Urban Review STL

Author: Steve Patterson February 9th, 2010

ABOVE: Vew from a bus in Seattle, WA

I no longer have issues with taking a bus if that is that is the only public transportation choice I have.  This was not always the case with me.  I still prefer streetcars to the bus but many times the bus is better than a private car.

Before moving downtown I would sometimes bike a few blocks over to the #40 Broadway bus to catch a ride downtown.  I was nervous the first time I used the bike rack on the front of the bus but I quickly got used to it.  Taking the bus downtown allowed me to arrive sweat-free.  Returning home I could bus or bike back, depending on my level of energy.

Once I used a combination of modes for a meeting in Granite City, IL.  I drove my only vehicle,  a 49cc motor scooter, to MetroLink station for a light rail train across the river to East St. Louis where I got on a Madison County bus to Granite City, IL.

After I moved downtown I had to attend a breakfast meeting on Delmar in the Loop. It was cold and rainy and I didn’t feel like riding the scooter.  I had two choices via public transit.  Light rail on MetroLink or the bus.  While I prefer rail transit, the bus was closer to my house and final destination: I walked two blocks from my loft to catch the bus and it dropped me off across the street from my destination.  Learning the bus routes near my loft helped me understand where I could get to via the bus.

I’ve ridden buses on vacation as well. My last trip to New York City I rode the bus from the airport into Manhattan.  In Seattle last year I rode a bus into downtown and back from the Capital Hill neighborhood.  In October 2009 I tried out the new downtown circulator (see post).

The bus serves serves a function just as other modes do.  The private car isn’t going away but neither is the bus.  Neither should go away.  What we all need to remember is we need the option of various modes in order to make a choice.  Too much of our region has no choice at all — if you want to leave your house it will be by private automobile.

- Steve Patterson

• Public Transit
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Author: Steve Patterson February 8th, 2010

ABOVE: 1967 St. Louis ward map. Source: We Elect! book from the Buckowitz archives

Every ten years, following each national census, the boundaries of St. Louis’ 28 wards are redrawn. The map above is based on the 1960 census.   UPDATE 2/8/2010 4:25PM:  the map above reflects changes following a 1965 lawsuit that challenged the way the maps were drawn. Prior to 1965 districts were based on the number of registered voters, not the number of residents.

The map below (rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise) is the current map based on the 2000 census.

ABOVE: Current ward map

Most wards are still in the approximate same location while a handful are in completely different parts of the city.  The idea is for each ward to contain the same number of residents.  Areas that lose more people than others will see the physical size of the ward grow.

The ward map at the top is from a 1967 book published by the St. Louis Public schools explaining the election process: We Elect! The story of St. Louis Government and Politics.  It was published in the year I was born, 1967.  They met at 11am on Fridays wheres they meet at 10am Fridays currently, not sure when that changed.  Looking through the information in the book I decided I needed to put it in a table to see it in one place.

Some interesting things jump out at me:

• Five new members were elected in 1967, three of which were Republicans (ward # shown in red).  One Republican is on the current board, first elected way back in 1979.
• Eight members (29%) were Black.  Currently the board has 12 black members (43%) plus Board President Lewis Reed.
• Only two female members (7%), both Black.  The current board has eight females (29%) split evenly between Black & White.
• 32% (9/28) of the members had served 12 or more years.   Today 46% (13/28) have served 12 or more years.
• Only one (4%) had served 20 years.  Today seven (25%) have served 20 or more years.
• The average length of service was 7.5 years in 1967.  In 2010 it is 11.45 years, a 53% increase!

Elsewhere in the book the committeeman & committeewomen were listed for each ward. Every ward (except the 21st) had both Democrats & Republicans in place. We had somewhat of a two-party city in 1967.  Today we have a one party city yet we hold primary & general elections.  In one party elections holding a primary & general elections is just a huge waste of limited money.   With service cuts to reduce the city budget holding unnecessary partisan primaries is a luxury we just can’t afford.   I’d like a lawyer out there to contact me to see what it would take to switch our city elections to non-partisan.  I’d love a measure on the ballot during an an upcoming election, such as November 2010.

I know many of you are not fans of term limits but I see a need for a limit of say five terms/20 years.  Two decades is plenty of time to get into office, learn the ropes, and have an impact before passing the torch onto the next generation.

I will be on KDHX (88.1FM) tonight (Monday 2/8/2010) at 8:30pm discussing this and other local issues.

- Steve Patterson

• Board of Aldermen , History/Preservation , Politics
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Author: Steve Patterson February 7th, 2010

“Do you have any change?” Most of us have been approached by a homeless person asking for money.

ABOVE: entrance to the Horizon Club, a downtown St. Louis safe haven.

The poll this week asks how you respond when asked for money.  Next week when I present the poll results I’ll have some expert views on the subject.  In the meantime please vote and share your thoughts below.

- Steve Patterson

• Downtown , Homeless , Weekly Poll
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson February 6th, 2010

ABOVE: One of the 40 new paintings by Shelia Harris for this exhibit

The City of St. Louis had already cleared 40 city blocks of the riverfront before the competition was held that resulted in Eero Saarinen’s Arch. The city’s oldest buildings and street grid were lost in the process. All that remains are old photos, maps, drawings and the Old Cathedral.  Tomorrow the National Park Service opens a new exhibit focusing on what was lost:

“(St. Louis, MO)- Jefferson National Expansion Memorial will host a special exhibit from St. Louis artist Sheila Harris at the Old Courthouse from Feb. 14 through Aug. 22, 2010. Created especially for the memorial, the exhibit consists of nearly 40 watercolor paintings of buildings that once stood on the Arch grounds. The exhibit will launch with an artisit’s reception on Sunday, Feb. 14, at 2 p.m.

While the exhibit is on display at the Old Courthouse, Harris will discuss and demonstrate her technique during several scheduleded appearances. A schedule of the appearances can be found online at www.nps.gov/jeff.

For further information on the exhibit click here (PDF).”

Photos and maps will also be on display. Anyone who loves St. Louis’ history should see this exhibit.

- Steve Patterson

• Downtown , Events/Meetings
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Author: Steve Patterson February 5th, 2010

ABOVE: morning of June 14, 2006

A few years ago St. Louis experienced some high profile arson fires. In April 2006 a condo project under construction on South Grand was totally destroyed.  Then in June 2006 two separate projects in Lafayette Square were torched.  A year later, to the day, an arsonist destroyed an apartment complex under construction.  All but one were rebuilt, finished and have been occupied for a while.

ABOVE: destroyed building finally being replaced.

The other day I noticed the last of the damaged buildings going up on Mississippi Ave. .  It is nice to see this hole facing Lafayette Park get filled in.

- Steve Patterson

• Neighborhoods , South City
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Author: Steve Patterson February 4th, 2010

ABOVE: St. Louis County Executive Charlie "A" Dooley, August 2006

Tuesday April 6, 2010 voters in St. Louis County will decide the fate of Proposition A — a 1/2 cent sales tax to match the same tax previously approved by voters in the City of St. Louis.  Revenues would be used to fund existing operations and expand service of our regional public transit.

I decided to put together list of what “A” can do for the region:

1. Accelerate: strong transit will accelerate the trend toward filling in the core rather than pushing outward at the edges.  This helps ensure those folks who moved to the edge won’t be surrounded by new construction.
2. Accessible: public transit makes going from home to work accessible to many.  This applies to those of us with disabilities as well as those without access to an automobile. Getting our citizens to work, school is important for a strong region.
3. Accomplish: dedicated funding is critical to a healthy  transit transit system.  Prop. A will accomplish the goal of creating a dedicated funding source for operations.
4. Achieve: St. Louis will be closer to achieving the type of transit system a strong region needs to have to compete in the 21st century.
5. Activate: transit helps create activity.  Transit riders are often pedestrians on part of their total trip.  Their activity creates a buzz around stations & stops.  More transit and more riders that will activate our sidewalks.
6. Adjust: we will adjust our ideas about transit and what it means to the region, even if we don’t use the system ourselves (or just rarely).
7. Affirm: passage will affirm our commitment to a regional transit network.  This affirmation will send a strong message to companies and people considering the St. Louis region as a future location.
8. Affordable: as we saw when service was cut back people couldn’t get to work.  Employers need their employees at work.  Our region can’t afford to not have a functioning transit system.  We can’t afford to not pass this tax.
9. Attainable: with dedicated funding Metro can attain a decent level of service for the region through both rail & bus transit.
10. Augment: we will be able to augment the current system to better serve the core of the region, including St. Louis County.

For more information the on Proposition A see the Yes on A website at moremetrolink.com.

- Steve Patterson

• Politics , Public Transit , STL Region , St. Louis County
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Author: Deborah Moulton February 3rd, 2010

Image: Disney Family Parenting

A majority of readers in the poll last week seem to be well matched with mates who feel as they do about living a green lifestyle. (Poll: Your household divided by a green line?)

Poll: Does a green line divide your household? Between those who choose to live green and those that don’t?

1. No problem, we’re on the same page: 52 [57%]
2. I live alone: 20 [22%]
3. Mildly irritating: 11 [12%]
4. Other answer… 8 [9%]
5. Divisive with resentments and arguments: 1 [1%]
6. I want an eco-divorce, our values aren’t the same anymore 0 [0%]

The first two “other” responses represented a couple of readers who are probably expressing  “green fatigue,” the U.K. term for the eco-backlash to a barrage of green moralism. While other comments divided evenly between support for a diversity of opinion and certain resentments:

• I’m tired of being told to be green.
• Get over it, never been green.
• They are willing to go along as long as I do the work.
• I’ve been green for years.
• Live with lazy parents.
• We respect each other’s opinion and live accordingly.
• We have eco-tension.
• Platonic homeowners here – with a divide. Non-divisive.

There are many things that may have affected the outcome of this poll. City dwellers are probably a little more eco-conscious to begin with since the decisions that lead to an urban lifestyle (walkable neighborhoods, commutes by mass transit, and multi-family housing) are in and of themselves environmental choices.

Age may also play a role as younger couples may have taken eco-values in consideration during their courtships, while older couples may have more conflicts since eco-values weren’t a part of the equation when they originally selected their partner.  At any age, eco-conversions can be painful when one partner adopts a green lifestyle while the other partner clings to the same-old ways of living.

Then there is the bias of geography. Eco-tensions would be dealbreakers in Seattle or Portland; a violation of strong, commonly held social norms. Here in St. Louis, not so much.

Given all the other things that can drive a wedge in a relationship—money, children, unemployment, ill health—eco-concerns pale in comparison. The bottom line is that most people don’t consider a difference of opinion about green living as a serious enough breach to jeopardize their partnerships. At least for now.

- Deborah Moulton

• Environment , Weekly Poll
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson February 2nd, 2010

For a while now myself and like minded individuals have been pushing the concept of removing a mile stretch of what is currently marked as I-70.  This stretch runs from the Poplar Street Bridge and Cass Avenue, creating a barrier between the city and the Mississippi River to the East.

Once the new Mississippi River Bridge opens in 2014 this stretch of road will only serve local traffic.  A tree-lined roadway would better serve the needs of the city.  In a few days we will get the chance to see what life without this stretch of highway might be like:

ST. LOUIS - The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) and its contractor Fred Weber, Inc., are scheduling two weekend closures of Interstate 70 in St. Louis City in February to knock down two bridges over the interstate.
The department will close the interstate, and all ramps, between the Poplar Street Bridge and St. Louis Avenue.
MoDOT currently plans to close the interstate the weekend of February 5-8 to knock down the Cass Avenue Bridge and close the interstate the weekend of February 19-22 to remove the Madison Street bridge, weather permitting. The interstate will close at 8 p.m. on each Friday and will be reopened no later than 5 a.m. on the following Monday for each weekend closure. The work is being done in conjuction with constructing the New Mississippi River Bridge to relocate I-70 across the Mississippi River.
Additionally, the department will close I-70 reversible lanes on February 3 and keep them closed until late April to allow crews to construct the middle portion of the Madison Street Bridge over the interstate.
To get around the interstate closure, drivers must use a combination of Broadway Street, Washington Avenue and Memorial Drive. The detour around the work will be marked. However, since much of the detour is on roads with signals, drivers should make every effort to avoid the area, if possible.
“If people don’t use alternate routes to travel to downtown, the detour for the I-70 work will take a long time,” said Gregory Horn, P.E., project director for the Mississippi River Bridge project. “We are encouraging people to avoid the area by using other routes. For example, people can use the Chain of Rocks Bridge on I-270 or the Jefferson Barracks Bridge on I-255 to get between Missouri and Illinois, use I-270 to get around St. Louis County, or use I-64 to get into downtown St. Louis.”
An estimated 70,000 vehicles travel on I-70 through downtown St. Louis each weekend.

Here is the official map of the detour:

Furthermore:

MoDOT to close reversible lanes to build Madison Street bridge
(Department plans to close reversible lanes for two months)
ST. LOUIS - The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) and its contractor Fred Weber, Inc., will close the Interstate 70 reversible lanes February 3 for two months as part of constructing the Madison Street bridge over the interstate.
Closing the reversible lanes will help crews construct the middle support structures needed for the
bridge.
The work is being done in conjunction with constructing the new Mississippi River Bridge to relocate I-70 across the Mississippi River.
After the lanes reopen in late April, they will remain open until about mid-June before MoDOT crews need to close them for another six weeks to construct the St. Louis Avenue bridge.

Interestingly the reversible lanes haven’t reversed in more than a year.  These two center lanes of I-70 were originally Eastbound the morning and Westbound in the afternoon.  But for a while they have been Eastbound 24/7.

So we will soon see the impact on traffic as it is detoured on weekends.

- Steve Patterson

• Downtown , Highways, Bridges & Roads
• Comments

Author: Steve Patterson February 1st, 2010

ABOVE: Steve Patterson on April 4, 2008.

Two years ago today, at a month shy of age 41, my life changed dramatically:  not long after 4pm I had a hemorrhagic stroke - a vein in the right side of my brain burst and began bleeding in my skull.  Within 10 minutes I had to lower myself to my floor so I wouldn’t fall.  I was unable to get to my phone to summon help and my left side was quickly paralyzed.  I wasn’t sure what was happening.  One thing I knew was I was likely to die if I didn’t get help.   Somehow I managed to live and fifteen hours later a worried friend came to my loft and found me curled up in a ball on my floor.

These past two years I’ve had an amazing recovery although I am still disabled and I still have setbacks (such as falling 2 weeks ago).  As I’ve worked to rebuild my left side I have thought how my process can be applied to cities such as St. Louis.

St. Louis, like many older cities, hemorrhaged population for decades. In the last decade (2000-2009) the population bleeding stopped but the total loss has been steep.  Like me, cities could no longer function as they had before.  Time to begin the urban therapy.

Two years ago I was left handed, now I’m right handed.  The portion of my brain that controlled the left side of my body was lost forever.  In therapy I learned I had to rewire my brain so the surviving cells would take on the function of controlling my left side.  At first I awkwardly used my right hand to eat and brush my teeth. Like cities that look back and think “if only” I thought I’d one day get back the full use of my left hand as a left handed person.  I was so wrong.  I do use my left hand now and I push myself to do as much as I can with it as I know that is the only way it will get stronger.

Cities have been in the same situation, a stroke of massive population job losses.  This lost left cities unable to function as they had before.  But our therapy for cities has been hoping they’d regain lost function.  As I know function does return.  I can walk again but I can’t run, skip or ride a bike - yet.

Cities need to start with the basics, one step at a time.  Cities need to examine what no longer works and what can come back first.  In stroke therapy they leg returns before the arm.  Fingers come back very late.  I can barely move my left ankle and I still can’t move my toes on my left foot.  Cities, I think, have been trying to move their big toe rather than get their leg back first.

The therapy I would suggest for cities is to focus on minimal basics needed to function, focus on what makes a city a city.  Walkable.  Parking is on the street or behind buildings. Density higher than the edge.

By design a core city is very different than the ex-urban fringe.  One is old and one is young.  Age does matter.  I’ve met older stroke survivors that have a harder time regaining function.  Another factor is how quickly you get help. Older cities that haven’t had help for a long time are more a challenge.

It has been a long & hard two years — considerable effort on my part as well as many others.  I have years of work remaining and so does St. Louis.

- Steve Patterson

• Patterson Update
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Author: Steve Patterson January 31st, 2010

ABOVE: School zone on Ashby Rd in St. Ann MO (Image: Google Streetview)

Starting Monday February 1st motorists speeding along Ashby road in front of Hoech Middle School (3312 Ashby Rd) will receive tickets from a new speed enforcement camera:

ST. ANN, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com) - It’s a first of its kind effort in Missouri to try and cut down on speeding in school zones. St. Ann, Missouri, is putting up a camera to catch people who speed through a school zone. But not everyone is thrilled with the idea. The St. Ann program is similar to the red light cameras- offenders will be mailed a ticket with a picture of the speeding car and a fine.

[Police Chief] Schrader says speeders will receive a flat fine of at least $100, but he says no points will be assessed on a driver’s record if they’re caught.

That fact upset attorney Chet Pleban, “They’re a bad thing in my opinion.” Pleban has been an outspoken opponent of red light cameras and he’s against the speed zone camera as well.

Pleban says without assessing points, the program is nothing more than a money maker for St. Ann with big brother watching. “It’s a revenue producing thing that I think is in the long run dangerous,” explained Pleban. “Where does big brother stop? Where does big brother stop monitoring us under the circumstances for revenue production?”

The camera will be in use 24/7-so even when the school zone speed limit is not in effect, drivers breaking the normal speed limit will still get tickets.  [Source: Camera Will Soon Be (sic) Catch School Zone Speeders]

Just as numerous municipalities now use red-light cameras I anticipate we will see more of these throughout the region.  But is this a good thing?  Some would argue the idea is too big brother while others argue safety is the primary concern.  What are the alternatives?

A couple of years ago I was in a car with my brother in Edmond OK as we drove entered a school zone in front Cimarron Middle School (3701 South Bryant Avenue, Edmond, OK).  South Bryant, like Ashby Rd, has four lanes of traffic but the method of denoting the school zone was the most effective I had ever seen.  Small runway lights in the center line flash during the school zone period.  The following video from the City of Edmond shows the flashing in-road lights as well as other measures they use to improve the safety of their streets (the intro is cheesy but stick with it).

Edmond’s solutions are a good alternate strategy to using cameras to ticket speeding vehicles.

- Steve Patterson

• Highways, Bridges & Roads , Politics , St. Louis County
• Comments