Youth hockey gets shelved for the green movement

And a wise man once screamed on top of a rooftop deck in South City: “Give me youth hockey over an extra pack of trees and grass, assholes!”

Okay, I am not that wise, but I am pissed off right now. Tuesday night, the St. Louis County Council voted 4-3 to put a hold on a facility in Creve Coeur that would give youth hockey teams a home as well as a place for the big club to practice as well. After seemingly voting in favor of the same facility months ago and work beginning to fire up on the land, a “time out” has taken place.

Tuesday night, young hockey players told a council that they didn’t know where they were playing their home games. St. Louis Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III practically gave the Scott Glenn speech from Backdraft, saying what benefits the Blues benefits the Cardinals and vice versa, aka “you go, we go”. It wasn’t enough as a crowd of people in green shirts said it was inappropriate to build the rinks over a “flood plain”. Additional reasons pertaining to the conservation of parks and whatever were given.

The flood worry is legit, but is that really what happened here? If so, why didn’t this come up before this week? I’m a table full of questions right now.

Here’s what probably happened: someone found a loophole in the initial agreement and pounced. Apparently, everything wasn’t set in motion for the facility to officially be launched and the green movement took over, waving a red flag over a place that would provide thousands of jobs and give kids a chance to play hockey.

Fuck me. The job was contracted out, so the halt in the work will take away those jobs for the time being, so Grandma Sweetwater can appreciate her plain of grass (right now, it’s a field of dirt!).

Maybe I’m cloudy from not nearly enough sleep or I could be out of the local business politics loop, but if there is a chance to provide a location for KIDS to engage in sports activity-instead of reinventing The Wire in St. Louis or get involved in crime-why not follow through? These aren’t expensive condos or a shopping mall plan. It is set up to bring young people together. Isn’t that how populations and cities experience growth? Filter the future into an establishment while creating jobs at the same time.

Instead, Happy Gilmore can mow the lawn a few hundred times.

This just pisses me off. You want to know what the problem with society is? Every time there is an opportunity to take two steps forward, we take four steps back. It happens all over the world and throughout every pillar of society.

Here’s a medium hot take: Green movements are overrated propaganda designed to take people’s mind off the real problems. Park grinders aren’t thinking about what’s right for St. Louis county right now. And there’s a conversation on connecting the city to the county. Ha, maybe after four votes, five cries for recycling factories, and a call to the wild of landscaping.

Tuesday represented a step back for St. Louis county. Who knows how long this time-out will last? With the St. Louis Blues starting up action next month, it would have been a great time to keep this project moving forward.

Instead, it’s sitting still. So the conservation of land can continue.

Sorry if this post contained no hot takes about Alex Pietrangelo’s status as one of the best defensemen in the National Hockey League.

Drinking more bourbon now. Good morning.

For detailed analysis of Tuesday’s meeting, check out the esteemed Jeff Jones’ Twitter timeline.