My Listing in the 8th Annual Big Big Tour

This years marks the 8th annual “Big Big Tour” of for sale homes in the City of St. Louis. As with past years, the events includes a wide variety of properties for sale. From their website:

St. Louis’ ONLY city-wide house tour returns soon for its eighth year! This popular and FREE extreme open house and Homebuyer’s Fair will be held Sunday, March 25, from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. (Homebuyer’s Fair starts at 12:00, properties open at 1:00) beginning at Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman at Kingshighway in the Central West End.

This year, over 200 “for sale” properties priced from $30,000 to well over $600,000 will be available to tour in neighborhoods in all corners of the city.

Be sure to check out the Big Big Tour this Sunday afternoon!

And while you are out and about, stop by and see my latest listing — a former shotgun house reconfigured into modern living space.

I think this home may change your perceptions about what a shotgun house can look like. The owner of this house (which is not me, btw) relocated the kitchen from the back to the second room. This creates a public space in the front two rooms with a private bedroom area at the back. At just over 900sf, this is larger than some new lofts.

And the new kitchen is stunning! Many of you may recognize the cabinets as being from Ikea, they are very effective providing lots of storage. But the point of this post is not to sell you the house but to show a new way to think about the shotgun house of which St. Louis has thousands of examples.

The living room, dining area and kitchen all feel spacious and the relationship to each other is quite nice.

Originally this house was actually a 4-room shotgun. The area you see above was a tiny kitchen. By removing the wall between the old kitchen and the closet sized bedroom the home feels so much more open.

A bed now fits nicely in the back room with plenty of room for a home office and dressing area.

The bathroom is entirely new and completely reconfigured from the original bathroom.

Many people have claimed these homes are “obsolete” as a means of justifying razing them. However, given the massive quantity of houses like this that we have I think it makes more sense to reconfigure the interior spaces to work for modern life.

Come by Sunday afternoon between 1pm and 4pm to check it out for yourself, the address is 3459 Itaska (map). For more information review the official listing; #719782 ($109,900).

14th Street Pedestrian Mall, Thirty Years Ago Today

The first day of the grand opening of the 14th Street Pedestrian Mall was thirty years ago today, March 21, 1977. The big
official dedication followed on the 26th:

Three decades ago someone thought it a good idea to close off two blocks of a commercial street, intending to compete with then “open air” suburban malls. However, by 1977 the city had already experienced significant population losses, making it more challenging for the retailers, which included a JC Penny department store, harder to stay in business. Interestingly, a classmate of mine mentioned her family visited the new mall — once. They came to see what it was all about because it was new. After seeing the new mall they resumed their shopping at Northwest Plaza.

By 1977 the “pedestrian mall” movement was pretty well over, except in St. Louis obviously. By this point new suburban malls were enclosed. Thus, while 14th Street was intended to compete with the suburbs it was dated by the time it was opened. In the 1980s formerly open suburban malls, such as Northwest Plaza & Crestwood Plaza, were often enclosed.

Today the mall is nearly vacant, with a few holes where buildings have been razed and as you can see, another is in the process of collapsing.  A long debate in the area is about the wisdom of the mall at the time.  Some suggest the mall helped preserve these buildings — that they would have fallen to the wrecker like so many others immediately around the area.  Others, myself included, counter that we would have seen abandonment and destruction in the area anyway but that the mall prevented revitalization efforts from taking hold in this former commercial district — that without the mall efforts to revitalize the neighborhood over the last 30 years might have gone further.

The neighborhood is on a role, finally.  Many of the remaining old buildings on the surrounding residential streets have been rehabbed or are in process.  New homes are being constructed on in-fill lots and of late organizations working together have purchased many of the buildings along the mall.  Plans are in the works to rip up the “mall” and return this to a street once again.  The only debate I am hearing at the moment is if the single cross street, Montgomery St, should be opened as well or remain closed.

The new 14th Street will most likely never be the major shopping destination it once was.  This would be the case regardless of the ‘malling’ or not.  The question is can it hold its own as an interesting commercial street anchored by the outstanding and popular Crown Candy Kitchen on one end?

An Urbanist’s Look at Palm Springs, CA

Palm Springs is actually more pedestrian-friendly than you might think. Oh sure, many places do not have sidewalks and the residential areas all have front-facing garages but the city (and its neighbors in the valley) do have some redeaming qualities.

First, Palm Springs is organized on a large grid of North-South and East-West Streets. Within the grid you will get weird curving streets and no sidewalks in the residential areas. This is not unlike Oklahoma City where I was raised, the large grid helping to keep you oriented as to where you have been and where you are going.

Some of the areas within the grid are not developed, possibly a result of Indians owning/controlling alternate squares in the grid. I also read that Palm Springs fell on hard times in the 70s and 80s and it looks as though some things were torn down during these decades.

The area certainly has bounced back as a tourist mecca, at least in the cooler winter months. In a few months the temperatures will be so high the tourists will stop coming for the summer. Palm Springs enjoys a lively downtown area.

This evening was their weekly street festival but even the night before the sidewalks were full. For 15+ years now they’ve been closing the main street for about six blocks to allow artists and food vendors to showcase their work. I’m not much into that sort of thing so I stuck to the sidewalks for the most park.

The main drag downtown is filled with an eclectic collection of buildings, many of which open to the sidewalk. Of note was the lack of bicycle racks despite a fairly good number of cyclists.

Many of the restaurants have open seating along the sidewalk as Palm Springs is a place to see and be seen. Misters help cool you off on those hot days.

Again, nearly every restaurant has either opening windows/doors or an open patio adjacent to the sidewalk. In addition to the misters to keep you cool, most places have heater to keep you warm as the temperature tends to drop considerably as the sun sets. Given that Palm Springs can manage good outdoor seating despite their weather extremes you’d think we would do more of this in St. Louis.

A good bit of the storefronts are from the modern age, minimally detailed. Yet, their large expanses of glass and interesting overhangs compliment the more traditional buildings.

The above view is looking just West of the main street. As you can see, the mountain range is very close to downtown leaving only a few blocks of development before you get to the base. This varies throughout the area with the mountains being enough distance back for a subdivision or two while at other times the mountain comes up right next to the main road. Mountains, the ultimate in urban growth boundary.

The downtown has one parking garage, offering free parking. On the night of the street festival we drove into the garage like so many others. It was not until we got to the top that we realized not a space was to be found, it was completely full. By having free parking they encouraged everyone to drive and had no way to communicate the garage was full.

One of the best buildings downtown is one that I think is reasonably new. Above you get this first glimpse into this 2-story building with balconies and lots of detailing.

Getting closer you can see a mix of materials, textures, colors and patterns. The open doors and those enjoying dinner on the 2nd floor add multiple layers of interest. It should be noted this building is located on the West side of the street so it will be in the shade before the other side of the street would be, helping it be a bit cooler.

The buidling is actually symetrical around a courtyard with a fountain. Multiple tenants are located within the building. For example, while one restaurant is on the ground floor another may be upstairs. From an urban perspective, the design is flawless.

Getting out into some of the neighborhoods you get your typical 50s and 60s tract houses although usually behind a privacy wall. In some cases, such as above, you get truly spectacular modern architecture behind impressive landscaping and a security gate. This home was on a list of noted mid-century modern homes.

A few tidbits:

• The late Sonny Bono was mayor of Palm Springs before being elected to congress.
• Palm Springs has a large wind farm at the edge of town, generating enough power for the entire valley.
• Wind & sun are plentiful but water is not.
• The area is diverse with a large gay & lesbian, jewish, latino population.
• Annual income is actually low due to the large number of retirees and folks with second homes.  However, wealth is everywhere, a little too often if you ask me.
• A 1962 Urban Renewal project relocated most of the black population who settled a town nearby via a prominent African-American in the area.
• Their bus system, known as Sun Bus, includes solar panels on the bus shelters.
• Don’t even think about finding a 24-hour grocery or drug store.
• More information at Palm Springs wiki.

Steve Jobs on Education: Technology & Teacher’s Unions

Steve Jobs, the charismatic co-founder & CEO of Apple, Inc. is considered by many to be pretty liberal, with healthy contributions to democratic candidats. Al “Inconvenient Truth” Gore is on Apple’s board of directors. Jobs, a self-made man, is ranked #132 on Forbes’ recent list of world billionaires with an estimated $5.7 billion to his name, not bad for a college dropout.

Jobs spoke last month at an education reform conference in Austin Tx, from an AP story:

Jobs told the crowd about his vision for textbook-free schools in the future. Textbooks would be replaced with a free, online information source that was constantly updated by experts, much like the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

“I think we’d have far more current material available to our students, and we’d be freeing up a tremendous amount of funds that we could buy delivery vehicles with — computers, faster Internet, things like that,” Jobs said. “And I also think we’d get some of the best minds in the country contributing.”

But Jobs is not one of those that thinks technology alone will solve our educational problems, from the same article:

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions today, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers.

“What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn’t get rid of people that they thought weren’t any good? Not really great ones because if you’re really smart you go, ‘I can’t win.‘

“I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way. This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy.

Ouch, not exactly towing the liberal line here huh? As you might expect, Teacher’s unions all over the country have been critical of Jobs’ statement. But does he have a point?

Have unions become so big and so controlling that they themselves are the big bully in need of controlling? Unions originated to protect workers against tactics of managment but who will protect both the workers and management against the union bosses?

It is called Nature, Not Undeveloped

In driving to Palm Springs Wednesday we took the long and scenic route though the desert mountains rather than the highway. Although a few houses existed among the native plants it was about as rural as you can get.

A narrow two lane winds its way through the very rocky terrain and we stopped at the one lookout that actually had any sort of man-made platform.  The view was spectacular — not a strip mall or tacky subdivision in sight.  To many such an area would be termed “undeveloped” but I prefer to think of it as natural.

Miles and miles of land which, thankfully, would be difficult to develop.  I know that I can come back in 20 years and be assured this will likely look much as it does now. 

Reaching the end of the mountains you can see the Coachella Valley below, thousands of feet below.   Palm Springs is one of nine or so municipalities in this valley.  The mountains act as a natural barrier against sprawling too far — although everything I saw was very low density.

Today we drive back to San Diego via the highways (uh, freeways in California) and I am sure the experience will be quite different.  More developed, less nature.