On July 20, the U.S. celebrates National Hot Dog Day. Steve's Hot Dogs in St. Louis is the home of the official St. Louis hot dog -- and they're celebrating the holiday with an all-day party at their South Grand location.
Owner Danni Eickenhorst said she's excited to get people together to celebrate -- but she has some more pressing issues on her mind, too.
Eickenhorst has been very vocal about pedestrian safety, especially since a person was hit by a car and killed on Grand. Eickenhort explained what she's trying to do to improve pedestrian safety.
"It was an unfortunate incident because we were having movie night here on South Grand," she said. "And so a lot of us were here, and we saw it happen live. And it's no secret. This is not South Grand issue. It's the entire city's issue."
Eickenhorst said people are disobeying traffic signals all over the city, adn so she's been trying to encourage conversations about public safety. And, she wants to make sure her customers and employees are safe.
"There are a lot of things it's going to take to fix this issue. And you kind of need everybody at the table to start to move that forward," she said.
Eickenhorst previously worked for Great Rivers Greenway where she said she learned about pedestrian and bike safety and hwo to make city streets safer. She said it will take a lot of different factors coming together to make a change happen.
"It's people talking to the police in their community, just like I had a conversation yesterday with ours, saying, hey, we need enforcement of these laws," she said. "And if you don't want police interactions, then then let's look at camera technology again, or let's look at what the other options are."
She also said that requiring drivers education -- something Missouri currently doesn't do -- would be a big help.
"So it's all of these things coming together. And people being very vocal in their community about not wanting to put up with this anymore," she said. "I mean, it's just not safe all over the city."
The message Eickenhort left people with:
"I would definitely encourage everybody to speak up wherever they're at because I know it's it's happening throughout the city."
Listen to the whole conversation here:
