Grand Boulevard is one of, if not the most, important north-south streets in St. Louis. It connects north & south St. Louis to the east-west central corridor. It carries our busiest MetroBus route, the #70.
North Grand at 20th, click for map
After visiting the soon-to-close Schnucks at Grand & Kossuth last week it occurred to me the North Grand corridor could benefit from some comprehensive planning to bring needed jobs, housing, retail, etc to north St. Louis. This post isn’t a comprehensive solution it’s an introduction to the idea of concentrating efforts in a linear fashion along Grand north of Delmar.
POSITIVES:
Despite massive population loss in the city, especially north city, the areas near Grand remain populated, in-part because of the #70 MetroBus route.
Numerous problems: crime, poverty, unemployment, aging infrastructure & building stock
Lack of hope
We could list more negatives, as well as positives. In fact, taking stock of the area is a good first step.
Looking north from Grand & Delmar, click for map
Bringing real jobs to this area won’t be easy. I don’t think we should just sit back and watch as jobs and people continue to leave the area. This is a chance to do some grassroots planning. Done right North Grand can have a more prosperous future.
Last week readers at least 135 readers took the poll, indicating what they’d like to see as priorities at Paul McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration project. Here are the results in the order the software listed, two answers tied for the the top spot.
Q: Paul McKee’s “Northside Regeneration” project is slowly moving foreword, pick your top 5 priorities from the following:
Good walkability 76 [11.33% – TIE]
Jobs for locals: long-term work at various pay levels 76 [11.33% – TIE]
Rail transit connected to downtown 64 [9.54%]
Urban form with adequate parking behind buildings 60 [8.94%]
Safety 59 [8.79%]
Mixed uses, incomes 52 [7.75%]
Good street grid with short blocks 48 [7.15%]
Architecture that IS historic looking 43 [6.41%]
Hoodlum-free zone 39 [5.81%]
Renovation of the Clemens Mansion 35 [5.22%]
Many builders/developers, not just a few 33 [4.92%]
Good bikeability 24 [3.58%]
Something…anything ASAP 21 [3.13%]
Jobs for locals: short-term construction work 17 [2.53%]
Architecture that is NOT historic looking 11 [1.64%]
Easy access to highways 8 [1.19%]
Plenty of free parking 3 [0.45%]
Suburban planning, big blocks and cul-de-sacs 2 [0.3%]
I agree with most of the items in the top 10, very glad to see “Good Walkability” tie with “Jobs for locals: long-term work at various pay levels” at the top, followed closely by rail transit to downtown and urban form. I do take exception with one item: architecture.
I was disappointed “Architecture that IS historic looking” got 43 votes, but “Architecture that is NOT historic looking” only got 11 votes. Buildings in 2014 trying to look like they’re from 1914 end up looking cheesy. Other cities do a great job building new urban buildings that relate to the sidewalk and neighboring buildings without being faux historic. We need to drop the expectation that every new building be given a bit of red brick on the front and a fake mansard roof on top.
Decades ago traffic engineers converted many downtown St. Louis streets from two-way traffic to one-way traffic, 9th & 10th going north & south, respectively. The 9th/10th couplet extended north to I-70, basically serving as very long on/off ramps, cutting through the Columbus Square neighborhood. Today the former Cochran Gardens high-rise public housing project is gone, replaced with mixed income apartments. The 1980s Columbus Square condos and townhouses are still nice, the neighborhood is generally pleasant and safe. Despite the fact that 9th & 10th are no longer connected to I-70, they remain very wide one-way streets, undermining the positive investment in the area.
Looking south at 9th from CassThe St. Louis Housing Authority owns this retail building on 9th at Cass, one-way streets as a freeway on ramp aren’t good for neighborhood retail businesses.Most streets perpendicular to 9th/10th have a nice neighborhood scale. This is New Haven Ct.Looking north on 9th from O’Fallon St, lanes aren’t marked but wide enough for at least 3Looking north on 10th St from O’Fallon St, just as wide and useless as 9thLooking north on 9th from Cole
Looking south at 9th from Cole St., the dividing line between downtown and the Columbus Square neighborhoodLooking north at Cole St & 10th St
I’d like to see 9th & 10th be two-way all the way through downtown, but that’s more complicated with garage entrances/exits. signals, etc. But from Cole St. to Cass Ave it would be very simple, just some changes to the signals at Cole & Cass, the rest is signs and paint.
We ran these long on/off ramps through this neighborhood for decades, now we need to do the right thing and make 9th & 10th neighborhood streets again!
In 2009 I was part of a Partnership for Downtown St. Louis committee looking at parking downtown, including areas where on-street would be beneficial for helping retail businesses and their customers. On November 12, 2009 @ 6:34am I emailed the following to Director of Streets Todd Waelterman, copied to 7th ward alderman Phyllis Young:
Todd, I was delighted to see the addition of on-street parking on 10th & Olive recently. I emailed Patrice but I haven’t heard back from her yet.
Another area where there is an immediate need for on-street parking is the North side of Washington Ave between 11th and Tucker. The curb lane is hardly used for traffic. In this block there are now more businesses than ever. Copia is expected to reopen so when they resume valet that will take away spaces used by the general public.
The East side of Tucker between St. Charles and Wash Ave is very wide. There is room for on street parking here as well.
On 11th at Wash Ave there are two polls from what used to be metered spaces. For some reason they are no parking now. I see no logistical reason for these not to have parking.
These three spots could add 12-15 more spots in this area. The parking would help all the businesses in the area and have no real impact on traffic flow.
Please ask your staff to look into allowing meters to be added to these areas.
Thanks, Steve
To my surprise he replied less than an hour later @ 7:18am:
Thanks for your ideas. These areas will be utilized for turn movements when tucker is complete.
Todd Waelterman City of St Louis Director of Streets 314-647-3111
Young never replied. I dropped the subject, waiting for the rebuild of Tucker to be completed and the new I-70 bridge to open. Since the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge opened to traffic on February 9th, 2014 I think it’s time to revisit these areas as candidates for on-street parking. Let’s take a look at these three separate areas, all located within a block of each other:
The three areas where on-street parking would help businesses and improve walkability by creating a fixed barrier between traffic and pedestrians. Original aerial from Apple Maps.
A) North Side of Washington Ave from 11th to Tucker (12th)
This block of westbound traffic is very odd. Both of the blocks before and after have one westbound travel lane and one parking lane. Yes, city staff seem to think the entire right lane for the full length of the block needs to be a right turn only lane.
This view is from Saturday, but the weekday rush hour is similar, the through lane has 5-6 vehicles each cycle but the right turn lane has few if any cars.Occasionally a car or two will park illegally in the block-long turn lane. This isn’t really a problem because not many going west on Washington Ave want to turn right to go north on Tucker
Sure, leave room before the crosswalk for a couple of cars to get into the right lane to turn northbound on Tucker, but park cars from the Flamingo Bowl to Empire Deli.
B) East Side of Tucker from St. Charles to Washington Ave
The short distance from St. Charles (a named alley) to Washington Ave is far more complicated, not easily resolved.
b
Looking south from the crosswalk crossing Tucker at Washington Ave we see space crossed out between the left turn land and two through lanes. The Meridian bldg (left) has a vacant storefront space facing Tucker, all facing Washington Ave are leased.Looking north from St. Charles we see the vast amount of asphalt, the bus stop should remainBriefly in May 2013 this was to be a valet stand instead of on Washington Ave. The experiment lasted a week or two but the signs are still up nearly a year later.
What’s complicated about this block is northbound Tucker traffic goes from three through lanes down to just two on the new section north of Washington Ave. As I’ve said last August, the new Tucker Blvd streetscape needs to be continued from Washington Avenue to Spruce Street. In the meantime Tucker could get a restripe road diet. But a left turn lane is needed onto Washington Ave., the current concrete median is getting in the way of aligning lanes better. The easy short-term solution is to remove the median from Locust to Washington Ave.
C) 11th Street at Washington Ave
This is the easiest of all three, just put meters back on the two poles where they once were.
Throughout downtown 11th Street is an annoying one-way street, at least parking is allowed on both sides much of the way, including between St. Charles and Washington Ave.But for some reason two meters were removed long ago, the polls remain.
As you can see the left lane is a left-turn lane. I can’t think of any reason why these two spots should not be returned to use as on-street parking.
I’ll be emailing this post to various official in the hope of getting some quick action on two out of three of these (A & C).
Please vote in the poll, located in the right sidebar
Paul McKee’s “Northside Regeneration” has been controversial since before it became public, it has faced court challenges and has experienced delays. Now, however, it seems to be ready to move forward.
The question for the poll this week is what qualities should be priorities of the project? Please select your top from from the list provided in the poll in the right sidebar.
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