Catching Up, A Potpourri of Topics
You go away for nine days and you miss stuff. Plus I had some major technical issues for a week. Adjusting to the time changes from the West coast and central time zones has not been easy.
The following is a potpourri of topics:
Ballpark Village softball field and parking lot:
OK, I was back for this exciting news. Where we thought we were going to have a mixed use village we will instead have a softball field and a surface parking lot. I understand the economic conditions today but this dragging started years ago. Current conditions are simply a cover. It has been said this solution is temporary for the July All-Star game. My guess is it will still be there a decade from now.
Treasurer’s Office and the Post Office:
Parking revenue contractor ACS forgot to pay the Post Office $53 for a P. O. Box so hundreds of payments got sent to a dead letter office. Thus, payments people had mailed in were not received. Not good.
Graffiti downtown:
The vacant building across the street from my loft got tagged with graffiti on three floors.
This was a project started by the now defunct Pyramid Construction.
Madoff:
Organizer of the biggest scam on Wall Street is finally in jail. Yesterday his accountant was arrested on charges of fraud for rubber stamped audits. Many more folks had to have been part of the ponzi scheme.
Natasha Richardson:
Actress Natasha Richardson died as a result of a head injury from a ski accident. Richardson had bleeding between her brain and skull. 13 months ago I had a stint to drain bloody fluid from my brain after my stroke. We can’t walk around wearing helmets but after deaths like this we may want to consider it. Certainly when bicycling, riding a scooter or other such activity please be sure to wear a helmet. Story on CNN.
Economy:
Newspapers ceasing print. More layoffs. Bankruptcies abound. AIG pays bonuses. Earmarks are demonized while bigger budget items go undebated.
Software & Hardware:
On my second day of my vacation my blog encountered major issues. The problem was hard to pinpoint. All is well now. In a weird way I’m sorta glad I couldn’t post new posts. It gave me more freedom to enjoy my vacation. At least until the last day. I took over 1,100 photos and I backed them all up to Flickr as soon as I pulled them off my camera. Good thing too because the hard drive on my Mac notebook (12″ G4) gave out. I have some good video clips I hope to recover.
I honestly take no pleasure in the latest announcement about BP Village, but I hit this nail squarely on the head years ago, as did other skeptics. Before the economy really tanked, the foot dragging and grasping excuses were in evidence. I agree with Steve that the fabulous field and surface parking will be there in a decade. That’s exactly what I said we would get, although I thought they’d throw in some benches. Even when the economy recovers, DeWitt et al will never run out of elaborate excuses for simply not doing squat. They never planned to and no one will “make” them develop jack. Despicable and embarrassing.
If you’ve gotta have grafiti on the building across the street, at least it’s on the windows and not the brick.
The world will see the truth about St. Louis, a region that honors and respects parking lots more than livable, prosperous and growing communities. Perfect.
…so we have to begin demanding more, and ensuring that the ‘more’ that’s demanded is done. Elections are a part of the formula, but direction through advocacy might be surprisingly effective. Start proposing better solutions to largely known, or maybe as-yet largely unknown problems in our city’s built and existing condition, and make the proposals seen by public posting. Get the conversation going, based upon something visible (however theoretical it may be), and the interested and inspired will add to that conversation in a substantive way. With all of the blog activity and its devoted readership, I’m still surprised that there is no online clearinghouse-of-sorts for visible urban development proposals. The legitimate commercial development proposals can easily be seen from developer websites or other related sites, but we still haven’t seen the visions that can match all of the strong words written in the comments by devoted blog readers.
Money talks. As we all know, money ain’t flowing. I’m sure that there are more than a few projects ready to go, once financing becomes a reality and buyers return. In the meantime, a new parking lot at BPV will make for a great place for all the obligatory big white hospitality tents associated with the All-Star Game.
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As for the grafitti, I agree with Brian – glass is easy to clean. My bigger fear is the obvious lack of security – squatters and fire can do a whole lot of permanent damage.
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The economy – I don’t object to bonuses as rewards for success. I don’t get giving bonuses for failure, nor do I understand why we taxpayers would want to pay bonuses to the top employees who led a firm into virtual bankruptcy (absent a government bailout), nor why we would want to retain their services?
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BTW, I was through Nashville, TN, yesterday and poked around their downtown for the first time in probably 25 years. Things have changed. Besides the new (open air!) football stadium and some progress on their riverfront, they seem to have very successfully combined Beale Street with Laclede’s Landing. They have multiple successful restaurants, bars and entertainment venues in a historic, walkable area. At 2 in the afternoon the place was surprisingly active; I’d guess the place really hops after dark – there were even “no cruising” restrictions posted. I’d like to know what they did right to get to this point.
“we still haven’t seen the visions that can match all of the strong words written in the comments by devoted blog readers.”
What makes you think there are visions behind these strong words?
I do like your idea, John. We need to move beyond five-paragraph comments and on to ideas that excite people. Pictures can tell a thousand words. A thousand words often tell less — and bore people to death.
You got it Dr. Who, and you might be surprised at how many visions there are to match the strong words. I would probably be surprised.
Since I’m a big believer in growing our economy and focusing on our strengths, here are a couple of ideas. One, focus on distribution. It’s not glamorous, but it pays relatively well, complements our consumer society, builds on our unique assests (central location, good roads, rails, rivers and airports), and will bring collateral, spin-off investments. I know the folks on the northside won’t want to hear it, but doing a focused, serious assemblage to create a real distribution hub (think a midwestern version of Long Beach, CA.) has the potential of creating a truly location-specific, sustainable local economy. Both Memphis and Louisville have done well as FedEx & UPS have grown their air hubs, with spin-off firms like Zappos choosing to locate nearby, and Chicago continues to do well, with their Great Lakes access substituing for our Mississippi River access. And if someone could combine container shipping with river barges, we would be well-positioned to pursue another specialized niche.
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Two, focus on growing the creative class. We have plenty of funky, interesting, adaptable and cheap old buildings, for both living and working. As a result, our wages can be less than in many other parts of the country. We have decent, affordable air service to the whole country. We may not be overly receptive to change on the political side, but we do seem to be relatively open to “unusual characters”, be they hipsters or artists, gay or straight. Ideas aren’t constrained by location, and “shipping” them doesn’t dictate where you need to be located. If the Carolinas and Utah can overcome their preconceptions, there’s no reason why we can’t. And if it takes hosting an Olympics to help make it happen (as it did in both Atlanta and Salt Lake City), then lets make that a focus, as well. The World’s Fair and the Olympics here were a very big deal here back WHEN they happened, but that was more than a century ago – this is now, it’s time to move past lamenting what was, what happened and what might have been. We need to focus on moving forward, and trying to copy a formula that everyone else is trying isn’t the answer (bigger convention center, more tourism, an aquarium, green power products, etc., etc.). We have many unique assets, both individual and as parts of a larger package, that make us special – we just need to recognize them and to build on them!
What defenders of the historic architecture and current residents of the north side are expecting is some evidence of intent from [I’d normally say ‘those’, but in this case, from nearly ‘the one’] to develop the large areas that are in desperate need of revitalization. Focused areas of light industrial and shipping warehouse development near I-70 is certainly not out of the question, and would undoubtedly allow the city to take advantage of our central U.S. geography, proximity to barge traffic-friendly waterway, and existing interstate highway and thus provide a component of stability so badly needed. What the defenders of the north side worry about is the carte blanche seemingly afforded [a certain developer] by the DALATC structure. They alsow worry that those who do not live in the struggling areas rich in historic architecture and residents ready for strong neighborhood fabric, but wield the power of mass land tranformation, will only seek development based upon profit motive and the rest will be damned.
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Jim, I would say your second paragraph is a summation of what urbanists have been saying on a daily basis on the allied urbanism blogs, and that to recognize our unique assets that make St. Louis special is to provide venue for the creative class to visualize a breadth of ideas. We’ve become very competent at reactionary analysis and criticism of commercial development proposals long after the deal has already been sealed, and haven’t much been the drivers of the urban development conversation. This is symptomatic of political disempowerment and financial limitations, among other things, but while it can never hurt to start conversations and feed the idea pool, it can often hurt to passively await the decisions of the rich and powerful.
So we have the affordable and available infrastructure, what’s next? How do we create incentives that will appeal to either, or both, groups? Historic tax credits have helped with physical redevelopment. How do we create/strengthen and advertise enterprise-type zone incentives? Ones that reward investment in economically-depressed areas? And/or tax credits from brownfields redevelopment? I know that Paducah (of all places) has invested in attracting artists, and is succeeding suprisingly well in doing so. It’s partly basic salesmanship – the customer wants to be wanted, wants to be appreciated, and wants to know that they’re being treated at least fairly, if not being given a real “deal”. Do we focus on one specific segment (like advertising or glass or new technology) or do we try and be everything to everybody? And like I keep saying, the bottom line is the bottom line – our 1% earnings, on its face, seems unfair and can (and probably is) used against us. The “right” answer, however, short of repeal, is crunching the numbers and including ALL costs – rents, taxes, insurance, labor and utilities – in defining the true monthly (hopefully low) cost of being in business here. We need to go after the start-ups – the dinosaurs shouldn’t be nearly the focus our efforts that they usually seem to be!
I’m assuming you are indirectly defending the DALATC as a means of creating the incentive if not reward for investment in economically depressed areas. While this approach could indeed be a boon to north St. Louis, it’s the unknown details of the developer’s intent, and that developer’s secretive nature that has residents and defenders of historic architecture understandably worried.
John, I don’t know the specifics about the DALATC, so I’m neither defending nor opposing it. I’m also probably looking at “north” St. Louis as a larger entity than you are. I include a lot of the older industrial land, everything from the old GM plant to the areas east and north of I-70, along Broadway and Hall Street, as potential redevelopment sites, that probably don’t fit most people’s definition of historic architecture. What we have is a synergy, where river, rail and interstate intersect near a major aiport. Build on that strength and we can hopefully rebuild some of our blue-collar job base.
The whole Ballpark Village thing just cracks me up! I just can’t believe so many people were stupid enough to believe that it would turn out any different than it has. If there was ever a classic example of history repeating itself this is it! Years ago when they built the old stadium, the 1966 version, we were all told that some sort of “village” would be built and it never happened either. Will St. Louis ever learn?
A building on Washington I control was tagged last night by YNOT, who is in the TKO gang. He acid etched the front door with the following tag FOZ YNOT TKO. The door is going to cost me around $2,500 to replace. Anyone who YNOT is or how to get in touch with him. I want to thank him for relieving me of a hefty sum of money. Also, Deux has been a relative newcomer on the graffiti scene, but has been very active. He must have 50 tags along Washington right now. I am interested in his identity as well – he seem to be in the LD mob. Any help would be appreciated.
ynot was murdered 07/28/2009 in north Stl. I had the pleasure of having a tattoo done by him for my 21st bday on 07/25/2009…..RIP YNOT
Ynot was actually murdered on 07/30/2009. He was amazing and very special to me