Metropolitan Rural

No, I’m not talking about your regular old garden slugs here.  Wikipedia defines slugging as “Casual Carpooling”.  I learned about this a couple of days ago from a story on NPR.  Evidently this has been going on for years in cities with HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes.  These are very informal groups where literal strangers are given free rides into the city so the driver can have enough occupants to use the HOV lane.

In many cases, using the HOV lane can cut up to a half hour or more off of a person’s commute.  So, the driver saves both gas and time, and the rider(s) get themselves a free ride at the expense of convenience.  What amazed me about the NPR story was people who have been doing this for years say they have never once exchanged names with people.  Many of these groups have websites with some “rules of the road” so to speak.  Here are some general rules as listed from Wikipedia:

Yet another way to help keep down that cost of commute.  Maybe they should put in some HOV lanes on Hwy 40 for when it gets too full in another 5 years.

We had a fun field trip earlier this week as part of a local homeschool group.  The plan was to start off in the morning at Fort De Chartres in Illinois and then take the ferry across the river to St. Genevieve for the afternoon.

 I printed out some directions from Google to the Fort realizing they were different than what we were given.  Our directions were shorter, but also got us off the highway for a nice view of the country side.  It was really beautiful too.  The trip through the hills and trees with all kinds of birds was pretty cool.  Then we opened out into the lowlands and farms.  There were a couple of blue herons wading in the receding flood waters of the fields.  It was a beautiful day as well.  At least, until we were about a mile from the fort and our last road was under water!  Oh well, back to the regular route, good thing we left in plenty of time.

The fort was pretty cool.  It’s from the 18th century and has been partially rebuilt on the old foundation.  Only 1 building on the site was still orignal and intact, the rest has been “removed” for other uses over the years by local residents in pieces as the flood waters aided in deterioration.  Neat place to stop and visit for an hour or two like we did.

We had some lunch in the picnic area there and then had originally planned to take the ferry across the river.  Of course, with all the rain this year, the river was too high and we were forced to drive down to Chester and back around.

We made it over to St. Gen. around two and stopped in the visitors center.  We had arranged for a tour of the Bolduc House.  There were plans to see more, but with the extra driving our schedule wasn’t quite going to work for that.  I was very impressed with the detail the tour guides covered the construction of the houses.  The details of the mortise & tenon joints, the vertical log construction, the wrap around porches to control sun, the opposing windows & doors for breezes, and even the dirt back yard as a fire break from the cooking kitchen.

We did get a chance to walk around the town some before dinner.  There wasn’t much going on for a weekday afternoon in a tourist town so that was pretty bland.  We did get a chance to stop by and sample some wines and bring a couple of bottles home with us.

It was a fun trip and a beautiful day for it.  I think we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-70 kids & adults total (including a rented school bus full).  It’s always fun to go on field trips with homeschool groups like this.  It’s good to watch 16-18 year olds who are comfortable being around adults and much younger kids.  They are always very helpful with keeping the younger ones in order and letting them know when it’s time to be quite and listen, and when it’s okay to be wild and noisy.

We finally finished getting garden and plants taken care of this past weekend.  There is still one blueberry bush we want to plant, but we haven’t figured out where that is going  yet.  I’ll never know how we managed to fit watermelon, beans, peas, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and cucumber into a 10′ x 12′ garden so don’t ask. 

We’ve also got a good size planter where we have the herbs.  The cilantro is already taking over and blocking out the sun, so we will need to start using some of it soon.

Personally, I’m just hoping we get a few things out of the gardent his year.  I’m not really looking for a bumper crop in any sense of the word.  I figure that by planting a small amount of a lot of things we might just figure out what will grow well enough we want to plant more of it next year.

We did use a technique we heard described as “Black Gold Agriculture” when planting our garden.  The technical term is Terra Preta.  Basically we ground up a back bag of real hardwood, lump charcoal and tilled it in with the soil.  It’s supposed to help hold the nutrients in for a very long time.  That’s good, because we had a pretty good balance and very good looking soil where we planted (meaning almost no clay in there).

Now we just need to get that rain barrel ordered.  Of course, after that arrives I’m sure we’ll start the drought season.

My brother came into town for just a couple days late this last week.  We grew up in western Missouri and my brother now lives in Kansas City.  He’s been to visit a few times and this time I was determined to show him the real famous sites of city, and I had just 24 hours to do it.

Stop #1, Thursday 8pm - Ted Drewes

Stop #2, Friday 9am - Eddie’s Southtown Donuts

Stop #3, Friday 10am - Soulard Farmer’s Market

Stop #4, Friday noon - Gus’ Pretzels

Stop #5, Friday 6pm - The King and I

 He was very impressed with all our stops and even picked up some stuff of his own from Soulard.  It was nice to be there on a Friday afternoon as well.  While not all the vendors are there, the lack of crowds made it possible to get into the spice store and the butchers.  I’d never been in any of them because they were always too crowded on Saturday mornings.

Do you love the zoo?  Wouldn’t it be great if you could have one of your very own?  We’ll, now you can, just follow my 16 easy steps.

1. Marry and animal lover - this is a key point that is not to be over looked.  If your new spouse is allergic to pet dander, then your plan is sunk before you even get started.
2. Get a puppy as your first pet - A key here is to try and find a puppy that will have emotional issues as he grows up.  That way it leads very nicely into step 4
3. Now that you have a dog, move out of your apartment into your first house with a yard - The bigger the better, after all, if you’re going to have a zoo you’ll need some room.
4. Now that you have a big yard and 1 dog with emotional issues, get a second dog as a companion - Make sure to get the cute dog that no one seemed to want, after all, that must mean it’s a great dog.
5. Buy a REALLY good vacuum cleaner
6. Let your emotionally challenged dog teach your new dog all his bad habits thus doubling the “fun”
7. Let Santa bring your kid(s) stuff for guinea pigs and then go pick some out at the pet store - They should be old enough now to take care of them, so you won’t have to mess with them at all.
8. Take care of the guinea pigs yourself
9. Decide to move to another city to work for a French owned pet food company - With two dogs now the free dog food alone is worth the hassle
10. Realize the free dog food isn’t worth it, move back to the city to a bigger house with a smaller yard and learn to pick up the yard
11. Let your animal loving spouse talk you into a kitten - Don’t forget, this needs to be a special kitten to fight off the 2 dogs and take control of the house
12. Train the cat to use the toilet - You spend enough time picking up after the dogs in the yard and cleaning the cage for the pigs, you don’t feel like cleaning up a litter box too.
13. Realize that all wood floors with 2 dogs wasn’t such a good idea - This step is also be titled “Where the Hell did all this fur come from!”
14. Your, now older, child(ren) decide they are now responsible enough for their own pet and ask to get a fish - You could possibly flip out here and think you are being over run or that your house will be taken over, so be careful
15. Force your child(ren) to do research and write a report all about the fish they want, how to care for it, and put together a budget to purchase and care for it.
16. When you hear your spouse talk about getting chickens for the yard and wanting a bird be prepared to have a cow, curl up into the fetal position and start crying.

This weekend was the first mowing of the yard with the new manual push-reel mower.  It was a wonderful experience!  Most of our grass is dense, thick Zoysia that works very well with this type of mower.  I was even able to mow the entire back yard while I was grilling bratwursts for dinner, and nothing burned. 

From my own experience, here’s what I like about the new mower:

• It’s quiet, I could mow and still talk with my wife and son without yelling.  Plus, they could be in the yard and not be drowned out by noise.
• Safety, the wife and kid were able to be outside and not worry about flying debris from the mower.
• Smell, it was so nice to NOT smell like gasoline when I got done mowing
• Ease, I expected a rough workout with the mower, but I was pleasantly surprised that it really wasn’t all that bad.  Sure, it took a few more passes in some spots than the gas mower would have, but it’s so much lighter and easier to manuver that I really felt about the same when all was said and done.
• Convenience, being able to easily start and stop mowing let me do other things and take care of the yard in between checking on the food.
• Quality, the yard looks very nice after the mowing.  Everything I’ve read about reel mowers is that they provide a much better cut of the grass.  It’s often compared with scissors.  For a bit of proof to the quality, stop by your local golf course.  The golf community spends more money on research for grass than any group in the world, and nearly every golf course you see will be using a reel mower (though they are mainly pulled behind a large tractor to mow twelve foot plus paths). 

To top it all off, I know I’m not having to buy and use gas just to cut my grass.  Granted, I’ve only used a couple gallons a year for this yard, but that’s still a waste for such a silly thing as a bunch of grass.

The Post-Dispatchis reporting today on a new bill being sent to Governor Blunt creating a specific crime and punishment for mortgage fraud.  Here are some excerpts and comments on the article:

The legislation defines mortgage fraud as making false statements or failing to disclose material facts. It creates fines and allows for the licenses of real estate brokers, agents and appraisers to be revoked. It also bars attempts to influence real estate appraisals through extortion or bribery.

Pearce’s bill allows for civil fines of up to $2,500 per violation for those who commit mortgage fraud. It also makes mortgage fraud a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.

State appraisers and real estate commissions and the state finance division also would get more power to investigate allegations of mortgage fraud and the ability to levy even higher fines — up to $5,000 per violation.

That all seems fairly reasonable to me.  It should surely have an impact on the market and help keep some unscrupulous people out of the business during the next boom.  Of course, the extortion and bribery are already crimes, so I’m not sure why it was necessary to add that to the legislation.

Rep. Jeff Harris and Pearce had filed separate legislation that bars charging fees for early mortgage payments, directing consumers eligible for standard loans to subprime deals, and persuading borrowers to take out new loans unless there is a clear benefit.

That legislation also would require lenders to ensure consumers can afford monthly payments on variable rate mortgages when interest rates increase, create a legal responsibility to act in borrowers’ best interests and allow lawsuits from consumers for violations.

Harris, D-Columbia, said the bill approved Thursday “doesn’t do anywhere near what it should be doing” for lawmakers to claim that they have addressed problem mortgages.

Okay, Mr. Harris, I believe you are going a bit far there.  As consumers we still have some responsibility as well.  No one is telling us we shouldn’t buy that car because it will cost too much in 2 years when we lose a job.  No one tells us we shouldn’t buy that big TV on the credit card because the interest payments will be too much to handle when the economy slows down. 

If anything, maybe the legislation should include some provisions for consumers who knowingly sign false documents stating a much higher income.  Why do we only punish the business?  Where is the individual responsibility for their own actions.  Sure, the business shouldn’t do something to knowingly deceive the consumer, but the consumer shouldn’t do something to knowingly deceive the business either.  There’s two sides to this coin.

You can read the full text of House Bill 2188 here.  It’s only 12 pages, and it’s big print, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to read!  If you aren’t confused by the end of page 3 you must be a lawyer!

There was a post on the Mayor’s website yesterday about a call from Gubernatorial candidate Sarah Steelman.  She let Mayor Slay know that she will be holding a press conference in St. Louis to call for the city to phase out the city earnings tax.

Ms. Steelman rightfully presents that the earnings tax does indeed discourage people and businesses from locating within the city of St. Louis.  The Mayor also makes the valid point that the earnings tax makes up a third of the city budget and is difficult to replace and replacing it would mean raising other taxes on the current businesses and residents of the city causing the same discouragement as the earnings tax.

So, here we are, at an impasse.  The cart before the horse.  The chicken or the egg.  The end solution I’m sure will be to do nothing.

I agree that phasing out (not just cutting it out in one fail swoop) the earnings tax would be good for the city, and the city has some good opportunities to do that if we take them when they come. 

Here lies the problem.  If my budget at home can not pay for everything I want I have to either bring in more money or spend less of it, period.  The city is no different.  So, that leaves the city with two options if they cut out 1/3 of their income.  They can either raise taxes as the Mayor says the would need to, or they can cut spending (which is also not always a pleasant idea). 

I took a browse over to the city website for their annual financial statements.   I looked through the statements for 2007 and 2005 to get some information going back to 2002 for annual revenue and annual tax revenue from the employment/payroll tax.  Here are my findings (all my numbers are in millions):

Well, it seems the Mayor wasn’t comparing the payroll taxes to Gross Revenue, but just to tax revenue because it’s really only 18-19% of our total revenue.  So, that’s a little easier chunk to swallow.  Total revenue has been growing over the last 5 years.  If you just looked at real dollars, we have 80 million more in revenue in 2007 than 2002.  That could cut the earnings tax in half!  Of course, that doesn’t reflect inflation either.  Expenses are bound to grow some as well as we give city employees at least the bare minimum raise to equal inflation (though I’m sure they don’t typically get that much). 

However, from what I read on the Mayor’s site and in the Post-Dispatch from week to week, we seem to take any “new found” money and throw it at development projects for our “buddies.”  Sure, it would be great also if we could continually expand city services, improve the schools and whatnot, but why can’t we take a realistic approach and gradually “phase out” the earnings tax with some ever decreasing rates while our revenues are growing?  Wouldn’t that gradually encourage more residents and businesses who will grow other areas of the tax base naturally and allow us to speed up the decline of the earnings tax?  Let’s not forget as well that there will be an increase in property tax revenue in the coming years as all those tax abated homes start finishing off their abatement period. 

So, why not cut the earnings tax to 0.9% for the next year and cut back a bit on giveaways to encourage specific companies to move in.  That small drop will be a freebie to anyone and hopefully (with a long term plan in place to get rid of it all) the increase in business and residents will make up for the missing earnings tax over time. 

Of course, the mayor also suggested that the state give a tax credit for the city earnings tax.  So, let’s reduce the state’s tax revenue so that the city residents can keep paying their earnings tax.  That means more Missourians will be picking up the statewide burden for those of us here in the city.  Great for us but would suck to be them.  Let’s play fair shall we?