Four More Years Or FORTY More Years?

This is a post adapted from one of my Daddy Diaries blog posts for tesh.com

This is not a political rant.  We don’t do political rants on Tesh.com.  But it does have to do with politics, and it’s something that’s been on my mind as a Dad. 

The election is over.  The ads are off the air.  The robocalls have stopped.  The hate has (sort of) begun to recede.  It doesn’t matter who you voted for, I hope you voted.  If your people won, good for you.  If they lost, I’m sorry.  If you didn’t vote, you missed your chance to do something that could have made a difference, and that’s a shame.

We all have a challenge ahead of us as parents now that the election is over and we can concentrate on our lives and families.  Think of OUR parents, whether they were from the World War II era or the Vietnam era.  They all worked hard, often for the same company most of their adult life, to make sure WE had a better life than they did.  They knew the world could be better and tried their best to make it that way, not always for them, but always for us, their children. 

Despite their best intentions and hard work, the world may not be better for their children, otise known as US, than they would have wanted it to be.  It’s not their fault, it’s not our fault, there’s no time to be pointing fingers to whose fault it is.  As someone I used to work with often said, “it is what it is”. 

Every generation has wanted the next generation to have a better life than theirs.  I don’t hear people of my generation talking about that very often, often because we’re trying to figure out how to make our own lives better and not thinking about our children.  It’s a new world in a million different ways, ways our parents could have never predicted.  It’s not simple, it’s not perfect, but it is what it is.  And it’s the world our kids are growing up in, the world we’re supposed to be making better for them.

So we’re finished with all the partisanship and electioneering for four more years.  What about the next forty years?  Or the next eighty years?  What are you doing to make sure the world that our kids inherit from us is better than the world we live in right now?  Stop and think about it.  I’m guessing you can do more.  Let me know how you’re going to make the world better for your children, and THEIR children, in the comments below.

Glenn Beck Is After Me!

Funny Or Die's Presidential Reunion

Comedy with a message, directed by Ron Howard. As Tom Hanks once said, "That Opie Cunningham can sure cut some film".

Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell

FROM THE DESK OF ST. LOUIS MAYOR SLAY

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Saturday, September 26, 2009 Bob Baer and Metro In December 2007, I wrote here that I had every confidence that interim Metro president Bob Baer would do a great job of restoring public trust in Metro’s direction that had been lost by its previous managers. Looking at a new study of public opinion about Metro, it is clear that Bob’s leadership has done that. People’s concerns about Metro’s future have once again focused on issues other than its management. Instead worrying as much about its litigation strategy and lack of fiscal oversight, people now are talking wanting the region’s public transportation system to go more places, to be more convenient to their homes and offices, and to be safe. That’s Bob Baer’s mark at Metro so far: he has reassured us that the transportation agency in back on track. To my surprise and pleasure, Bob Baer has agreed to become Metro’s permanent president. As its top official, he will be very prominent in the public discussion of Metro’s request for additional revenues to maintain and expand public transportation in the region. St. Louis County voters will be the first to weigh Bob’s arguments, most likely at an election this coming year. But, voters in St. Charles County , Jefferson County , and in southern Illinois will not be far behind. (City voters have already approved additional funding.) The stakes are high: a useful and efficient system of public transportation is one of the keys of the region’s economic prosperity. The panic of suburban employers over recent budget-related cut-backs in service surely reminded everyone of the stakes. I do not envy Bob Baer the challenges ahead. I cannot think of anyone else more likely to overcome them. He will have my strong support.

via mayorslay.com

Some observations to the actual words of Mayor Francis Slay's own words (because he would never use a professional PR person to write the blog) are here:

TO MY SURPRISE AND PLEASURE????????? Surprise because Mr. Baer, who is not a bad guy, has accepted the second worst job in St. Louis, the worst being in charge of attracting major national conventions here. But he's pulling in 190K a year, so he should be able to afford enough antidepressants to make the job worth his while.

THE PANIC OF SUBURBAN EMPLOYERS OVER RECENT BUDGET RELATED CUT-BACKS IN SERVICE SURELY REMINDED EVERYONE OF THE STAKES. Yeah, nobody within the city limits must have cared about the gutting of the bus system. Is that what you're trying to tell us, Mr. Mayor? When's the last time you've been to where the buses used to run in South City, or perhaps at AG Edwards/Wachovia/Wells Fargo on Market Street? I forgot, the city is wonderful and the county is EVIL and that's why you want to combine them into one completely dysfunctional unit of government.

HE WILL HAVE MY STRONG SUPPORT. Until I have to tell all the suburbanites on TV or Charlie "I Hate Metro" Brennan's show that I support a tax increase that will not build a nice new Arch Grounds, Sculpture Garden, or Ballpark Village.

Personally, I think Bob Baer, Jessica Mefford-Miller, and other very dedicated people really do want the system to improve and better serve its customers. The problem is that County Executive Charlie Dooley, Mayor Slay, a posse of legislators in Jefferson City, and tens of thousands of citizens are working hard to make sure the St. Louis region STAGNATES because nobody with political and public opinion influence will properly explain the benefits of a good mass transit system and how a small tax increase will benefit everyone in the area, even the elected officials who wouldn't be caught dead on a bus unless it was for a photo op when unused buses are turned into cooling shelters.

COMMENTS ARE WELCOME AT HTTP://MARKONTHEWEB.BLOGSPOT.COM

Posted via web from Mark Edwards 3.0

PRAISE FOR METRO ST. LOUIS!

Its no secret that I've been more than a little bit critical of Metro, the St. Louis public transit system, for their incomprehensible lack of decent management and horrendous service cuts. The cuts have made thousands of people in the St. Louis region change their commuting habits, and many even change their jobs.

I won't rehash old posts, but I've written below about the tremendous efforts of the Mayor and staff of the city of Chesterfield, MO to get service restored to that suburb. For that I am eternally grateful. Now comes word from Metro that
a significant amount of bus service is likely to be restored in August of this year.

Assuming Missouri Governor Jay Nixon finds the bill on the pile of unsigned laws on his desk and signs it in the near future, about a third of the bus service that was slashed earlier this year will be returned.

It ain't over til its over, but it looks like Metro has worked hard to get the money they need and put it where its most needed. I applaud them on their efforts and only hope everything goes as planned.

Of course, the situation will be updated here.

LAST MINUTE DEAL SAVES SOME WEST COUNTY BUS SERVICE

From stltoday.com:

Metro OKs buses to job centers
By Ken Leiser
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/27/2009

Buses will continue to roll to employment centers in the Chesterfield Valley through the end of the year under a tentative agreement announced today.

Massive service cuts will take effect on Monday and were to cut off bus service west of Interstate 270. But Chesterfield Mayor John Nations today pledged more than $173,000 to create a new route that will reach employers along the Highway 40 corridor.

That will represent the local match for a federal job access and reverse commute grant, said Metro Ray Friem, Metro's senior vice president for transit operations. Fare collections will cover the remainder of the cost.

Metro's board of commissioners authorized its top executive, Bob Baer, to negotiate details of the agreement with Chesterfield and others who are working to maintain bus service to far west St. Louis County through Dec. 31.

"Public transportation is an extremely important element of building a good business climate and consequently creating a good quality of life," Nations told reporters after today's Metro Board of Commissioners meeting.

The new route would begin at the Clayton MetroLink station, then go to the Ballas bus transfer center and points west along Highway 40.

Nations said there are 26,000 jobs in Chesterfield alone and public transportation is "an integral part" of that effort. It is critical to the nursing homes, hospitals and service sectors.

Chesterfield's pledge could include a mix of public and private money from businesses that have so far agreed to cover part of the cost, Nations said. Businesses may wind up funding the entire local share.

Some Metro commissioners expressed concerns about authorizing the 11th-hour deal without all of the specifics in hand. But others said it was important to prevent a disruption in bus service to parts of the region.

Metro, the region's largest transit agency, will dramatically scale back the reach of its bus system - wiping out two dozen bus routes and modifying others. Beginning Monday, service will be suspended to 2,300 of the 9,000 bus stops and bus shelters in the Missouri half of Metro's system.
MetroLink trains will run less frequently on both sides of the Mississippi River during peak commute periods.
Buses and trains that remain are expected to be more crowded.

This is significantly less service than there is today, but it is service that will reach the retail centers, nursing homes, and hospitals that were about to be cut off from public transit.

I applaud the hard work of The City of Chesterfield and especially Libbey Malberg, the city's Assistant City Administrator for Community Services & Economic Development. This is a rare example of a city government (Chesterfield, NOT St. Louis) working hard and committing resources in order to maintain jobs and quality of life for its citizens.

Of course, Metro has not posted official word of this deal or released the final route map and schedules. If this route starts Monday, they've got some quick work to do, something they aren't always known for.

In any event, this is a little victory, and for that I am thankful.

St. Louis Moves Closer To Second Class City Status

Please let me make it perfectly clear that this, uh, rant is my PERSONAL opinion only and has no connection to my employment or employer.


On November 4th, voters in St. Louis County voted down a half cent sales tax that, among other things, would fund public transit in the region, called Metro. Prop M was defeated because St. Louis is simply not a "mass transit" town, and the people behind the measure had no clue how to get it sold to the electorate. I have to share my thoughts on this, both because I am deeply concerned about the economic future of the St. Louis region and because I rely on public transportation due to my visual handicap.

The failure of Prop M will hurt not only the riders of Metro, but the region as a whole. Businesses in places like the Chesterfield Valley (near where I live) and the Hospital Corridor (St. John's, MoBap, St. Luke's) will be unable to hire employees who have had no other way to get to work than public transit. Business in the city will even have problems getting people to work for them when applicants have no other means to get to work than public transit. Let's face it, some of these people are the ones who need (and will take) jobs the most. Frequency of service throughout what's left of the MetroBus and MetroLink system, will be reduced, and in the end fares will go up.

Nothing good has come out of this service reduction manifesto. The campaign to get the measure passed was a joke, filled with touchy feely claims about air quality and oversized postcards delivered every day (one day I got THREE different ones) that said NOTHING of substance about the measure. Despite what was said by others, it was almost impossible for a reasonably intelligent St. Louis County resident to get the full details of the proposition within the context of the campaign to pass it. This was mishandled by Metro, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley's office, and stakeholders in Metro's continued viability. In short, it was one of the most ill conceived and poorly executed campaigns in modern history.

We can't change what's going to happen in March, but we should hold those responsible for this fiasco accountable for their actions. How many Bi-State Board members ride the bus on a regular basis? I'm guessing not many. When's the last time Mr. Dooley (pictured) or his lackeys stood out in the cold waiting for a bus that is woefully behind schedule or simply never comes? The smart money says NEVER. These people were charged with getting this measure passed, and they failed in grand style. Now hundreds of thousands of people in the region will pay for their folly, both the people who depended on Metro to get around and the business owners who needed public transit to get their employees to and from work.

Can the system be fixed? Probably not. Our region has had substandard mass transit for years, and its gotten worse. Good luck attracting new business to the area once they find out their workers pretty much have no option but to drive to work if they live in the suburbs. Fat chance attracting major conventions and athletic events when there's no viable public transit in St. Louis.

Can the people who made the measure fail because they weren't men (or women) enough to tell St. Louisians what would REALLY happen if the measure failed be held accountable? ABSOLUTELY. And once employees and employers see what a disservice their elected officials and Metro have done for them, opposition will come forward.

Hey Charlie, what time will your driver pick me up to take me to work on March 30th? Since you and your stooges, along with the completely disconnected Bi-State Board have made my bus vanish, I'm sure you'll want to make sure that I, as someone who can help vote you and your henchmen out of office when the time comes, will want to make sure I can keep working and paying taxes.

Or do you even care?

KEZK In Time Magazine

So I'm minding my own business reading the new issue of Time magazine. There's an article in it about race and the upcoming election focusing on Lincoln County, Missouri, an area not far from St. Louis. Imagine my surprise when I took a good look at the photo. If you have the print edition, its easier to see, but a close inspection of the picture on the web site (try clicking the "enlarge" button next to the photo) shows that the man on the right is wearing a KEZK t-shirt! For those who don't know, KEZK is one of the radio stations I program in St. Louis.

Here's the link to the story online from the Time website Its in the October 20 issue of Time, available on newsstands now.

It takes so little to make me happy.