“They're asleep at the switch.”
Let's wake City Hall up.
They wake you at 2 a.m. Return the favor. One click opens a ready-to-send email to your alderman and the Mayor, with everyone at City Hall who's supposed to own this problem CC'd. Name optional.
Puts your street in front of them. Worth filling in.
Send it three ways. Pick whichever you use.
Rep. Wesley Bell (MO-1) only takes email through his contact form. Paste the same text there. He can push the FRA.
CC: everyone at City Hall who owns this
They had 18 years. You can make a difference in 30 seconds.
Here's a call script. Make the call, ask that it gets logged. The more calls, the higher we can get this up the list.
Citizens' Service Bureau creates a tracked ticket. Give the crossing street name. Ask for the ticket number.
Who is responsible
Official office phone numbers and emails, all from stlouis-mo.gov. Tap a number to call. Tap an email to write to them. Be firm. Be civil. Civil emails get quoted by reporters. Rude ones get deleted.
Find your alderman
14 wards. Some neighborhoods are split between two wards. If yours is listed twice, check the city's address lookup.
| Ward | Alderperson | Neighborhoods | Contact |
|---|
18 years, in five bullets
- 2005St. Louis makes the whole city a federal quiet zone. Trains stop honking at 88 street-level crossings.
- 2008The FRA tells City Hall some crossings don't meet federal standards. This is the last time the city files the required paperwork. The FRA now calls the city "217 months overdue."
- 2008 – 2024Notices keep arriving under Mayors Slay and Jones. Nobody can say who read them. Staff turn over. Nothing gets fixed.
- Summer 2024The FRA emails Commissioner of Streets Kent Flake, CC'ing Streets Director Betherny Williams and Director of Operations Nancy Cross: fix the signs and striping or lose the quiet zone. Flake later says the work got "back burnered" for lack of money. Cross leaves the city in April 2025. The FRA's follow-ups go to her inbox. The Spencer administration says it never heard about it.
- Sept 11, 2026The FRA revokes the quiet zone. Horns start that night. The fix: about 1,000 signs, new striping, some gates. Estimated $650K to $1M. Budgeted: $0. City's timeline: "a month" (Ald. Narayan), "a couple of months" (COO Jonsson). No crossing-by-crossing schedule has been published.
Sources: STLPR · St. Louis Magazine · First Alert 4 · Hoodline · 49 CFR 222.51
“18 Years” — the song
A parody track about 18 years of warnings, your tax dollars, and a freight train at 2 a.m. Original lyrics. Share it with your alderman.
Read the lyrics
[Intro] This one's for The Hill. Dogtown. Carondelet. Tower Grove. Everybody who got a wake-up call at 2 a.m. from a freight train. City Hall, this is your alarm clock. [Hook] Eighteen years, eighteen years You had eighteen years, eighteen years Every letter in the inbox, every warning in the drawer Now the horn's on my pillow and I can't take no more Eighteen years (yeah), eighteen years Took my tax, took my sleep, gave me eighteen years [Verse 1] Two a.m., I'm awake, and it ain't my alarm It's a hundred-decibel diesel doing me harm Freight train hollerin' at the crossing on Manchester House shakin' like a bass drop, I'm a wreck, sir Pull up the news, tryna see what's what Feds wrote City Hall in '08, said "fix the crossings up" Signs too small, paint too faded, gates too slow Eighteen years of "we'll get to it," now the whistle blow Two-seventeen months, that's the number on the sheet Overdue like a library book nobody came to read Sent it to the streets guy, CC'd two more Then the inbox owner quit and walked out the door "We do not have a clear understanding," that's the quote I got a clear understanding: nobody read the note [Hook] [Verse 2] Property tax, earnings tax, one percent off the check Sales tax on the Advil for my train-horn neck Million-dollar fix and it "ain't in the budget" Eighteen years of budgets and not one of 'em touched it Now it's "thirty days," now it's "couple of months" Now it's "residential first," now it's "we'll announce" Give me a date, give me a crossing, give me a name Not a shrug and a "prior administration" blame Y'all can find the money for a stadium in a week But a thousand road signs got the whole city up, can't sleep Kent said it's "a novelty" at noon, not at two Kent, we agree. So what's the plan? Where's the crew? [Hook] [Bridge] I'm not asking for a miracle, I'm asking for a sign Literally, a sign. Reflective. Regulation size. On time. Lay the paint down, file the paperwork, call the FRA And I'll sleep like a baby when you quiet that train [Outro] Eighteen years... eighteen years... We'll remember at the ballot, when your name appears. Eighteen years.