Bus Tour of Dilapitated McKee-owned Properties Ignored Other Issues

This past Thursday morning I attended, as did many others, the press conference and bus tour relating to 500+ properties owned by Paul McKee through various companies in his control. For those of you living under a rock for the last year, McKee had quietly bought hundreds of properties mostly in the city’s 5th ward through companies with names like “Blairmont Associates, LLC” and “Dodier Investors LLC” (see list). Blair and Dodier are both street names in the area. In the last Missouri State legislative session McKee’s attorney Steve Stone wrote a tax credit bill worth $100 million for anyone that assembled large acres of land in distressed areas. All sounds good so far, right?

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In New York, Walking is Transportation

Over the weekend I brought you the story of Jimmy Justice, a loud man with a video camera on a mission to give NYC law enforcement officials a piece of their own medicine. Today I want to share the story of a friend of mine, a lifelong New Yorker, Dan Icolari.

Dan, now in his mid 60s, grew up in Manhattan during the time you’d see folks like Jane Jacobs and Mary Travers (of Peter, Paul & Mary) out on the street in Greenwich Village. In fact, Dan saw both!

He and his lovely wife Ellen, also born in Manhattan, now live in a wonderful home in the borough of Staten Island, a not too far walk from the ferry. They raised their sons in Brooklyn.

The image of Dan, at right, is of course on the Brooklyn Bridge. I didn’t take this shot as I am the one in the orange shirt seen in the background. Having walked with Dan around New York, across one of the most famous bridges and through the neighborhoods of Brooklyn I can tell you he is one experienced walker. And fast!

Dan has been a reader of my blog for sometime now, and has written for NYC’s StreetsBlog so it was no surprise to me when Dan decided to begin writing about walking in his new blog, Walking is Transportation:

The goal of this weblog is to get people to think of walking as more than exercise–as, in addition, an alternative form of transport, one that merits a place in any discussion of transportation policy and planning. Like bicycling.

Like most in NYC, Dan doesn’t drive or own a car. But Staten Island isn’t exactly SoHo when it comes to an urban lifestyle. But after a good walk you are at the Staten Island Ferry terminal and headed to Manhattan. While many others take transit or bicycle, Dan enjoys a good brisk walk — for miles. Sure, Dan takes transit at times, and depending upon distance, but his main mode of transit is himself.

It wasn’t always this way for Dan, a semi-retired advertising executive. From an entry on his site:

I used to drive. I actually owned a car–even though I live in New York, said to be the most walkable of American cities and one blessed with great public transit. Despite all that, like most American drivers, I was convinced my personal mobility–my Freedom, for heaven’s sake–depended on the pathetic hunk of steel, plastic and rubber parked outside my door.

Exactly. The freedom of getting from A to B under your own power is a wonderful feeling. Granted, it takes the right shoes or the feeling may not be so great! If you want to learn more about walking as a form of transportation I suggest you follow the writings of Dan Icolari.

Steve Wilke-Shapiro on KDHX Tonight, Farewell Party Tuesday

Tonight is Steve night on KDHX‘s Collateral Damage program — Steve Wilke-Shapiro from 15thwardstl.org and myself will join hosts DJ Wilson and Fred Hessel in studio at 7pm on 88.1FM. As many of you know, Wilke-Shapiro and his family are moving to Des Moines for a new job and to be closer to family. Among tonight’s topics will be Steve’s 50 Things I Won’t Miss About St. Louis list which includes, in no particular order:

• The Board of Aldermen – I’m not going to name all the individual representatives. That would take up 24 of my 50 items in this list. For the most part, they seem to be just about as incompetent at dealing with critical issues in a proactive and comprehensive manner as Congress is. Two big thumbs down.
• Parochialism – Y’all have to figure out a way to work across borders. The region is killing itself from all the fighting over scraps in a zero-sum game.
• Eureka, Chesterfield, and friends – That sucking sound you hear? That’s all my taxes going to maintain your unsustainable infrastructure.
• Paul McKee – Pretty much represents all that is wrong with politics and development in St. Louis. Clear cutting is not the right way to go about rebuilding community.
• Interstate 64 – Or is it Highway 40? Redoing this road is the biggest boondoggle we’ve seen since, well, the Page Avenue Extension. Should have planned for transit.
• Page Avenue Extension – I could put together another “Top 50” list of things I would rather have spent a billion dollars on. All you self-centered suburbanites quit complaining about Metrolink “subsidy” until you add up all the money spent on extending and widening your own roads.
• Loughborough Commons – With a little urban planning, it could have been done so much better. Instead we have another “place not worth caring about.”
• Riverfront – Quite possibly the biggest missed opportunity in the region. What a huge disappointment it is to cross under the Arch and gaze down the grand stairway only to see the might Mississippi lapping at a sometimes parking lot and a bunch of concrete bollards.
• Racism – Race seems to inform everything in St. Louis (and not in a good way). I’ve been in St. Louis for 14 years and haven’t seen much forward movement. I don’t know what the right steps are, but I do believe that until people make a conscious effort to equalize some of the spatial disparities in income, education, health, and employment, it will be difficult to deal with the underlying prejudices.
• The Gateway Mall – If you build it they will come. We don’t need “greenspace” downtown.
• “Reserved” street parking – They are public streets. I’ll park where I want. Just because you own the adjacent property doesn’t make a street space yours.
• River Des Peres – Affectionately called River Dispair by those in the know.
• Schnuck’s – I shop there because it’s so damn convenient to my house (I don’t even have to get in the car), but I don’t like it. Shame on you for demolishing the Century Building. Is it intentional that the logo looks so much like “Schmucks”?

This should make for a good conversation! Tuesday evening friends are giving Steve a farewell party at The Royale. 5:30pm-? And finally, if you are looking for a great home in a great neighborhood consider Steve’s home at 3618McDonald.com (listed by my broker, Christopher Thiemet).

Citizen Journalism, New York Style

“Oh, you’re that guy that did the video at Copia!” is something I hear often as I introduce myself to people. Last year I video taped a valet company at Copia violating the terms of their valet permit — placing cones in the street and such. The owner came out of his restaurant to confront me after I removed their cones from the public street. In case you missed it, here it is (note: video contains explicit language):

Valet Parking at Copia from UrbanReviewSTL and Vimeo.

People were aghast at both my behavior and the restaurant owners. Dave Drebes wrote on the Arch City Chronicle blog, “Yes, there’s too much space reserved for valet parking, but I’m not sure his approach is… um… constructive.” One commenter on that post said, “wow, talk about needing to get a life! This guy is a class A-1 Loser. who the hell cares if the valets use freaking parking spaces?” Yet another person wrote, “I would suggest that Mr. Patterson try to change his methods and behavior before he becomes the person who complains all of the time and never compliments anyone for any reason.” This video, from nearly a year ago now, came after months and months of trying to get some change. At the time, I could not believe the things this guy was saying to me on camera, clearly he did not know who I was or what I’d do with the video. My post, with a variety of comments, can be found here.

But this post is not about valet parking, Copia or me. Well, sort of about me. I’ve been called a bully and my methods questioned which is fair game as public as I am. Ald. Florida called me a zeolot and has said that I am mean. To everyone out there that doesn’t like me or my methods all I can say is be thankful I’m from Oklahoma and not New York.

Meet Jimmy Justice:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=052S1yg-zR0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0rSqX-elZY[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf-tcjc87hw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XqJVAwCrbw[/youtube]

Recently Jimmy Justice was featured on the Today show, here is a report from the ABC station in New York.

Now let’s see, a good place to shop for video cameras in the city…

Collinsville Planning Commission Rules Against Commercial Zoning on Disputed Property

Last April I brought I did a post on an interesting dispute in Collinsville IL. In short, a developer bough a corner parcel that was a house at the entrance to a subdivision with one side of the land on an increasingly commercial street. At the time a city zoning map had apparently incorrectly noted the parcel as zoned commercial when it in fact remained residentially zoned. The developer wanted the zoning changed to commercial so they could build their planned retail store while the residents argued they did not want the edge & entrance of their residential area invaded in such a manner.

The house purchased by the developer actually occupies two original residential building lots. The developer wanted to raze the existing structure. As you can see from the image above, the area is quite commercial but not in the immediate vicinity of that parcel. The Planning Commission ruled in favor of the residents at their long meeting last night. I was unable to attend but Diane Meyer has the low down at Respublica.   The next step is the City Council.