St. Louis and area news - business, events, politics, etc. (Washington: loft, to buy)

[STLCardsBlues1989]

St. Louis ranks No. 6 among the Top Ten Most Literate Cities

By Jane Henderson
POST-DISPATCH BOOK EDITOR

12/29/2007

Steadier newspaper readership, more local periodicals and great library resources helped propel St. Louis into the Top 10 most literate cities in the nation, according to an annual study conducted by Central Connecticut State University. With improvements in several areas used to measure a city's literacy, St. Louis landed at No. 6 this year compared to No. 12 last year, ahead of Boston and San Francisco.

"Really?" said Barry Leibman, co-owner of one of the few independent bookstores in the area, Left Bank Books in the city's Central West End. "They [San Francisco and Boston] have such strong book climates and long-standing intellectual reputations. The study is a happy surprise."

The study looked at cities with more than 250,000 population. Minneapolis, Seattle, St. Paul, Denver and Washington ranked ahead of St. Louis overall. The study measurements pertained only to the city and did not include St. Louis County.

Six indicators of literacy were tracked: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment and Internet resources calculated per number of residents. In some categories, St. Louis held steady because other cities showed a greater loss in areas such as newspaper circulation.
St. Louis ranked second in periodical publishers and sixth in newspaper circulation, again, as percentage of population. "Magazines can include everything from AutoTrader to St. Louis Magazine," Mark McLaughlin, spokesman for Central Connecticut State University, said. The study counted 51 magazines and 29 journals published in St. Louis.

St. Louis measured high in library resources — second only to Columbus, Ohio — which remained "outstanding," McLaughlin said. Another key measurement — Internet usage to view the city's newspaper online and to buy books — grew here. St. Louis also increased its number of public internet terminals provided by the library.

There is still a strong fiction readership in the city, says Diane Freiermuth, deputy director of the St. Louis Library. The library's book clubs for adults, kids and teens are all growing, and Internet usage is up by 50 percent, while traditional circulation has dipped only about 2 percent.

"We have 478 public PCs (personal computers); 260 of them have free Internet access. They are pretty much in use every minute of every day," Freiermuth said.

The city measured fifth in the category of booksellers. But that ranking may be skewed. The only full-service independent bookstore is Leibman's Left Bank Books at 399 North Euclid Avenue. St. Louis has a Barnes & Noble within the Barnes-Jewish Hospital complex and several used bookstores, such as Dunaway Books on South Grand Boulevard. The city also has specialty book shops such as Novella Books on South Kingshighway, which concentrates on Bosnian and Croatian titles. McLaughlin said the study used yellowpagesinc.com to determine the number of booksellers. A check on Friday revealed that site may not be reliable: it included stores in St. Louis County. But the same sources and process was used for each city, McLaughlin said, keeping rankings consistent.

The city's lowest rank was in education, for which it was 50th of the 69 cities measured. Education rankings took into account the percentages of the city residents who had high school and college degrees.

The release of the Most Literate Cities survey coincides with renewed focus on reading and literacy. Last fall, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) published a study suggesting that the nation's intellectual — and perhaps moral — health is at risk because we are reading less and reading less well. Of particular concern was the declining amount of time children spend reading compared to watching TV or playing video games. Children who read have better test scores, and people who read are more likely to have bigger incomes and more generous hearts, the NEA said.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (broken link)

[STLCardsBlues1989]

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/...hisSpeed=30000

No. 9: St. Louis, Mo.
Public School Support: A
Private School Options: A+
Library Popularity: C+
College Town: B+
College Options: A+
The St. Louis Arch isn't the only draw to the Gateway of the West--another, it seems, is its excellent education system. More than half a million K-12 students populate the city's 158 school districts, 16% of which choose to attend private schools.

I was surprised. Most I hear about St. Louis schools is negative.

St. Louis is also the #1 city for smokers.

[ucfjtm]

Considering the other cities in their list, they're rating the entire metro area, not just within city limits. Finally, some more respectable reporting is being done..

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Here it is Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world!

57 acres. So, what can be done with it? There's a proposed new park with a couple fields for local high schools to share and have tournaments in and stuff. So, why not here? Is it too far north? Seems like you'd just have to clear out the trees. It's better, in my opinion, than using some currently existing park space for the fields. Surely, in 57 acres you can have a ball field, a football field, maybe a soccer field? You'd probably have to get rid of that little electrical substation in the middle.

From this shot Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world! you can see the site of the original Sportsman's park in comparison to the housing project. I'd think you could fit a high school sized ballpark inside the housin project land.

Just a thought.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

MyFox St. Louis | Update on Loft Market After Highway 40 Shutdown

Encouraging news.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Apparently the J.C. Penney building on MLK in St. Louis was going to be placed on the historic register, but an alderman blocked it because he doesn't like the owner or something.

The only thing I really don't like about this city is the corrupt politics of it.

Here's some of the buildings nominated for historic registering (scroll down):
January 28, 2008 Preliminary Agenda

It seems like I hear a lot of complaints about our city's government, moreso than I'd expect in most cities (you always expect some complaints).

[kshe95girl]

It just blows my mind how all this personal nonsense gets in the way in STL, its one of the things that annoys me most when I read the paper.

[MoNative34]

And they wonder why most people prefer to live in the 'bubs?

[aragx6]

I think this kind of crap happens everywhere. Be glad it can never be as corrupt as Chicago. I've only been there 6 months, but I'm floored by some of what I've seen.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by MoNative34

And they wonder why most people prefer to live in the 'bubs?

You are kidding, right? If you look at most of the 'burbs, they have the same problems with corruption.

Case in point: St. George.