Our society’s future is a wrecking ball no one adheres to the laws seems like. People seem more prudent far less respectful towards each other. It’s heart wrenching to see how unfriendly people become the virus hasn’t helped seems to have accelerated the process even further. Crime in this country is sad crime in St Louis is an embarrassment to all people who call this place home. All the outdated temp tags the excessive tailgating extreme speeding. These vehicles are weapons and I thought driving was a privilege. It’s not just gun violence you have to worry about it’s the reckless drivers who don’t care.
And to tie this back to any sort of point- who cares what people drive. Driving and cars have never been safer then now and it keeps getting even more safer with more technology introduced in cars and roadways
While what you are saying is objectively true from the point of view of drivers and passengers, streets have become much deadlier for pedestrians as people move to larger and safer cars, and this increased sense of safety contributes to increased risk-taking: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... han%207%25.
Most drivers don't understand (some don't care about) the level of disruption and noise they cause when going down city streets at 30 mph which from inside an insulated box feels like a respectable speed. The very people who complain about noise, speeding and traffic in their neighborhood (even demanding street closures ) likely become that traffic when driving their own cars elsewhere.
I suspect that any speed higher than 18mph in a neighborhood is perceived as harsh by the people outside of cars. It would be interesting to study this disconnect if not already done.
I hope the city can continue or even accelerate the deployment of neighborhood speed bumps. That and raised crosswalks seem like the only thing they can do from a planning perspective.
I would also love to see some of our old cobblestone streets exposed to the air again. Try driving 35mph down 2nd street on the Landing and let me know how it goes
This technology has been possible for quite a while. Why should a car be able to go faster than the speed limit? How popular would speed governors be in the US? Is the appeal of being able to speed overwhelming? I think I know the answer.
I hope the city can continue or even accelerate the deployment of neighborhood speed bumps. That and raised crosswalks seem like the only thing they can do from a planning perspective.
I would also love to see some of our old cobblestone streets exposed to the air again. Try driving 35mph down 2nd street on the Landing and let me know how it goes
A neighbor made a similar point about our alleys. They were brick and when paved with asphalt, vroom, vroom!
I suspect that any speed higher than 18mph in a neighborhood is perceived as harsh by the people outside of cars. It would be interesting to study this disconnect if not already done.
yep, i would agree with this. we live on a 25MPH street with a 15MPH speed bump directly in front of our house. you really notice the difference when people come flying down the street at 30 MPH and then suddenly drop down to 15. the incessant pitch drop and low-frequency rumble that accompanies braking, followed by the explosive noise of acceleration, are maddening. (the level of traffic on our street has recently skyrocketed due to the proliferation of a bunch of sh*t suburban-style development nearby and nonexistent city planning).
the EU is light-years ahead of the US (big surprise) in terms of both vehicle safety and vehicle-related noise pollution. it's becoming more and more difficult to find peace and quiet—even in your own home—largely due to our national obsession with huge/loud cars and driving everywhere all the time (and auto manufactures more than happy to supply that drug, and government more than happy to enable them). to be sure it's not *just* an American problem but I can't see a country in which approximately half the population doesn't give a sh*t how many people die from COVID ever limiting driver "freedom" in any meaningful way, or acknowledging that traffic noise has measurable detrimental health effects and implementing any sort of regulatory policies... unless some big corporation can figure out how to make money off of it.
I hope the city can continue or even accelerate the deployment of neighborhood speed bumps. That and raised crosswalks seem like the only thing they can do from a planning perspective.
I would also love to see some of our old cobblestone streets exposed to the air again. Try driving 35mph down 2nd street on the Landing and let me know how it goes
There’s also angled parking and narrower lanes, trees at regular intervals to provide speed reference points, striping local streets so drivers don’t treat them like one big empty lane, adding interest and activity along street edges to capitalize on rubber-necking....
In rural England (the Cotswolds) I encountered large flattened pyramidal humps occupying 80% of the street width that were quite punitive. It was difficult to drive over them without being savagely rocked side to side.
Welp, a bit of a personal report here: our car was broken into this evening, guy found my wallet (hidden and not visible at all in the middle console - I know, I know, but we had just gotten home from dinner and I totally forgot about it). He was able to spend $500+ at a local QT in the 5 minutes between when I got the first “did you just spend XXX at YYY?” alert and locking all my cards.
Called to file a police report, they took basic info and told me to answer any call this evening as a report taker would be following up. No one called. So I took it upon myself to contact the QT, got copies of the receipts and a handwritten note from the cashier who realized the guy was using stolen cards but couldn’t do anything about it in real time. So at least my credit card and bank will be able to write off the purchases as fraudulent. But still, not impressed at all with the police interaction at all.
Side note - it’s made me and my wife feel a lot more uneasy about living in the city than we had been. If someone is brazen enough to break into a car at 8:00 PM then they’re just as capable of robbing us when we’re on a walk in front of our apartment. It was just a car break in, but it’s definitely affected our perception of safety.
Update: police just called to take my statement. At nearly 3:00 AM. It’s a good thing my sleep cycle is a cluster or else I’d have completely missed them.
Did they actually break a window or was the car unlocked? Webster Groves/Crestwood/Sunset Hills have nightly roaming groups of people checking door handles so it's not completely a city problem.
If it makes you feel any better, and without wanting to diminish your feelings in any way, there is a long way to go between car break ins and outright robbery. Not that the latter never happen but they are definitely less common than car break-ins unless you live in one of the higher crime areas. Can I ask you in what neighborhood did this happen?
I moved to St. Louis with very low expectations regarding property or personal safety and pretty much everyone I knew who lived in the city told me that car break-ins are a fact of life and something that you should be prepared to experience. We did street parking in Soulard for 3 years and consider ourselves incredibly lucky that nothing ever happened (our neighbors were not so lucky, we would occasionally see broken windows in the cars parked on our street). I know a couple of people who have had so many of these that they simply leave the car unlocked. I guess it helps that I grew up in a European city with lots of petty property crime so this is something I was kind of used to.
Also, my interactions with police were always pretty bad as well.
I had something similar happen to me last year... the process was so meh that it just reinforced the idea that there needs to be at least some kind shakeup in the way things are done/funded...
Same for the fire department... I've called for an ambulance 4 times in the past 3 years and every time the fire department shows up in their truck and they end up standing around waiting for the ambulance. (Nothing against firefighters - just a process critique)
I just don't think there's anyone in these groups that are hired to "improve" these processes from a financial, service, etc. standpoint.
This kind of thing happens in my parents subdivision in Chesterfield all the time. The trustees and police now have signs at the entrance about storing your valuables out of sight. We’ve had things...usually booze...stolen right out of our garage before. We also had a bunch of Halloween decorations stolen years ago from us and found them smashed in the middle of the street near the entrance to the subdivision.
Obviously this is anecdotal, but my friends that were born and raised in the city said minor car break ins have been a fact of life since day one. I imagine it’s similar whether you’re in South St. Louis, South Philly, or the South Side of Chicago.
I live in the Moorlands and occasionally you’ll see something pop up in the Facebook group about someone having their car broken into or a bike stolen (I think someone recently had their car stolen). When I lived in KC thieves would target hotel parking garages in the Plaza hitting out of town cars. The Residence Inn on 46th Terrace across the street from my place was always getting hit. My building’s garage was open air and had similar issues until they installed cameras everywhere. Somewhat similar to the stories you occasionally hear about at the City Museum lots, targeting out of town folks whose cars are filled with luggage, personal belongings, etc.
Different year same results nothing. As the merry go round continues. St.Louis continues to fall behind its peers because the never ending excessive high crime and the deep divide that continues too cripple our region. It’s time to put Show Me into action I’m ready for real change & results not just talk. All the developments are great and dandy however nothing will never progress with the same corrupt leadership that continues to hinder the region from actually being competitive. Consolidation consolidation consolidation!!!!
I’ve lived in the City 10 years now. First 5 in StL Hills/Southampton and next 5 in TGS. I’ve had my car broken into once in that time and it happened in Southampton which is theoretically a safer nabe than TGS.
On a side note, TGS and the other nabes around TG Park have actually felt much safer to me since the pandemic started. Now I see way more people outside, walking their dogs and strollers, sitting on the porch, etc. Way more eyes on the street. Anyone else feel that way about other parts of town?
I’ve lived in the City 10 years now. First 5 in StL Hills/Southampton and next 5 in TGS. I’ve had my car broken into once in that time and it happened in Southampton which is theoretically a safer nabe than TGS.
On a side note, TGS and the other nabes around TG Park have actually felt much safer to me since the pandemic started. Now I see way more people outside, walking their dogs and strollers, sitting on the porch, etc. Way more eyes on the street. Anyone else feel that way about other parts of town?
I feel the same about Tower Grove East, way more pedestrian traffic it seems.
Crime is certainly a violation when it happens close to home. I parked on the street for years in the west end and never had an issue. Had a bike stolen out my garage once I had one ( had left a window unlocked)
The anxiety is a natural reaction but try to remember this was likely no more malicious than a opportunist walking down the street checking car doors and hoping to get lucky.
And like others said this and worse happens in a regular basis all over the region, and country . I hope you will not let this taint your enjoyment of the City.
^Yeah, I've had my car broken into in several places, here and elsewhere, good and bad. Usually it was just open, but on two occasions someone broke a window. Had it rifled in Columbia parked outside my house. Had a window smashed in Wentzville for no reason other than giggles. (Some malicious jerk or other threw a beer bottle through my window. A full beer bottle.) Someone did me a smash and grab while I was at the symphony one Sunday afternoon many years hence. (I'd been running late, and in my hurry left my valise and tool bag sitting on the back seat in plain sight. Lost a lot of nice tools, a good bag, and a bunch of random papers. I hope they liked student compositions.) Had the car picked over a couple times out in front of my current house when I forgot to lock a door, but we don't leave anything in it. (My own car is a convertible, so I just leave the door unlocked as a matter of course. Half the time there's no real point anyway, seeing as all you'd have to do is reach in. And the other half the time I'd rather have someone open the door than tear the roof.) It's a sad fact of life that this junk happens. And it leaves you feeling horrid every single time. Angry, frustrated, ashamed . . . Fortunately, I'm beginning to trust you do eventually get over it. Once the broken glass is cleaned up and replaced. Maybe also the beer if you got the full Wentzville treatment. (Who throws a perfectly good beer through a window? Sure, it was a Bud, but it was a really dang full one. Idiots, I say!)
Different year same results nothing. As the merry go round continues. St.Louis continues to fall behind its peers because the never ending excessive high crime and the deep divide that continues too cripple our region.
the irony of this is we are not falling behind our peers, we are beating them in most of the economic metrics....which is maybe why subconsciously leaders havent gone all in from addressing crime, which is stopping us from leaving our peer cities behind and jumping up in the next category
From most of the communication from city gov't over the past two decades, it feels like there's been a structural push to empty out the Northside (or at least parts of it)... I could be wrong, but ever since I've been in STL, there really hasn't been anyone with power who "really" wanted to fix what's broken, rather the goal has seemingly been... let it hit rock bottom.
It almost feels like that "exodus project" has succeeded and the Northside has begun some form of rebuilding from rock bottom (not for the target market that already lives there), but that will obviously still take some time.
Sadly, I feel like its almost too far gone to let people who are up there to wait it out... I'd offer that the city should put a relocation program together to reach out to residents who are still up there, and help find them places to live somewhere else in the city. Cover their moving costs and first few months rent or something. Just an idea...
From most of the communication from city gov't over the past two decades, it feels like there's been a structural push to empty out the Northside (or at least parts of it)... I could be wrong, but ever since I've been in STL, there really hasn't been anyone with power who "really" wanted to fix what's broken, rather the goal has seemingly been... let it hit rock bottom.
I don't think that's really a secret, and I don't think it's just the last twenty years. More like the last fifty. It's been widely speculated and even reported for decades. I've been hearing the same thing since the nineties at least, with the idea that it began in the sixties or seventies or even earlier. (With red-lining, "slum clearance," lack of policing, and code enforcement and so forth.) There have been periodic moves to do something about it, but nothing much ever seems to come of them.
It does feel like this last soft but noticeable influx of educated young whites into the city is the reason the flood gates of residential construction are opening up? Seems like that might be what developers have been waiting for... and sadly whoever kicked this plan into fruition.
) likely become that traffic when driving their own cars elsewhere.
