15thWardSTL.org

Meet Mike Glodeck, one of the upcoming contributing editors on 15thWardSTL. Mike has been a resident of Tower Grove South with his son and wife for several years.

Mike is not new to blogging - he's been running his personal blog for a while now at http://glodeck.blogspot.com/ called "Making of a Parent". I look forward to reading his take in particular on development, family life, arts, and culture in the 15th Ward.

Not only is his writing insightful and informed, but he also lives his life in the trenches making St. Louis a better place to live. He is in the process of opening a new venue called Foam - a combination coffee house, microbrewery, and performance/community space on Jefferson at Cherokee (yes, it's outside the 15th Ward, but any decent redevelopment plan for the area will include some thinking about how to tie Jefferson to Grand along Cherokee street!).

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce Adam Seehaver as one of the new contributing editors on 15thWardSTL. People on the Tower Grove South e-mail group probably know him as "Adam Bo-Badam". On 15thWardSTL, he will be known simply as "Adam". He has agreed to take part in continuing to grow the 15th Ward online discussion and analysis community.

Adam is a two-year resident of the 15th Ward with his partner and two-year-old son. He will be attending the George Warren Brown School of Social Work in the fall and has a particular interest in policy analysis and gentrification among other things. He is a conscientious writer and progressive thinker - I look forward to reading his writing on a variety of 15th Ward issues.

What do the parents of two young children do on a Friday night? This one looks at server statistics for his blog while his wife runs to Office Max to make some copies for her teaching job. Here's what I found:

The algorithms Google uses to rank pages for search queries is are a closely guarded secret. I can't complain though because 15thWardSTL.org seems to do pretty well. For example, the top search that leads people to this site is "Trader Joe's Gift Card" (and variations). Google returns 15thWardSTL as the second listing, six above the ACTUAL Trader Joe's! However, these people tend to only look at an average of 1.3 pages - I assume because they are looking for actual Trader Joe's gift cards, not my (now closed) offer of a free gift card.

There are currently several authors contributing article content to 15thWardSTL.org.

This blog was created by Steve Wilke-Shapiro. I have been a resident of the 15th ward since 2003 when my wife and I purchesd a fixer-upper on McDonald. After putting in a huge amount of "sweat equity," we moved in to our new home. It was, of course, still under renovation untill the day we sold it! We have two sons.

We were immediately attracted to the vibrant south grand commercial district (where we could often be found dining even before we moved to the Ward). It is also wonderful being within walking distance of two parks

Communication is the key to effective representation.

Representative government works best when the electorate is informed and involved. Our representatives are more accountable for their decisions. While this is true at all levels of government, in local politics the everyday decisions affect our daily lives. This web site is dedicated to the idea that through critical observation and open discussion, residents can help our elected and appointed officials make more informed decisions.