By Jorie Schuckman
FOCUS St. Louis

We had two blog posts last week referencing safety and the city, and wondering what kind of toll it takes on you and what we can do about it.  After my experience yesterday, I can tell you, firsthand, what kind of toll it takes on you.

While working at the FOCUS St. Louis office downtown from 9 am till 5 pm yesterday, my car was stolen from the parking lot at the Delmar MetroLink station, just inside the city limits of the City of St. Louis.  I don’t assign blame to the city for this crime.  The city was actually quite easy to work with, and a very nice, competent police officer responded within 20 minutes after my husband called 911.  We had expected to wait a while, because nobody had been hurt, and we didn’t think that stolen cars – without any sort of evidence left behind in the lot – were a huge priority for the police.  1997 Geo Metros, in particular, wouldn’t seem to rank all that high, but, we were treated with the utmost professionalism.  After my interaction with the cop, I left the parking lot feeling better, or at least as better as you can feel when the car that you’ve driven for 10 years is stolen in broad daylight.  So, kudos to the city cops.  It’s responses like that to crimes that may not seem all that important to everybody else that will keep people confident about living and working in the city.

Will this whole incident change my mind about the city?  No.  I grew up there.  I don’t live there now, I live in St. Louis County.  But my current house is less than a mile from the western boundary of St. Louis City, and I regularly come into the city and leave my car behind (or I used to leave my car behind.  Now, with nicer weather on the horizon and no car in sight, I’ll be walking more) and commute downtown to my internship via MetroLink.  I have no idea if or when I’ll get my car back, or what kind of condition it will be in when I do, but I’m not going to let some stupid criminals with too much free time on their hands keep me away from all the great stuff that the City of St. Louis has to offer.

Do I feel violated?  You bet.  Am I ticked off?  Of course.  But, life goes on, and I was back downtown this morning, walking seven-tenths of a mile from the 8th and Pine MetroLink stop to the FOCUS Breakfast Club featuring St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams.  If we’re going to turn around the crime statistics in the city (and the police report I filed last night was a number over 11,000 in just 55 days of 2009) the city education system seems like as good a place to start as any.