Thursday, April 22, 2010

Advice To Those Kickballers

I have received several (OK, exactly 3) emails from members of a kickball league recently kicked out of Tower Grove Park following what the park's director described as a continuing run of bad behavior by some teams or team members. Kickballers from other leagues, and participants in other sports, were not affected.

TGP is an interesting entity. It is governed by a Board of Commissioners appointed under the authority of the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri. The commission sets its rules. I had nothing to do with the decision to ban the kickballers. And I am not going to intervene or mediate the issue. However, were I an organizer of that particular kickball league and I wanted to return to the park some day, I think I might start off by apologizing to the park's commissioners and to the neighbors for behaviors by some people that ruined the experience of many others. Then, I might propose some new league rules and procedures, including some penalties for intolerable behavior, that might assuage managers' and neighbors' concerns.

A lot of St. Louisans have fun playing a field game from their youth. Recalling what the fun part was might resolve a grownup problem.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Strippermobile

A very angry visitor from ... well, she didn't say where she was from, but she was from somewhere else ... sent me a note this week complaining about an experience she had here last weekend. Leaving a ballgame at Busch Stadium and heading back to her hotel, she and her 6 year old encountered the "stripper mobile" that occasionally drives through crowds trolling for customers for an East Side club. You have probably seen it before: truck, plexiglass walls, garish paint job, pole, women in scanty clothing. She had never seen it before and was upset. She also did not like the images painted on the side of the truck.

... I wanted to know if this is legal in your city, and if you were aware personally of this? I was outraged that my daughter and I were exposed to this while walking down the street in broad daylight. It is so hard to raise our children to become Christians and have good morals in this society. It is even harder to do so with strippers shoved in front of your face in broad daylight.

To answer her questions: Yes -- unless the truck is parked or creating a dangerous distraction to drivers -- it is legal in St. Louis. It is also probably legal wherever she comes from, unless the local ordinance banning it hasn't yet been challenged on First Amendment grounds. And, yes, I have heard of the "stripper mobile" -- and, while I haven't seen it, I have seen its giant mobile billboard cousins.

I know that my mention of the note here increases the chance that the club's operator gets a little extra publicity. So be it. I hope that my comment is included: Dear strip club person: I have some influence with the Police Department here. They will determine whether or not your tacky contraption constitutes a dangerous distraction to motorists. With that in mind, please restrict your "runs" until after dark -- and, please, give Busch Stadium a pass during "Kids Weekend."

Monday, April 19, 2010

How Truthful Is That Candidate

Candidate rhetoric often has it own special standards of accuracy, somewhere between the lifestyle promises made by glossy ads in the New York Times Sunday Magazine and the claims of bass fishermen. But, even by the relaxed standards of campaigns, an allegation by a candidate for the Missouri General Assembly stands out as mistaken. He said that the City of St. Louis has cut its police and firefighting forces in half.

So, how "true" is that?

St. Louis has the same number of firefighters today as it had ten years ago. In the same time period, the department's budget has increased 39 percent, including pensions. Most of that increase was eaten up by rising employee and health care costs.

During the same decade, the police budget, including pensions, also increased by 39 percent, but that increase was also eaten up by the cost of benefits. The city actually has 80 fewer police officers today than 10 years ago, but it still maintains one of the largest per capita police forces in the country.

Public safety is a bigger and bigger part of the City budget, as it should be. But, employee benefits -- many which are mandated by the Missouri General Assembly -- have prevented the city from hiring more firefighters and police officers.

It would be interesting to hear what that candidate for the state legislature has to say about that.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Homelessness

A story in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch examines two men who are participating in one of the city's programs to address homelessness. The story is accurate, as far as it goes.

The "Housing First" approach is one of many used by the city and partners. St. Patrick Center and St. Vincent de Paul are two of many strong partners in the city's effort. And the two men profiled in the story are formerly homeless persons now living under roofs in supervised situations.

A paragraph in the story caught my eye: The city of St. Louis, which by far has the region's largest concentration of homeless, had an estimated 1,310 people living in shelters and transitional centers or sleeping outdoors or in abandoned buildings, according to a count in January. That number was down from 1,350 in 2009 and 1,386 in 2007.

Why are the region's homeless people concentrated in the city? Because that's where the best (and, in many cases, only) services -- like Housing First -- are. For the city, this is a problem wrapped in a solution. The more resources city residents expend on homelessness, the greater the magnet it is for the homeless -- many of them mentally and physically ill -- in rest of the region. The two men profiled in the newspaper story are actually from Illinois.

Given the state's planned cuts in mental health services and the region's other governments wariness in addressing homelessness in their own borders, the city remains the only real hope for the region's homeless. I do not believe that a humane government has a choice in providing such services, but clearly elected officials in other municipalities and counties disagree.

Friday, April 16, 2010

CSB Reports On Twitter

Readers may remember that I recently asked City departments to consider new ways to exchange information with residents. Considering my request to be an authorization to experiment, the Citizens Service Bureau -- working with Kara Bowlin -- redesigned its web interface and began testing social media.

This is a report from the CSB (@stlscb) about its first real week on Twitter:

At 6:14 pm someone tweeted about a problem with the signals at 18th & Gratiot.

At 7:52 am we entered the service request to the Traffic Division in our Cityworks system

At 8:12 am the Traffic Dispatcher saw the request on her screen and radio'd the info to the correct crew.

At 8:29 the crew had the signal fixed and radio'd the info back in to the dispatcher, who closed out the request.

At 8:50 am the citizen tweeted back that he was impressed with our turn around time.

Everyone's happy -- and not a single piece of paper was printed through the whole process ... the next step is to get Cityworks moved to the web version so more field supervisors/foremen can have real time access to their requests from the field.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Benjamin Hooks, RIP

Dr. Benjamin Hooks was always partial to his hometown of Memphis, but he left a legacy in many other cities, including ours.

Dr. Hooks, who passed away today at the age of 85, was on the platform or in the vanguard during almost every important moment of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Between 1977 and 1992, he barnstormed around the country rebuilding the national NAACP as an organization of influence. He was, as well, a counsel to presidents, a lawyer of influence, a wise teacher, and a gifted writer. For the last decade, he has been a tireless crusader for children's health issues, particularly the dangers posed by the ingestion of lead.

It was Dr. Hooks to whom I turned for counsel when St. Louis dedicated itself to a systematic effort to eliminate childhood lead poisoning. In the first four years of our plan, we cut childhood lead poisoning in half. And we continue our efforts, still inspired by Dr. Hooks' passionate arguments to save the children.

The citizens of St. Louis owe Dr. Hooks a great deal for his career of service. I join the nation in mourning his passing.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Jackie Robinson Day

Today, at the invitation of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig all Cardinals (and every Astro) will wear the Number 42 on their jerseys to honor the accomplishment and memory of Jackie Robinson. Robinson, a member of Baseball's Hall of Fame, became the first African American to play in the majors when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. His Number 42 was retired throughout baseball in 1997.

The number has some extra significance for Cardinals fans. Number 42 was also retired by the Cardinals in 2006 to honor former pitcher (and Hall of Famer) Bruce Sutter.

The last Cardinal to wear Number 42? Fans in the office think it was third baseman Jose Oliva in 1995. Is that correct?