Lower Manhattan Before the World Trade Center

Yes, this is still a St. Louis-focused blog. Just go with me to New York for a bit, we will return to St. Louis I promise.

I’m researching a paper I have to write for one of my classes at Saint Louis University, “Planning the Metropolis.” The subject? The former World Trade Center in New York. The main focus of the paper is on rebuilding the site after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As part of the research I’ve been reading City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center by New York Times reporters James Glanz and Eric Lipton.

What a colorful story of powerful and unaccountable agencies, backroom politics, the small businessman, eminent domain and how deals get done. What started off as a much smaller project on lower Manhattan’s east side (yes, east side) as a way to boost downtown interest as businesses fled to mid-town ballooned into a massive and mostly unnecessary building project.

I’m not even going to attempt to give you the full story and sadly I’ve not found a good online source. I’ll give you a quick run down and suggest you get this book — it is available from the library (except I have the Buder branch copy at this time). As you read this very long history remember the grand opening dedication took place in 1973:

• 1939: The New York World’s Fair includes an exhibit “dedicated ‘world peace through trade’ and called World Trade Center.” WWII put any immediate plans aside but a committee organizer was Winthrop W. Aldrich, head of the Chase Bank and whose sister was married to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
• July 28 1945: A B-25 Army bomber plane accidently crashes into the north side of the Empire State Building on the 79th & 80th floors, killing a number of people. Flames erupted from the fuel.
• 1946: NY Governor Thomas Dewey names Aldrich to be a member of a “new state agency named the World Trade Corporation.” The mission was to build a World Trade Center downtown. The plan was a 10-block area with 21 buildings “loosley modeled on the seven-hundred-year-old Leipzig Fair in Genmany.” Well, except for having underground parking. Estimated cost: $150 million. Critics said it would not work and “The planners themselves determined that an astonishing 80 percent of the country’s six thousand largest companies would have to become tenants to give the trade center a chance at financial survival.” The concept was dead just four months after naming the board.
• 1946: 32 year-old David Rockefeller joins the family bank, Chase.
• 1951-54: David Rockefeller takes up the family tradition of shaping New York, by helping raze a large section of an upper west side neighborhood called Morningside Heights, to be rebuilt as a housing project consisting of six high-rise buildings called Morningside Gardens. This would replace 71 apartment buildings, 4 rooming houses and 68 retail stores. The new high-rises would be reserved for the middle-class only. Rockefeller, of course, teamed with the legendary Robert Moses.
• 1955: David Rockefeller seeks real estate for new HQ building for family’s Chase Bank, still headed by his uncle Aldrich. Upon securing real estate is convinced by others more investment is needed in downtown area to keep others in financial district from heading to midtown (as many had done). Rockefeller formed the Downtown Lower-Manhattan Association in late 1955.
• October 1958: Rockefeller’s Downtown association releases report suggesting razing entire blocks of lower Manhattan and supports Moses’ Lower Manhattan Expressway. Combined estimated “investment:” One billion dollars.
• May 25, 1959: First noted record by Rockefeller’s Downtown association of what they then called the “World Trade and Finance Center.” At this point they were focusing on the “downtown” of Lower-Manhattan which is on the east side of the tip of the island.
• June 1959: Hired consulting firm McKinsey & Co determined the World Trade Center may not be so wise, from the book authors, the firm indicated the WTC “could be a serious financial bust. Almost nothing about the concept —its mission or its target client base — was assured.” The authors also noted the report suggested that if it were going to be done, it should be in midtown where everyone was moving to anyway. A key note in the report that if the WTC project were to succeed it would need to be very unique to attract tenants.
• August 11, 1959: The hired consultants, contacted by Rockefeller’s staff prior to the meeting, indicated to the Downtown association executive committee they would back out of the $30,000 consulting contract. It was that or give a glowing report they knew to be false.
• 1959: Architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (aka SOM), designers of Rockefeller’s new Chase Bank building, sketched out an idea for the WTC.
• 1959: Rockefeller holds private talks with the Port of New York Authority (as it was known at the time). This agency was created by the states of New York and New Jersey, and had huge revenues from tolls on bridges & tunnels. Rockefeller viewed the Port Authority as the only group with the governmental power and financial resources to pull off the project.
• 1959: David Rockefeller’s older brother, Nelson, becomes Governor of New York. … Continue Reading

Reed’s Chief of Staff Owns Firm Located in Clayton

During the recent campaign for the President of the Board of Alderman opponents of incumbent Jim Shrewsbury made a big deal about his law practice being located in St. Louis County rather than the city.  Shrewsbury’s successor, Lewis Reed, has just named accountant and former campaign treasurer Thomas Shepard to be his Chief of Staff.  Interestingly, Shepard is the owner of an accounting firm located in Clayton:

Thomas Shepard & Associates, Inc. is a full-service certified public accounting firm, serving business and individuals for over fifteen years. We specialize in small business and employment tax issues. Located in Clayton, Missouri, we serve the entire St. Louis metropolitan area, as well as St. Charles and part of Illinois. 

Frankly, I like the idea of a Chief of Staff being an experienced business person and a CPA to boot.  As such, Shepard should be able to offer good guidance to Reed on various issues including complicated financial matters decided upon as one of the three members of the Board of Estimate & Apportionment (aka E&A).  But I have to wonder how Shepard’s time will be divided between running a long-standing accounting firm in Clayton and serving as a full-time Chief of Staff.

Success of SLU Arena Depends Upon Coachless Basketball Team

Today Saint Louis University fired head coach Brad Soderberg. SLU’s review of the team and lack of qualifiying for a tournament cost Soderberg the head coach job he has held for the last five years. But the disturbing part is how this relates to their new costly arena project, here is from a SLU statement:

Because the success of the new Chaifetz Arena is largely contingent on the success of the men’s basketball team, it is imperative that the team be led by a coach who we believe can establish a program that consistently vies for conference championships and engages in postseason play.

Wait a minute! SLU is building an $80 million dollar arena, just a couple of miles from the Scottrade Center downtown, with the success hinging on the men’s basketball team? Furthermore, at least $8 million in public subsidies in the form of TIF Financing (Tax Increment Financing) is going into this project resting in the hands of the team and an as yet to be hired new head coach. Well, I’m confident our “leaders” made the right decision.

Oh boy, has anybody told the bond holders on this project the old coach was fired because the team isn’t good enough to make the arena a success? That is kinda like all of SLU’s largely vacant parking garages — the success of them depends upon students, faculty and staff paying huge fees for parking passes. Ever wonder why SLU doesn’t support transit passes the way Washington University does? Follow the money, or debt in this case.

Mark my words folks, we’ve got another St. Louis boondoggle in the making!

April 17, 2007 – SLU Statement on Soderberg
February 19, 2007 – Urban Review Post on Legal Issues on TIF Financing
August 28, 2006 – SLU Press Release on Arena Ground Breaking

NY Times Blasts St. Louis on Population Decline and Crime

The NY Times has a highly negative article about St. Louis in their paper today.  From the article:

Population is a critical indicator of any city’s health, but the sinking numbers here are particularly unwelcome as the city has spiraled from one woe to the next.

In the past few months, the public schools were stripped of accreditation and taken over by the state; the city was designated the most dangerous in the country in a national crime survey; and 15 police officers and supervisors were disciplined for giving World Series tickets seized from scalpers to friends and family.

The writer got a few things wrong, including saying Lafayette Park rather than Lafayette Square.  Still, the message is the same.  Major population loss since the 1950s — old news really.  But she also looked at the dispute the city has had with the census since 2000.  In 2003 head city planner Rollin Stanley successfully argued that we had lost only 50 residents in the few years after the 2000 census.  Now the census is saying we are below where we were in 2000.  True or not?  Hard to say.  We’ll have a better clue after the 2010 census figures are released.

One thing is clear, and the NY Times article mentions this toward the end, we are not experiencing the massive losses of population as seen in prior decades.  The debate is if we have a small loss, breaking even or have a small gain.  Regardless, the question in my mind is why?  Have we simply hit rock bottom — that we’ve lost all we are going to lose?  Or have other factors such as shifting demographics, an influx of the “creative class”, or simply new immigrants helped offset continuing losses?  I don’t for a moment credit some great vision from city hall because they really don’t have one.

Read the full article here.

NRA Conference Attendees Didn’t Shoot Up the Streets

I joked to friends this weekend that if a car backfired downtown that you might get a bunch of NRA members to open fire down the street.  With concealed weapons allowed in Missouri and a major National Riffle Association convention in town you just never know what may happen.  Yes, I know that really wouldn’t happen but it was a fun way to joke about the NRA being in town.
As you might expect, I’m not a fan of guns. Still, I have to respect the 2nd Amendment:

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” 

Militia?  Oh, that doesn’t sound good.  I’m glad militia is preceeded by “well regulated.”   Of course, debate often centers on what sort of arms fall within the concept of well regulated.  Of course the NRA includes “rifle” in their name.  I don’t know that even the most hard core anti-gun activist has any objections to someone owning a rifle.  However, the fire power that is available today is so different than when the Bill of Rights was signed.  Where is that line between well regulated and not infringing on the rights of the people?