Historical November–December 2018 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
My thoughts of late have been preoccupied by climate change.
The warming of the planet, with dire consequences, is real.
We already see more virulent storms, droughts and hunger. What can we do?
We can recycle because recycling takes less energy than assembling cans, bottles and plastic containers from scratch.
But that effort is picayune compared to the need to stop carbon emissions and keep our air and water clean. Certainly, our federal government has led us backwards in the last two years with its extensive deregulation. It’s a case of take the cash and let the credit go. Maximize profits; appeal to the one percent. Although climate change should be in the forefront of people’s consciousnesses it is not. One easy way to cut emissions is to use public transportation.
There was great excitement in our neighborhood when MetroLink began operating in the summer of 1993. Many began commuting to downtown or going to ball games. It’s hard to pinpoint when the bloom left the rose. For several years at least, our Security Committee has been discussing drug dealing and other criminal acts occurring at the Delmar and DeBaliviere stations.
A community meeting was held two years ago and residents of DeBaliviere Place and Skinker DeBaliviere voiced their concerns about crime and various untoward behaviors at stations and on trains.
The security problems are widely recognized.
However, multiple actors from multiple bureaus cannot join together to implement solutions. For those who study bureaucracy, it’s called turf rivalry.
Each bureaucracy wants to guard its area of operation.
Here we have city police, county police, police in Illinois plus Metro Security. Metro wants its officers to have police powers, other police do not.
There is no universal radio language by which officers can communicate with their counterparts in other forces.
There are a couple bright lights on the horizon. Because of fiscal concerns 25 years ago, the MetroLink stations were built without turnstiles.
There would be an honor system for entry to the platform.
Now everyone acknowledges that turnstiles would have prevented some of the problems we currently face. Metro is using barriers to funnel passengers to the platform at the DeBaliviere station and is making sure that every passenger has a ticket.
In addition, St. Clair County police have said they were willing to ride trains into St. Louis. Again, turf considerations seem to have held up this plan. Metro is trying to have 3 security officers on every train.
If all these entities could work together, much more could be accomplished and more than one environment would improve.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, November–December 2018.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2018_11.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
