“Property is the fruit of labor…property is desirable…is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.” — Abraham Lincoln

Tuesday, it’s gonna be interesting downtown, with the traffic impacts due to the All-Star Game.

The closure of Highway 40 is grabbing most of the headlines. If you haven’t heard, Highway 40 will CLOSE from 14th Street to the Mississippi River, starting at 5pm on Tuesday. So, if you do use eastbound 40 to get downtown on Tuesday, the last open exit will be at 14th Street.

But keep in mind, that closure of 40 also means that if you’re coming into downtown from Illinois via the Poplar Street Bridge, you WON’T be able to go straight, out onto westbound 40. You will HAVE to either go westbound on 70, or southbound on 55, or northbound on Memorial Drive.

But, wait…there’s more. President Obama, who will be throwing-out the first pitch at Tuesday night’s All-Star Game, will probably impact Tuesday afternoon’s rush hour, too.

President Obama is not even expected in town till the 5 o’clock hour on Tuesday, from what I hear. And that means, more than likely, the Presidential motorcade will cause closures heading from the Airport into downtown, probably along Highway 70.

That is, if the President uses a motorcade to get downtown. I’m assuming that will be the case. But, Monday morning on-air, Guy Phillips brought up a good point.
What if — or even could they — FLY the President to Busch Stadium, in a helicopter? Makes sense. Would look cool, too. We’ll have to wait and see.

So, what’s the takeaway from all this? A few things:

From Missouri, eastbound 44 will probably be your most grief-free path toward the stadium.

From Illinois, on westbound 55-70, across the Poplar Street Bridge, I think your best plan may be to go southbound on 55. From there, you could try exiting at 7th Street, or stay on southbound 55 to westbound 44, to Jefferson, then go north on Jefferson, and head toward the All-Star Game that way.

There’s no doubt that, if feasible, getting downtown, and into the stadium as early as possible, is the best possible game plan. It’s probably gonna be a long time till the All-Star Game comes back to St. Louis, so you may as well get in the stadium early, and soak it all up.

Tuesday, it’s gonna be interesting downtown, with the traffic impacts due to the All-Star Game.

The closure of Highway 40 is grabbing most of the headlines. If you haven’t heard, Highway 40 will CLOSE from 14th Street to the Mississippi River, starting at 5pm on Tuesday. So, if you do use eastbound 40 to get downtown on Tuesday, the last open exit will be at 14th Street.

But keep in mind, that closure of 40 also means that if you’re coming into downtown from Illinois via the Poplar Street Bridge, you WON’T be able to go straight, out onto westbound 40. You will HAVE to either go westbound on 70, or southbound on 55, or northbound on Memorial Drive.

But, wait…there’s more. President Obama, who will be throwing-out the first pitch at Tuesday night’s All-Star Game, will impact Tuesday afternoon’s rush hour, too.

President Obama is not even expected in town till the 5 o’clock hour on Tuesday. And that means, the Presidential motorcade will cause closures heading from the Airport into downtown, more than likely along Highway 70.

So, what’s the takeaway from all this? A few things:

From Missouri, eastbound 44 will probably be your most grief-free path toward the stadium.

From Illinois, on westbound 55-70, across the Poplar Street Bridge, I think your best plan may be to go southbound on 55. From there, you could try exiting at 7th Street, or stay on southbound 55 to westbound 44, to Jefferson, then go north on Jefferson, and head toward the All-Star Game that way.

There’s no doubt that, if feasible, getting downtown, and into the stadium as early as possible, is the best possible game plan. It’s probably gonna be a long time till the All-Star Game comes back to St. Louis, so you may as well get in the stadium early, and soak it all up.

Good to see crews putting-up bunting on Busch Stadium earlier today, as preparations continue for the All-Star Game.

I know I am not a vampire.

Why?

‘Cuz I DO enjoy the sunrise.

This morning was another stunner. Maybe it was my angle, but I saw a shade of plum this morning, that I don’t really recall ever seeing in a sunrise.

Just gorgeous.

Tomorrow (Saturday, 6/27) looks like it’s gonna be the hottest day of the year in St. Louis. The weather-forecaster types are predicting a heat index around 105 or 110 degrees.

Everytime the weather peeps get all freaked-out about stuff like this, it makes me think back to the late ’80’s.

Y98 was approached about participating in a charity softball game in West County. It was to benefit a private school (can’t remember the name) in West County. Yours truly was enlisted as the captain of one of the two teams of celebrities. (Hey, let’s REALLY scan the memory…STU KLITENIC was on my team. Remember that guy? He did sports on Channel 2, when it was the ABC station in town.)

Well, the day of the game rolls around, and guess what…the heat index was ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE. I’m not kidding.

Best of all, the game was NOT cancelled. Imagine…the Cardinals are catching all this heat (’scuse it) about not changing the start time of tomorrow’s game. And here we were back then — a bunch of non-athletes — playing in the afternoon sun, in heat index values that were 25 degrees HIGHER than what we’re supposed to have tomorrow.

Two things I remember vividly from that day. There was a large metal tub of ice water and canned beverages by the team bench. Man, I tell you what — I stuck my head in that tub every inning, it was so darned hot. Also, there was a soft-serve ice cream vendor on the other side of the parking lot from the baseball diamond. At one point, I went over there to get some ice cream. Once I got it, that ice cream turned into soup by the time I walked from one side of the parking lot, to the other.

135 degree heat index!!!!

Oh, and one more thing. That event had the words “First Annual” in its billing.

There never was a second annual charity softball game for that school.