LOOP TROLLEY FOLLY

Lupe has had mixed feelings about the Loop Trolley.   But now she is against it.

She liked the idea of it because it was quaint and cute and it would have been nice to have a ride from the Deballivere Metrolink stop all the way to the Library and City Hall, instead of walking or waiting for the bus at the Loop or Skinker/Wash. U. train stations.

Because, seriously, Saint Louis and Saint Louis County are so RIDICULOUS when it comes to public transportation.  Thirty years ago it took twenty minutes, sometimes less, to go from Manchester and Big Bend in Maplewood to the University City library by bus.  And that was ONE bus.

Now it takes an hour, at least, and that is IF you make all the connections in a timely fashion and don't mind a hustle.  Or if you don't mind riding the slowest, most circuitious bus ride ever (the number 2), which only runs once an hour. Unless you are willing to walk down to the Maplewood metrolink.* (Lupe feels so sorry for old people and disabled in this city that do not have cars.)

The Trolleys won't be under the governance of the Metrolink and Bi-State.  But even if they were, we have already seen who really runs public transit.   Most especially from the decision to turn the train toward Shrewsbury, to court the "red and blue" riders-- those people that already have cars and only ride the subway to go to Cardinals baseball games (red) or Blues hockey games (blue), instead of turning it the places that need it the most- like the poor, urban South and North sides? Not helpful and kind of racist.**

Trust Lupe, the buses are actually worse now than ever, especially in the counties, now that the Metrolink has been installed. The tracks it runs on were for the most part established in the early 1900's to deliver goods like coal and food to train depots.  The tracks do not reflect current city centers and hubs.

So back to the Trolleys: Saint Louis County has relinquished responsibility for the stretch of Delmar between Limit and Big Bend.  Why? Those Trolley cars don't have engines.  They can only run on 1900's style overhead electric lines.  (Joe Edwards bought the cars with his own money from Italy somewhere.)

The entire street will have to be ripped up and tracks put in, and the overheard line.  And then maintained. How much is that going to cost? Who is going to pay for it? Joe Edwards? Wash U?  Well, one thing is for sure, it won't be Saint Louis County!

And if Joe Edwards and Wash. U. pay for the Trolley, who is going to be allowed to ride it?  There is already an (unsubstantiated) rumor that Wash. U. "Bear" meal cards are being accepted at restaurants in the Loop.  More and more, the Loop is less and less a place for everyone.

"Regular" citizens and businesses that don't fit the University scheme, or the Joe Edwards Blueberry Hill/Moon Hotel/Pageant businesses, are being edged out with all this "development."

When Lupe went to the Wonder Women screening the other night she really saw the trolley parked in front of the Museum for the first time.  (Of course, she walks by the one parked in the Commerce Bank parking lot everyday.)  But for some reason, that night, she really saw it.

It is tiny. Inefficient. And archaic.

Who are these streetcars for?  These two trolley cars might fit 25 people each.  (And these trolley car seats were made for 20th Century Italian butts, not 21st Century butts, if you know what Lupe is saying. )

And if the Trolley operators have to choose non-students or non-beer drinking and cheeseburger eating patrons-- it seems likely that some sort of "selection" process might be installed.  (It seems unlikely that the Trolleys will be open to underage black teenagers. At least after sundown.)

Will one be required to have a student I.D? Or a receipt from Blueberry Hill? And what if one of these archaic cars breaks down? Or there is a power outage? How is this going to affect Loop traffic? How is this going to affect the already tiresomely slow buses in the Loop?

These Trolleys are not about improving public transit in the Loop.

It really bothers Lupe that ALL of the bus benches and covered bus stops have been removed in the Loop.  Metro and Bi-State don't get to decide where the bus stops go. The cities and counties and neighborhoods decide. (It is not about where the bus stop would best serve the people riding it, but about where the bus stop is least troublesome to business owners.)

So when the Loop Special Business District (pretty much owned and run by Joe Edwards) decides that the bus benches allow too many panhandlers to sit down, they must go! To heck with all the bus riders going to and from work and shopping, etc!  The Loop is not about getting public transit IN, it is about keeping panhandlers OUT!

And in the Loop, the Chuck Berry statue got his own crosswalk. A statue. And right between the crosswalks for Leland and Westgate. But down at Limit and Eastgate, where a crosswalk is actually needed for pedestrians, there is not chance.  Only Wash. U. and Joe Edwards have enough pull to get the City of Saint Louis or U. City to give up the parking spaces.

(Wash. U.'s new development might get a crosswalk in there, now. Hopefully with a sign or even a light.  From Westgate to Skinker there is only crosswalk- and it is at the Tivoli. Truly shameful.)

That $25 Million grant from the government for the Loop Trolley seems wrong.  The grant was meant to promote "livability".  It was meant for downtown, urban areas.  (Obama might need to rethink this plan, too.)

The Loop is only becoming more "livable" to Wash. U. students and Blueberry Hill beer drinkers. Wash. U. has been able to subsidize (read: "Buy") several of the Loop area bus lines.  The ridiculous Green Line, for instance.  A line very rarely ridden and helpful to almost no one-even the students it attempts to serve! (Please, audit it yourself and see. It goes nowhere and almost no one rides it after the first time they try it. It is faster to walk the route to wherever you are going.)

The Number 2 bus line was also RIDICULOUSLY re-routed to serve Wash. U. students and make sure they could get from campus to the Clayton Schnucks, Galleria and Brentwood Promenade.  It is the most exhausting bus ride on the Southern Delmar Divide. ***

(After almost 3 years of riding public transportation in Saint Louis city and county, Lupe has really come to the conclusion that not one single person that plans the routes actually ever rides the bus or trains.  She thinks they type in routes on Google maps and make up the timetables and routes from that.  The buses all have the same time between stops whether it is rush hour on Wednesday or Sunday morning.  It is just something they do in an office all day. She wishes the Metro executives were forced to commute on their silly routes and schedules!)

Lupe is sorry, because they are cute trolley's, but really, when one thinks about it, it is ridiculous! All of that construction for two little trolley cars, to be paid for with the extra tax in University City (that is why we pay almost ten cents on the dollar for sales tax here in University City.  We are paying for the Trolley when we shop anywhere in U. City-- the highest rate in Saint Louis city or county! Lupe sure is tired of that!) but it does not seem that everyone is going to benefit equally!

Lupe is against the Trolley Folly! Unless there are some changes to the plan! 

C U in the Loop! Hopefully a "Trolley Free" Loop!


*Truly one of the most badly designed, and least safe train stops in the world.  The Maplewood Metrolink station.  It should get a Worst Design Ever award! 

Go look yourself-- no crosswalk, a blind spot to oncoming traffic, and not convenient or safe! Who on earth designed this thing? Human hating Reagan-era aliens from the movie They Live?  Haha let's kill them while they try to catch their bus! No, really. Not kidding. Go look at it. It was designed by those metal headed aliens. There is no other feasible explanation!

Lupe has a whole other post in her drafts folder about the Folly of the Saint Louis transportation system.  That is, the re-routing of all the buses to take you to the train-- a train that is running on a track system meant for coal and food deliveries and routed before planes and trucks became the transporters of food.  Those tracks go nowhere convenient, as anyone that has had to walk the dark, unpaved back alleys of the Brentwood Promenade stop to Trader Joe's.  Or walked through the deserted, "waiting to rape and mug you" parking lots between the train in Maplewood and Wal-mart, Olive Garden, Lowe's etc. 


**Not too mention the all out fight the white residents of Saint Peters and Saint Charles engaged in to keep the train from coming to their neighborhoods! "Keep them out so they don't ruin it like Hazelwood" one man Lupe used to work for actually said to her.  No, he didn't know who Lupe really was.  Lupe is totally ninja undercover in her Clark Kent. OMG the things she hears when people think they are talking to "average white suburban girl".


*** Remember, Wash. U. has been allowed to buy a lot of real estate in the Loop area, but they don't pay the same as homeowner's and business owners in taxes. They do attempt to supplement this with donations to the U.C. Fire and Police departments, and by having their own Blue Light patrol cars drive around the neighborhoods where they own property.  But it is not the same. They have a lot of power, and perhaps they have made the neighborhood better in some ways-- but neither they nor any Loop businesses or the University City or Saint Louis governments are doing anything to close the disparity between the $32,000 a year income gap between the North side of Delmar and the South side of Delmar. 

Also they have been capricious in the past.  Lupe has a friend that was evicted three times in a one year period where Wash. U. would buy the building he was living in, everyone was evicted and given thirty days to move out.  Three times he went through this until he moved out of the neighborhood.  And only one of those building is still owned by Wash. U.  Really, not fair.

WONDER WOMEN

Tonight at the Missouri History Museum there is a FREE screening of WONDER WOMEN! The Untold Story Of American Superheroines.  If you don't see it tonight, you will have to wait until April 15 when it airs on PBS!

This is a great way to celebrate Women's History Month!  And don't forget, University City was founded by a man that believed strongly in Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for women, Edward G. Lewis.  (His birthday was Monday.)

Lupe's plans for the evening include this screening, a stop by Star Clipper and Subterranean for some feminist titles, and she might try the new taco place in the old Delmar Lounge spot!  This mini-review by the Riverfront Times has Lupe salivating !!!

Viva Las Mujeras!!!!

C U in the Loop!

MORE REASONS THAT LOOP LIFE IS GREAT!

The West End Word should be called the West End & Loop Word. The front page featured an article about the problems at U City Hall.

It also mentioned that the new curfew in the Loop for unaccompanied minors is now 9 P.M.

There was a listing for Laughter for Life at Blueberry Hill on June 26th at 8 P.M. It is a benefit for Gateway To Hope. Lupe hopes it sells out!!! What a great fundraiser! (The Word lists 314.569.1113 as the number to call for more information.)

Not quite in the Loop, but close by in Forest Park, there is a free movie screening tomorrow, June 24th, at the Missouri History Museum. PBS presents PRINCE AMONG SLAVES, a true story about an African prince that was abducted and sold into slavery, but never allowed it to destroy him or his dignity. He fought for 40 years for his freedom, and then was freed. However his children and grandchildren were not freed, and he tried to raise the money to buy his children so they might return to Afrika with him. It starts at 7 PM.

And on June 25th, in front of the Art Museum, the Funky Butt Brass Band is playing for free. The listing in the Word promised a band with roots in Big Easy jazz funeral processions. Lupe is SO there Friday!

It also mentioned a documentary about the fierce "football" (soccer) fans in "Arch City." The film is titled A TIME FOR CHAMPIONS and it airs on PBS on June 28th at 7 PM. (You'll be at the Gateway to Hope benefit so set your dvr's. ;o)

Finally, in the West End Word and the more important word on the street, Let Them Eat Art is coming July 9th to Maplewood. Lupe really wishes events like this were occurring in the Loop, but downtown Maplewood has become very interesting in the last decade.

This event promises a fire shooting ice cream truck (Lupe is guessing this was a failed Burning Man vehicle). If that isn't enough, there is also a costume contest that is probably as close as Lupe is going to get to those crazy Parisian artist parades back in the 1920's.

The usual face painting, art selling, drinking, eating, and festivities are promised as well.

Lupe is looking forward to Let Them Eat Art more than she is looking forward to the Fourth of July fireworks, and Lupe likes fireworks A LOT!

Lupe also wanted to report that the Muny opened its 92nd Season this week, and as usual it was great! The Muny was the first municipally owned Theatre built in the country, and it is still going strong. It is a great place to support local talent and see all the "oldie but goodies" from Broadway.

And consistently good production, costumes and props! Plus, outdoors, which even in the awful humidity and heat--such as the night Lupe was there--it is still magical to watch a musical under the stars! Beauty And The Beast is very enjoyable!

(Lupe does find Disney completely sacharrine and suburban, but they do have a solid grasp of the musical form. And Lupe knows to rinse the bad taste out of her mouth with a screening of the Jean Cocteau film of the same title.

(She should also mention that Muny audiences are 98 percent white but that is changing. Although, it might change a little faster if they did Lion King and The Wiz and 1997 Cinderella a little more often!)

All this and there is still Circus Flora to see! Ingenioso ends on the 27th! And didn't Wicked just start at the Fox?

There is always such much to enjoy!

See you in the Loop!!!

MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM RACE EXHIBIT

(Edit: Lupe incorrectly identified this museum, Missouri History, as the Natural History Museum, and that mistake is still reflected in blog post url. But is corrected in the body of this post.)

One great thing about the Loop is that you don't have to travel very far to get to the cultural and relaxation headquarters of St. Louis: Forest Park.

Forest Park is 500 acres larger than Central Park. It is home to the St. Louis Art Museum, Zoo, Municipal Opera, Jewel House atrium/greenhouse, 2 golf courses, the Planetarium and the Science Centre; The Boathouse with paddle boat rentals and a great little restaurant; the original 1904 World's Fair Pavillion, and the Missouri History Museum.

Both Museums and the Zoo are free, except for special exhibits, and the RACE exhibit was only $8!

The exhibit is part science and part cultural attitudes about race, and the history of racism in America. Lupe could not absorb all of it in one visit. It was an emotional as well as intellectual/cultural experience. Some of the exhibits and photographs could make a person feel a little "verklempt."

Lupe learned a lot, too. For instance, high blood pressure affects African-Americans in higher numbers than other Americans. However, when Africans with similar biological profiles were tested, their blood pressure was not comparable. In other words, high blood pressure in African-Americans is not a genetic trait. (However, sickle cell is a genetic trait. It protects against malaria in Africa.)

Lupe also learned, that unfortunately St. Louis has the distinction of being the first city to file for segregation laws. And that many tricky laws were passed that did not allow former slaves from occupying any neighbourhoods but the original 14 blocks that formed "North" Saint Louis. (#5 on the headphones.)

Another interesting feature was the list of how skin colour and "race" are perceived in Brazil. There are over 100 ways to describe skin colour in Brazil. The family photographed said that they leave the U.S. as one race, and enter Brazil as seven! Each member of the family has a different skin colour.

Lupe was very glad to see how well attended it was. And the museum was hopping! The Katherine Dunham exhibit is still going strong. There was a performance in the lobby of a local high school band and cheerleaders and baton girls.

Sunday was the last day for the "Race" machine. The machine was like an old photo booth with a big screen inside. A camera took your picture. Then you used a toggle stick to mark points on your face (eyes, nose, mouth, etc). The machine then showed what you would look like as another race. (Lupe looks fabulous in all colours!)

The exhibit runs through April 4th and Lupe suggests hopping on the train to Debaliviere. If you walk across the bridge and squint your eyes and generally pretend, it is kind of like the walk across the Pont Alexandre III bridge to the Place des Les Invalides in Paris.

Okay... maybe you have squint your eyes ALOT! But the comparison is there, and Lupe is confident that someday a city planner will see it, too. Besides, Lupe had France on the brain because of the French Festival that was going on this weekend!

Maybe next year, French Festival! It was worth it for Lupe to see herself as the strong black sister she knows she is!!! (Also got to see Asian, Hispanic, and herself aged 20 years.)

Be sure to ask for the headphones with the additional information. There are markers throughout the exhibit for when to tap into the extra information.

Also, if it is a sunny day, consider going to the Boathouse before or after. Lupe recommends the fried greens & calamari, greek salad, and the bread pudding a la mode. The Boathouse bar is not very good however. The bread pudding is so good, though, it makes up for the watery drinks.

See you in the Loop!!!