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Who was my neighbor growing up?

Thank you for joining us for this Last Call where we get to the program topics that we couldn't get to in the first 30 or so minutes.

Sarah, I'm sorry we didn't have time to talk about Northern Village.

This is the rental housing development on Lucas and Hunt that's been there forever.

Wendy Weise told us on a program that she lived there.

Actually Rita Herdays lived there too at one point.

But it's gone downhill in recent years with sewage and rodents and ceilings falling on kids.

And the St.

Louis County Council this week ordered the attorney to show up.

And he did and he answered their questions.

So did, curiously, Joe Lamy, who until two years ago was the assignment editor for Fox 2.

I don't know why they hired him.

He's a PR person.

He works for the police union among other contracts.

I see, well good for Joe.

Anyway, representatives on the council like Shalonda Webb and Mark Harter said that they're going to demand change.

What do you think?

I think it's good.

I think they need to demand change.

I was shocked by some of the photos coming out of this place.

I can't believe Wendy used to live there and now she's in Chesterfield.

It's shocking.

It was very nice back in the day.

Yeah, it must have been.

This complex, though, is out of control.

And we talked to County Executive Sam Page about a week ago.

How do we deal with these out-of -town landlords?

There's so much venture capital that's now going into multifamily housing.

People are stuck living in squalid conditions while the landlords just keep cashing the check.

And he acknowledged we need some major changes to state law to hold these kind of landlords accountable.

The biggest power that local governments have is the bully pulpit.

And it's sad to say that's the biggest power they have, but it is.

And I think it was great to see them use it.

We're talking about a county council that's been in a building that since 2013 has had asbestos that hasn't been rectified.

They preside over the animal shelter, which has been a horrendous dump, as well as the jail, which received national attention for its raw sewage flowing in the kitchen.

So shouldn't they get their own house together first?

They should, but they don't have time because people are living in these horrible conditions.

And I'm glad to see them not waiting.

And so are animals and inmates.

Okay, but I mean, I agree with Sarah.

I think the county did what they could do.

They can't just take over the property.

It's private property.

What is it you wanted them to do?

They were asked to provide vouchers.

How about some kind of lawsuit?

I mean, it was very clear from this young lawyer who was representing the owners that the owners aren't going to do anything.

They said, we want the owners to come.

And he said, I'll check and see their schedules and then say we're going to provide somebody on site 24 hours a day with e-mail.

You know, they're not going to do anything.

They'll hire some low rent person.

I mean, to have someone on site is a big breakthrough.

I get they're not going to send their best guy to do that.

But to have someone that people can go to with complaints and to hound and to picket and to bomb.

And the guy will say, hey, this ain't the Ritz.

Right.

He said, wait, I just work here.

It'll be that.

Also, you talk about the bully pulpit.

The bully pulpit was because TV cameras got there and showed the world that.

That's what it takes.

I guarantee you there's 30 other places.

I got to give Sam Page some credit.

He jumped on this.

He really did.

He's what started this.

And I like that they're finally following him.

What about the other 30 rat traps that are out there in the county that somebody else is going to say, look at where I live.

It is a nice trip.

Is the county going to get involved?

Why not?

Because the county has condemned units.

Right.

Because they have the power, according to the law, to do that.

Then the question is, where do we go?

And the question you didn't answer to us is, what else do you want the county to do?

I was going to answer it, but someone interrupted me, which is a rare occurrence here.

Well, Sam Page did suggest that they have, like, moving vouchers as well as the first and last month's rent for some of these tenants who need to go elsewhere.

Right.

And I said, like, condemn the place, help the people move.

I said that, like, three weeks ago, and this came up.

Like, just, no, you're out of business, and we're going to help these people move someplace else.

Well, I like trying to call these people in and to get answers, and I feel like so many people living in not-so -nice apartments these days, they cannot get a person.

It's like an AI help desk.

You don't even know where your check is going.

And they're changing it every two weeks.

To haul someone in in person is a big thing these days.

Well, I think if you could stop these corporations from making the money, just say, we're not paying you here in St.

Louis County.

This isn't happening anymore.

Yeah, I didn't even mention that the owner owes, like, $780,000 to Spire, and his water and sewer bills are also in arrears.

And I think Sam Page, coming after that, is good.

Like, he's, you know, fighting the good fight there.

Alvin, I want to ask you about restrooms in the greater St.

Louis area.

Believe it or not, St.

Louis Public Radio interviewed an author who took a look at the history of restrooms.

And in St.

Louis, we had great restrooms back in the day, and he thinks that they've kind of faltered recently.

He looked, for example, at Union Station and others.

But I happen to think that we could do a better job when it comes to restrooms, especially when you travel to other cities in this country and elsewhere.

You see, hey, they're in much better shape than they are here.

What do you think?

If you look through the history of civilization, we could tell who had an advanced, like, you know, civilization by the restrooms that they had.

And this is true in the United States of America and in St.

Louis.

Now, I'll tell you, when I lived on the East Coast, and Seinfeld had a little adventure about this, and George was describing where the best bathrooms were.

That's a thing in Washington, D.C., too, on mass transit.

Everybody knows it.

Like, hey, if you're on the Orange Line and you, you know, have to use the privy, stop here and go there.

And it's a real thing.

The better your bathrooms are across your metropolitan area, the better image you give to the world.

It's a real thing, Charlie.

And it starts at the airport.

Right.

Yes, exactly.

Right.

So maybe $450,000 to upgrade all of our, since we're giving away money.

I mean, I get it.

Everybody wants to have a nice restroom, which is why, when you're on the road, everybody knows the good chain restaurants that always take care of their residents.

Quick Trip, right.

Exactly.

You know the places to go.

Wally's.

Again, and the government's role in this would be?

Providing really nice toilet paper for each of them.

That's the only thing.

I think Alvin's just pointing out it should be like a societal attitude change.

Yes.

I agree with that.

I would like to see more attempts to provide outdoor public-type restrooms for people who need them.

I mean, it is a huge problem.

And when people are so mad about homeless people living nearby, a lot of times it's because they don't want to deal with the homeless people's excretions.

And if we could find a way to solve that problem and smarter design for some sort of porta potty-type situation that people can't use for abusing drugs or other problems, I think this would be a great boon to society.

All of our best people should be working on this and not generative AI.

There you go.

But AI will probably have cameras in the restroom so they can't use drugs.

Probably.

There will be a camera in the bathroom.

Or we could propose a bill where people could just go outside.

Wait, we did that.

That didn't work.

I forgot about that.

Hey Bill, I want to ask you about a bill that was passed by the legislature to increase the speed on certain highways in the state of Missouri to 75 miles an hour.

Currently the top speed is 70.

MoDOT opposed it because they rightly said it will cause more deaths.

But they were also in charge of implementing it.

So this week they decided that certain sections of highways 29, 35, 49, and 55, Missourians and others will be allowed to drive at 75 miles per hour.

And you think?

Are we talking about two lane roads now?

No.

I didn't think so.

There are two lanes on each side.

Okay.

Out west.

I was just on a vacation out there.

And then the great west with all the wide spaces.

75 is a speed limit people do.

And of course 75 really means 80.

But I think out on the highways 75, 80 works.

Right now on Skinker I think it's 65.

You watch the way people drive.

But I have no problem with rural roads being 75.

And they always throw up.

And I agree.

If you have the speed limit at 75, there will be more fatalities.

So then why don't we just lower it then?

Because if it's 70, let's go to 65.

Let's go to 40.

How about 40?

I would.

30.

How about 30?

How about if we just stop people from driving and we can eliminate all those motor vehicle deaths?

I mean, at some point.

A lot of people do die on highways.

And a lot of people die on side roads.

And they're going to die in cars.

And so what you're saying, though, is this five miles an hour.

Then let's start backing it back down.

Let's get back down to 55.

Why not?

Okay.

You're for that.

I'm against it.

There you go.

Actually, we did try 55, didn't we?

Like under Carter or something?

What was the safe gas?

That was the safe gas.

Yeah, yeah.

And nobody would do it.

But you didn't go over 65.

I remember now going back and forth to college.

All right.

But anyway, out in Montana out there, like northwest of where you were, and I was too, it's 80.

And people drive 85.

They don't drive 90.

Let me tell you why it's 80.

Because South Dakota has a population of 500 ,000.

Half the size of St.

Louis County.

But they die just like other people do, Charlie.

No, because there's not that many people on the road.

Same percentage, I bet.

No, but here people are on their phones.

We don't have mandatory high school driver's education.

People around here don't know how to drive.

They can't drive in the snow.

Right?

Back me up on this one, Sarah.

Missourians cannot drive in the snow.

I cannot argue with you.

Missourians are terrible drivers.

However, I feel like driving 75, driving 80, these are speeds that are not going to make a difference in terms of our bad Missouri drivers.

I see them like doing crazy things on side streets.

Like once you get out to the open road here and you can kind of open it up and you're getting up to 80 miles an hour, that's probably when you're safest.

It's this crazy stop and go stuff where you're like, is this a person who follows the basic rules of traffic?

Oh, it turns out they don't.

And they also don't have a license plate.

I mean, I don't see this as being the hill to die on.

Yeah.

Well, we'll see.

What if, not homicides, but vehicle deaths increase?

They will.

They absolutely will.

Well, I don't know.

Charlie, you're not answering my point.

Why don't you just make the speed limit 40?

I would go and make it 55.

I think that would be reasonable.

Okay, so you're willing to live with the deaths between 40 and 55.

Well, I'm trying to keep Americans alive.

Well, only a certain percentage.

You've become a controversial politician.

Only a certain percentage, aren't you, Charlie?

What is this?

You don't care about the ones who die at 55.

Did you write that letter about Soylent Green?

No, I wrote the one that said you were spot on the week before.

Okay.

Well, we hope everyone has a happy Halloween.

It's already gotten kind of scary right here.

Thanks for joining us.

We'll see you next week at this time.