Mayor Slay’s Comments on KDHX’s The Wire

Last week Mayor Francis Slay was a guest on KDHX program, The Wire with Thomas Crone and Amanda Doyle. If you missed the program you can listen to the podcast from the above link.

Slay defended the decision to raze the Century building for a parking garage. He actually cited that an engineer told him the building wouldn’t do well in an earthquake. This is the same argument that Slay PR consultant Richard Callow gets angry about at Preservation Board meetings.

When talking about opposition to development projects Slay said the “easier approach is to be against something.” Well, maybe it is easier to twist the system to favor contributors than it is to put all the deals out in the open for scrutiny? But maybe he is right, the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen have certainly been against changing our zoning codes to favor urban forms.

The Mayor’s take on recalls was equally interesting. He characterized recalls as being abused by those that lose a race. Well, the last aldermanic recall was of Tom Bauer in the 24th Ward. He had two challengers in the last primary in March 2003 and a challenger in the April 2003 general election. None of those challengers ran against him in the recent recall. The recall was over development issues. Attempts to characterize recalls as being only from bitter losers is unfair. Sometimes citizens just get fed up with the development decisions their alderman makes and, due to aldermanic courtesy, that is really the only viable option we have to take back control. As long as untrained aldermen continue to exercise sole decision making over development within their ward boundaries we will see more and more controversy and possibly more recalls.

Antonio French of PubDef and yours truly will be guests on KDHX’s Collateral Damage tonight at 7pm. Following us on The Wire will be President of the Board of Aldermen, Jim Shrewsbury. Tune in to KDHX, 88.1.

– Steve

Pyramid’s Claims to be “Leader in Urban Redevelopment”

John Steffen’s Pyramid Companies is trying to remake its tarnished public image. Their website is newly updated with a vision statement:

The Pyramid Companies were founded in 1992 to realize owner John Steffen’s vision to rebuild urban areas with high quality historic renovations and the construction of new homes. Today, Pyramid is the acknowledged leader of urban redevelopment in the City of St. Louis with over $500 million in projects completed or in various stages of development.

“Acknowledged leader?” Under who’s terms? Perhaps if you look solely at the total cost of the projects they are the biggest, most likely with the most tax-payer contributions. Biggest does not mean the best. What about criteria that includes urban form factor? How about neighborhoods that have long-term prospects of remaining sustainable in 50 years?

With most of Pyramid’s bigger projects located downtown in existing structures it has been nearly impossible for them to screw up the urban form. But their new construction, throughout the city, has been highly questionable.

The mission statement talks about “John Steffen’s vision to rebuild urban areas.” I think his vision is a bit cloudy. One look at Pyramid’s new Sullivan Place project, at right, and it is easy to doubt any vision other than a money making suburban one. Steffen certainly can’t think Sullivan Place represents a wonderful urban vision!

Over the years they’ve built numerous projects of questionable urbanity. Early projects included very suburban looking houses along Delmar with front-facing garages. Moving on they started and then abandoned Keystone Place. What was built there had attached garages and long driveways, a small step up from front garages. Sure, a detached garage option was listed in sales literature but customers were never shown a display from which to chose.

Next up was King Louis Square, an apartment complex trying hard to be urban but falling short on several levels such as building form and the actual architecture with its PVC molding carelessly applied to the facade. Just up the street they built Old Frenchtown, another uninspired apartment complex. Now we have La Saison, a new single family home project between King Louis Square & Old Frenchtown. In La Saison many of the homes are set far apart and nearly all are set way back from the street as if they were in suburbia. Poor detailing on the houses does not bode well for their long-term value. Pyramid had a great opportunity to create a wonderful mixed-used neighborhood where these recent projects stand yet their suburban “vision” resulted in the housing types all being segregated from each other. This land, cleared once in the 1950’s for public housing, was cleared again in the 1990’s. We should have demanded better. Although, we should have gotten better from a major developer and the city.

A true urban vision would have resulted in a greater variety of housing types, all mixed. We would have seen rental buildings next to single family homes next to attached townhouses. Granny flats over some garages could have helped create affordable rental units convenient to transportation and jobs. Commercial activity on Park in Lafayette Square should have been continued East toward Tucker. Apartments/condos over storefronts would have helped create streets people might actually walk down. As it is, this redeveloped area is clean but lifeless. Is this Steffen’s vision?

Back to propping up Pyramid’s image.

A recent St. Louis Business Journal article on Pyramid was little more than a press release. Everyone got into the act:

“We have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that John will be able to complete St. Louis Centre and the other projects he has embarked on, based on the fact that over the past five years, everything that he has said he would do in the downtown area, he has done and done on schedule,” Geisman said.

The key phrase is “in the downtown area.” Other quotes in the same article used the same ‘downtown’ qualifier. Pyramid’s downtown track record might be good but outside downtown the track record is poor, and getting worse.

– Steve

First State of the Blog & Syndicate Advertising

A year ago I had just finished my first run for political office. Traffic to this site had increased substantially during the campaign and I didn’t think it could get much better. Boy, was I wrong.

In the last year readership for my site has steadily increased. Since starting Urban Review in October 2004 I’ve caught the attention of local officials but more importantly the general public. I’ve covered many topics from often overlooked subjects like bike rack placement to more complicated issues such as local mass transit. I enjoy sharing my perspectives and appreciate your feedback.

Thank you all so much for your support!

Speaking of support, my site and the others from the STL Syndicate have a great advertising program. A mere $20 bucks will get you started with 2,000 ad views. That is a only .01¢ per view! Where else can you get access to St. Louis readers for such a low price?

I’ve personally advertised on the Syndicate for open houses and real estate listings. The increase in traffic to my MLS listings was very noticeable. As an advertiser you get a regular report to show you the ad views and how many times the ad was selected. If your business targets a St. Louis audience this is the advertising program for you.

Support local bloggers and reach web savvy customers all at the same time! Click here for all the details. Be sure to list me as your ad rep!

OK, enough of the sales pitch. You get it.

In the coming year look for more project reviews, suggestions for improving the St. Louis region and more commentary on local elections. I may even weigh in on state and federal elections as these officials have an impact on our region through transportation funding and environmental policy.

Thanks again for reading Urban Review.

– Steve