Potential Candidates Take Note

I had a fun debate with a friend tonight over so-called “fringe” candidates. You know the ones that are neither an incumbent or have the financial backing relative to that of the incumbent. Doesn’t matter if we are talking about the US Senate, Alderman, School Board or dog catcher. These “other” candidates might all be from the same party, the non-dominant party or a “third” party with little actual success rate. The question becomes what responsibility does the media have to acknowledge the presence of these other candidates that many times have little to know chance of actually winning.

As I have demonstrated in prior posts, I think we owe it to our democracy to at least mention their names. Should other media outlets do the same? Should the media determine the others are not serious candidates and simply filter them out of the race. My friend argued, quite convincingly, these candidates filter themselves out of the race by not running effective campaigns. And I guess that is what really irks me — I want more choice in races but how far do I have to stretch to get that choice?

The Progressives (aka Green Party), and Libertarians, my friend points out, don’t run candidates for Aldermen. They always go for city-wide or bigger races. Why is that? Not that they can’t or shouldn’t run for a city-wide office but why not learn the ropes a bit on a smaller scale such as an aldermanic seat. Or, if you are going to run for a city-wide post then at least make some pretense of running a campaign.

My friend Pat Herod is running for License Collector against presumed winner Mike McMillan. But, Pat has assembled a campaign team which is sending out press releases, put together a web site, attended neighborhood meetings, and has signs and shirts for volunteers. In short, he is running a “real” campaign. Is it too little and too late? Maybe, but, I have great respect and admiration for Pat putting himself out there and giving it all he has.

The same cannot be said for the woman running as a Progressive against Gregg Daly for Collector of Revenue. I met her briefly at a recent event and although she is sweet she is not really campaigning at all — she didn’t even have a flyer. I asked why she didn’t have flyers or a website and her answer was, I kid you not, “they are too expensive.” In this day and age one can easily get a free email account and a free website (such as a blogger account) so to lack either is really sad.

Despite being a professor at Washington University, Jeff Smith was a fringe candidate when he first ran for US Congress in 2004. His hard work propelled him to nearly the top of that race, quickly dropping the fringe in favor of terms such as energetic and rising star. In August that same work ethic paid off as he won the race for 4th Senate district in Missouri (no general opponent). So what does this mean for you potential candidates and alternate parties out there?

Start small and start sooner rather than later. Field some candidates for aldermen and after you’ve elected or nearly elected a candidate for this seat look to the bigger races. Run a couple for aldermen in 2007 and when the race for mayor comes around again in 2009 perhaps one of those candidates will be ready for running in that race. Jeff Smith is the exception rather than the rule — running in a big race only to win the smaller race later usually doesn’t apply.

While I may happily list your name with the same credence as everyone else in the race, most media outlets are not going to have my sense of leveling the playing field. This means, as an alternate candidate, you are going to have to work harder to get recognition. You must send out press releases followed up by repeated phone calls. You’ve got to request meetings with the press. And don’t think sending out a release announcing a press conference is going to get anyone showing up. If you’ve got a blue dress with a stain on it maybe, otherwise good luck. Jake Wagman, Dave Drebes and Antonio French are not going to beat down your door simply because you filed for office. You will have to contact them to get any attention. Sending something my way wouldn’t hurt. Raising money to pay a consultant (or just a worker to send out press releases) is worthwhile.

Required reading for anyone thinking of getting into the municipal election next Spring are my posts from last month; Get Involved — Run for Office and How to Run for Local Office. We can do this folks. We can open up local electoral politics. It won’t be easy but nothing worth doing is.

St. Louis Grocery Market: Density Trumps Income

Over on Steve Wilke-Shapiro’s 15thWardSTL blog he is offering the following:

…a $10 Trader Joe’s gift certificate to the first person who can demonstrate that there is more money within three miles of the Brentwood Promenade than there is within three miles of Southtown Center.

This is in a post of his in response to a debate over demographics — the false notion that retailers locate in suburban areas due to higher purchasing power. Steve’s $10 is safe because, as he was betting, density trumps income. I was unable to find good public data within a 3 mile radius of Brentwood Promenada. Excellent data, however, is available for every address in the City of St. Louis. Click here to view the city’s excellent GIS (graphical information system) database where you can search by address and review census data.

I knew I probably could not prove Wilke-Shapiro wrong and collect the $10 gift certificate but I thought I could at least help out and prove him right. But, I was lacking good data from St. Louis County on a radius basis. I wanted to compare from the same source.

I found the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute website. Here they have a database which looks at purchasing power and other data from the 2000 US Census.

Their stated purpose is to “assess the advantages of urban density for underserved city neighborhoods.” So I looked at 63116, where Southtown Centre is located as well as 63144 where the Brentwood Promenade situated in St. Louis County. Upon seeing the results I thought I’d look at a few more just for comparison sake. Density wins over higher incomes each and every time. The more people per square mile, regardless of income, the more raw purchasing power per square mile. Wilke-Shapiro was correct and the naysayers that blame demographics for the lack of big chain stores in the city are incorrect. To be fair, it may well be the racial makeup of our demographic or the average incomes that keep retailers out.

This density issue is, I believe, why in low-density sprawling suburbs developers talk of creating regional shopping centers. They certainly need more purchasing power than a 3-mile or 5-mile radius would support in the ‘burbs. They must draw in shoppers from greater and greater distances to support say a mega grocery store. Despite lower incomes within the City of St. Louis the sheer number of people gives us substantial purchasing power within a given geographical area — a square mile.

The ETI site looks at a total of 16 categories of consumer expenditure. I looked at two of these: “Food at Home” and “Food away from Home” and included the total from all categories. Others were items such as “Furniture”, “Apparel and related services”, and “Computer hardware and software.” The numbers are annual expenditures within a square mile from that population. It does not, however, indicate where they spent the money. This is strictly a combination of how much they have to spend.

Go down the chart and the higher the density the higher amount of money spent on food at home (aka groceries). In fact, if you compare each of the 16 categories from 63116 in South City to 63144 in Brentwood you’ll see the city zip code trumps Brentwood on each and every one. We pack in a lot per square mile. In North St. Louis from 63113 (The Ville/MLK area) their total purchasing power is just shy of Brentwood’s on a total basis.

We have considerable purchasing power throughout the city north and south yet we (myself included) tend to give it away to the county. We have the greatest asset of cities: density. We must collectively learn to capitalize on our density as a draw for more people, more purchasing power, and more retail options. We need our purchasing power to stay in the city — to earn tax revenue and to multiple as it makes through out community rather than being gone as soon as we spend it St. Louis County. This is how we will improve our schools and provide better services to the citizens.

The counter argument, if you do the math, is in the suburban areas they are spending more per person per mile. That is, they are buying more expensive items that are likely higher margin for the retailers. So, if you believe this argument then kindly ask Steve Wilke-Shapiro to send me the $10 gift certificate to Trader Joe’s.

Trying To Get to South County Via MetroBus; My Scooter Awaits

I figure I preach enough about walking and using mass transit I should make such a person attempt myself. You see, my beloved scooter got a flat tire from a nail on Monday evening as I was heading to dinner downtown. I ended up pushing it the last 6 blocks to meet my friend, late. I left it in another friend’s parking garage downtown until the dealer could come and pick it up. I’d been meaning to take it in for routine service anyway so the timing was actually OK. Now it is ready this fine Saturday morning and I need to pick it up and ride back home. It is located at Mungenast Motorsports behind Dave Mungenast’s St. Louis Honda on South Lindbergh.

This obviously excludes me driving my car down there as I’d have to go back somehow later and get my car. My first thought was to get a friend to drop me off but then I wondered if I could just take the bus to get there. Why inconvenience a friend and use more gas when the bus is likely going that way anyway. Plus, I can’t let Joe Frank be the only blogging about taking the bus.

So I pull up Metro’s recent “TripFinder” website where you can put in your starting point and destination and it gives you options for bus and light rail — a Mapquest for mass transit. But I was getting these weird results all wanting to take me downtown and then up North with results in excess of two hours. I discovered that although I entered the destination address of 5939 South Lindbergh Blvd the software dropped the “South” part and wanted to take me to Florissant in North County. Zip codes are not allowed or at least I haven’t found any combination of commas or whatever that permits them. Some mapping software will ask do you mean “South” or “North” 5939 Lindbergh just to make sure. This, however, gave me no such option. From past observation I knew I had two bus routes near my house that both ended up at South County Mall which is not far from my destination but probably further than I’d be willing to walk both due to distance and environment (suburban hell). I pulled up Metro’s system map and confirmed that #40 and #93 both make it to the mall.

The TripFinder offers another way to find the address, I can use a map or find a street and look for stops on that street. So, I pull up Lindbergh and they have a very long list of stops on Lindbergh — 5 pages of stops. Makes sense, the street is very long cutting across a wide swath of the region. And Lindbergh is listed as “Lindbergh”, “Lindbergh US-61”, “Lindbergh Blvd” and so on with the cross streets coming after that. I looked up the area on Google and saw that Mueller Rd was probably a likely stop. I picked page 3 of the list and found the Mueller stop relatively easy. Plug it in and I’ve got my logical route to South County Mall via the #93 with a transfer to the #49 along Lindbergh. Total travel time, just a few over an hour. Total time figuring this out, about 10-15 minutes. For a frame of reference, Google says the drive is 8.2 miles and should take 13 minutes.

So I am debating. The fare is $2.25 (bus w/transfer) which is not a big deal but I had to check my wallet to make sure I had some singles as they don’t make change. Looking at the schedule I see that half the hour travel time is spent waiting at the JC Penny at South County Mall, not exactly my idea of a good way to spend a nice Saturday. I do have class reading to do but I’d have to carry a backpack and my motorcycle helmet on the bus and while I am waiting. The bus leaving near my house on the #93 is on an hourly headway so I have to work on that schedule as well.

I just called my friend, he is picking me up in an hour.

On a somewhat related note: Dave Mungenast Sr. recently pass away from cancer. I had the fortune to meet and talk with him earlier this year while visiting his Classic Motorcycle Museum on Gravois in South City. I, of course, bent his ear about opening a new shop in the city for his Honda scooter sales. I had hoped to talk to him more in the future as he had great knowledge about what the city was like in the 1950s. The motorcycle museum location on Gravois was one of his early auto dealerships before he and nearly every other business fled to the once greener pastures of the suburbs. My condolences go out to the Mungenast family for their loss.

Valet Video: New & Improved — Now Confrontation-Free!

My post from Tuesday evening with video of the owner of Copia received much attention and a fair amount of both praise and criticism. Curious if anything had changed I returned to Washington Avenue Thursday night with camera in hand. This time I did a couple of things differently — I did not talk to anyone, staying completely away from the valets and the restaurants themselves (Copia in the 11xx block and Lucas Park Grille in the 12xx block). The video is far less exciting than the confrontation on Tuesday evening but it is telling about the extent of the situation.

Every non-coned public parking space between 10th and 14th was taken last night when I was there after 9pm. The only empty spaces in this four block stretch were spaces coned off by a single valet company, Midwest Valet, while employed by Copia and Lucas Park.

The video and sound quality are a bit poor as my still camera’s video feature doesn’t do too well when moving at night. But, you’ll be able to get the idea. The first video is in the 11xx block of Washington Ave. I start at Tucker and walk toward 11th. I’m on the north side of the street looking over at the block containing Copia (it is the beautiful 2-story building with the 3 arched windows). Once the valet sees me he begins to make a few calls and eventually moves the cones from the street. Remember, the police were there just two nights ago and told them to move the cones.

The 11xx block of Washington Ave has a total of 10 marked parking spaces. Four are in front of Baseline which is to the east of Copia. The SUV parked in the far east end of the block is actually in a yellow no-parking zone. Moving to the west of the four spaces in front of Baseline we have a fire hydrant and then a single parking space directly in front of Copia. We then have another no-parking area for a buildings’ fire standpipe. Five additional spaces are on the western half of the block. The valets should be able to operate by taking the single space in front of the restaurant combined with the two non-parking spaces. I will return to measure this width to see what that would give them but it is greater than 60ft. This would leave 9 public spaces for patrons of Copia or other establishments (or friends of residents). Copia is in the 7th Ward.

In the next video I am in the 12xx block of Washington Ave where Lucas Park Grille is just as abusive by taking two sides of the street. We start off with a valet that just made a u-turn in the street to park a car across from the restaurant in a public space they had coned off. It should be noted, the Director of Streets Jim Suelmann has issued LPG a permit to have all these spaces but indicates they are only for the drop off and pickup of cars — that all cars should be moved to sites elsewhere. Clearly, that is not what is happening here. A couple of clubs are open and active in this block and several places are open late in the next block to the west. However, the only vacant spots are those coned off by the valet company for the use by LPG and the sushi place next door.

The point of all this is we do have things going on downtown and along Washington Ave but a few businesses are being overly aggressive in their use of the public street and public parking. We need balance. Lucas Park Grille is in the 5th Ward.

Currently nobody is taking any responsibility for the problem. The valets say they are doing their job. The restaurant owners say they (via the valet company) have a permit for this much space, the Treasurer’s office (which is responsible for parking revenues) has no policy, the aldermen won’t act on a complaint unless from a constituent, the Director of Streets says he doesn’t have the ability to enforce the permits he issues and in reality the police have much more important things to worry about. But the reality is we paid dearly for these streetscapes and much is riding on their long-term success. The demand for the spaces is there but they are reserved for a select few.

Follow-up on Proposed Bill to “Blight” a Mile of Jefferson Ave.

Last evening I attended the meeting relating to the proposed ordinance to blight the properties fronting onto Jefferson Avenue from Gravois to Potomac (see prior post). Basically, it is a routine action and nothing to get excited over — both good or bad. In short the “plan” does little more than make it easier to grant 5-year tax abatement to any qualifying project within the boundaries of the area. So, rather than having to go through a mountain of paperwork and numerous meetings to give tax abatement to multiple projects in the area each and every year, this simply allows the bureaucrats to approve projects and issue the tax abatement. In general, I believe this is a very good thing.

Ald. Ken Ortmann and Christian Saller from the SLDC (St. Louis Development Corporation) did a good job explaining the various aspects of the ordinance and exhibits. One they could not stress enough is the language that does specifically prohibit the use of Eminent Domain to acquire properties. Repeating for those in the back: this does not have any provisions for eminent domain and quite clearly spells out that it is prohibited. Still, I can sympathize with those that were in the room with more than a little distrust at those in office. One citizen mentioned how former Mayor Vince Schoemehl said there would not be a QuikTrip at the corner of Jefferson & Chippewa but that it got built in his last year in office anyway. Distrust runs rampant and given our history and current lack of communication I understand.

In reality this isn’t a plan at all. I think they have to call it a plan to meet state guidelines just like they must technically “blight” an area even though they’d much rather use a better term. A plan, in my mind, would have more substance and less boiler plate language. OK, maybe not less boiler plate but certainly more specifics to the area. More on that later.

As we had with the McDonald’s drive-thru issue on Grand, a number of uses are prohibited in the area — but only if they receive tax abatement. So, if a drive-thru restaurant wants to open next door to a check cashing place (with parking in front) nothing in this plan prevents that from happening — it only prevents them from getting tax abatement. Of course, on Grand we saw Ald. Florida go before the LCRA board and seek an exemption for the parcel sought by McDonald’s and such an exemption would have then paved the way for tax abatement. Back to this hypothetical fast food restaurant and check cashing place that want to move into the area and build new. The “plan” does nothing to prevent this from happening — all we have is the outdated zoning code and Ald. Ortmann’s verbal word he wouldn’t allow that.

Based on Ortmann’s track record with respect to buildings I think I’d take him at his word. He is very passionate about saving buildings and I think he understands the fundamentals of good urban design. But, Ortmann will not be alderman forever. Furthermore, in five years the ward boundaries will change and it is quite possible that some or all of this redevelopment area will end up in another ward(s). What then? Well, say the Hood’s property on Jefferson near Cherokee ends up in another ward by 2012. And say whomever is Alderman is not so urban minded and goes along with a developer that wants to build a typical strip center — one story buildings set far away from the street behind a sea of parking. Guess what, the process for getting tax abatement for that “investment” is much easier if this bill is passed now in 2006. Ortmann wouldn’t go for such a thing on that site but the blighting is not conditional upon Ortmann remaining Alderman. If they want to write ordinance such that it is only valid as long as he remains Alderman for the area in question then I’m OK with it. But, in the real world, that isn’t very realistic. Neither is leaving matters of urban design up in the air depending upon the whim of who happen to be Alderman on a given day in time. If we are going to make it easier to give blanket tax abatement for an area we need to pass some blanket zoning for the same exact area.

The F-Neighborhood Commercial zoning and the G-Commercial & Office District zoning leave too much at risk. They list some permitted uses, ban others and never once talk about what the city is seeking. Title 26 will show you all the zoning classification that exist in the city. Basically, this all needs to be tossed aside and started from scratch. In the meantime, we can do what is called an “overlay district” where a new zoning code is written that replaces the existing code for that particular area.

A few examples of items that could be covered in a new zoning overlay for this soon to be blighted area include:

• Bike parking requirements for commercial businesses. This could be written such that for every bike parking space they include in the project they could reduce the number of required auto spaces. The zoning could also allow for the placement of bike racks within the public right-of-way without the cumbersome requirements now placed upon building owners that wish to have bike parking.• Provide maximums on parking rather than minimums. Currently the zoning sets minimums but owners are free to provide excessive amounts of surface parking if they’ve got the room. Back to the Hood’s location at 3300 S. Jefferson, the site is roughly 1.44 acres. There is nothing in the code to prevent them from putting up a small commercial building with the balance being all paved parking. Is that what we want? Developers will ensure they have a minimum of parking, what we need is to keep them going overboard and actually having too much.

• Address front & side setbacks — do not permit large setbacks. Currently in the F-Neighborhood Commercial zoning district an owner can place a structure back 50 ft on the site. This is enough to get a drive and parking in front of the building and ruin the street. Why should investors do a project in the area when the guy next door can come along and do a suburban project set back 50ft from the property line?

• Outright prohibit drive-thru establishments and gas stations. The last thing we want is for Hood’s to be replaced with a QuikTrip. The one saving grace with the Hood’s site might be the new Benton Park Historic Standards but those mostly regulate the building design and do not relate to the overall site planning issues. They would, to be fair, likely prevent a standard QuikTrip from being built. However, the corner of Arsenal & Jefferson where condos are planned but not yet financed has no such protections. A QT or Walgreen’s could be built on that corner per the zoning. Again, Ald. Ortmann says he wouldn’t do that and I tend to believe that he would not but the option still remains should the condo deal fall through.

• If you read through the zoning classifications and the historic standards you know what you can’t do. But, you don’t get a clear picture of what is envisioned for the area. This is how we end up with the new garbage that we do, we don’t articulate how we’d like this corridor to look. The solution? Form-based codes. Here are advantages from the Form-Based Codes Institute:

Eight Advantages to Form-Based Codes
Because they are prescriptive (they state what you want), rather than proscriptive (what you don’t want), form-based codes (FBCs) can achieve a more predictable physical result. The elements controlled by FBCs are those that are most important to the shaping of a high quality built environment.FBCs encourage public participation because they allow citizens to see what will happen where-leading to a higher comfort level about greater density, for instance.

Because they can regulate development at the scale of an individual building or lot, FBCs encourage independent development by multiple property owners. This obviates the need for large land assemblies and the megaprojects that are frequently proposed for such parcels.

The built results of FBCs often reflect a diversity of architecture, materials, uses, and ownership that can only come from the actions of many independent players operating within a communally agreed-upon vision and legal framework.

FBCs work well in established communities because they effectively define and codify a neighborhood’s existing “DNA.” Vernacular building types can be easily replicated, promoting infill that is compatible with surrounding structures.

Non-professionals find FBCs easier to use than conventional zoning documents because they are much shorter, more concise, and organized for visual access and readability. This feature makes it easier for nonplanners to determine whether compliance has been achieved.

FBCs obviate the need for design guidelines, which are difficult to apply consistently, offer too much room for subjective interpretation, and can be difficult to enforce. They also require less oversight by discretionary review bodies, fostering a less politicized planning process that could deliver huge savings in time and money and reduce the risk of takings challenges.

FBCs may prove to be more enforceable than design guidelines. The stated purpose of FBCs is the shaping of a high quality public realm, a presumed public good that promotes healthy civic interaction. For that reason compliance with the codes can be enforced, not on the basis of aesthetics but because a failure to comply would diminish the good that is sought. While enforceability of development regulations has not been a problem in new growth areas controlled by private covenants, such matters can be problematic in already-urbanized areas due to legal conflicts with first amendment rights.

~ Peter Katz, President, Form-Based Codes Institute

Form-based codes are the basis of the many successful New Urbanist projects all over the country, including New Town at St. Charles. This establish a vision and allow for deviations that result in varied architecture that gives an overall desired character through massing and such. Standard codes simply can’t achieve that. For New Town the developers have a form-based code which is an overlay to the standard zoning in the City of St. Charles. Once more, New Town’s zoning is entirely different from and replaced the standard zoning classifications and terms for their section of St. Charles. There is no reason this cannot be achieved on this mile of Jefferson and anywhere else where we need to strengthen the urban fabric.

Through a public question and conversation afterwards I think Ald. Ortmann is open to the general concept of such an overlay for the zoning but this is the part that I don’t think he quite gets — yet. He certainly didn’t voice any strong objections. I believe the combination of the “blight” to offer 5-year tax abatement and new zoning will greatly strengthen this corridor. A simple blighting plan could end up light so many others — “blight” remains for decades with little action.