’t get to see her debate with other front-runners this time.  Not sure if this is good or bad for her, probably a little of both.

Tomorrow night will be the other ten, with most of the current front-runners:

• Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado
• Former Vice President Joe Biden
• South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg
• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York
• Sen. Kamala Harris of California
• Former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado
• Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont
• Rep. Eric Swalwell of California
• Author Marianne Williamson
• Entrepreneur Andrew Yang

The four candidates who didn’t qualify for this first round of debates are:

• Montana Gov. Steve Bullock
• former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel
• Miramar, Fla., Mayor Wayne Messam
• Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton

Here are some 2020 guides to candidates:

• The Atlantic
• LA Times
• Politico
• Time

I supported Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary — an easy decision given the choices. With so many candidates this time I feel I need to learn more about them before coming to a decision.

— Steve Patterson

Noxious Weeds Outside St. Louis’ Gateway Transportation Center

The city-owned Gateway Transportation — home to Amtrak, Greyhound, and Megabus — has a landscaped area between it and the adjacent Civic Center MetroLink station. The landscaping has never been noteworthy.  I was at the ribbon cutting in November 2008, but my exterior landscaping pics aren’t that old.

On the 7th of this month we were at the station early to catch our train to Chicago. I stopped to snap a pick of the…weeds.

Less than a week later I came down to the area the morning after the Blues won the Stanley Cup. I was quiet at Enterprise, but I really noticed the weeds from the MetroLink platform.

I sent these images to a landscape architect friend, she said it might have been intended as a native garden — but she sees “some thistles (noxious weed).” All landscaping requires regular weeding, something this hasn’t had.

The city issues citations to homeowners for less than this. If a homeowner had this as their yard the city would come mow it and send them a bill. This looks completely unkept, neglected.

It would be nice to see more attention paid to this area since it’s in such a highly-visible location. I can only imagine what our guests from Boston must’ve thought.

I don’t know if this landscaping is the responsibility of the city’s comptroller, Metro, or some other entity. I’ll send this post around today and hopefully someone will step up and get the landscaping cleaned up. Or the city will ticket itself?

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Who Do You Think Will Be The Final Four Democratic Presidential Candidates Running In 2020?

Today’s poll is similar to a poll here just over 4 years ago. At that time the GOP field was huge, most picked Jeb Bush as the GOP candidate most likely to be on top. Yes, a lot can change in the year prior to nominating conventions!

The 2020 election cycle is in full swing, President Trump launched his campaign for a 2nd term and more than twenty candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination.  It’s too early to know who the Democrats will nominate at their July 2020 convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — that’s the point — to later be able to compare 2019 perceptions with 2020 reality.

For today’s poll will use the list of the 20 declared candidates that met the criteria for the first debate.  This debate is later this week, split into two parts:

The back-to-back debates on Wednesday and Thursday nights could be a pivot point in the Democrats’ primary campaign, which for months has seen candidates refraining from criticizing one another — or doing so only in veiled terms.
It will be a high-stakes test for the biggest primary campaign field ever, which includes three black candidates, one Latino, six women, two Asian Americans and an openly gay man. (Los Angeles Times)

This week’s poll question isn’t who you want to see make it to the final 4, but rather who you think will be the 4 who’ll survive the next 9-12 months of campaigning.

Please be sure to pick 4 answers, the poll closes at 8pm tonight. The non-scientific results ands my own thoughts on Wednesday morning. First night of the first Democratic debate is Wednesday night, 7pm St. Louis time on 5.1 (NBC).

— Steve Patterson