Flashing Lights Outside Walgreen’s

Last night, as I was at the light at Chippewa & Hampton (map) I noticed annoying flashing lights on both street facades at the Walgreen’s.  I had noticed these before but this time they really struck me.  I presume the purpose is to get folks to look toward the flashing light and thus toward the security cameras.

Ghetto.

Or just plain tacky.  The big parking lots for the Walgreen’s stores are bad enough.  Plus the fact they are on every corner it seems.  Still these flashing lights, of all things, are more than I cam stand.

Richmond Heights Redevelopment Area Back To Square One

The St. Louis suburb of Richmond Heights was back in the news this week:

The Richmond Heights City Council voted unanimously Monday night to seek new redevelopment proposals for the Hadley Township area.

The developer previously selected for this area, Michelson Commercial Realty and Development, missed the January deadline to give Hadley Township homeowners notices to close, as required in its redevelopment agreement with the city.  (Source: St. Louis Business Journal)

Not good news for the residents who were expecting buyouts.  Another casualty of our current economic situation.

Was this inevitable?

With big developments come big risk.  These massive redevelopment projects are harder and harder to finance.  Good.  I never liked the selected proposal anyway.  More boring big box crap that we have too much of already.

We need to learn how to revamp aging areas without assembling ever larger parcels of land.  We need to learn how to look at major streets like Hanley and envision how, over time, the individual parcels along the street would be developed.  Land-use regulations (aka zoning) can be used to set in place the regulatory framework to see a vision realized naturally over time.

The slow process of remaking areas parcel by parcel requires great vision & patience — qualities lacking in our local elected officials in the City of St. Louis as well as suburban municipalities like Richmond Heights.

Now once again seeking redevelopment proposals this farce continues to drag on.  I attended meetings in January 2006 where proposals were last submitted.  Over three years ago!  People have moved.  The once stable area is no longer.

Richmond Heights officials do have vision.  They want the Hadley Township area to resemble the adjacent sprawl wasteland in Maplewood.  They see future tax revenues over current residents.  Very shortsighted.

The state of Missouri took over our failing city school system.  Maybe the state should take over the region and consolidate hundreds of seperate small units of government into one whole.  That might put the brakes on the destruction of areas in the sales tax chase game.

Click here for my post on Hadley Township from October 2008 — which includes links to posts dating back to January 2006 as well as other resources.

Snow Presents Access Challenges for the Disabled

Having a physical disability which limits one’s mobility can be bad enough.  Add snow and/or ice and mobility.  I have fortunately been able to drive again since July 2008.  But just becaise I can drive somewhere doesn’t guarantee I’ll be able to exit my car once I arrive.

Visiting Straub’s for groceries  was able to get from the disabled parking to the store because they had done a good job clearing the parking lot.  However, for those not fortunate enough to have the freedom to drive a sidewalk like the one above means staying at home.

In many cases the sidewalk is cleared but getting to the sidewalk on foot or in a wheelchair can be nearly impossible.  In the case of Saint Louis University (above) I’ve asked them to give more thought to how & where they clear the sidewalks.

I took the above image on Sunday morning as I headed to brunch in my wheelchair.  Normally I’d take the sidewalk to the left to get to Washington Ave.  However, the public sidewalk became the storage place for a big pile of snow.  I rode in the street longer than I like and entered the sidewalk on the right via the parking garage curb cut.  My normal route was also blocked by snow from another parking lot on the foreground.    For me the above was a minor inconvenience.  For others, say trying to get 6 blocks to MetroLink, they may be forced to stay home rather than go to work, school, doctor, etc.

I can’t imagine living in a place where snow is more common.  Although those places may do a better job ensuring the disabled have continued access.

Introducing a Weekly Poll

Today I added a poll in the upper right section of the main page of this site.  For the moment this is not visible in individual post pages but I hope to reorganize & cleanup the sidebar on the main & post pages.

The first poll is about voter registration.  My question for you, the reader, is what sorts of questions would you like posed?  With 52 weeks in a year I’ll need lots of ideas.  Use the comments below to suggest ideas.

Candidate Questionnaire Open & Working

To local candidates:  For those of you who tried to complete the questionnaire but encountered a “survey closed” mesage, I’m sorry.  Somehow a number got entered in the field to limit the number of responses to one.  So after the first it would not accept antymore.  For this reason I’ve extended the response deadline to 5pm Monday February 9, 2009.  Again, please accept my apologies.

Updated 2/2/09 @ 6:30pm:

I have created a public version of the Aldermanic questionnaire  – virtually identical to the Mayorial version. The public is invited to take the questionnaire to see what  & how I’m asking the candidates.  Click here for the home version.