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Friday, March 12, 2010
Combining "Likes" To Save Taxpayers
Governor Jay Nixon has proposed merging several departments to save money. He suggested combining the state’s two education departments, and the Highway Patrol with the Water Patrol.
The idea should be contagious.
Why not merge the offices of the city’s revenue collector and license collector? The dispatcher operations for the city’s Police, Fire and EMS departments? The Police Department’s administrative functions with the City’s? The City’s crime lab and the County’s crime lab? East-West Gateway and Metro? Etc.
Plenty of etc. to choose from.
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Thursday, March 11, 2010
What Will Become Of The Admiral?
To the list of questions without immediate answers (What is going on at the Missouri Gaming Commission? Why is there any serious consideration being given to a plan to put a casino adjacent to the Confluence of the Rivers?), please add the following: What will become of the landmark (but decrepit) Admiral riverboat?
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Thursday, March 11, 2010
Sustainability
Developing and maintaining a sustainable community is vitally important, and we know that a vibrant economy, strong social fabric, and environmental quality are essential components of a healthy, livable, sustainable community.
Here in the City of St. Louis, we’re lucky to have a number of features that are inherently sustainable.
We have great access to public transportation (though the system’s future hangs in the balance of the county’s April 6 election); wonderful mixed-use neighborhoods that make it possible to walk to work and to dining and entertainment opportunities; an earned reputation as a great place for bicycling; and buildings with strong bones and great architecture, well placed in intact historic neighborhoods, that can be reused.
(Reusing these existing buildings and the infrastructure that supports them is THE most sustainable building technique. It saves material, saves energy, and rejuvenates entire neighborhoods.)
As we make use of our existing sustainable features, it is essential that we move forward with additional initiatives - with recycling, with more cycling enhancements, with energy efficiency improvements in our municipal buildings, and with new partnerships with the private sector that encourage their sustainable practices.
There is a lot at stake.
For the first decade in a long time, we are growing our population. Many of our downtown’s buildings, once used for manufacturing and offices, now house young professionals, families, and empty nesters. These people have been drawn to our City’s center because of the many attractions and amenities City living offers – and they like the fact that their “new” homes have rich histories. Most importantly, they are drawn to us because we are the most sustainable place in our region. So, it is essential that continue to reward their investment with our actions.
Beyond the city limits, there are additional challenges.
Air quality and water quality issues do not respect geopolitical boundaries. These are regional issues that we all need to address together. That is a fact that President Obama, HUD Secretary Ron Sims, and HUD’s new Director of the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, Shelley Poticha, clearly recognized when they chose St. Louis last week to talk about federal grants to promote regional sustainability.
St. Louis County executive Charlie Dooley and I have been talking for a while about new partnerships. Sustainability is at the top of our list.
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Friday, March 5, 2010
Workerbee
Several members of Congress, including Rep. Sam Graves of northwest Missouri, have proposed replacing the image of former President Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 bill with that of former President Ronald Reagan.
I am – at least for purposes of a blog argument - willing to horse trade with the congressmen.
Put the Gipper’s visage on the fifty, but put Grant’s name on the new Mississippi River Bridge, which was designated the Ronald Wilson Reagan Memorial Bridge by the Missouri General Assembly in August, 2005.
Grant, as every St. Louisan knows, was a St. Louis businessman and county resident (“Grant’s Farm”). The US Grant Bridge seems fitting, right?
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Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Residency Rule
The history of the City’s residency rule is interesting. It was first imposed because we could, then retained because we had to. The current situation of requiring most employees (veteran police officers and some specialty employees are exempted) to live within the city limits is somewhere between the two. I personally agree that City employees should accept residency as a condition of employment, but I do not believe that it would be the end of world if that were not so. Over the past decade, the City has become a much more livable place – and there are great neighborhoods that match pretty much every taste and income. School choices have improved. There are a great many more things to do in the City than in the county. The fact is, I think that most employees would live in the City by choice these days. If they chose to to move out, there are many people who would move in.
It is possible that City employees may get just that choice. A bill being considered by the Board of Aldermen would put the issue of mandatory residence for city employees on the ballot. Changing the rule would require an amendment to the City Charter, a change that would require the approval of 60 percent of those voting in a municipal election.
Reasonable people can debate the merits of a residency rule. But, I strongly believe that City voters, not legislators from other parts of the state, should make the decision. So, I support giving our voters a chance to have their say, and strongly oppose legislation in Jefferson City that would repeal the rule without a vote of the people.
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Thursday, March 4, 2010
BB 304
I am concerned about some provisions of a bill currently being considered by the Board of Aldermen. BB 304 would restrict the sale of some useful cold medicines without a doctor’s prescription. The Missouri towns of Gerald, Poplar Bluff, Union, and Washington have already passed such ordinances. So has the state of Mississippi. Meth is not a big problem in the City of St. Louis, but the bill’s sponsor argues that other drug addicts use over-the-counter cold medicine as currency to buy illegal drugs here.
A clause of the St. Louis bill would require the Board of Aldermen to weigh the inconvenience the new ordinance will cause against the possibility that pseudoephedrine products might be used in the illegal production of methamphetamine. To that stated requirement, I would add another: I believe that aldermen should also weigh the fact that a significant number of their constituents do not have readily affordable access to physicians. Should being poor, uninsured, and having a bad cold be the occasion for violating a City ordinance?
The production and sale of meth is already illegal. And Federal law already prohibits the sale of products containing pseudoephedrine except from locked cabinets and behind the counter, limits the monthly amount an individual can purchase, requires photo IDs, and makes retailers keep records of purchasers.
I think this well-intentioned bill needs more thought. I hope the Board pauses to see if the problem warrants the solution. Before drawing any final conclusions myself, I would like to hear from Chief Dan Isom and his narcotics officers.
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Thursday, March 4, 2010
Mother Teresa
(Thanks, Colleen Carroll Campbell, for writing about this last week in the Post-Dispatch.)
A group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation has mounted a campaign to lobby against a proposed US Postal Service stamp honoring Mother Teresa. The group says the stamp plan violates a USPS regulation against stamps that “honor religious institutions or individuals whose principal achievements are associated with religious undertakings or beliefs."
Ms. Campbell notes that Mother Teresa’s prior honors (besides Beautitude by Pope John Paul II and honors by most major governments, that is) include the Nobel Peace Prize, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and honorary US citizenship.
Consider this my shot in the campaign in support of the USPS’s original decision to issue the stamp bearing the visage of a great humanitarian. Unless the USPS reconsiders, the stamp will be available on April 17. I plan to put it on my holiday cards.
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