Home » Press Release » Recent Articles:

PR: Mayor Slay, Downtown Partnership Announce Downtown Bike Center

The following is a press release:
Mayor Francis G. Slay, the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, the Downtown CID and Loftworks today announced that the funding is finalized to create the region’s first public commuter bike center.

The public Downtown Bike Center will offer cyclists a place to secure their bike, store their bike gear, and shower before coming to work. The City anticipates these services will be available late this Fall for a monthly fee.

The public Downtown Bike Center will use 1300 square feet of the ground floor of the 1011 Locust Street building, which is owned by Loftworks. The building that will house the bike station is right downtown – located on the northwest corner of Locust and Tenth Streets – and is within two blocks of a Metrolink station. The building has been restored using Historic Tax Credits, and is on track to obtain LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council.

The City of St. Louis applied for a Federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the Department of Energy to specifically fund this project. These funds were designated for energy-saving projects, and had to be approved by the Department of Energy. From the grant the City received, $181,600 will cover the costs to buy the lockers, interior bike racks, and fund the operational costs of the Downtown Bike Center’s first two years. The Downtown Community Improvement District and other partners will provide additional funding.

“We are building a City that provides an attractive way of life. After World War II, the car was a symbol of freedom. For some people today, it is just the opposite,” said Mayor Slay. “We look forward to working with the Downtown St. Louis CID and Loftworks to ensure the long-term success of this public bike center and the City’s cycling initiative.”

“This project will help cement Downtown as a walkable, livable neighborhood where you can rely on alternatives to the car,” said Maggie Campbell, Partnership President and CEO. “We are thrilled to be working with the community to realize this sustainable investment.”

“Since vehicle emissions contribute about a third of the Greenhouse Gasses into the environment, we wanted to use these ARRA Stimulus funds to promote an alternative mode of transportation,” said Catherine Werner, the City’s Sustainability Director. “By enabling St. Louis commuters to choose cycling as an affordable and attractive option, the City is demonstrating its commitment to being a healthy and sustainable community.”pre

 

PR: HUD OFFERS $110 MILLION IN GRANTS TO CLEAN UP LEAD HAZARDS

September 2, 2010 Press Release 1 Comment

The following is a press release:

HUD OFFERS $110 MILLION IN GRANTS TO CLEAN UP LEAD HAZARDS
Funding to protect children from lead poisoning

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today announced that it is making approximately $110 million in grants available to help eliminate dangerous lead-based paint from lower income homes and to protect young children from lead poisoning. The grants to States and local governments are being offered through HUD’s Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control and Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration Programs.

“These grants are critical for States, counties and cities who are on the front lines of protecting our children from dangerous lead hazards,” said Jon Gant, Director of the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control. “While we have made remarkable progress toward eliminating lead poisoning in children nationwide, now is the time to focus on reaching the finish line. We look forward to communities applying for these grants so that they can help make older housing safer and healthier for children.”

HUD is providing an opportunity for applicants through its Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control Grant Program. Prospective grantees will be able to apply for supplementary funding to promote and develop a local Healthy Housing initiative, building on their lead hazard control program, to address multiple housing-related health hazards in accordance with best practices HUD has identified. In addition, the Department will announce the availability of funds for four Healthy Homes and lead grant programs in the near future.

HUD requires prospective grantees to submit their applications electronically via www.grants.gov. Any changes to HUD-published funding notices will be made available to the public through a Federal Register publication and published on this government-wide portal. Applicants are urged to sign up for Grants.gov’s notification service to receive periodic updates or changes to this grant offering.

###

 

PR: Brian Owens Closes O’Fallon Park Summer Jazz Concert Series

August 25, 2010 Press Release 1 Comment

The following is a press release:

Brian Owens Closes O’Fallon Park Summer Jazz Concert Series

R&B singer, Brian Owens, performs at 6:00PM in the last concert of this summer’s concert series in O’Fallon Park

(ST. LOUIS) – Tonight R&B singer, Brian Owens, will close out this summer’s O’Fallon Park Jazz Concert Series with a performance at 6:00PM. Brian Owens is rapidly earning a reputation as one of the most promising young R&B and soul singers on today’s music scene. At the age of 29, Owens has already shared the stage with many notable performers such as jazz legend Ramsey Lewis, smooth jazz artists Boney James and Spyro Gyra. Brian has made television appearances on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and BET’s “Jazz Discovery” program. He describes his musical style as a blend of Bill Withers, Sam Cooke, Donny Hathaway, with a bit of Al Green and Marvin Gaye just for fun.

Produced by the Sheldon Concert Hall in partnership with 21st Ward Alderman Antonio French, this is the 2nd year for the jazz series in O’Fallon Park. The series offers residents a unique opportunity to enjoy one of the city’s largest and most beautiful parks. Concertgoers have the opportunity to hear some of the region’s most talented jazz musicians this summer, while enjoying refreshments from the park’s new Boathouse café, which was opened specifically for the event.

In addition to the concert series, many new renovations are taking place in O’Fallon Park this summer, including five new basketball courts and a one-mile fitness trail. This summer also marked the long-awaited groundbreaking for the new O’Fallon Park Recreation Center coming in December 2011.

“There are a lot of exciting changes coming to O’Fallon Park,” says Alderman French. “These renovations are part of a larger effort to reclaim this historic park as a safe and beautiful space for families in our community.”

Tonight is the last concert in what has been an 8-week summer Jazz Concert Series. Tonight’s concert will begin at 6:00PM and is free and open to the public. Concessions will be available at the O’Fallon Park Boathouse and attendees are encouraged to bring a picnic blanket or lawn chair.

###

 

PR: 14th Street Bridge Closed for Repairs Starting Monday, August 30

August 25, 2010 Press Release Comments Off on PR: 14th Street Bridge Closed for Repairs Starting Monday, August 30

I receive many press releases each day. I will now start posting some of these as received, in addition to my regular daily posts.
– Steve Patterson

14th Street Bridge Closed for Repairs Starting Monday, August 30
Repairs part of On-System Bridge Preventative Maintenance Program

14th Street Bridge over Mill Creek (between Papin and Spruce) will be closed for repairs on Monday August 30, 2010. It will be closed for approximately 30 days. The closure is part of a larger maintenance program that will be performed on several bridges from April until November.

Concrete Strategies, LLC, the contractor for the project, will be repairing columns underneath the bridge, the expansion joints at the ends of the bridge, prepping and painting beam ends and applying corrosion protection. It is the work underneath the bridge that requires the closure. Even though workers may not be visible to motorists, there will be work going on.

The signed detour route will be on Chouteau Avenue to 18th Street to Clark Street, and vice-versa. The Gateway Multimodal Facility serving Amtrak and Greyhound will still be accessible from 18th & Clark, and signs are posted there. The eastbound off-ramp from I-64 (US 40) will generally remain open. However, it will only be possible to turn left while the bridge is closed. Note that one full ramp closure will be required to repair the expansion joint at the north end of the bridge. Informational signs will be posted.

####

 

The numbers don’t lie – this time

November 11, 2004 Press Release Comments Off on The numbers don’t lie – this time
Yesterday St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay announced revised Census Bureau numbers for the City of St. Louis. The Post-Dispatch is reporting previous estimates “showed a drop of nearly 16,000 residents from 2000 to last year.”

 

More from the same article:

The annual estimates, released this year, reported the city had lost population at a faster rate than any other city its size. The figures riled City Hall and, at the time, were declared “bogus and unreliable” by the mayor. 

City officials challenged the numbers, questioning the method used to calculate the 2003 estimate because it failed to include residential building permits that almost all other cities were allowed to use. 

Without being an expert demographer it was clear to me (and most people I know) that in the last few years we’ve seen an increase in young professionals as well as many thirty somethings staying put rather than flee to the ‘burbs once their kid(s) were school age. So what were the numbers? Back to the P-D article:

According to earlier census estimates, the rate of decline in St. Louis topped a list of 245 other cities with 100,000 people or more. Although other cities lost more people, those losses were proportionately smaller than the 4.3 percent estimated decrease in St. Louis. 

As of July 1 last year, the census calculated the city lost 15,966 residents since the national head count in 2000, which found 348,189 people living within city limits. 

But, according to the adjusted census estimate, St. Louis had 348,039, a net loss of 150. 

This is really good news. Perception is very important. Reversing 50 years of belief the future was on the edges of the region in cul-de-sac streets, strip malls, industrial parks is difficult. People, by nature, want to be part of the leading group – on the bandwagon. After WWII the trend was to the ‘burbs and folks fled in drove – partially fueled by racial bigotry. Well folks, the trend is to return to close-knit (and hence walkable) urban environments that have served humans for centuries. This auto dominated suburban experiment is yesterday’s news.

The question now is how can the Slay administration capitalize on this news and keep up the momentum? For starters, put a moratorium on razing historic buildings downtown for fucking parking garages. Are you listening Francis????? You see, the first thing we as St. Louis residents have to do is get City Hall (Mayor, Aldermen, etc….) to change their perceptions of the city and what works. Frankly, I don’t think they get it.

It has been the work of loft developers and small local business owners that have brought about the rejuvenation of downtown we are seeing. Massive public funded projects such as stadium building or corporate handouts to firms such as Bryan Cave are not the solution to get people in the city. Those are designed to get re-elected.

For a lesson in what to do we need to look no further than the 1999 classic movie Dogma:
Cardinal Glick (George Carlin): Fill them pews, people, that’s the key. Grab the little ones as well. Hook ’em while they’re young. 
Rufus (Chris Rock): Kind of like the tobacco industry? 
Cardinal Glick: Christ, if only we had their numbers. 

Everything the City does should be focused on filling the pews – the buildings and vacant lots all over the city. This is business 101. You find out where a gap exists in the market and what your potential customers want and you fill that need. Stadiums or a new Bryan Cave office building are, without a doubt, not the right way to go. So what is the right way?

The trick is understanding your ‘customer’ and what they are seeking. You see, our customer is the recent college grad or young professional. Our competition, despite what some may think, is not Chesterfield or St. Peters (hinterland suburbs for those out of town). No, our competition is Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, etc… These cities and others are offering the “Creative Class” an exciting life. Gone are the days of people going to employers and working there until retirement. The Creative Class is attracted to diverse urban life and employers are attracted to the labor pool of the Creative Class.

From Richard Florida’s groundbreaking book, “The Rise of the Creative Class: and how it’s transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life:”
If you are a scientist or engineer, an architect or designer, a writer, artist or musician, or if you use your creativity as a key factor in your work in business, education, health care, law or some other profession, you are a member [of a new social class]. With 38 million members, more than 30 percent of the nation’s workforce, the Creative Class has shaped and will continue to shape deep and profound shifts in the ways we work, in our values and desires, and in the very fabric of our everyday lives.

Much of Florida’s book is on documenting and defining the Creative Class. He goes into great detail about the types of environments the Creative Class seek and conversely what they avoid. The lessons here go way beyond saying “we need more high-tech jobs in our city.” But, in catering to the Creative Class other members of society cannot be ignored. Florida concludes the preface with:
To build true social cohesion, the members of the Creative Class will need to offer those in other classes a tangible vision of ways to improve their own lives, either by becoming part of the Creative Economy or, at the very least, by reaping some of its rewards. If the Creative Class does not commit itself to this effort, the growing social and economic divides in our society will only worsen, and I fear that we will find ourselves living perpetually uneasy lives at the top of an unhappy heap.

Be sure to check out Richard Florida’s Creative Class website.

OK, I’ve gone on ranting long enough for this entry. Let’s summarize shall we?

• St. Louis City population is leveling off or increasing!
• Suburbia is so 20th century.
• Vibrant city life, not gigantic building projects, are the key to attracting the Creative Class.
• Inclusion of all social classes is key to reversing social & economic divides.

Note to developers & everyone at City Hall: Please print out the above bullet points and repeat daily. If you are working on a project that does not jive with the above then you need to stop and figure out why it doesn’t.

Questions? Comments? Disagree? Send me an email – I love feedback.

Steve

 

Advertisement



[custom-facebook-feed]

Archives

Categories

Advertisement


Subscribe