By Antonio D. French
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ABOUT PUB DEF PUB DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the City of St. Louis, Missouri. Our goal is to cast a critical eye on lawmakers, their policies, and those that have influence upon them, and to educate our readers about legislation and the political processes that affect our daily lives. Help us with the cost of this site: Got a press release, news tip or rumor to share? Maybe a suggestion on how we can improve this site? Email us at editor@pubdef.net or call or fax us at (314) 367-3429. PUB DEF ARCHIVES:
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I.P. Freely?
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1 Comments:
That article was first brought to my attention by a friend who is homeless, who pointed out that the bill might be helpful to homeless people in the city.
I was a little disappointed to read through the article and see that the actual motivation for the bill is that Ken Ortmann wants it to be easier for Mardi Gras drunks to pee all over Soulard. While I do agree that public urination is not that significant of a crime, still, with Mardi Gras the sheer frequency with which it occurs should be taken into account--it ain't just some occasional thing, and it is a nuisance to people who actually live in the neighborhood. A friend of mine who used to own a home in the neighborhood actually resorted to charging people to use her bathroom in her house during Mardi Gras, just so that her lawn wouldn't be so completely decimated by people peeing on it--that's how bad it can get!
I also find it curious that Ortmann would put this bill out there, given that it actually encourages nuisance behavior in part of his ward. Most of the people who are going to benefit from this don't live or vote in his ward. In fact, I'd wager that most Mardi Gras revelers (or at least a very large percentage of them) are from outside of the city. About 350,000 people participated in Mardi Gras last year--that's the population of the city, so if that had just been city folks the rest of StL City would have been 100% deserted, and it sure wasn't. So is Ortmann putting forth a bill to make it easier for county residents to literally piss on us?
Mardi Gras: Hey county folks, why go to the East Side when you can act like an idiot here! Do things you would NEVER do in your own neighborhood! Woohoo!
1:03 PM, January 18, 2006
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