The North campus, an 8 minute walk away, also has a MetroLink stop and newer buildings, such as this space-ship like Student Center, with a nice food court and many student oriented offices. The pond in front as well as the stand of grasses just to its righ seem to act like some sort of water filtration device.
All passengers waiting for either Amtrak, the MetroLink, the intra-city buses or the city bus system, can be seated inside in heated or air-conditioned building with ample restrooms and a small eatery which are centered in the building near passenger seating so a long hike is not needed. Very well planned for people comfort.
Below is the MetroLink stop at the South Campus of the University of St.Louis-MO. While it has little to no shelter from the elements, you can see it's clean and well lit at night. The city bus system stops just to the left of the platform (where you can see a piece of the bus shelter) and just a few steps to the left of that is a parking lot, so you can sit in your car until close to the time for the bus or the Metro-Link to arrive before getting out.
Here's a MetroLink approaching the UMSL-South stop
Where I live has nothing remotely like this.
To get to St. Louis I had to drive my car to the city transport center in the next county (which transport center services only that county's bus system and intra-city buses, not the Amtrak) take a bus 2 hours to Syracuse to wait to get on the once a day Amtrak to Chicago. And there wait for the connection to the Texas Eagle to get to St. Louis.
While the Metro-Link system and its being connected to the city bus system, the intra-city bus system as well as the stop for the Amtrak for that city, as well as the aiport! seems to signal public transport nirvana, all is not well.
The day after I arrived at the cmpus, since the conference was not starting until that evening, I did a walk-about as I like to do when I visit a new place. I walked along the road edging the campus heading north, with the Metro-Link track running along to my right. On reaching an intersection, the road going left/right (Bridge Road !) went over the tracks via a bridge into what looked like an area with shops. I walked and walked, encoutering almost no one on this Thursday morning, except an intermittent black male coming in the opposite direction on foot, not making eye contact with me. On my right I passed a large property with a huge lawn in front and a sign stating the presence of a convent, the buildings for which were set far back from the road. The property was rimmed with a black chain link fence. At one point, on the inside of the fence and close to it was a lawn sign stating "Black Lives Matter."
I continued walking in the hot sun, noticing that the businesses edging the road were Payday Loan, African-American Hair Products, Second Hand Clothing on the right. On the left were a small bank, then a chain drug store, then a McDonald's. I quickly crossed the road to get to the McDonald's rest room with no problem as auto traffic was very thin. I notieced one police car parked in front of the drug store. On entering the McDonald's with me now in desperate need of a rest room, it was clear that the entire place was staffed by black folk. Even though a female employee was using the Women's rest room, she immediately gathered up her stuff while speaking to me in a very, very friendly manner. When I asked her how to get to a chain store which I had heard was close by, she gave me very detailed and very helpful directions.
On my leaving the McDonald's, she repeated the directions for me with even more specificity.
On my walk back to get back to the campus, still encountering only one or two people walking, with them still being only black, I wondered about this.
The one "white" person in the area was at the wheel of a car making its way to head over the bridge over the train tracks. Had I just entered a "black" area of St. Louis? Were the train tracks yet again a marker for the divide between the "white" area - in this case the university campus - and the "black" area.
Later on, I came across some more articles about the destruction of areas where "black" people lived, so as to build college campuses or sports stadiums or the Cross-Bronx Expressway in NYC.
I chose to go to this conference because while we do have some challenging people like any diverse organization tends to, Greens are the best. Green "white" males listten to Green "black" females. That's Scott, the U.S. Green Party media coordinator, on the right, and David Doonan, Green Mayor of Greenwich, NY in the middle. We were mostly all dressed casually as the weather outside was beastly hot with very high humidity. The cricket orchestra outside at night was the loudest I've ever heard with what seemed hundreds of crickets sawing away. The woman on the left was one of the many videographers at the conference where press conferences and presentations were uploaded to Craig at his apartment in NYC, from which he livestreamed and later posted videos on You-Tube.
In spite of the horrendous humidity and heat, I had a really good time.
Here are some stalwart Greens piling into cars for car-pooling to Ferguson, MO for a rally and press conference to mark the police killing of Michael Brown, an 18 year old "black" male about to enter college.
The killing (let's call it what it is - genocide) continues.
The U.S. Green Party 2014 Presidential candidate, Jill Stein M.D., who's running again to be the candidate for 2016, also went to the rally and was one of the speakers.
I left early Sunday morning, before the conference ended, mostly due to Amtrak's schedule and my limited funds for spending another night in the dorms.
Leaving St. Louis (see the famous Arch) on the Texas EagleAmtrak heading to Chicago to wait in the horrible Union Station there for the connection to the Amtrak Lake Shore Limited eastbound so as to get back to Syracuse, NY. on Monday morning.
Going over the Mississippi River that runs by St. Louis
The ubiquitous presence of polluting industry
The almost inevitable sight of freight trains carrying perhaps oil or chemicals, etc.
What appears to be a slew of frack-sand trucks or maybe since this is corn and soy country, they might be for transporting such corporate agricultural products (now usually GMO in form).
and then a station stop (not a smoke break stop, if I recall correctly):
This route has several at grade crossings in the middle of a village, town or city.
Here's a view of inside a coach car on a northeast/midwest type of Amtrak train - need to pass the time somehow but I enjoy looking out or in for good photo ops: Norice that the seats and the leg room are much more civilized that you encounter on intra-city buses like Greyhound or CoachUSA or the like.
Then Pontiac, IL
a station not in an industrial area which is often the case, but near a park and playground,
more conrnfields:
Corporate agriculture
Windmills amidst corporate agriculture
This looks to be a stop on one of the many Metra lines emanating from Chicago into its suburbs or nearby smaller cities. Remember that I took this photo while seated on an Amtrak train heading to Chicago.
Then a baseball stadium? paid for most likely with taxpayer fundss without their informed consent, as is done all over the U.S.
And then Joliet, IL
Outcry of resistance to this toxic non-natural environment: as we get closer to Chicago:
and more resistance. Notice the street art is on the track side of the wall which supposedly was to keep out the artists and others.
I like train travel at lot, even by Amtrak, and in spite of the delays caused by not only freight traffic, but the ocassional removal of a person from the train. Here this was somewhere between Joliet, IL and Chicago, IL.
And then after dealing with Chicago's Union Station while waiting for my connection to the Lake Shore Limited, getting on it, a sold out train, so no way to lie down curled up on two seats with the foot rests out and the backs set back to the farthest position as I have done in the past, I had to try to sleep (almost imossible) in one seat, fortunately not next to a large person but next to a moderate sized young man who from our conversation seems to work in the military and was heading back home to Utica having driven out with his wife and three young children to visit family in Wisconsin? (I don't remember).
During the daytime on Monday, I had a fairly nice chat with him as more and more people got on the train and into our car, obviously heading to NYC (from the stubs the conductor stuck over their seats). The rest rooms got more and more unpleasant so when I got off at Syracuse pretty close to on time, I was more than ready, having been standing by the exit for over an hour, with my stuff around me (backpack, food bag, roll on luggage). Got to the stop, headed for the rest room, then on checking the time noticed that the intra-city bus to my destination was waiting at the gate, joined the line, got on it for the two hour trip south, reached that city, got off, grabbed my roll-on luggage from the bay under the bus, used the rest room inside the station, then headed to where I had parked my car, got in it, drove home in the fading afternoon light, parked it in the garage, took out all the bags and hauled them in. Noticed the bee balm had started blooming in my absence.
Then collapsed.
