For the past 4 years or so I have been operating a popular blog dealing with Muslim issues. I am starting this new blog to deal with all things local in St. Louis. As the URL states I am a STL cabbie and you may see me rollin through the alleyways or highways late at night. I may have given you a ride him or threw your drunk ass out of my cab, it just all depends. My interests are varied; but with regards to St. Louis I am most motivated to talk about the issues I care about most. Those issues are race-relations in St. Louis, politics, history, the streets, poverty, cultural matters and occasionally sports.
My vantage point is unique. I am first and foremost a Muslim, an adherent of Islam, and I am a white person who came of age in this racially-divided city that still has a lot of bitterness between the races. If you are engaging in any conversation on public life in St. Louis and not talking about race you are not being real because everything in Da Lou is about race.
I would not say that I am a conservative because I support the role of government in helping the people, a less robust and violent American foreign policy, regulating business, redistributing wealth, and am a proponent of things such as universal healthcare and unionization. In the world we live in today I would also not say I am much of a liberal. I am in favor of gun-rights and a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, support school choice, and am fairly conservative on most social issues.
In the past I have worked almost every job known to man from political work to media work to factory work to shoveling shit and now I am a cabbie ( which I have done on and off for years). While it was still running I authored a column in the Arch City Chronicle about driving a cab. That column was dedicated solely to observations emanating from discussions with my passengers and things I had seen. This blog will deal with those issues but it will also deal with much more than driving a cab.
Due to the fact that I am a working man and am the son of an auto-worker and was raised mostly by my grandfather who was an ex-marine and pipefitter my outlook is blue-collar in a venue that is white-collar. I am big and masculine in a world of the frail and feminized. I am traditional in the world of the post-modern. I shoot from the hip and say what I feel with little concern for offending anyone in the world of the politically correct. I am religious in the world of skeptical agnostics. I am a family man in the world of those who may look down on traditional families.
If I drank I would be a beer-drinker (American) and not a wine-sipper. I have never drunk a cup of coffee in my life and never had a full salad. I drink Diet Dr. Pepper mixed with cherry and vanilla from Quicktrip on Gravois or Souh Kingshighway. You will never find me dining at fancy joints in the Central West End or Clayton where Midwesterners give each other phony European pecks on the cheeks. No, you can find me at joints like Hodaks on Gravois, Courtesy Diner, or if I am on the North Side Goody Goody or Crown Candy. If I am with my Muslim brothers or family you may find me at the kabob joint on Kingshighway and Christy. I don’t eat European chocolate but I love Ted Drewes. Not a big fan of French pastries but I can go for some doughnuts at World’s Fair or down on Chippewa and Watson. I don’t patron Barnes and Noble, but you will find me at Subterranean books on Delmar.
You will not catch me out on the town much as I am not a fan of night clubs and the clubbin lifestyle and have seen enough foolishness in my cab from those who are for me to never want to step foot in any of them. I pick up passengers from every club and watering hole in Da Lou; but if you see me out and I am having fun I am at the St. Louis Public Library- Carpenter Branch with my man Mike, at any area Masjid (mosque) or with my Muslim brothers out, sitting somewhere talking of big things with the philosopher chef Ben, out with the family, or at the movies.
I am someone of a film buff and have a taste for independent and foreign films so you can catch me at the Tivoli, the Hi-Pointe, sometimes the Chase, and yes God-forbid even Plaza Frontenac at times. On TV I am either watching some news or educational programming or am watching sports (boxing is my main sport but I also like baseball, football, soccer, old school wrestling and basketball). The only shows of the last ten years I liked were all on HBO (The Wire, The Sopranos and Curb Your Enthusiasm). I do not watch any current show airing now and never saw an episode of Friends, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Weeds, Sex in the City, Entourage or ER as I seem them all as a little too yuppie for my taste.
While I enjoy music 90% of the time in my cab I am listening to KWMU (the local NPR station). Since I have no CD player in the cab the only time I turn on the music is when 100.3 or 104.1 are playing old-school hip-hop, when Selena J. is doing her Soulternative show on 104.9, or the Friday night hip-hop show on KDHX.
Other than that I am home or working. When I say work I am talking about driving a cab which means I work 70 or 80 hours a week every week. The money can be good (or bad) and the benefits are nil. There are pluses and minuses to the cab game; but for me the big plus is I see everyone and am a part of every major event in St. Louis. As a cabbie you live and breathe with the city and you ride high when it is high and are low when it is low. I may pick up a homeless person and the next passenger is a pro athlete. Next I may have a GOP official and my next call could be to Novak’s. You may pick a degenerate gambler from the boat and drop them off in the projects only to pick up a car full of stunnaz from The Loft.
From time to time my English may not be great. However, what can you expect from a guy who spent more time locked-up as a teenager than he did in school and who was kicked out of school for assaulting the principal?
This city is alive and booming once again after decades of decline. St. Louis is an exciting place to live (for my part I live just off Lafayette Square) and there are many issues out there locally that need to be discussed and I hope to add to the discussion insha’Allah.
