Mini Poll Archive: 2007

The New Year is a pretty good time to look back — an occasion to take stock of ourselves, our neighborhoods, our City. What things or people were memorable and which better forgotten?

In a sort of People's Choice Awards for the area's youngest artists, MayorSlay.com's Mini-Poll this week presents ten student-drawn Christmas Cards from which you may select your favorite -- and, if you want, e-mail it to your friends.

Immigrants are responsible for most of St. Louis's interesting holiday traditions, including the endless styles of holiday cookies St. Louisans make - and eat. Which holiday traditions do you and your family observe at this time of year?

How do you feel about public transportation in St. Louis -- particularly in light of skyrocketing gas prices and the imminent closure of Highway 40/I-64?

Is print dead? Do you still read printed books, magazines, and newspapers, or does the thought of Amazon's new electronic book reader make you all tingly?

Our traditional Thanksgiving poll is your chance to tally up some blessings and to compare your own family's holiday habits with those of your fellow St. Louisans and Americans.

Do you think we observe enough holidays in the US? Do we celebrate or remember the right things? Is it time to add a few more to the calendar? Or switch a few around? And should there be a St. Louis Day?

The City of St. Louis holds a special place in the international pantheon of pizza. "St. Louis-style" pizza has hundreds of thousands of devoted diners and its own Wikipedia entry. Let us calibrate your feelings about your favorite flatbreads.

This week, MayorSlay.com takes on the issue of debt. Yours, not ours. What things or experiences are worth going into debt? A house, a newer car, an extended education, holiday gifts, season tickets in the Orchestra Circle, an appendectomy? How many credit cards are in your classic quilted Chanel bag?

From our first line in school, straight and quiet, St. Louisans spend innumerable hours of their lives waiting patiently in queue. How do you spend your time in line?

MayorSlay.com wants to measure your particular shade of green. How involved are you, your family, and your neighbors in saving the earth — or, at least, the City?

How far would you go for some St. Louis favorite things — Ted Drewes, the "Rock", Tony's Lobster Albanello, a Cards/Cubs game with the team president?

Are the area's urban critters more of a curiosity or a curse? Does the thrill of beaver dams on the River Des Peres and city foxes make up for the relentless backyard battles against bunnies, moles, voles and slugs?

Should the City and county of St. Louis become parts of some sort of larger entity? Should the many municipalities in St. Louis county be merged into fewer so that duplication of services is reduced?

This week's Mini-Poll from MayorSlay.com attempts to measure your coffee-sense. Do you drink it? Could you ever do without it? Is it healthy or a menace? Are you linked to chain coffee -- or do you make it a point to drink the local stuff?

Are you part of the furniture crowd? Is your living room planned, or did it just happen? Do you seek out eco friendly or recycled furniture? Or is "found in the alley behind Delor" as much recycling as you want to do?

This week's Mini Poll is about luxury items, their worth, and what you are willing to pay or forgo.Is a product worth what someone is willing to pay? Or, are we getting ripped off because we can't control our status envy?

This week's Mini Poll from MayorSlay.com is about secrets and how well you keep them. Are you someone who can't wait to tell a secret, or could Charles Jaco stick bamboo slivers under your fingernails and you still wouldn't tell?

Even though crime is down in St. Louis this year, we don't always feel safe -- and the police can't be everywhere. How can our cities be safer and what can we do to make it so? What are your thoughts about crime, safety, and justice in St. Louis?

YouTube has become one of the Internet's most visited forums for entertainment, edification, and expression. What do you think of it and other online file sharing sites? Do you YouTube? And what do you think of candidates putting their videos online?

Which flags do you wave? Does a tattered US flag or a vintage Confederate battle flag cause you more heartburn? Is it time for the City of St. Louis to find a new flag -- or adopt a symbol? Let us know what you think, and MayorSlay.com will run it up the flagpole.

E-mails and their telephonic cousins, text messages, carry a great deal of the business and personal communications that letters formerly did -- and the general lack of rules for cyber-correspondence has sent appalled bosses and teachers scrambling for a new etiquette for modern communications. What is it that you like most, and hate most, about our ability to communicate at all hours and in all states of sobriety?

Deep summer is when St. Louisans sit by the sides of pools, when we value a theater's climate control more than the movie, when we envy the penguins at the Zoo, when we count down the days until the cooler days of fall. What do you most enjoy in these deep summer days in St. Louis?

Homelessness is a serious and complex challenge for our society. This week's Mini-Poll hopes to measure your attitudes about some of the many issues raised by homelessness -- and, as usual, to encourage civic discussion.

Our City is thick with brewery ghosts, bed-and-breakfast ghosts, cave ghosts, mansion ghosts, church ghosts, theater ghosts, museum ghosts, baseball ghosts, and cemetery ghosts. What about you? Do you believe in ghosts?

This week's Mini Poll wants to count some noses on guns and gun controls. What is your view of the rights accorded citizens by the Second Amendment: Does it establish an absolute right of self defense or merely the right of the State to maintain an armed militia?

If James Madison envisioned our country having public schools for all children, he probably did not consider how free speech would be interpreted within those hallowed halls. What do you think about student first amendment rights?

This week's Mini-Poll focuses on bubbling thermometers and our own little slice of global warming. How does your summer go, and what do you do to cope with soaring outdoor temperatures?

Answer this week's questions about fathers and Father's Day, and we promise to give you some gift suggestions, even if Old Dad still insists that he doesn't want anything.

This week, MayorSlay.com offers its second reading of the Presidential preferences of our readers. Our questions this time around are simple ones: Who do you think will win the Democratic – and Republican – primaries?

Straighten your tie, shine your shoes, and, please, put away that fanny pack. MayorSlay.com -- the most fashion-forward of all the St. Louis websites -- wants to measure your opinions about fashion -- St. Louis-style.

MayorSlay.com wants to set a kind of baseline about how St. Louisans already use the riverfront. So let us know, how many times have you gone down to the river?

When Henry VIII wanted a divorce from Anne Boleyn, he had her beheaded. That is a simple solution that is generally unavailable in contemporary St. Louis. Answer this week's Mini-Poll about your attitudes and observations about divorce.

There are many different kinds of mothers -- ranging from Dickensian disciplinarians to Spockistic softies to the absolutely indifferent. Tell us, do you celebrate Mother's Day with joy or under the pain of some very guilty feelings?

How often have you been trapped in the Land of Hold Please? Can you navigate a phone maze without a compass? Are you an overcharged pushover when pursuing customer satisfaction, or a relentless retail warrior?

On May 18, the Missouri General Assembly will complete a legislative session. This week's Mini-Poll from MayorSlay.com puts you in a seat in the state senate lobby – and gives you the chance to vote Yea, Nay, or Present to several pieces of legislation now being considered in Jefferson City.

With Spring, though, comes the hope of renewal – and a reminder from MayorSlay.com that spring cleaning is still a Must Do in plenty of St. Louis households. So, come clean and tell us all your dirty little secrets in this week's Mini-Poll.

Don't fib, provide proper documentation, file this week's Mini Poll in a timely fashion, and we promise not to disclose your confidential answers to anyone from the IRS.

If Canada and Sri Lanka can have universal health care, why can't we? Answer this week's Mini Poll about the health of health care in our country and let us know whether you really believe that an apple a day actually keeps the doctor away.

St. Louisans love baseball, and for us fans, there is no better time of year than the home opener. Answer MayorSlay.com's second annual Opening Day mini-poll: let's play ball!

With the spring vacation season fast approaching -- and Mayor Slay himself out of City Hall on one of his Mayor-Gone-Wild adventures that will likely include reading a public policy tome in hardback, wearing white sox, and re-painting his garage -- this week's Mini-Poll from MayorSlay.com offers you the opportunity to share your own holiday likes and dislikes.

Are you a gadget person? On which gadgets are you most dependent these days? Which gadgets do you worry about most? And which ones are the best? Answer this week's Mini Poll and tell us what gadgets do for you.

Mayor Francis Slay's announced renovation of Lambert Airport inspired some e-mailers to MayorSlay.com to discuss the general topic of air travel. Check in here to comment about the state of Lambert, air travel, and the foibles of your fellow travelers.

Do you think purchasing power affects social justice? Should it? How much are you willing to pay — or forgo — to eliminate worker exploitation, destruction of the environment, or terrorism?

Have you ever considered how you want your passing to be celebrated or recognized? Share your thoughts with us in this week's Mini-Poll, because — as we all know — there are only two sure things in life: death and taxes.

MayorSlay.com is hardly impartial. We all love Mardi Gras. But, we always want to know if you agree. Answer this week's mini poll, and (as far as we're concerned) laisser les bons temps rouler!

This week's Mini Poll explores the many ways in which to celebrate. How will you celebrate Valentine's Day this year? Share your plans with us, or at the very least, your heartfelt good intentions.

As the debate about our environment continues to heat up, this week's Mini-Poll wants to register your opinion on the subject (and science) of global warming and to let you suggest some national priorities.

No matter whether you root for the Cubs or Cardinals, Bears or Rams, as a region we stand or fall together: We are on the same team. This week's Mini Poll from MayorSlay.com explores the strengths of our connections and whether the region needs another tie to bind us.

Those of us who are cat-people, and we know who we are, smugly boast about our pets' superior intelligence to our sad dog-people friends. What about you? Are you dog-people or cat-peeps? Answer this week's Mini-Poll and don't let your cat cheat and vote more than once.

MayorSlay.com kicks off the 2008 presidential campaign season this week. This is your best chance to establish an important MayorSlay.com baseline: of the donkeys and elephants now being mentioned for president, which one is most likely to be sitting in the Oval Office in January 2009?

MayorSlay.com loves a good food fight. So, we’re giving you the chance to weigh in (a pun we’ve been dying to make) on the issues – Pro and Con – regarding the government regulation of trans fats levels in our food.