Some Expectations For 2011

Wow, 2011 already?  In my 20+ years in St. Louis I’ve seen a lot of good &  bad change, I suspect both will continue. Hopefully the good will outnumber the bad.

This year the city, like the states, faces the issue of redistricting. A decade ago it got ugly! St. Louis made the national news when 20th ward Ald Irene Smith allegedly urinated into a trash can rather than cease a filibuster on redistricting.

“Twas the whiz heard ’round the globe as Ald. Irene Smith apparently decided she’d rather fill a bucket than give up a filibuster. Shielded by aldermanic allies, the alderwoman-with-‘tude — a former city judge, mind you — allegedly peed in a garbage can after she was refused a potty break during a rigorous redistricting debate.” (RFT)

Click here to see video from that meeting.

Missouri & Illinois will each lose one seat in the US House of Representatives, but the total remains at 435. In the city the total remains, for now, at a staggering 28 – the same number as when the city had half a million more residents.

So for the city the issue becomes how to draw the new ward boundary lines with an equal number of constituents. Will the changes in population result in fewer predominantly white wards? Fewer black wards? Will the lines be drawn so that we might see an Asian or Hispanic ward so that our representatives better reflect our population numbers?

And just what will our population be? Will this be the first decennial census in decades that we’ve not lost population?  Did St. Louis County lose population?

In a few days the filing will close for the spring 2011 elections, half of the Board of Aldermen (even numbered wards) as well as the President of the Board.

In April voters will decide if we continue to collect the earnings tax on the wages of residents as well as those who work in the city.

We should expect to see some construction start on the first phase of Ballpark Village. Who knows what year we will see the rest of the site completed, hopefully before the Cardinals want to replace the 2006 stadium.

The opera house formerly known as Kiel will reopen this year as the Peabody.

The clock is ticking on the Rams lease for the dome, expect some maneuvers in 2011 that will hint at if the Rams will exercise their option to get out of the lease if the done is not in the top quarter of the NFL. It won’t be. I think they will get out of the lease in 2012 but stay put because options for an other facility are slim. California can’t afford to bankroll a new stadium to get the Rams to return to Los Angeles.  The real action will be in 2012 though.

Some long-established businesses will fold in 2011, no doubt blaming the new smoke-free law that starts tomorrow. There are some places I look forward to visiting again but others that I think will need a few months to air out.  I’ve already visited some formerly smoking places that decided to get a head start by going smoke-free in 2010.  I still haven’t decided how much effort I’m going to put into making complaints against establishments that deliberately don’t comply.

I don’t expect to see a lot of new construction to review.  This is probably a good thing as most new construction is so horribly anti-pedestrian.

Overall I’m far more optimistic than pessimistic about 2011. Are you?

– Steve Patterson

2010 Highlights

What a year 2010 has been! I started the year with a list of Regional goals/strategies.  Only one came to be — the April passage of the transit tax in St. Louis County.  That vote triggered a previously approved tax in the city.  Metro has restored & improved transit service, keeping the region mobile.

We saw the Obama Administration announce high speed rail with improvements from St. Louis to Kansas City and to Chicago.  It will be some time before this pays off but when it does St. Louis will benefit.

The City to River concept of a tree-lined boulevard replace 1.5 miles of soon to be former I-70 gained momentum, including acknowledgment from all five finalists in the City + Arch + River Competition.

We did see some construction projects get completed in 2010, such as the offices of Paradowski Creative at 20th & Locust.  The St. Louis Centre bridges over Washington Ave & Locust were removed and the former indoor mall is being turned inside out with retail facing the sidewalks on all four sides.

Just down the street, the long-annoying taxi stand on the sidewalk in front of the convention center has been relocated to 8th Street.

Work has started on the adaptive reuse of the Clemens Mansion on Cass.  Other small projects have been completed or started in the city.

The St. Louis Rams were sold and the team seems to be trying to impress their new owner.  All in all, not a bad year.

On a personal note, August 2010 marked 20 years of living in St. Louis, in 2013 I will have lived half my life here.  To the natives, it doesn’t matter.  I wasn’t born here, I can’t stand St. Louis-style pizza, and I didn’t go to high school here. For me, St. Louis is home.

Celebrate safely tonight.

– Steve Patterson

Car Blocked Hydrant On 9th At Olive

Recently I posted about an illegally parked city vehicle (City Employee Parks City Vehicle Next To Fire Hydrant) but many of you felt it was a non-issue.  The car wasn’t that close to the hydrant and the curb wasn’t painted yellow.  The other night I saw a clear example.

No question this car is blocking the fire hydrant. But no, the red Mazda RX8 isn’t a city-owned vehicle.  This illegally parked car belongs to an on-duty police officer!

Yes, I called the police non-emergency number to report the vehicle. I also reported this to Charles Bryson, Director of Public Safety. I doubt the officer got a ticket.

– Steve Patterson

Readers: Missouri Shouldn’t Lower Cap On Historic Tax Credits

In July of this year Gov Nixon created the Missouri Tax Credit Review Commission, co-chaired by Steve Stogel & Senator Chuck Gross, to review the various state tax credit programs, including the successful historic preservation tax credit.  From the detailed historic preservation subcommittee report:

“A well-thought-out and skillfully drafted tax incentive for historic preservation cannot achieve its objectives if the total amount of credits that can be awarded annually is subject to a statutory limit, particularly if the limit is fixed at a low figure…

…Where demand for credits exceeds the amount permitted by law, applicants either must compete for credits or participate in a lottery or other arbitrary allocation system. Projects that truly require the state credit to be financially feasible have tended to be discouraged from participating because of the lack of certainty as to the outcome, the cost of preparing a competitive application that nonetheless may be unsuccessful, and the difficulties of keeping financing commitments in place during the evaluation process.”

Still it is possible Missouri will lower the cap on our historic preservation tax credit, thus prompting my poll question & post last week:

Q: Missouri is considering lowering the cap on the Historic Rehab Tax Credit from $140 mil to $75 mil. Reaction?Bad idea, this credit pays for itself 75 70.75%

1. Bad idea, this credit pays for itself 75 [70.75%]
2. Good idea to lower the limit 11 [10.38%]
3. I’d set the cap even lower 6 [5.66%]
4. Other answer… 6 [5.66%]
5. We should eliminate this tax credit entirely. 4 [3.77%]
6. Unsure/no opinion 4 [3.77%]

The six “other” answers were:

1. Fight for $100 million in order to be realistic about state of politics
2. The cuts have to come from somewhere.
3. There are probably other tax credits that should be lowered before this one.
4. I’m not happy, but I realize we are in the middle of a recession
5. sacrifices have to be made to have a balanced budget
6. Good idea if and only if savings are put towards job creation tax credits

No surprise that over 70% of the readership wants the state to not lower the cap.

In November 2008 nearly 85% of St. Louis voters supported Democrat Jay Nixon for Governor.  Statewide Nixon received just over 58% of the vote, showing how much St. Louis voters support Democrats.  Will Gov Nixon listen to the people of St. Louis, or does he know we always vote for the Democrat regardless?

St. Louis and communities across the state need the historic tax credit to put buildings back into use, creating jobs & revitalizing areas along the way.

– Steve Patterson

The Density Needed For Walkability Myth

Continuing the walkability theme from yesterday, I thought it would be interesting to explore the assertion that walkability requires density. So I decided to look at 1st tier suburb Kirkwood MO and 2nd tier suburb Ballwin MO to see if this is the case.   If you buy into the theory that walkability requires density then you probably think  Kirkwood is more walkable because it has greater density than Ballwin.

As you will see, walkability has less to do with density and everything to do with how the land is used, a reflection of the era in which they were created.

Kirkwood, MO:

• Established: 1853
• Total Area: 9.3 square miles
• Density in 2000: 2,961.3/sq mi
• Source: Wikipedia
• Walk Score: 88/100 – Very Walkable (101-115 W Adams Ave)

Ballwin, MO:

• Established: 1950 (incorporated)
• Total Area: 9 square miles
• Density in 2009: 3,494.6/sq mi
• Source: Wikipedia
• Walk Score: 62/100 – Somewhat Walkable (15025 Manchester Rd)

For the Walk Score of both suburbs I just put in the city name, it determined the address it must consider the center point.

So the older, less dense, suburb is more walkable than the newer, more dense, suburb.  How can this be?  Ballwin was planned at a time when people thought nothing of getting in the car for every trip.  The lady of the house had her own car now so she could drive the kids to school, do some shopping and get groceries on the way home. Kirkwood, on the other hand, was laid out long before the car.  Being near the train station was important for reaching St. Louis.

Residential lots in Kirkwood are about the same size as those in Ballwin, the big difference is the Kirkwood lots are narrow & deep whereas the Ballwin lots are wide & shallow.  Commercial districts are vastly different between the two.  Kirkwood has too much newer auto-dependent retail but it also has a nice 19th century downtown.

Fortunately, Ballwin is not a lost cause.  It, and many other 2nd tier suburbs of the same era can be retrofitted to be more walkable.    The existing residential neighborhoods of single-family detached homes can remain unchanged, except for the addition of sidewalks internally and leading out to the commercial areas. Manchester Rd in Ballwin running through Kirkwood and into the City of St. Louis is an ideal corridor to be retrofitted. New structures can be built to infill the massive parking lots.  I can picture enhanced bus service or even a streetcar line the entire distance.

– Steve Patterson