Urban Review STL

Author: Steve Patterson July 29th, 2010

The North 14th Street Pedestrian Mall, in a vegetative state for 20+ years of it’s short life, has died. The plug was finally pulled but nobody is mourning the passing.

ABOVE: 14th & Montgomery, 1972 (pre-mall), photo by Robert Spatz

ABOVE: 14th & Montgomery, Spring 1991

In fact, today from 4pm-8pm is a celebration.

ABOVE: 14th & Montgomery, July 2010

In a bit of irony, 14th Street will not be opened until after a street party.  The center of the newly redone 2-block area is 14th & Montgomery, one block south of Crown Candy Kitchen. The area is easily reached by transit (via #30 & #74) bus routes.  Congrats to everyone in Old North St. Louis for finally reopening North 14th Street!

- Steve Patterson

• North City , Pedestrian Mall , Planning & Design
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson July 28th, 2010

ABOVE: State Highway DD in St. Charles County. Image: Google Streetview

Readers that voted in the poll last week clearly favor the rights of bicyclist to use public roadways and thus opposing a proposed ban in St. Charles County on cycling on some state highways in the county.

Q: St Charles County is considering banning bikes from some state highways:

1. Bikes are vehicles and have just as much right to use public roads. 114 [60.96%]
2. Bikes are fine on local roads, but not on state highways lacking shoulders. 52 [27.81%]
3. Bikes belong on sidewalks or trails, not roads. 13 [6.95%]
4. Other answer… 7 [3.74%]
5. Unsure/no opinion 1 [ 0.53%]

However, nearly 28% think cyclists have a right to the roads, but not highways lacking shoulders.  Almost 7% think cyclists belong on sidewalks and trails.  Seriously? Public roads are for vehicles and a bike is a vehicle.

The “other” answers were:

1. Ban Cars
2. Ban the cars and solve the obesity problem
3. Daft Wankers!
4. stl bikers need education on the laws - until they stop at stop signs ban bikers
5. If a bicyclistg wants to risk life and limb on a state highway, go for it.
6. They are state roads…St. Charles has no jurisdiction in banning bikes on them.
7. Reduce speed limit to 35 from 55mph for the cars - why do the cars go so fast?

I’ll be interested to see how this issue plays out.

- Steve Patterson

• Bicycling , St. Charles County , Weekly Poll
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson July 27th, 2010

A week from today is the Missouri primary.  In some races for State Rep and Congress there are more than a single candidate for each political party, but of the four “county” offices in the City of St. Louis this year only one of the four is challenged, and none will be challenged in the November general election.  The other three will skate through this primary and the November general without an opponent.

The three that will automatically have another four years in office are Collector of Revenue Gregory F.X. Daly, License Collector Michael McMillan, and Recorder of Deeds Sharon Quigley Carpenter.  Clerk of the Circuit Court Mariano V. Favazza is being challenged by attorney Jane Schweitzer.

ABOVE: marianofavazza.com is not owned by Mariano Favazza

The domain marianofavazza.com, registered via GoDaddy on 10/14/2008, links to unflattering articles about the incumbent Circuit Clerk.   I’ve not met challenger Jane Schweitzer but I suggest you read her issues page and see what you think.  I did not find a candidate website for Mariano Favazza. Please be sure to vote next week.  For voters in the City of St. Louis you can see sample ballots for each party at the St. Louis Board of Elections.

- Steve Patterson

• Politics/Policy
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson July 26th, 2010

Citygarden has impressed everyone in it’s its first year open in St. Louis.  The two-block sculpture garden is, in most respects, outstanding in design and construction.

ABOVE: curb ramp at 10th & Chestnut

The two curb ramps along 10th Street (at Chestnut and at Market) both hold water following a rain.

ABOVE: curb ramp at 10th & Market

Numerous ramps downtown have the same problem, but few were built as part of an otherwise high quality project. The mini lake at top is probably the worst downtown. Naturally, that is the one I use most often.  Even when dry I must use the side of the ramp — my wheelchair’s footrest gets caught if I go straight in.

ABOVE: water doesn't drain into the rain garden as it should

And the environmentally friendly rain garden isn’t getting all the rain water it is supposed to receive.  Hopefully these three areas will be redone someday.  The problem at 10th & Market will be corrected when the wide “hallway” is extended to the west.  Had Citygarden built it’s side planning for the future hallway the current issue wouldn’t exist.

ABOVE: hallway crossing 9th street

As a member of the Gateway Mall Advisory Board I can assure you I will bring up water retention at curb ramps and planning future projects so the hallway concept is easier to complete.

- Steve Patterson

• Accessibility , Downtown
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson July 25th, 2010

ABOVE: Demolition of Kiel Auditorium, fall 1993

Note to St. Louis officials: Kiel Auditorium was razed in the early 1990s. I state this because folks are talking about the renaming of the Kiel Opera House to the Peabody Opera House at the Henry W. Kiel Auditorium.  The Kiel Auditorium was replaced by the Kiel Center Savvis Center Scottrade Center.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Tuesday, October 30, 1990:

Plans for an $85 million sports arena that would be built on the site of Kiel Auditorium and replace The Arena near Forest Park are to be announced today at a downtown news conference.

Sources involved in the effort say that some of the area’s top business leaders would form a partnership that would develop the arena. One or more city development agencies would issue about $110 million in tax-exempt bonds to build the arena and a $25 million parking garage west of Kiel .

The 3,500-seat Opera House in the front part of Kiel would remain. The auditorium in the rear of the 58-year-old building and a 900-car parking garage to the south would be torn down to make way for the arena. The city would lease the new facility to the development partnership for about 75 years.

Bonds would be paid back with revenue from arena operations, 10-year commitments from businesses to buy 65 luxury boxes at $50,000 each annually and a city subsidy of about $800,000 a year. The Board of Aldermen would have to approve most of the arrangement.

The 18,000-seat arena would become the new home of the hockey Blues, soccer Storm and basketball Billikens. The Billikens, who now play in Kiel , temporarily would join the Blues and Storm at The Arena, 5700 Oakland Avenue, after its 1990-91 season.

”A lot of effort has gone into development of a new multi-use facility at the Kiel site,” [Mayor] Schoemehl said.

The Kiel Auditorium was named the Municipal Auditorium when it opened in 1934. It was renamed Kiel Auditorium in 1943, the year after 3-term Republican mayor Henry Kiel died at the age of 71.

ABOVE: constructoin sign reads: "The Opera House at Henry W. Kiel Auditorium"

ABOVE: Portrait of Henry Kiel in St. Louis City Hall

This is a long introduction to the poll question for this week, how do you feel about the renaming the building? The poll is in the right sidebar.

- Steve Patterson

• Downtown , Weekly Poll
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson July 24th, 2010

ABOVE: MLK & Leffingwell, Franklin no longer goes through, July 2010

One of my favorite books is St. Louis Day by Day by Frances Hurd Stadler (1989). The entry for July 24th takes us back to 1963, forty-seven years ago today:

Bulldozers moved in to demolish the large cast-iron watering trough at the triangle formed by the intersection of Franklin, Easton and Leffingwell avenues. Made of fourteen sections bolted together, the trough had long served as a refreshment spot for some of the city’s busiest draft horses. Franklin and Easton, now Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, had formed part of the first road to St. Charles. As the nation expanded west, this link became vital, joining with roads beyond St. Charles up the Missouri River, and eventually branching off onto the Santa Fe Trail.

Within the city, Easton was an important business thoroughfare, and the Y formed by the three streets was the logical place for trade wagons to halt and for horses to drink. The only remaining St. Louis example of this once-common feature of equine architecture can be found at Alabama, Virginia, and Ivory avenues, where neighborhood residents have built a small park and planted the old watering through with flowers.

Today the triangle of Franklin, Easton & Leffingwell isn’t a triangle. The Franklin side was removed when Dr. Martin Luther King Drive received new curbs and sidewalks, around 2004.

Since the book was published the flowers have been replaced by a fountain at the Ivory Triangle:

ABOVE: Horse trough used as a fountain in the Ivory Triangle

I wonder if the trough that was removed in 1963 would be an interesting community spot had it remain?

- Steve Patterson

• History/Preservation , MLK Jr. Drive , North City , South City
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson July 23rd, 2010

ABOVE: Old North Co-op at 13th & St. Louis Ave

Last Saturday hundreds turned out for the ribbon cutting on the Old North Grocery Co-op.

veggies at the Old North Grocery Co-op

They were still stocking the shelves but it was far better than when I saw the very raw space a week earlier. Congrats to everyone that made the store a reality!  You do not need to be a co-op member to purchase from the store so be sure to visit after you stop at the North City Farmers’ Market (Saturday before noon).  The farmers’ market is located at 14th & St. Louis Ave (across from Crown Candy Kitchen) and the co-op is a block east at 13th & St. Louis Ave.  Both are easily accessed from the #30 or #74 bus lines.

At the opening of the grocery co-op I talked with many people, two on camera.  First is farmer Rusty Lee of Lee Farms LLC:

Second is Dr. Jon Hagler, Director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zc4wXunt8E

The Old North Grocery Co-Op is initially open Monday-Thursday 3-7 pm , Friday 3-6:30 pm, and 9-3 on Saturday. Closed on Sunday.

13th Street Community Garden

Next door to the co-op is the 13th Street Community Garden.

chicken coop at the 13th street community garden

Tonight at the garden “find out how to prepare your garden harvest.”  This event is at 7pm tonight, Friday July 23rd.

- Steve Patterson

• North City , Retail , Urban Food Systems
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson July 22nd, 2010

Last Saturday I decided to catch the #30 Soulard bus northbound to go to Old North St. Louis.  For new readers, I often use a motorized wheelchair to get around.

ABOVE: 14th & Lucas

So you can imagine the challenge of getting past 14th & Lucas to reach the bus stop  on the curve, just before the building in the background.  I ended up going in the street until I got to a drive just before the stop.  My only alternative was to go several blocks further in the opposite direction. The lack of accessibility was no fault of the transit agency.  No, the blame is squarely on the city.  Just a hundred feet away is Washington Ave where tons of money was spent some years ago on a fancy streetscape.  So if I stay on one street the accessibility is decent.

- Steve Patterson

• Accessibility , Downtown , Public Transit
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson July 21st, 2010

The weekly poll last week was about the city’s new trash collection fee:

Q: St. Louis has just started a trash fee of $11 per month per unit. Which of the following two best describes your reaction:

1. Glad single-stream recycling was added 75 [37.69%]
2. The fee is fair for the service provided 39 [19.6%]
3. Other taxes being collected to the city should cover trash collection 20 [10.05%]
4. I don’t mind the fee as long as they continue picking up twice per week 17 [8.54%]
5. I live outside the city and pay for my trash collection. 15 [7.54%]
6. Multi-family buildings should pay a lower fee per unit than single family houses 11 [5.53%]
7. I pay for private trash collection through my condo fee (or similar) 8 [4.02%]
8. The city went to once per week collection for a bit just so $11/month for twice a week wouldn’t seem so bad. 7 [3.52%]
9. Unsure/no opinion 4 [2.01%]
10. Other answer… 3 [1.51%]

Voters were allowed to vote for two answers.  No matter their view on the fee, they liked the recycling.  Had the recycling not been added I think we would have seen a revolt.

The three other answers were:

1. I MAYBE trash 1 bag/2 weeks. Everything else is composted/recycled.
2. I think the whole thing is crap.
3. If we would work on increasing the population

Share your thoughts on the fee below.

- Steve Patterson

• Environment , Politics/Policy
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson July 20th, 2010

The boundaries of St. Louis’ 28 wards change every 10 years, following the decennial census. The idea is each ward should have the same number of residents after redistricting.  But does anyone care about where the lines are drawn? Does anyone care if a business relocates from one ward to another within the city? The answer is yes, some aldermen obsess about the ward they represent to the point a property across the street from the ward doesn’t matter to them. This provincial way of thinking hurts the city as a whole.

In May Ald Kacie Starr Triplett tweeted the following from @KacieStarr:

“Patricia Stevens College is relocating to the 6th Ward. That’s approx 200-300 college students walking, visiting, shopping in downtown”. 6:53 AM May 26th via UberTwitter

Wow, 200-300 more people downtown!  Wait, where are they relocating from? Oh, from North 4th St, less than a mile away and also downtown.  They are leaving the current 7th ward and moving to the 6th ward, not really a gain.  Someone walking from the old location to the new location would pass through a bit of the 5th Ward on the way. Most of our aldermen are guilty of this.

Stevens Institute, July 10th, 2010

I’m very pleased Stevens Institute rehabbed a building near me for their new facility, I just wish our aldermen weren’t so narrowly focused on their 3.6% of the city. We need elected officials who will view the city as a whole and work to improve 100% of the city.

- Steve Patterson

• Board of Aldermen , Politics/Policy
• Comments