Everything that’s wrong with the city, Golterman can tie to the old Kiel, or to Civic Progress, or both.

But back to MetroLink.

Golterman thinks the mayor is right to make the north-south mass transit line a priority.

Here’s what he wrote to me:

“Four decades ago the good citizens of south City and County, many of whose parents and grandparents and great parents built a pretty good city, were ‘cut off’ from the center by something called Civic Progress,” he wrote. “The south area would simply provide tax money for the favored central corridor and for a favored METRO service north to UMSL, which is now failing. For entertainment they would be forced to grand avenue or to the Zoo and Museums, and most of them moved away. Slay is 40 years too late. And, he knows it.”

For the most part — especially the line about being 40 years late — Golterman isn’t wrong.

There are a lot of good things going on in St. Louis that would have been better if they began decades ago, the focus on mass transit among them.