Hey all,
Small & informal Drinks and Mortar tonight, Tuesday the 25th, at Triumph Grill, 3419 Olive. 7pm onward. Booze and appetizers, in a motorcycle-themed space designed by our friend Andrew Peppin. Spread the word!
Claire N-B
Come steal my fries tonight. It’s Dewey time.
Dewey Decimal Drinks are a little early this month. They will take place this Saturday, November 8th, starting at 7pm at the Atomic Cowboy, 4140 Manchester in The Grove. The Cowboy is an ol’ favorite of mine, and I’m hoping the weather is just right such that we can partake of the giiiiiiant bonfire they get going on their patio during the fall. Bonfire, cocktails, camaraderie…. and just in case you need further incentive, frequent-visitor-of-small-town-libraries DJ Darren Snow will be spinnin’ tunes. And the Atomic Cowboy STILL has my favorite French fries in St. Louis (and Tex Mex food, to boot).
I hope to see y’all for a nice lil’ low key Dewey Decimal Drinks this Saturday. Bring yourself, bring your friends, just don’t bring us your overdue books….
Claire Nowak-Boyd
myspace.com/deweydecimaldrinks
clairelovesthecity {at} gmail.com
YES yes YESSSSS yes we CAN!
OH MY GOD Y’ALL YES YES YES YES YES YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! People were crying! People were screaming! Strangers were hugging! Up here on the Near North Side I STILL hear cars and even a train honking! Volunteering on the North Side for the Obama campaign over the last couple of days, I mean…. this….. we…….. to see so many people up here excited about politics, exercising their voting rights for the first time in so long (sometimes for the first time ever)…. to hear back from The Ville that there was a 95% turnout up there….. THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. This. is. beautiful. This is what empowerment looks like.
I looove where I live, but living here and vacationing in places like Detroit and Gary does not exactly lead one to be able to express unqualified positive thoughts about one’s country. Walk out your front door and see people pushing shopping carts full of scrap metal up the street because that’s the only way they can find to feed themselves, see that on a regular basis, with a backdrop of making visits to abandoned factories where there SHOULD be jobs for these people, and seeing the ghosts of beautiful and ripe-for-activity small town downtowns that have been discarded over the course of a few short decades….. Like I said, I love it here, but usually my feelings about this country are smattered with asterisks. But tonight I am so, so proud to live here, so proud to be an American, so proud of all my friends and neighbors. YES WE CAN! We really, really can.
Yes we can, yes we did, yes yes YESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We did it!
An open letter about public transit in St. Louis, by my friend Liz Kramer (a.k.a. Miss MetroLink)
9/7/2008
Dear friends,
In the current election season, there are many decisions that we will make as a country that will affect our future in ways we can only begin to imagine. Yet inside our small microcosm of St. Louis County, we will be making a decision that will affect how the city and the regional area can grow in the years ahead.
Many of you have heard me rail on this topic in the last few weeks, promising a letter and more information about the upcoming vote on the sales tax hike. After recent publicity on the negative influences of Metrolink, it has become even more essential to bring this issue to the attention of county voters.
On the November 4th county ballot, there will be three sales tax increase proposals, including one very important half-cent tax increase to fund transit. Without this increase, Metro will find itself operating at a substantial operating deficit, estimated at about $45 million of the $226 million budget in 2009. As a result of the loss of federal and state funds, the difficult economic situation and what many call mismanagement, Metro, like so many other public transit entities, is searching for additional subsidies by regional users to stay afloat.
Unfortunately for Metro, as a publicly funded entity, it cannot advocate for itself to the voting population. Similarly, some of its biggest proponents (large nonprofits many of us are very familiar with) find it difficult to advocate on an institutional level on Metro’s behalf. It falls to the local media and the individual voters to educate each other on the extreme impact of this situation.
If this proposal does not pass on November 4th, Metro will implement cuts so deep that even regular business activities in the region will be required to alter dramatically. Details of these cuts are available on the Metro website, with a sampling below:
- Elimination of most bus service in far West, South and North counties outside of Interstate 270
- Reductions between 25 and 75% for large portions of the inner-ring county and extended city
- No service after 8 PM on bus or rail
- No special event MetroLink service for games, Fair St. Louis or other festivals
- Reduction in service hours and frequency of service on both MetroLink and MetroBus
- Reduction in Call-a-Ride availability and no Call-a-Ride in areas where service is reduced
Further information on these cuts are available online.
These reductions will be devastating to our region, with 50% of County residents losing all their service, and 41% of City residents losing at least half their service. The overall economic impact cannot be foretold, but 35% of jobs currently served by transit would lose all their transit services. The details on routes that will be cut and reduced (including the number of people served by each route annually) are available on the Metro website.
If this sales tax initiative passes, however, Metro will have an opportunity for expansion of bus service, venturing into Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), increasing MetroBus availability and expanding the MetroLink to more areas that need it most. As gas prices continue to rise, and as more employers attempt to discourage employees from driving to work by increasing parking costs, the St. Louis region needs a modern transit system ready to expand and grow as our city grows. St. Louisians of all classes need access to safe, frequent and rapid transit to get out for work and play, and Metro is poised to become that successful and economically viable system.
I have no doubt that all of you will be voting in the November 4th election, but please take the time to also vote to support Metro. Many may argue that funding Metro’s mismanagement is just asking for more trouble, but without our support, Metro will never be able to improve beyond that image. Others may say that Metro is bringing crime to our safe neighborhoods, and while I can’t prove it otherwise, please weigh it in relation to the good Metro does for our region—providing access to jobs, downtown and reducing our carbon footprint.
Don’t waste all the good money that’s been invested in this system. Once Metro takes to a downward spiral of reduced service and access, it will be very difficult to change public opinion about Metro as a useable system. Many people (including some of you) rely on Metro for their primary mode of transit. Share this information with your friends throughout the St. Louis region, and protect our public transit on November 4th.
Thanks for supporting Metro and happy riding,
Liz Kramer
[1] Garrison, Chad. “Blood on the Tracks.” Riverfront Times. 8/20/2008. http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2008-08-20/news/out-of-control-shoplifting-at-the-st-louis-galleria-violent-attacks-in-the-delmar-loop-is-metrolink-a-vehicle-for-crime/#Comments
[2] Hampel, Paul. “3 sales tax hikes likely to be on St. Louis County ballot Nov 4.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 9/2/2008. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/A1194AAF68F646CB862574B80010B57D?OpenDocument
[3]Lieser, Ken. “Metro’s plan to cut routes could leave many lost in the gap.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 9/2/2008. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/9EB21D61AF10D823862574B8000C61EF?OpenDocument
[4]http://www.metrostlouis.org/crossroads/metroServiceCuts.asp
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_rapid_transit
For more information please take a look at Metro’s website: http://www.metrostlouis.org/crossroads/default.asp
To get involved in public transportation advocacy in St. Louis: http://www.cmt-stl.org/
To speak your mind about Metro’s proposed cuts: http://www.metrostlouis.org/crossroads/publicHearings.asp
Thank you to everyone who came to MetroLink Prom.
…here are most of you in a photograph!
You can see a large version here, if you would like.
I had a great time, and was pleasantly surprised at the large turn-out and how enthusiastic everybody was. I barely have the energy left for words at this point, but just wanted to implore you to please, please, vote yes on Proposition M on the 4th. And if you don’t live in St. Louis County, please talk to your friends, relatives, and coworkers who do and ask them to vote yes on M. Without serious public transit service, our entire region would grind to a screeching halt. If M passes, transit in St. Louis will get better, but if it fails, MetroLink would shut off at 8pm and there would be virtually no service outside of 270. What kind of city would we be if the train shut off at 8, really? I mean…. that’s……. my life… would cease to function. Even if I were to be able to get myself fixed up with car and license promptly, I don’t know that I could live in a city that didn’t have a viable transit system. Let’s keep our region functional and respectable and lovely, and vote yes on Prop M!
Entreaties: Leave this abandoned building alone
You can paint eyes on it, telling people they’re being watched.
You can ask nicely, because you don’t know what else to do.
You can use spraypaint, and make your lettering resemble ectoplasm.
I have been known to post a few signs, from the computer-made faux authoritative such-and-such is watching this property, to the slopped-together, handwritten “BRICK THEFT IS ILLEGAL. WE CALL POLICE.” I don’t know if it ever actually makes a difference, but at the least you want to know that you tried to make it stop.
