St. Louis...We Have a Problem

Let me be the first to say that St. Louis does not compare in size or cosmopolitan nature to New York, LA, Chicago or many other cities in the U.S. That is fine, and I think everyone accepts this for fact. I do however, have a huge problem with the fact that hailing a taxi in our fine city is about as easy as finding a good looking girl at any bar on The Landing. Over the last month or so, I have witnessed at least 4 good examples of myself, or friends of mind calling for a cab, and waiting anywhere from 1- 2.5 hours!!! This would never happen in many major U.S. cities. I am very anti drunk driving, but I believe that the fact cabs are so damned hard to procure definitely plays a part in peoples willingness to push the boundaries of the breathalizer scale. I can see being in a far outlying area such as Wentzville, Festus, or Waterloo IL, and not being able to get a cab. It's probably not easy in the far reaching suburbs of the forementioned major cities either. Not being able to get a cab from Kirkwood, Dogtown, and Brentwood is simply not acceptable. Until this city has either a great mass transit system, or a far more reliable means for paid fare rides, we will continue to hear of drunk driving incidents every weekend.



In other news, I received a follow up from Urban Spoon reacting to the letter I sent them on the Araka worm incident 2 weeks ago. Here is what it said...

"Thanks for writing. Incidents like this are impossible for a restaurant to defend (or disprove) and can profoundly affect their reputation, so we don't include them. We certainly allow (and encourage) negative reviews where they're deserved, but this particular subject is really more appropriate for the health department."

I am OK with this response, but still feel strongly about the fact that someone from Araka brought this up to Urban Spoon as libelous. I don't see how this is possible seeing as how it is fact, but whatever the case may be, I feel I've cost the restraunt enough potential business simply by spreading the word far and wide.

Thanks for reading, comments, critique always welcome.