urbanSTL

Doing my part to save the STLToday Blogs:



My response:



"I'll tell you what is not a safe park - Cuivre River State Park out in Troy, the western suburbs. Two homicides - completely unrelated, have happened in that park this year. The first body in Forest Park was found dumped there and this one is being ruled as natural causes. I feel safer in the city's premier city park (lots of people, places, events, open spaces, and patrols... more than I do anyday out in the suburbs parks and records show this is true. http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stori ... -homicide/"

I'm sorry about my part in talking about the Lindell Schnucks on this thread. Because it's a topic that keeps popping up, apparently it is an issue that still needs to be addressed. The unfortunate deaths in the city whether they be natural or criminal will always have STLtoday commenters spewing ignorance and painting the city in an unfavorable light. If they can't do it there they are apparently in the okay to similarly pick on the 10,000 (?) square foot space on Lindell? What's the difference?

southsidepride wrote:A body was found this morning in Forest Park, police say there is nothing suspicious about the death and foul play is not suspected at all.



Of course that didn't stop the first two posters from remarking that Forest Park is no longer safe and everyone should avoid it. Luckily enough others came on to give these nimrods a verbal beat down!

And now the truth comes out that the decedent was a patient who appears to have either been improperly discharged or left AMA from Barnes (the P-D doesn't say which) and wandered into the park but that still doesn't stop these clowns from coming in and saying the park is unsafe.

Is it me or does the Post have articles like this for the sole purpose of ginning up the commenters?



http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/s ... mentAnchor



The comments were predictable, I'll give you the Cliff Notes version if you don't have the stomach to read the real thing--folks who probably have no idea where LaSalle Park is in the first place commenting about how it's a crime ridden pit, bragging about never going anywhere without their gun (probably overcompensating for their lack of firepower in the trousers), and of course playing the reverse racism card and speculating what would happen if the races were reversed in the situation (hint: Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton's travel itinerary are speculated upon)



Thankfully a couple of LaSalle residents pointed out their stupidity.

I don't know where to start with this one. From this thread about Whittaker (developer of New Town) filing for bankruptcy reorg.

Matt Drops The H wrote:That article seemed irresponsible to me. It's not "news" that the victims received no help from neighbors. That's already been reported. Nowhere in the article do I see an articulation of the lack of help being willful or race-driven, as an earlier article insinuated.

I thought some valid points were brought up in the article...particularly the comments that the sociology professor from Saint Louis University made about social capital and the lack of trust among some residents in diverse neighborhoods. I value living in a diverse neighborhood, but I can tell you from personal experiences that it's not quite as simple as some might believe to bring residents together in that type of setting. YMMV.



That said, I don't think anyone can or should attempt to draw any conclusions about why Mrs. Whitrock's neighbors didn't come to her rescue. There are simply too many variables to arrive at anything beyond conjecture at best, or racially-tinged vitriol at worst (P-D comments are mostly the latter). And, as Mrs. Whitrock said, a neighbor's response probably wouldn't have made enough difference in time to save her daughter's life anyway. (Sad, but true.)



Also, I may be reading too much into this, and I can't put my finger on what irks me, but something about Alderwoman Young's statements in the article rubs me the wrong way. I completely agree that LaSalle Park is a safe neighborhood, and I think she did well to set the record straight. I just think she seems a bit too indifferent to the fact that an innocent person in her neighborhood was randomly and brutally murdered. But hey, at least everyone gets along well.

I actually found this on STLtoday, but I found it to be fitting.

I really don’t know why most of the posters on these boards live in Missouri or St. Louis…

I can see why seniors move here… and crime? Phoenix, Miami and Atlanta have far worse crime that STL! Get real… you posters live in a bubble of nauseating negativity!

— Greg Dawson

2:42 pm October 23rd, 2009

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/mound- ... mment-3302



The bolded part especially.

My response...(and it's true)...



JuiceInDogtown wrote: October 23, 2009 6:55PM

Banging on my door at 1am and you will be greeted with a .38 special on your forehead.



What a stupid non-story.

From City Data (about One City Center, St. Louis Centre, Dillard's deal):

Total waste of money. What a crime-infested dump City Centre was. Hard to have a shopping center when no one has any money in that area.

No money in Downtown?



My reply:

These are the Downtown resident's demographics through Dec 31, 2008



Income:

$25,000 or less, 5.3%; $25,001-$35,000; 5.3%; $35,001-$50,000, 15.5%; $50,001-$75,000; 18.7%; $75,001-$100,000; 18.2%; $100,001-$200,000, 28.7%; $200,000+, 8.5%



Sure, they're all broke.



Sure, some are poor, some are not. 75% of them make more than $50,000 per year. 55% of them make more than $75,000 a year. 37% make more than $100,000 per year.



I would give you a link, but I have the info printed out and I can't find the site. It's from the 2008 Downtown St. Louis Housing Report.

Another thread, Arch_Gensis posted this:

Imagine starting your sunday with a walk through city garden visiting restaurants surrounding its edges, walking down market seeing people ice skating and then crossing onto the arch grounds without worrying about traffic and hopping a water taxi to cross the river for a rams game. That's how it should be done.

And STL4Eva (who said everyone Downtown is poor), wrote this:

Don't forget the plethora of homeless vagrants asking for a dollah!

I just posted the following on the blog mentioned in the previous post:

I think you are giving some of these posters more credit than they deserve. They don't care that their mothers may be reading it or anyone else for that matter. Asking them to think about their post and the front page won't work either. They aren't capable of thought in the first place or they wouldn't be spewing the venom that they do.



The P-D needs a disclaimer that will make posters aware that in addition to the standard offensive langueage etc, anything considered off-topic will be deleted. They can't be cute about it.



Those posters who are winding their way around to get to politics and race can be shut down immediately. Or, as fast as the limited staff at the P-D can get to them.

They aren't going to police themselves. Period.

I think I've already suggested this a multitude of times. But here goes again.



Utilize federated login via OpenID by allowing clients to authenticate w/ Facebook, Google, etc. Real names and pictures can be posted easily. Anonymity is the enemy of civility.



Oh, and clearly the Post Dispatch doesn't have the resources to moderate the countless discussions. Enable the crowd to moderate ala digg.com!



It ain't rocket science, peeps. And if it is, just hire people from Boeing!

Good lord.



http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/busine ... enDocument

"Ghetto thugs"? It sounds like they just started airing "21 Jump Street" in the county

^ Oh, someone please save our honor!

That is the first time I have ever read an entire comments section. All of the negative comments are so over-the-top that I couldn't imagine anyone taking them seriously. Even my most suburban-minded friends (many from St. Charles County) would view these comments as absurd. My ex-girlfriend's father used to make negative comments much like the ones on STLtoday just to get a rise out of me, and I get the feeling that these people are doing just that. Of course that doesn't make it right and anyone reading the comments might get the wrong impression from them, which is why it is important that we keep going with the positive responses. I think they outweighed the negatives quite well this time around.



^Grover, BRILLIANT!