15thWardSTL.org

This Monday come on down to the Carpenter branch of the St. Louis library (on Grand across from Schnucks) and check out the candidates forum.

Candidates for the Missouri Senate’s 5th district, the Missouri House’s 59th and 67th districts, and the 15th ward committeeman/comitteewoman candidates.

It’s Monday April 14th at 7:00 pm.

Bring your questions!

St. Louis needs to ban smoking in indoor public places. All of them.

This is one that I’m not going to equivocate on. A poll on Francis Slay’s blog last week put the question out there, and it’s since gotten a little chatter in the neighborhood.

A lot of the chatter in this debate swirls around the alleged individual “right” of smokers to choose to smoke. There is a strong point here. In the privacy of one’s home, I agree that people should have the right to smoke cigarettes. In fact, I’ll go most of the smoker’s rights “libertarians” one better- I would support legalization of all drugs.

I am a visually oriented person - I love writing and discussions, but it often takes seeing something firsthand for me to really grasp it. Accordingly, I took a couple minutes to create the following graph of subjects I have touched on here at 15thWardSTL.org over the past few months.

Each issue is rated in three categories: buildings and place (squares), community (circles), and environment (triangles). The size of the icon indicates my perception of the relative "buzz" on that particular issue. Some issues might have more buzz relating to their community component compared to their environmental component, for example. It is interesting to see how the environmental components of these issues appear to be further back in our minds and discussions while the buildings and places seem to be receiving a lot more attention.

The vertical axis rates issues on whether they will impact urban living in St. Louis positively or negatively. The middle line is neutral. Issues that appear towards either the top (positive) or bottom (negative) of the graph are in my opinion going to have a big impact on urban living in St. Louis.

The horizontal axis rates issues on their "disruption factor", or whether the impact will cause us to actually change the way we live or understand urban living.

I'm interested in your comments!

Representative Mike Daus has begun sending out a periodic e-mail newsletter discussing State legislation and issues. The most recent installment includes brief articles on MOHELA, education vouchers, minimum wage, and Medicaid. In addition, he provides links to other useful web sites (including 15thWardSTL - thanks).

You can sign up for this mailing list at http://67thdistrict.blogspot.com

From the general announcement:

You are invited to attend and participate in a community discussion on race and economics to be held on Wednesday, February 28 at 7 pm at the Grand Oak Hill Community Center, 4168 Juniata. We will hold discussions of about one hour each on the topics of “Housing Segregation and Disparity” and “Closing the Racial Achievement Gap in Education.” This is part of a region-wide series of discussions being sponsored by FOCUS St. Louis and KETC/Channel 9 at various locations.

If you will attend, please RSVP Mark Etling at (314) 865-5530 x110 or MarkE@GrandOakHill.org - there are materials for participants to read in advance. If you RSVP by e-mail, include your address to the materials can be mailed out.

15th Ward Alderwoman Jennifer Florida co-sponsored a Resolution calling for the Missouri General Assembly to issue a moratorium on executions. Evidently, the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis has started an investigation into the possible wrongful execution of Larry Griffin.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Aldermen for the City of St. Louis that we support the intent of HB 1496 and we call upon the members of the Missouri General Assembly to reconsider this legislation as well as consider a permanent moratorium on all executions in Missouri.

I have gotten several comments (on this site and through private e-mail) from people who, for some reason or another, did not receive the recent "Focus on the 15th" newsletter from Alderwoman Jennifer Florida. For these people, and others outside the ward who may be interested, I have made it available online in PDF form HERE.

The because it is scanned, the file is large (appx. 850k) and may take some time to download.

I am working on articles relating to many of the items in the newsletter. If you have general comments or specific items you would like to see addressed for discussion, please fill out the 'comment' form below.