Road improvement projects through-out south county are making a strong case for incorporation.

No better example of how much south county is taken for granted by bureaucrats in Clayton could exist than the decision to allow a developer to close Von Talge Road at the same time the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department has Interstate 255/270 bottled up by road improvement projects.

Anyone who has been driving a car around this area for the last few years could have told the Westfall administration closing both at the same time would be a mistake, but Buzz Westfall apparently still is punishing us for electing a Republican county councilman.

If Republicans had chosen a candidate for county executive from south county in the last election Westfall would have been gone and our current road problems would never have occurred. Most people who live around here avoid the traffic congestion around the south county mall unless they have a compelling reason to head in that direction.

One of the first things you learn when you move here is that traffic at Lindbergh and Lemay Ferry is a 24-7 mess. As drivers become oriented and acclimated to the area they find east-west routes other than 270 and Lindbergh. The longer you live here the more likely you are to realize that small two-lane blacktops like Von Talge are the most direct ways of getting from place-to-place and avoid-ing the mess around the mall.

Recent developments have added to the mess along Lindbergh to the west of the mall, making the Von Talge route even more important. But to someone who doesn’t live here, roads like Von Talge seem as if they handle local traffic only. That’s why south county residents aren’t well served by St. Louis County government. That’s how a developer got permission to close our best alternative to I-270/255 lane restrictions. We have no voice in St. Louis County bureaucracy.

I know that people who disagree with me are going to point to the city of Green Park and say forming a city is not the answer. And I agree Green Park has failed to separate the public service from politics. But a city with elected aldermen and a mayor offers greater potential for representative government than a single county councilman — even one who works as hard as John Campisi.

Think about it while you sit in traffic this year.