Metrolink Vote TODAY!

If you are registered to vote in St. Louis County, please take 10 minutes today to vote for Proposition A, in favor of restored and expanded public transportation.

As Vince Schoemehl put it:

I currently serve as the Chair of the Metro Transit Agency Board and writing to ask you to vote in favor of Proposition A, Tuesday, April 6 if you live in St. Louis County. If you don’t live in the County could you please contact a friend, relative or work associate who might be able to cast a ballot for this extremely important measure. Prop A narrowly failed in November, 2008 and as a result Metro had to drastically slash service in March of 2009. We were able to restore part of this service with a one-time appropriation from the State of Missouri which came from federal stimulus funds. This funding runs out June 30 of this year and there is no prospect of this appropriation being renewed.

In all my years in civic and political life I have never seen as stark a choice for our community. If Prop A passes we can restore MetroBus, MetroLink and Call-A-Ride service and we can begin to build a truly competitive transit system. If Prop A fails Metro will be forced to lay off 650 Metro employees and again cut service to a nub of what it is today.

If you have any questions about Prop A please feel free to e-mail me or call me but I have attached a link below to an interview with John Nations, the Mayor of Chesterfield who is running the campaign. John does an excellent job in this interview of explaining the benefits of Prop A and addresses quite effectively some concerns that have been raised about the proposal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xCirycGq3c

Thanks for your consideration and I hope you can help us make Metro the important part of our regional economy that it has the potential to be.

Vincent C. Schoemehl
President and CEO
Grand Center, Inc.

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Metrolink, MODOT, And You

Tonight, the Missouri Department of Transportation is hosting a meeting to inform citizens about a draft list of projects to be funded through the federal
American Recovery and Revitalization Act.
There are more than a few reasons why you should be upset enough to go to this meeting and state your opinion.

The meeting, which is slated to start at 6 PM at MoDOT’s Transportation Management Center, 14301 South Outer 40 Road, Chesterfield, MO 63017.

The announcement, which was made yesterday (which in and of itself tells you something), seems somewhat cynical. First of all, they seem to not want people there. Or at least, not want city people who may have legitimate concerns. I mean..its in Chesterfield, and they gave little more than 24 hours notice.

Why should you care? Because of the $525 million that MO is slated to receive in federal stimulus money, less than 10% of it is coming to St. Louis. That's right, despite the fact that St. Louis is the main economic engine of the entire state, the fact that it has the largest population concentration in the state, and some serious needs, it won't even get a proportional piece of the pie.

You absolutely can make a difference. Go to this meeting and tell them that it is ridiculous that your tax money should be spent on roads and bridges that are likely to fall into disrepair from under use, while streets in St. Louis are crumbling from over use, particularly as high way traffic is diverted due to 64-40 closures.

At least email MODOT and tell them what you think.

Anybody?

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Don't Drink and Drive... Drink and be Driven!

You wanna make the Metro-link sexy?

How about this:

The Urban League of St. Louis is hosting a MetroMargarita Happy Hour at Beso Wednesday the 24th on Washington Ave downtown.

They are actually incentive-izing taking public transportation. Not only do you get to feel great about saving the environment, you also get drink specials for showing your metro ticket (or U-pass).

Check the details http://here.

Because it's not illegal to be tipsy on the train! Read More......

Big Things Happenning

Your opportunity to help St. Louis and the environment (and save money!).
Plus, UJC reads our blog, you should too.
And, St. Louis makes its case for legitimacy.

So first and foremost, if you remember, in an earlier post, I bemoaned the public transportation here in St. Louis and made a personal commitment to get involved. Turns out that I'm not the only 'concerned citizen', and in fact, there is a large group in St. Louis, called Citizens for Modern Transit, that is working with employers and other citizens to get people to use the Metro system. In conjunction with Thursday June 19th's Dump The Pump day (to encourage people to drive less by riding bikes and taking public transportation), they are offering free metro rides! I couldn't be more excited to ride around all day and night. The trick here is to get people to ride who normally wouldn't, make them comfortable with the safety and ease of the Metro, and then convince them to lather, rinse, repeat.

The second order of business is that our Israel Correspondent's last post, which is certainly worth the read, was discovered by someone at the UJC, and she was offered the chance to participate on another expedition with journalists to the areas affected by constant bombardment from Gaza. Who says blogging can't change lives. (Consequently, if there is anyone out there that wants to give us a grant to write full time, feel free).

Finally, an update to Summer in the City. Yes, St. Louis might have just become a city in my book. What is it, you say, that pushed it over the edge? Was is population growth? An increase in government funding for development?

No, in fact my opinion was changed by two events. The first was meeting the ensemble cast of the upcoming production of The Producers at the Muny at Kim Massie's weekly show at Beale.
The second was my experience at the Botanical Gardens on Wednesday. Every Wednesday, the Botanical Gardens opens up and people flock to see music, have picnics, and just hang out outside. The sheer number and diversity of people there, as well as the general atmosphere, and absolute beauty of the gardens made me feel more at peace with St. Louis perhaps anything has previously. I know, I know, its not that profound, it doesn't seem that special, but do be there and just see the density of sights and sounds, which I generally associate with Chicago or New York, and to have it almost literally in my back yard. . .fantastic!

Check out Kim Massie:



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Reflections on Chicago

I got back late last night after a wonderful weekend in Chicago, filled with camp friends, abundant Jewish females, family, and public transportation. So the question that follows this is:

---edit---What do I need to do to get make that a part of my life in St. Louis?

First, I'm going to make a commitment to start taking public transportation, advocating for it, and finding out how to make it work. Rosh dropped me at the Grand station this morning, cuz the brilliant designers forgot a park n' ride.

I managed to get there just as the train pulled up, but I didn't have a ticket, and the ticket machine was hard to find. I had to decide between hopping on with out a ticket and waiting for the next train. . . hey, I may be cheap, but I have morals, sometimes.

I hopped off at Clayton, a relatively short ride, then walked another 10-15 minutes to the office, cuz I don't know which bus to take.

So now there are three major issues that have come up in this one experience with STL metro transportation.
A. Where is the ability to drop my car off?
B. Why is the ticket system so backwards. Its like Amsterdam, really. Put in a turnstile system like NYC or Chicago, it works, people pay.
C. Why is the metrostl website not super user friendly. I would want to streamline the whole thing so that it comes down to stops, times, and travel planning. Show me an interactive map that isn't from 1995.
D. This didn't so much come up from this one ride, but really, add more lines/stops. Read More......