This is wonderful for tourists. We should have these guys downtown as well. In London there are individuals that ride mini scooters and perform designated driver duties. They scoot to your location, collapse the scooter and place it into your trunk, and drive you home. That's pretty cool.

There are many ways we can increase pedestrian foot traffic and this is one step in the right direction.

New Orleans has (had?) these types of people in the French Quarter.

It brought order to the chaos, not really.

There already is a company that provides that service here.

www.thedrivers-seat.com

"We should have these guys downtown as well."

We do.

If we're ever, as a neighborhood, putting together a So. Grand wishlist, I'd love for the STLPD to take a real look at cracking down on the red-light running at the "Jay International crosswalk," between Juniata and Connecticut. I've seen countless near-misses of pedestrians by drivers there, as well as cars nearly rear-ending cars that actually respect yellows and reds. I'm only slightly bemused by the fact that my last two driving tickets in the City were ticky-tack "STL rolls" in non-residential neighborhoods, in clear trap spots for traffic cops. (One was in a park.) On the other hand, this is a real, live dangerous crossing for anyone who's not looking both ways, twice over.

Richard, where would they be located? I have never seen a guide Downtown. Perhaps I missed them.

I would like to know because the homeless harass me as I am walking on Washington or while I am eating at Kitchen K. Maybe if they were on the mic then the homeless wouldn't be sleeping on the stairs of the Opera House or on the Mall across from City Hall? Or maybe this is a policy issue?

The guides are everywhere downtown....but mostly throughout the CBD.

I see the CID Guides all over downtown, all the time, on bicycles. I don't know whether they're effective, but it makes people feel good.

After the shooting in front of Pho Grand some weeks back, I imagine there was a call to do something on S. Grand.

I too have often seen the guides downtown. I knew one fairly well and she always said that there wasn't any demand for their services, which could have been because (circularly) no one actually knew what they were there for. She was very enthusiaastic about the whole thing initially. Not after a month or two. I suspect the sole function of the south Grand contingent will be to explain the parking meters to people.

Good call, lj. Saw a guide out today and he was huddled near a parking meter with our local bike cop.

I have worked downtown for 5 years and let me tell you, the downtown cid guides's dont do a thing. Really, I can't tell you how many times I've looked at those yellow shirts and wondered how much they get paid, because we would be better off taking their salary and literally spreading it around the streets downtown. It seems like a good idea, but at any given time there are at least 3 of these people on bikes downtown not doing a thing. Unless you count talking to each other in front of city grocer's or their favorite summer pursuit, sitting at Olive and 6th looking at the Macy's girls go to lunch (a favorite pastime of mine as well, but I'm not on the clock while I do it). I can not see how anyone with sense would think another 10 people on the payroll to do nothing is a good idea. And there is a little irony in the idea of having them being there to give directions in a district which really is made up of a single straight street.