Suree L.

Argument Essay

2004-10-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

Urban Sprawl in St. Louis
Residence is one of the important things of life. People need
to live in the best home and area. Therefore, people in St. Louis
still move out to the suburbs and also extend their living to even
farther than the suburbs. According to Eun-Kyung Kim (2004), the
population in St. Louis decreased by 4.6%, or by nearly 16,000
people by the latest estimation, while in the suburbs the
population increased rapidly. People are attracted to the suburbs
because there are many new and inexpensive houses, lower taxes,
and less congestion. Because they are not planned, a possible
problem with these areas might be a greater cost for the local
government and higher taxes for the residents in the suburbs
having to support more infrastructure. In the city, tax revenues
would decrease. Another problem could be that people would have to
spend more money for fuel to drive into the city, and traffic in
the suburbs would become worse. There would be less farmland in
the suburbs due to more construction. The increase of pollution
problems affects people’s health. Moreover, there will be more
used vacant areas in the city that could cause dangerous for the
people in the city, and greater depletion of natural resources in
the suburbs (mstl.org, n.d.)
Population increased rapidly could cause many problems.
Living in the city might
cause lewer problems,and be less expensive.
“People still are willing to commute, and as long as fuel
prices don’t go through the roof, they’ll continue to do that.”
(Kim, 2004, p. A1). This could be one of the problems in the
future. People pay less for a new house but they have to spend
more money for fuel to drive into the city, and to drive children
to school. They would have less time for relaxing. The development
of the suburbs could cause greater congestion. There would be more
houses, apartment buildings, high buildings, strip malls, offices,
and cars. Traffic in the suburbs could be worse than traffic in
the city. In the long-term, people in the suburbs need to pay for
higher taxes to support more infrastructure. Roads and utilities
must be extended to serve the increase of cars and people. These
could also cause pollution problems such as air pollution, noise
pollution, and greater depletion of natural resources in the
suburbs.
People would stay in the city, or move to the city, if the
city provided better service to people such as personal safety and
good schools. Having more space in the city, there could be a
center of education, recreation center, shopping center and
technological center.
People don’t need to go far or spend more time for travelling,
because everything is in the city. If there are more people in the
city, they could form a group to demand the local government to
enact their own taxes to hire their own security guards.
The same problem happen to a new place. It’s still with us in
different places which have many people. If the people and local
government in the city work together, they could solve or relieve
the problems. These would make people want to live in and love
their hometown.

Reference:
Kim, E. (2004, April 9). Exodus continues to outer suburbs.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. A1. Retrieved Aug. 31, 2004 from
Lexis-Nexis.
Mstl.org. (n.d.). Suburban sprawl. Retrieved Sep.2, 2004 from
http://www.mstl.org.

my favorite song

2004-09-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

Jim Brickman, a pianist, has many sweet-sounding and meaningful songs. I love piano. Although I can't play (I'll try), I love the sound. I'm sure you'll love it . Please link to Jim Brickman and you'll love him.

Cement plant gets air permit

2004-09-02T08:01:00.001-07:00

According to Sara Shipley of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, there will be a new cement plant, Holcim (US) Inc., on the banks of the Mississippi River. She says that the plant has received a permit with the support of many local politicians and is expected to bring 200 full-time jobs and as many as 1,000 construction jobs to the area. Environmental groups object to this project due to possible air pollution problems. She also states that while Holcim is preparing to construct the plant, they have to resolve two or more lawsuits. The company must carefully rethink its procedures, especially the manufacturing methods and what environmental groups might do if the permit is approved. I agree that the new factory will give job opportunities to many workers but in the long-term, the environment which affects people’s health is important, too.

As Shipley says, the new factory will give job opportunities to many workers, and it took a long time to receive a permit issued by the Missouri Dapartment of Natural Resourses. It also has the support of many local politicians and state senators. The environmental groups oppose this project because it will pollute with nitrogen oxide smog which destroys the ozone layer and will cause respiratory diseases such as asthma.

The executive director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Ted Heisel, said the permit must have better technology to control nitrogen oxide emissions, and he proposed another technology referred to as a “selective catalytic reduction” that is used effectively in Germany; this is unlike the one that the plant plans to use.

The permit section chief for the Missouri air pollution control program, Kyra Moore, said the“selective catalytic reduction” method can cause problems in the winter.
However, I would recommend that since the Missouri Department of Natural Resourses issued the permit for the cement plant that they should have the responsibility to see that it is built to operate safely and protect the health for all the people in the area.

Reference:
Shipley, S. (2004, June 9). Cement plant gets air permit. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. A01. Retrieved Aug. 25, 2004 from Lexis-Nexis.