Post Editorial

Today, the Post published an editorial which put the isolated security incident near MetroLink that took place last month into perspective. To read the editorial, click here.

Transit Summit

Alan Dunston, Madison County Board Chair; St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay; St. Clair County Board Chair Mark Kern; and Mike Jones, policy advisor to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley were panelist at the July 31 Transit Summit on the campus of Washington University.

Some 200 area leaders gathered to learn about Metro's future and the need to continue to expand MetroLink. Voters in St. Louis County will be asked to asses an additional half-cent sales tax in November to support Metro and some road projects. Metro plans to use half the money to sustain the current operation and half to expand MetroLink. A line to Westport Plaza from Clayton is high on the County's list.

To read a perspective of the summit go to the St. Louis Beacon Web site by clicking here.

Gubernatorial Debate

To see a video clip of Kenny Hulshof and Sarah Steelman's answer to a transportation funding question in a debate in Springfield, click here.

Has anyone else noticed the increase in bikes and scooters? When I was coming home last night on MetroLink, a biker boarded at Union Station and when I got off, two more bikers were waiting to get on the train. It will be interesting to see if the new bikers continue this fall and winter. I usually walk to MetroLink year round. Basically, if you dress for it, it's just a matter of getting use to it.

I will try and get some biking statistics from Metro and publish them.

Click here To read a story in the Vital Voice about other ways to commute other than by car.

Metro on Line July 23

Metro, the St. Louis region's public transportation authority, is seeing increased ridership but is also facing budget constraints, possible fare increases and service reductions. Todd Plesko, Chief of Planning and System Development for Metro, will be answering readers questions about the bus and light-rail service Wednesday, July 23, 2008 01:30 PM CDT on STL Today.

Click here.

Register to Vote

Voters in St. Louis County apparently will have an opportunity to vote in November to increase funding for Metro so the transit agency can expand MetroLink and secure its operation for years to come. The St. Louis County Council is expected to begin the process of putting the measure on the ballot. If you would like to vote, you must be registered. For information on registration, to go to the St. Louis County Board of Elections, Click here.

If the voters approve a half-cent increase in the County sales tax, it is expected to trigger a quarter-cent sales tax that St. Louis City passed in 1997, but has not been collected since the vote failed in the county in '97. Together, the measure would generate an added $80 million or so per year for Metro.

Salt Lake City Tribune Editorializes on the Benefits of Transit Oriented Development

In our new "energy-restricted" economy, condos and high-rises will become the new "McMansions." Train tracks and sidewalks the new highways. Buses and bicycles the new SUVs.
Many of us will abandon our big gas-guzzling vehicles and forsake new land-guzzling, auto-dependent suburban developments in favor of commuter hubs and "new urbanism" communities clustered near mass-transit stations.
We'll live sensibly for a change. We'll walk to the market and the park and the restaurant, and we won't have to walk far in our mixed-use neighborhoods.
We won't go kicking and screaming, either. Just give it a little more time. Let the air pollution and traffic congestion and gas pumps that ring up $50, $60, $70 in a blur sink in, and we'll embrace smart growth and new urbanism and commuter hubs like grandmas hug babies and babies hug puppies.
It's already starting to happen in Murray and Midvale, Farmington and South Salt Lake, where transit-oriented communities are planned or under construction; developments where you won't have to jump in the car every time you leave home.
But there's still one big obstacle, developers and planning experts told local officials at a transit-oriented development seminar this week in Salt Lake City. If commuter hubs and bus stop/train station developments are going to become the norm, if we're going to change our wasteful ways and ease the burden on our environment and pocketbooks, local governments have to lead, or at least get out of the way.
"High density" can no longer be dirty words. Commercial and residential zones must be melded. Those tired old requirements of two parking spaces for every doorstep have to go. Transit-oriented, new urban and infill developments must be supported with tax credits, expedited permitting and generous infrastructure assistance, while developers who promote sprawl and three-car garages, and people who settle in those communities, must pay a premium.
Obviously, we won't all want to live this way. There will still be Drapers and Bluffdales, places where the old American dream - big house, big yard, RV and SUV - hangs on, or dies hard.
But eventually, that lifestyle will be as outdated as last year's calendar. Pressure - financial, ethical, environmental, governmental - will be brought to bear. Change is inevitable. It's up to government to make it happen sooner, not later.

Obama Discusses High Speed Rail

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

BRISTOL, Va. — As he begins the general election contest for the White House, Democrat Barack Obama is targeting the voters he had the hardest time winning in the primaries: those who are white and working class.

The Illinois senator told USA TODAY Thursday that his appearance here in a small town on the Virginia-Tennessee border represented the first stop in a 2½-week tour about economic issues. The trip will also take him to several states won by his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, during the Democratic primaries, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.

Obama laid out his campaign plans during an interview in the library of Bristol's Virginia High School.

"What we're going to do over the next 2½ weeks is focus on the economy, which is what is pressing on the American people so severely," Obama said.

During the tour, he said he plans to "offer some very concrete solutions as to how we deal with both the short-term squeeze that (working-class Americans are) under and how over the long term we right the economic ship."

Obama also touched on his search for a vice presidential nominee, his plans to visit Iraq and a conversation he had yesterday with John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

To start, he laid out ambitious plans to increase funding for a host of domestic programs, including a 10-year, $150 billion "Apollo-style program" to develop new energy sources.

On the economy, his agenda includes "significant investment" in the nation's transportation system. Obama said he'll also discuss plans to expand retirement accounts — with the addition of matching funds from the U.S. government — and to pump more money into the nation's education system.

Obama did not discuss details or costs of these proposals. But he said he'd pay for his programs by raising taxes on wealthy taxpayers, eliminating corporate tax loopholes and ending the war in Iraq, which is costing the U.S. government $10 billion a month.

Among his ideas to address climate change and the skyrocketing cost of fuel, he said he favors a major expansion of high-speed rail service.

"We could connect the Midwest with a high-speed rail system that would provide immediate jobs," he said, adding that it would also be a "much more energy-efficient" alternative to air transport.

The senator, who has faced criticism for not wearing a flag pin on his lapel, sported one here. He initially resisted wearing a flag pin because "my attitude was my patriotism is what's in my heart," Obama said. He changed his mind after an Internet rumor campaign about his patriotism.

"I just wanted to make sure that nobody was confused because there were e-mails going out that somehow I didn't say the Pledge of Allegiance and so forth," he said. "I just wanted to knock down those lies."

Earlier, in a high school gym, Obama told an enthusiastic crowd of about 2,000 it's no accident he chose to make his first appearance as the party's presumptive nominee here — in a community where the population is mostly white and the median income is well below the national average.

The community represents "so many people who have been forgotten," Obama said. "Washington hasn't been listening to you and hasn't been paying attention to you."

The last Democratic presidential candidate to win Virginia was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The last one to visit the southwestern corner of the state, said local Democratic congressman Rick Boucher, was John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Obama told reporters on his campaign plane he had a jovial conversation with McCain, when his rival gave him a congratulatory phone call Wednesday.

"We joked if you'd asked any of the pundits a years ago whether it would be him and me as nominees, you wouldn't have gotten many takers," he said.

He's "definitely interested" in McCain's proposal for a series of unmoderated town hall meetings, Obama said. In the interview and in his appearance here, Obama criticized McCain's tax and health care policies as being skewed toward the wealthy.

Among his other comments:

• On picking a running mate. When asked whether considering Clinton, Obama demurred, saying she'd be on anybody's short list.

Earlier in the day, the Clinton campaign said she was not angling for a spot on the ticket. "She is not seeking the vice presidency, and no one speaks for her but her," communications director Howard Wolfson said. "The choice here is Senator Obama's and his alone."

Obama is in no hurry to make a choice, naming "before the (late August) convention" as his deadline. He'll seek "somebody I could trust to be president" and "somebody with integrity," he said.

•On Iraq. "I will be going to Iraq, I'm almost certain, before the election," said Obama, who has made withdrawing U.S. troops a priority of his platform. "One of my most important tasks is to deal effectively with the situation in Iraq, in Afghanistan and with the threat of terrorism generally."

•On race. Obama alluded to his historic status as the nation's first black nominee of a major party during his appearance here, telling the audience that "I'm proud of America for giving me this opportunity because obviously we all know it's a sign of enormous growth in this country."

•On campaign finance. Obama said he'll accept public financing for his campaign — which would limit the amount of spending — only if McCain agrees to curb spending by the Republican National Committee. "I won't disarm unilaterally," he said.

Obama has raised about $265 million to date, while McCain has raised about $90 million.

After appearing here, Obama traveled to a rally in northern Virginia's D.C. suburbs, then headed back to his hometown of Chicago to take the weekend off. He's looking forward to "a date" tonight with his wife, Michelle, a round of golf on Saturday ("the best I can do is the low 80s," Obama said) and a bike ride with his children on Sunday.

Not that he is expecting it to be entirely relaxing. On Saturday night, Obama will face a challenge familiar to many American parents: Eight 7-year-olds are due at his house for a birthday sleepover in honor of his daughter, Sasha.

"These kids are planning to make pizza so who knows what our kitchen will look like," Obama said. "They shouldn't call these sleepovers. They should call them wake-overs."