Most all of my night time walks take me along Telegraph Road.
Even though Telegraph (Missouri route 231) carries four lanes of through traffic, with a center turn lane, left and right turn lanes and wide shoulders, long parts of the road lack sidewalks. No sidewalks in front of schools and churches, and, worse, the sidewalks abruptly stop – often in mid-block – time and again.
A few years back a young county cop told me I had to walk on the sidewalks where they existed. I replied that if the county wanted to enforce that “law” then the sidewalks had to be continuous, not always starting and stopping. (In one spot north of Heinz Road, the sidewalk stops about 50 feet above a steep slope from the roadway.)
Of course, sidewalks come and go because property owners must add them when they build anything new. None must add sidewalks in front of an existing business (or church or school), so, no one does. Likewise, the Missouri Department of Transportation remains notoriously anti-pedestrian, therefore, it never adds sidewalks, nor do they maintain sidewalks on their right of way. (Part of the sidewalk in front of McDonalds looks like Anchorage, Alaska just after March 27, 1964.)
All this points to the central difference between government and business.
Government does things business wouldn’t, such as build roads in Worth County, Missouri, yet, government doesn’t do other important things because they that rule don’t deem them important.
Business, meanwhile, does what it is forced to do in order to be allowed to make money.
In the news are two examples proving the difference between government and business can’t be reconciled.
At the national level, the Trump administration teases the privatizing of the post office.
Yes, perhaps a for-profit business could deliver electric bills more efficiently in St. Louis County with its 400,000 households and 30,000 employers.
What business would want to deliver electric bills to the 856 households spread about the 267 square miles of Worth County at the same price per bill? [Census Quick Facts for St. Louis County & Worth County, Missouri]
I have a friend who lives next to a beautiful lake in Ste. Genevieve County. Send him a package via UPS and he gets a phone call telling him to drive into Farmington (38 mile round trip) to come get his package. Privatize the Post Office and he’ll be making that trip to get his electric bill.
Closer to home, one successful chess promoter wants to see Lambert Airport privatized. The City of St. Louis would get, say, $1.8 billion. The current patronage-stuffed city department would operate to really make money. Perhaps by adding $5.00 to the cost of a beer in the concourse bars or $500.00 to each plane’s landing fee. Passengers would be forced to pay the higher prices.
I submit that a privatized Lambert Airport with its higher cost structure would make the St. Louis area even less attractive to travelers and businesses. Why give people another reason to avoid us?
Worse, businesses tend to stop doing things which don’t make money. They might start daily mail delivery in Worth County, then decide to stop it. Lambert might close at 10:00 p.m. and forget about flights on Holidays.
The Post Office was created to unite this country. Lambert connects St. Louis to the world. These are important things government has decided to do and should keep doing.
Meanwhile, I’d like to see sidewalks all along Telegraph Road. Right now, alas, I’m more worried about a hole in the pavement by a car wash: the fancy LED flashlight I carry can’t find the bottom. I called it in, about three years ago. Government at work.
Glenn Koenen