香港三级片

We were leaving my daughter鈥檚 middle school after opening night of the fall play when it came across the loud speaker:

鈥淔or those students who need a cab home, they are waiting in front of the school.鈥�

At schools all over St. 香港三级片 County, this is a reality after school events.

For about 4,000 students who live in the city of St. 香港三级片 and participate in the program, getting to and from school, or the school play, or the track meet or the soccer game, is one hell of a chore.

These students, most of them black and living in some state of poverty, arise early in the morning, an hour or so before my children do, and get in a cab, or on a bus, and begin their long journey to Rockwood or Parkway or other St. 香港三级片 County school districts. It鈥檚 still dark. If they have time, they鈥檒l get breakfast at school.

They do this because long ago, St. 香港三级片ans made a series of decisions that continue to haunt and divide the region, and hold it back economically. Over a period of decades, we divided ourselves by race and class, creating too many municipalities, too many school districts, too many haves and have-nots. We invested where the haves live, leaving other places to fend for themselves.

Over time, we鈥檝e repeated the pattern several times.

The have-nots are mostly congregated in certain neighborhoods in north and south St. 香港三级片, and others in north St. 香港三级片 County. Their schools aren鈥檛 as well- funded. Their jobs are far away.

Come to West County, we say. If only you can get here.

On this night, it was 9:30 or so. My daughter was exhausted, and we were five minutes from home. As she walked to our van, a couple of her friends headed to a cab, ready for the ride back to the city.

They do this every single school day 鈥� taking a long bus ride or cab ride home 鈥� in some cases for every year of their school lives.

For some, their parents did the same thing.

And still are.

A few days after the school play, reporter Eric Berger of the Riverfront Times wrote . West County businesses, Berger wrote, are struggling to find enough workers, particularly in the low-paying restaurant field, in large part because it is so difficult for workers who live in places they can afford to get to 鈥� places like West County 鈥� where jobs are more plentiful.

Berger told the story of Steve Marzette, who makes $9 an hour working as a dishwasher at a Pasta House in Ellisville, near where I live. He spends four hours a day getting to and from work.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 do nothing about it. Ain鈥檛 got no car,鈥� he told Berger.

If you thought people who live where I live, in Wildwood, or on the other side of the river, say, Collinsville, have it tough when it comes to commuting, think again.

My drive to downtown is generally about 45 minutes one way. Sometimes it takes an hour.

Census Bureau records paint a much more difficult picture for people who live in areas of the city and county where neither jobs nor cars are plentiful, and mass transit is far from accessible.

In Black Jack and Spanish Lake and Bellefontaine Neighbors; in Affton and Mehlville and Bella Villa; and in several south St. 香港三级片 neighborhoods, in Carondelet, in Patch, in Dutchtown, these are the areas where residents have the longest commutes to work in the St. 香港三级片 region, according to the Census Bureau.

You can place the long-planned Northside-Southside Metrolink route over a map of the city and county, and every one of the Census Bureau tracts that show the longest aggregate travel time to work in the region would be served.

It鈥檚 one reason why the Ferguson Commission in its Forward Through Ferguson report issued more than three years ago. Since that time, city voters passed a tax hike to help fund future transit expansion, but little else has been done to improve the vexing problem that holds the entire region back. Twice in recent years state voters have turned back tax hikes for new highway funding in Missouri 鈥� neither of which paid any serious attention to the transit problems in the state鈥檚 two major economic engines.

Tonight on the way home, my wife will likely ask me to pick up dinner. It鈥檚 a common request. She鈥檒l shuttle the children to and from after-school activities, and I鈥檒l stop at some West County restaurant and grab some food. I won鈥檛 know the name of the worker who helps me, but probably, he will still be facing a two-hour commute home, where, by the time he gets there, hopefully, he鈥檒l have just enough time to kiss his daughter good night.

She鈥檚 got to get up early, to catch a ride to school.