Trailnet is honored to have partnered with Ride to Unite in August to promote the message that cycling can be enjoyed by everyone, including people with disabilities. In this annual event, professional and amateur racers enjoy a leisurely ride alongside participants of all ability levels. Check out some of the heartwarming and inspiring photos below.
This month, we’re excited to recognize one of our most dedicated advocates of all time. Former state Sen. Wayne Goode co-founded Trailnet’s board of directors in 2002 and has been critical in helping advance St. Louis toward being the best Bike City it can be. Wayne, 82, is pedaling his way through St. Louis with just as much spirit as ever on his new E-bike. You can meet him yourself at our upcoming Environmental History Ride with the Missouri Historical Society.
Wayne not only served on Trailnet’s Board from 2002 to 2007, he also served as Board President in 2006 and 2007. Wayne has always been a very active donor and supporter of Trailnet and began donating in 1997. Outside of directly supporting Trailnet’s misson, Wayne helped get the Katy Trail built when he was in the Missouri Legislature.
Wayne Goode is a Trailnet Active Living Award recipient for his dedication to improving bicycling in the region.
Wayne is now a Lecturer in Law and Environmental Engineering with the Washington University Law School’s Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic (IEC) since 2006. Prior to his clinic work, Goode worked for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for 13 years, where he was Chief of the NPDES Permits and Engineering Section in the Water Protection Program. Before joining the IEC, he was employed in various positions with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, serving as Chief of the Engineering Section for the Water Pollution Control Program; Policy Analyst for the Water Protection and Soil Conservation Division; and as an Environmental Engineer in varying capacities for the Air Pollution Control Program.
We’re excited to help honor Wayne and all his environmental accomplishments Sunday, October 27, with the Missouri Historical Society. We hope to see you there!
-Photo by R.J. Hartbeck
Today, Matt Raithel is the owner and studio director of Maryland Heights-based Graphite Lab, which creates in-house and branded games for all gaming platforms – what he dreamed of doing as a kid.
What started with the creation of the company’s original flagship game, “Hive Jump,” has now expanded to developing branded games for major companies, including Cartoon Network, Mattel and Hasbro. Raithel and his team recently made “Hive Jump” available on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, a huge accomplishment for the company.
Similarly, Robin Rath successfully co-founded Pixel Press, situated in downtown St. Louis. Rath and his team found success with creating educational games for kids, including the creation of “Bloxels,” which uses a board with plastic pegs to map out game levels and characters before animating them through a mobile app. Thanks to a partnership with Mattel, Pixel Press has secured manufacturing and distribution of “Bloxels” in the retail world. A partnership with Disney recently led to the creation of a “Star Wars” version of the product.
With dozens of gaming studios, courses and industry events, St. Louis is becoming the nation’s next video game development hot spot. “I think St Louis is a really special place for making games because it’s such a diverse crowd of people making them. There’s everything from hobbyists to larger scale companies, but they’re all making something different and they all do it in a different way,” says Mary McKenzie, managing partner of the Metro East studio Volcano Bean.
McKenzie is also a co-organizer of the PixelPop Festival, an annual independent game conference and expo that launched several years ago and, as McKenzie puts it, is “an event that could show off the amazing things that are being made in St. Louis.” The event, held annually at University of Missouri – St. Louis, typically ranks among the top three largest in the nation, and top ten largest in the world.
TJ Hughes, game developer and 3-D artist at Terrifying Jellyfish, especially appreciates the resources offered to gamers here in St. Louis. He cites the Cortex Innovation Community and St. Louis Game Developer Co-Op as examples. “No matter what you need – music, programming, someone who makes really weird, specific art – [the CoOp] is probably the place where you can find that,” he says.
All of these dreams, ideas, companies and progress are possible because of the unique mix of culture, affordability, Midwest openness and grit, and a dedication to taking on longterm issues of accessibility and equity.
We hear similar stories again and again. With the second highest rate of Millennial home ownership and a cost of living 6% lower than the national average, the St. Louis Federal Reserve reports that the standard of living in St. Louis is higher than 94 percent of the MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas) in the nation. It creates a place big enough to provide world-class institutions and attract national, global tours, yet small enough that residents can make their mark and be recognized for their contributions.
A place where you can stand up, stand out and stay.
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STLMade is a movement working to shine a light on the people, innovations, and ideas that are driving growth and change in our region so that residents and non-residents alike can better see the renaissance for themselves. Through stories on theSTL.com, the movement aims to highlight the work being done and the progress being made – from building communities that are more inclusive, to creating new industries and economic opportunities, to finding those ideal careers people never thought possible.
Across STL is a collaboration between the Katy Land Trust and Trailnet, telling the stories of the people and places that make the St. Louis community.
This article was first published in Across STL Volume 3, click here to read the entire issue.
-Photo by R.J. Hartbeck
Over the past few years, St. Louis has seen incredible growth in our innovative industries, thriving food scene, expanded cultural amenities and has become one of the fastest-growing locations for entrepreneurs – without compromising the affordable, livable nature of our region – and that renaissance is driven by our innovators, thinkers, doers and makers.
Southwest Magazine called the region a “dream factory” and STLMade agrees. STLMade is a movement working to shine a light on the people, innovations, and ideas that are driving growth and change in our region so that residents and non-residents alike can better see the renaissance for themselves. Through stories on theSTL.com, the movement aims to highlight the work being done and the progress being made – from building communities that are more inclusive, to creating new industries and economic opportunities, to finding those ideal careers people never thought possible.
St. Louis is a place where a small business can thrive, or a girl can grow up to achieve career milestones she never imagined. Growing up, Angi Taylor didn’t think a career in science was an option for her. “I was always led to believe that someone like me was not a scientist,” Taylor says. “I was fascinated. I would go into the lab and look at what they did and think, ‘Oh, wow this is amazing, but I can’t do this.’”
That all changed when as an administrative assistant at St. Louis Community College’s Center for Plant and Life Sciences at the Bio-Research, Development and Growth Park (BRDG Park) at Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, she noticed students train in the sciences and land gainful, interesting jobs at BRDG Park. She decided to take classes herself, and because of the program, interned with NewLeaf Symbiotics at BRDG Park before taking a permanent position as a lab clerk there.
“I was not a traditional student. At that time, I was in my mid-40’s and taking classes all over again. But it wasn’t as impossible as I thought,” Taylor says. “We need to do what it takes. Learn something different. Yes, it takes effort, but this is where the future is going. This amazing science is happening right here.”
As the agriculture industry continues to grow in St. Louis, more and more trained specialists at all levels will be needed to staff both startups and established companies. It’s a challenge, but it’s one Taylor thinks the region is ready for. It’s also a challenge that is going to require increasing numbers of talented people to fill the growing agricultural industry, as well as the burgeoning geospatial, tech and finance industries – and the skyrocketing startup community. It means more nontraditional students like Angi Taylor, and a more diverse workforce. St. Louis is leading the charge there, too, as one of the most welcoming and inclusive startup cities. Even the Brookings Institute noted that the businesses, organizations and individuals who reside here are committed to diversifying our workforces and positioning job seekers for global opportunities.
Local programs and organizations focused on promoting equity in tech and beyond, such as LaunchCode, have sprung up in large part to increase the diversity of age, background, gender, race and more.
Meanwhile, St. Louis has several inclusion-focused tech initiatives, including the St. Louis Equity in Entrepreneurship Collective, one of the only programs in the nation focused on building equity in techbased entrepreneurship ecosystems at a regional level, and the Missouri Cures Education Foundation has presented the Women in Science and Entrepreneurship (WISE) Statewide Conference for five years running. The conference features panel discussions with women leaders succeeding in science, medicine, business, technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Local opportunities also exist for school-aged girls looking to build skills and education in the tech space. For example, international supermodel, entrepreneur, and St. Louis native, Karlie Kloss, has offered her Kode With Klossy coding summer camps for girls age 13-18 in St. Louis and beyond since 2015, while in North St. Louis, Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls provides middle and high school girls a STEMbased college preparatory education and is the first public all-girls school in Missouri.
Those efforts are paying off. Just this past April, Seek Business Capital found that St. Louis has the most female-owned startups in the country, and PitchBook noted a high percentage of the VC funding for female-owned startups was for companies based here. The efforts of these communities, organizations and programs make St. Louis one of the most welcoming tech hot spots in the country.
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Across STL is a collaboration between the Katy Land Trust and Trailnet, telling the stories of the people and places that make the St. Louis community.
This article was first published in Across STL Volume 3, click here to read the entire issue.
Pedal with ease, comfort, and style on this top-of-the-line e-bike!
Trailnet is raffling an electric bike donated by our friends at Pedego St. Louis. This Pedego Platinum Interceptor, valued at $5,000, could be yours! If you buy a ticket (or ten)!
All raffle proceeds benefit Trailnet’s work to make it safe to bike and walk for transportation in St. Louis.
Only 400 tickets will be sold at $25 each. You can buy as many tickets as you’d like, but once we sell out, that’s it!
The winning ticket will be drawn at Trailnet’s 2019 Movers & Shakers: Connecting St. Louis Gala on Wednesday, November 6. You don’t have to be present to win, but we hope we’ll see you there! Click here for details on the Gala!
Get the full specs here: Pedego Platinum Interceptor
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Must be a Missouri resident or in Missouri to purchase tickets. Must be 18 or older to participate. 400 tickets will be sold for $25 each. Winner does not need to be present at the Trailnet 2019 Movers & Shakers: Connecting St. Louis Gala to win. Winner responsible for applicable income tax liability based on the value of the package ($5,000). Trailnet’s staff, board, and their household members are not eligible. Sorry, no refunds. All proceeds from the Bike Raffle benefit Trailnet.
Trailnet is honored to offer enriching internships every year that allow people to gain experience building a better, more connected St. Louis. Trailnet interns come from dynamic backgrounds and are immediately plugged in to our exciting work. This month, we’re highlighting Kevin Hahn and Sam McCrory, our talented 2019 summer interns. Read on to learn about how these two are dedicated to working toward a more sustainable planet with active transportation options for all.
Kevin Hahn
Kevin joined us for the summer while on break from working toward a Masters of Energy, Environment, and Society at the University of Stavanger in Norway. We asked him a few questions about what makes him so awesome and so highly motivated.
What drew you to intern at Trailnet?
I was attracted to Trailnet’s mission and work to get more people riding bikes, especially its system-wide focus to advocate for infrastructure and policy improvements.
Do you have a specific area of sustainable development and/or government you want to focus on upon graduating?
I’d like my future work to focus on the intersection energy, user behavior and government, specifically incentivizing the use of renewables or decreasing demand for fossil fuels.
What about your time at Trailnet was valuable to your career trajectory?
I value the ability to work with and learn from community advocates focused on steady, incremental, and impactful improvements.
What has been the most fun trailnet project to work on?
Helping during the Women in the Arts Community Ride was a fun, amazing experience to see so many people on bikes, learning about and engaging with our city.
What do you think about Trailnet’s Connecting St. Louis plan?
I think it’s the most important work Trailnet is doing right now. It is an evidence and community input-based plan that could have an incredible impact on our city.
What do you do for fun?
I’m up for most outdoor activities. I enjoy reading, performing improv, and of course I love riding my bike.
Sam McCrory
Sam joined us after completing his Bachelor of Science at the University of Iowa. He majored in Environmental Policy and Planning, with a minor in Cinema, and a certificate in Sustainability. Read on for a Q&A about how great he is!
What drew you to intern at Trailnet?
I knew after I finished college, I wanted to work for a nonprofit or a municipality doing active transportation work in a larger city. I looked around the country for active transportation nonprofits and Trailnet stood out the most. I was really fascinated with the Connecting St. Louis plan, the numerous different programs they had completed, and the different types of rides they did throughout the year. All those things, combined with the opportunity to work in St. Louis, a city that I believe is going through a lot of good change, drew me toward Trailnet.
Can you tell us about your bicycle encouragement involvement at University of Iowa?
I helped out with a lot of the big biking events the University of Iowa put on. We did bike challenges in the winter months and in April, as an effort to get students and Iowa City residents on their bikes and moving, whether that was to work, school, or community events.
Iowa also put on bike tune-up events, where local bike shops would tune-up students’ bikes for free. I helped put these events on and was able to tell other students about the great trails and resources available to them.
Can you talk about your involvement with film and climate change?
At University of Iowa, I was a part of a student film organization called Bijou Film Board. During my time in that organization, I always pushed to screen documentaries that had environmentalism as a theme. Our natural world has so much beauty and chaos in it, I really think it is important to show those things on screen. One of the movies I was able to screen was a documentary called Grizzly Man, which has some great commentary on human interaction in the natural world and is worth checking out for so many reasons.
What about your time at Trailnet was valuable to your career trajectory?
My time at Trailnet was incredibly valuable for my career trajectory. Working here taught me about all the details that go into being an advocate for better streets for all. I loved talking to passionate people about biking, walking, and how their communities can be improved by better biking/walking facilities. I hope to take the knowledge I’ve learned, and the recommendations given to me by powerful community voices and look to make bike/pedestrian improvements in the next community I may be in.
What do you think about Trailnet’s Connecting St. Louis plan?
The Connecting St. Louis plan is great not only for proposing protected bikeways in key areas of the city but addressing a need for transportation equity across St. Louis. Other plans across the city are focused on connecting east-west (Forest Park to downtown). Connecting St. Louis does a tremendous job of looking to connect north-south St. Louis. These areas often aren’t serviced by Metro and areas where people have less access to vehicles. Focusing on these connections is crucial for getting people to the places they love, without a car, no matter where in St. Louis.
Where do you hope to guide your career in the future?
I’d love to keep working in active transportation in any form possible, whether that’s a nonprofit, municipality, or outdoor shop. Being around people who care about biking, walking, and general outdoor living would be amazing and it’s something I want to continue doing. I’m eventually going to go to graduate school, however I only have a few more states in the U.S. to visit before I’ve been to all 50, so that’s something I’d love to do first.
What do you do for fun?
Typically, during my free time I’m riding my bike, going to movies, and watching soccer. I’m an avid bike rider (as are most people at Trailnet) and I encourage everyone to check out the different trails the St. Louis region has to offer. As for movies, check out Booksmart and Blockers, those are the best two movies I’ve seen recently. And concerning soccer, I support PSG and Everton, and am frequently up early Saturday and Sunday mornings to watch them play.
-Photo by Michael Thomas
“All of our products are designed and manufactured locally but they have a global impact. Our timing systems serve as the heartbeat for some of the most exciting and ambitious pursuits in tech, aerospace and computing. We’re proud to employ exceptional talent from right here in the region to make these pursuits possible. It’s a badge of honor, and we’re excited to continue to grow this core team right here in the Midwest.” John Clark, Masterclock CEO
St. Louisans are accomplishing milestones in every corner of our region, including people like St. Charles-based John Clark who is keeping the world in sync, quite literally. Clark is the second-generation CEO of Masterclock, which provides synchronized clocks and timing systems for some of the world’s most recognizable firms, events and organizations including NASA’s Kennedy Space Center rocket launches. “Our niche is time itself,” says Clark.
Masterclock’s team of 20 engineers, assemblers and consultants serve customers in 104 countries, including major players like Microsoft, IBM, and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), but the company stays close to its local roots by supplying products to many local TV and radio stations, the St. Louis Science Center, Busch Stadium, St. Louis Lambert International Airport and more. Today, Masterclock accrues over $3.6 million in annual sales.
Among the many incentives to keep his business local, Clark ticks off another reason he encourages growing businesses to take root here: “Central location. Logistics can be 30 percent cheaper than in New York or California. Regulatory hurdles are relatively low, and the community of makers is incredibly supportive,” he shares.
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STLMade is a movement working to shine a light on the people, innovations, and ideas that are driving growth and change in our region so that residents and non-residents alike can better see the renaissance for themselves. Through stories on theSTL.com, the movement aims to highlight the work being done and the progress being made – from building communities that are more inclusive, to creating new industries and economic opportunities, to finding those ideal careers people never thought possible.
Across STL is a collaboration between the Katy Land Trust and Trailnet, telling the stories of the people and places that make the St. Louis community.
This article was first published in Across STL Volume 3, click here to read the entire issue.
Unlike St. Louis’s potholes and steel plates that accidentally put strain on your car’s shocks, there are several tools that are intentionally bump-inducing; making neighborhood streets calmer and safer for people in cars, on bikes or on foot.
Speed Humps are usually 3-4 inches tall and about 3-6 feet long. These gradual humps in the road help keep traffic to 15-20 mph in neighborhoods, parks and around schools. Speed humps are used with other design elements to create calmer streets. They are gentle if you’re traveling at the target speed but can throw you for a loop if you’re speeding.
Speed Tables are longer speed humps with a flat top. They work in the same way as a speed hump but for streets with higher speeds, usually 25-45 mph. They can also be paired with a raised mid-block crosswalk to make it safer for people on foot or in wheelchairs to cross the street.
Speed Cushions are versions of speed humps and tables that have cut outs allowing vehicles with wider-axles: ambulances, buses and fire trucks to drive over them unaffected. They still have a traffic calming effect on personal vehicles and are best suited for busy streets around hospitals or fire houses.
Speed Bumps are the bitey-est of the family. They are short, narrow and jarring no matter how slow you drive over them. They are most common in parking lots and on driveways where speeds need to be kept 2-15 mph.
We want everyone to think more about protecting lives, and less about a few seconds of delay. A person’s life should always override speed.
In 2016, Trailnet successfully advocated for the City of St. Louis Traffic Calming Policy allowing neighborhoods within the City to build speed humps and other traffic calming tools on neighborhood to reduce speeding and improve safety.
For more information on traffic calming and infrastructure improvements that can make St. Louis a safer, better connected and more equitable place read our Safe Streets Glossary.
-Photo by David Treadway
“Between Zee Bee Market’s mission to promote fair trade and Trailnet’s efforts to improve biking and walking, our work is linked by the common drive to value people, promote sustainability and support communities. I’m happy to work with STL Made and Trailnet to help connect people to the great work happening in our region.” – Julio Zegarra-Ballon, owner of Zee Bee Market
As we increase our diversity in many growing industries, we’re also welcoming immigrants. St. Louis has been one of the top two fastest growing cities for immigrants in two of the past three years. One such immigrant is Julio Zegarra-Ballon. After meeting and marrying his American wife in his home country of Peru, he moved with her to the United States and took a job in retail — something he thought would be temporary. But it wasn’t long before Zegarra-Ballon found his spark, and thanks to his work with St. Louis-based nonprofit Partners for Just Trade, an organization dedicated to ethically connecting producers in poorer countries with consumers in the United States, he became passionate about fair trade goods as well.
Soon, Zegarra-Ballon planned out how a fair trade supply chain might look in his own future business, and today, he has two locations of Zee Bee Market, a fair trade store that sources products from about 33 different countries.
“I recognized almost immediately that if a customer is given the choice to either buy something that is mass produced in a conventional supply chain, or the same item that has been handcrafted lovingly by a human being in an impoverished country, you can make a difference,” Zegarra-Ballon says. “Your purchase power actually makes a difference in the world.”
Within the walls of his Zee Bee Market stores, you’ll find colorful dresses that were crafted in India, measuring spoons sporting quirky black cats that were made in Vietnam, messenger bags constructed from discarded cement sacks, coat hooks fashioned from bike chains and colorful scarves, among many other handmade items. But when Zegarra-Ballon looks at the items in his shops, he doesn’t simply see things to sell — he sees an opportunity for all. Because the creators behind these items are now able to pay for education and health care, they also achieve some peace of mind and dignity.
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STLMade is a movement working to shine a light on the people, innovations, and ideas that are driving growth and change in our region so that residents and non-residents alike can better see the renaissance for themselves. Through stories on theSTL.com, the movement aims to highlight the work being done and the progress being made – from building communities that are more inclusive, to creating new industries and economic opportunities, to finding those ideal careers people never thought possible.
Across STL is a collaboration between the Katy Land Trust and Trailnet, telling the stories of the people and places that help shape the St. Louis community.
This article was first published in Across STL Volume 3, click here to read the entire issue.
Missouri’s 1st Congressional District was just listed as the 47th most deadly district for people on foot in traffic crashes by Smart Growth America. Between 2008 and 2017, 188 people were killed while walking by people driving cars in the district.
This ranking follows the death of Timothy Thornton, who was killed while riding his bike by a person driving a truck last month in Wildwood. In two stories published by the Post-Dispatch, reporters called his death an accident. (June 25, June 26)
This contrasts the death of 11-year-old Trent Davis who was killed by a person driving a car while waiting on a bus in March. In his case, the Post-Dispatch reported his death without calling it an accident.
Together this report and these individual deaths highlight the serious problem of people in cars killing people walking and biking in our region.
Language matters. When media outlets call preventable traffic deaths accidents it makes these deaths seem random and unavoidable. Road conditions, road design and on-road behavior come together to cause these deaths.
We need to stop calling these tragedies accidents.
We encourage everyone, especially reporters, to use accurate, people-first language when talking about traffic safety, and particularly traffic deaths: A person driving a truck, hit and killed a person riding a bike.
The Post-Dispatch and other local media should follow the Associated Press’s standards, “avoid accident, which can be read as exonerating the person responsible.”
Already the Missouri Highway Patrol has replaced “accident” with “crash” in their official reporting.
Crashes have causes and they are preventable. Accurately calling crashes what they are is the first step to start preventing them.