On May 15th, 2022, the Black community of St. Louis, Missouri gathered downtown to celebrate the Annie Malone May Day Parade. Annie Malone was one of the first Black women to become a millionaire in the United States.

The day after the parade, Public Safety Director Dan Isom held a press conference. He said that groups of young people downtown had caused traffic and safety disruptions with electric scooters. The city decided to impose a 7pm curfew on electric scooters in the downtown area.

Then, just a few weeks later, St. Louis banned electric scooters altogether in two downtown neighborhoods, including the area near the famous Gateway Arch monument. The ban was in response to a shooting where two young women were injured. But the bullets were fired from a car - not an electric scooter.

Links:

Opinion: Banning Scooters is Not a Safety Strategy — It's Broken Windows Policing

Electric scooters banned in Downtown St. Louis after weekend violence

Scooters, crowds of teens create safety hazard in downtown St. Louis over weekend

Families urged to keep kids from being unattended downtown at night after violent weekend in STL

St. Louis County sees highest number of people killed in traffic, pedestrian crashes in 20 years