Championing the City

Last night, in Detroit, Community Next hosted a town hall meeting. Community Next is Detroit's online community hub for young adults, and decided to host the meeting in order to figure out what additional resources or opportunities would interest the young adults it serves. The main draw was a well known business leader who recently moved his headquarters to downtown Detroit.

What started off with a simple enough premise was, to some degree, hijacked by a group of ten or so young adults who had chosen to move to downtown Detroit and focused on championing the merits of the urban lifestyle. While many of the other, suburban young adults raised objections about safety and access to groceries and other necessities, this ardent group of civic champions battled every claim.

While Community Next might not have received the information they hoped, perhaps they were given a message they (and we) need to hear. There are Jewish young adults who refused to be scared away from our urban centers and are at the forefront of rebuilding our cities.

In St. Louis, people like David Singer, of Warehouse of Fixtures, which offers new and used office furniture, or Jeff and Randy Vines of STL Stylehave decided not only to locate their businesses in the city, but also their residences.

What would happen, if here in St. Louis, we tried hosting a town hall of the same sort? Would the young urbanists even bother showing up? After all, so much of our community infrastructure is based in the county, with only one synagogue in the city itself. Many of the young adults in this community bear the cautiousness and concerns of their suburban parents, while being almost totally ignorant about the actual contents of the city. What would happen, thought, if that meeting were to take place, and the 'city Yids' actually made a strong and impassioned case for living in the city? What if the city became cool enough that it was worth taking 'risks' to live in?

Despite all of the trash talking that takes place about Detroit, maybe we in St. Louis could learn a thing or two. Read More......

St. Louis Public Transportation; A Call To Action

St. Louis loves to fight over its public transportation. After losing an vote in the county, Metro is cutting back service dramatically, leaving around 12,000 people without the transportation they have relied on to get to work.

The St. Louis Activist Hub, State Senator Joan Bray issued a call to action. Read on for the juicy details and my letter to Governor Nixon.

At a Metro public forum Friday, State Senator Joan Bray called for a HUGE mobilization in the next WEEK or two to push for urgent state funding to reverse the drastic Metro cuts taking effect Monday, which will leave 12,000 people with no access to transportation whatsoever, and the rest of us with a 43% reduction in service. Metro gets less than 1% of its funding from the state of Missouri - just $1.3 million out of a $221 million budget - while other states (Illinois included) get 1/2 their public transit funding from the state.

We need to contact Governor Nixon & our statewide elected officials and urge him to devote state funding to rescue Missouri's public transportation. Public transit helps our economy, puts people to work, gets people to their jobs, and creates a vibrant, healthy community. Tell the governor what you think...
Governor Jay Nixon
(573) 751-3222
http://governor.mo.gov/contact/
http://transform.mo.gov/share/
and contact your state legislators here: http://www.senate.mo.gov/llookup/leg_lookup.aspx
and toll-free here: 1-800-826-8855

Governor Nixon,

Please consider the following: St. Louis Metro gets less than 1% of its funding from the state of Missouri and is making dramatic service cuts that will leave over 12,000 people without transportation (which they need for work) as well as a 43% reduction in service for the rest of us.

The most prosperous cities in this nation have functional public transportation. Other states (Illinois included) get 1/2 their public transit funding from the state.

Public transportation represents an investment beyond simple infrastructure and immediate jobs. It represents a shift towards a more efficient urban core and a move towards capacity building.

Given that St. Louis is the regional economic engine, that public transportation is an important facet of that economic growth, and that Missouri has traditionally dramatically underfunded this important piece of infrastructure, I respectfully urge you to provide additional funds to the St. Louis public transportation system.

More info on the St. Louis Activist Hub here.
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Through the haze, I see the dawning of a Smoke-Free St. Louis

Is it possible that St. Louis will go smoke-free in public places? Can it be true? It's going to take joint leadership and political courage, but I smell it coming (pun intended).

Efforts to enact a public smoking ban have failed in the past, so the battle is nothing new. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported today on the renewed attempt.

Whether the new effort succeeds might depend on whether the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County could enact a ban simultaneously. None of their leaders wants to go it alone and put their bars and restaurants at a disadvantage against competitors in a neighboring jurisdiction.

Not wanting to wait for government action on the issue, many establishments have decided to (gasp!) voluntarily go smoke-free, and kudos to them. St. Louis City has good representation of smoke-free places: the Royale, Erato, the Gelateria, Bailey's Chocolate Bar, the Gramophone (Y!- I know you're all over that one), the ChurchKey, etc, etc.

There are community efforts surfacing to make this happen. Check out Smoke-Free St. Louis City on Facebook or on their website. You can voice your opinion on KSDK's poll about a smoke free ban.

I think it goes without saying that smoking is unhealthy and poses a public health threat, so I'll leave it at that. Wouldn't it be great if this ban goes through and St. Louis does something moderately forward-thinking? Already 34 states have either full or partial smoking bans, and in those states without one, countless cities and counties have enacted their own. We definitely wouldn't be the first city, but we won't be last either!
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What's next for the city schools?

A few days ago, the Missouri Supreme court ruled to uphold the state’s June 2007 takeover of the St. Louis city public schools. This ruling should put an end to all the legal fighting that’s gone on in the past year and a half. Now all that's left to do is get to work reforming SLPS to revive a school system that's been struggling by on life support.

According to the lawyer for the state-appointed school board, the court's ruling ends any "uncertainty" surrounding who has the authority to make decisions around SLPS, which "allows the special administrative board to really focus on improving the educational product in the St. Louis public schools and to get on with the reforms that the board feels are necessary" (read more on the ruling here).

...great, so now what? What on earth are they going to do to tackle the problems SLPS faces?

Since I was curious to find out, I read (most of) the “Comprehensive Long Range Plan” put together by the Special Administrative Board that was appointed to takeover the schools when they lost accreditation. If you’re interested, it’s available online for the public. It sounds like they have some good ideas to improve things, but the real trick will be implementing them.

For any of us Yids to see a long-term future in St. Louis city (I’m talking marriage, kids – the whole shebang), I think good schools are a pretty important factor. I’m enjoying the Lou for now, but being a 20-something living and working here is way different than raising a family here, obviously.

I guess now that the legal barriers have been cleared, we can watch to see what the state-appointed school board does. I’m slightly hopeful that things will get better (it doesn’t seem like they can get much worse), but I won’t hold my breath.
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A Response to Blagojevich

For some perspective on a scandal that hits right across the river here in St. Louis, we look to Ira Forman, Executive Director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, who Y? and I met last weekend in New York

Ira Forman is at the forefront of the policy-shaping process in the Jewish community, as the Executive Director of the National Jewish Democratic Council. So who better to provide some context and analysis of the recent scandal embroiling Rod Blagojeivch, the embattled governor of Illinois?

For those who don't know, Governor Blagojevich was taken into federal custody earlier this week for allegedly attempting to sell Barack Obama's now vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder. Clearly one of the most brazen acts of corruption in recent political history to say the least.

As St. Louis Jews, this scandal matters because what happens in Illinois matters. The St. Louis region really does encompass two states, and the governor of one of those states is going down.

Check out Forman's reponse here, where he says that the scandal reminds Democrats how vigilant we have to be in order to keep the power we now have from turning corruptive.

What do you think? Is Forman just seeing the scandal through rose-colored glasses, or is this really an opportunity for Democrats? Do Blagojevich's actions taint the Democratic party as a whole, or does the blame stay with him and not spread farther? It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the days and weeks to come, both here at home and nation-wide.
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A Dumb Question: Joe the Plumber

From a concerned reader:

"I'm getting ready to buy a company that makes 250..270 uh 280 thousand dollars a year, your new tax plan is going to tax me more, now isn't it?"

When I heard the now famous Joe quoted on my NPR pod cast asking that question, I let forth the same series of expletives I normally reserve for Bushisms. What a stupid question! Yes, if you are making two-hundred and fifty THOUSAND dollars, you should pay more taxes then someone like me who makes on the order of 25 thousand/year. Even at the proposed higher tax percentages, you still have a s**t load of money.

Call me a socialist - and yes, I will admit to having lived on a kibbutz - but I like having community and government programs. I like schools. I like police forces. I even like roads. And I want my central governing body to govern these systems and programs that are utilized by everyone in my community / country. Furthermore, as a logical thinking citizen, I want everyone to contribute to the financing of these programs. Because, let's face it, the small town volunteer-part time fire department that works ok on limited equipment in a small rural town population 400, isn't going to cut it in St. Louis city. Jews especially should recognize the importance of supporting community structure, because the concept of community is central to our religion. Not only do we have an additional obligation as Jews to tithe 1/10 of our income towards tikun olam (Literally fixing the world), but also think about the nature of the synagogue, the structure of our holidays, and the value placed on inherently communal aspects of society such as a school or the mikvah (ritual pool). Interestingly, the money that we set aside for tithing isn't even really ours to give, but we should think about it as if we were merely the one responsible for allocating it . So if you can agree that we need these services, and we as a community benefit from the existence of these services, then you must realize that someone has got to anti-up the cash.

So why should Joe, who probably doesn't have kids in school or need medicaid, have to give more to fund these services? I'd like to invoke the Marxian statement "each according to his ability," but I have a feeling you would jump on my ironically not red behind and stop reading. So let's take a Jewish example of undue burden. A synagogue needs to pay its bills, and high holiday tickets are a key source of funding. While $100 a seat is nothing for my parents, that kind of fee would be a serious burden for me. I'm sure many of you enjoyed your free seat at services a few weeks ago - or if you didn't go, at least cost wasn't the obstacle. The same applies to our larger, more secular community. Why should a family be forced to choose between health care and food? It's not just a percentage, but an impact factor.

Now you might be saying, "I get it - I pay my taxes. I just don't want to pay MORE taxes then I already am." Wake up and smell the poverty. Look around you, not in tower grove or the central west end, but a little further east. I'm not writing to argue about wasteful government spending, but - fact - there are people in need. And as a Jew - and as a person - I am obligated to do what I can to help them.

Sadly, taxes are just one example of our nation shunning civic duty. While sitting at a conference last Friday, I overheard the gentleman sitting behind me bragging about how he made himself enough of a nuisance to be excused from jury duty. I almost punched him. He was proud of his failure to provide his peer with the most fundamental component of our judiciary system. Now this is St. Louis city, so probably the person on trial shared little of this graduate student's socio-economic, racial, or cultural background. But, I'm sorry, since when do civic duties - jury, taxes, or otherwise, stop at those boundaries? I'll get off my soap box now, but I had to say something. Particularly for a young, Jewish blog, the posts were just getting too conservative.

--Editor's note: We strive to incorporate a diverse range of opinions, and our bloggers love to hear from you. If you have a comment please comment on specific posts, as different authors tend to espouse very different viewpoints.
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