Mini Polls - 2014

If you are on Facebook, you know that this is the time of year that new profile pictures, cute cats, and fiancés are crowded out by the announcement of good intentions.

As a city of hallowed traditions and many Santa-ready brick chimneys, St. Louis does Christmas like a champ. Our lights – in our neighborhoods, at the Brewery, at the Garden, at the Zoo, in public spaces – shine particularly brightly.

2014 has been an important year for St. Louis. It has been a year of growth and growing pains, progress and push backs. Much of what we will remember from the year was documented by local media, using a variety of platforms.

Every year, MayorSlay.com ventures into the sharky waters of public opinion and asks its readers to pick a Person of the Year.

Notice of these weekly polls is sent to thousands of you each week – and hundreds of you spend a few minutes filling them out. Some of you have done this for years; others are relative newcomers. MayorSlay.com appreciates your participation.

Each week, thousands of you get an email from MayorSlay.com. Hundreds of you read and answer a short poll linked in it.

Men do it more than women do: quote lines to people from their favorite movies. Why is that?

News that the Statue of Liberty is dressing up for Halloween will likely confuse people who remember the holiday as a chance for small children to walk up their own blocks in costumes and be “frightened” by the porch decorations.

Crime is down. Prison populations are up.

St. Louis is a city of historic neighborhoods, and these historic neighborhoods are full of historic buildings.

This week, the East-West Gateway Council of Governments released a report on racial disparity, titled "Where We Stand." The findings were troubling: Compared to many other Metropolitan Statistical Areas, the St.

There are 79 official neighborhoods in the City of St. Louis. They range in appearance and texture from “gritty, industrial” to “manicured, sub-divisional.” They are loud and quiet; compact and extended. Some neighborhoods

Every day, we make thousands of decisions.(According to researchers at Cornell University, we average 226.7 decisions a day just about food.)

We are a nation of laws. Lots and lots of them. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, US states and territories passed more than 40,000 bills and resolutions in 2011 (the last year for which we could find data) – and the Federal

A poll published recently by the Harvard School of Public Health finds that nearly half of all Americans are concerned that there will be a large outbreak of the Ebola virus in the United States – and that more than one in four Americans are concerned that they or a member of their family may be sick with Ebola over the next 12 months.

For an indeterminate number of people, the Internet is the universe. For most of the rest of us, it is a very important world.

Gallup, one of the world’s most influential survey firms, has coined the phrase "the hope divide. "That’s the difference they’ve discovered in how adults and young people view the future. The vast majority of youth believe that the

Over the past few years, miles of new bike paths, bike lanes, and bike signage have been added throughout the City. Many (most!) City residents live within a short walk — or an easy bike ride — of a park, a store, a church, and a bar.

Over the past couple of months, tens of thousands of children from Central American countries have arrived at the United States border with Mexico.

This has been a week of major news stories: theories about a plane shot down, explanations for another plane missing, riveting pictures of a military mobilized, tales of an execution botched.

Recently, the viral video of Kacy Catanzaro becoming the first woman to qualify for the final round of NBC's American Ninja Warrior made us all think a little bit more about our daily fitness strategy, or lack thereof.

For many of us, the high school play is an indelible memory of student life. There are the staples: “Twelve Angry Men” and “Grease," for example, with “Almost, Maine” and “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” as their contemporary equivalents.

St. Louis’ August generally gets the bad rap as our cruelest month. But, it might not deserve it.

Awesome neighborhoods.Awesome parks.Awesome architecture.Awesome restaurants. (And bars and theaters.)

In 2009, Mayor Francis Slay was one of the mayors who voted to commit the US Conference of Mayors to supporting marriage equality for same-sex couples so that such unions would have the same rights – family leave, retirement benefits, tax equity, and co

The Missouri Supreme Court has set June 18 as the scheduled date for the execution of John Winfield. The United States is one of only a handful of industrialized nations that allows capital punishment.

Generations of young St. Louisans have grown up to become literate and productive citizens with good habits purchased by the region’s ultimate alternative currency: free baseball tickets.

To our great delight, ESPN will broadcast fourteen hours of the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Taxes are, most likely, inevitable. They fund roads, parks, education, public safety, and every other function of government. No revenue means no services.That doesn’t mean taxes are uniformly popular. Or fair.

"Don't tell me the lights are shining any place but there."

If you are like MayorSlay.com (and the on-line editors at most local news outlets), you are a sucker for those “Best/Most City” lists. You know the ones: Best Cities for Foodies, Best Cities for Dogs, Most Livable/Swimmable/ Walkable Cities. St. Louis figures on plenty of them.

The City of St. Louis has 79 “official” neighborhoods – and a handful of unofficial ones. Each has its own character and style. Some of them have active community and neighborhood groups; some do not.

The first Earth Day in 1970 marked the birth of modern environmentalism as a show of commitment towards sustainable practices and green living.

Karaoke is a form of entertainment in which an amateur sings along with recorded (or, sometimes, live) music using a mic and a public address system. The music is typically a popular song, minus the vocal track.

Catching and convicting criminals requires witnesses

"STL Pop. 500,000" is the name of a thought experiment recently posted on Mayorslay.com.

Is air travel today better or worse than 15 years ago?

Enemies and rivals. These are not the same things at all. Enemies are made of equal parts of fear, loathing, and mistrust. The antipathy of rivals is often leavened with tradition, showmanship and good-natured posturing.

This week’s Mini-Poll sends you back to school to ask you some questions about the benefits of pre-school and early childhood education programs — and their funding.