Hearing notice locations inconsistent

A few days ago I blogged about public notice signs facing the road rather than the sidewalk (Public notice signs face drivers, not pedestrians).  Then I spotted a trio of notices two blocks to the West posted on a window visible from the sidewalk, a good location.

I don’t think I had anything to do with a shift in policy, my guess is those who post the notices are just inconsistent.  All three of these hearings are on the same date & time, each permit requires notice.  I had long wondered the difference between a “summer garden” and a Side-walk cafe” so I inquired with Robert Kraiberg, Commissioner of the city’s Excise Division.  His response:

“A Summer Garden permit is obtain if tables & chairs are placed in the patio area of a licensed premise.  Whereas a Sidewalk Cafe permit is obtain if tables & chairs are placed on the City Sidewalk.  With the Sidewalk Cafe permit one would need to also go through the Board of Public Service to obtain what is called a Sidewalk Encroachment Permit as well.“

I’m still a bit confused how a place would need both a summer garden and sidewalk cafe permit but I’ll leave that question for another day.

– Steve Patterson

Mapping Loop & Cherokee restaurant districts

I’ve long been a fan of UrbanSpoon.com and their iPhone app for finding restaurants. Listings are based on location and when you find a place it shows you others nearby. I’ve rated over 125 restaurants and added 14.  I’ve got a very long wish list of restaurants to try. Other sites like Yelp exist but I really like UrbanSpoon.

But one thing really bugged me – how they grouped the restaurants.  Restaurants on Cherokee near Jefferson were grouped in “South Grand” and Pi on Delmar in St. Louis was in “University City.”  Trying to see a list of restaurants in either area was impossible because they were mixed with others.  But now it has changed.

Delmar Loop is now it’s own area as is Cherokee:

This change came about because I contacted them and worked with their mapping software to create these two areas.

– Steve Patterson

Poll results: reader’s bus ridership high

I was pleasantly surprised by the results of last week’s poll:

Q: Have you ever ridden a municipal bus?

1. Yes in St. Louis and other cities 181 [ 67%]
2. Yes but not in St. Louis 50 [19%]
3. Yes in St. Louis only 18 [7%]
4. No and I have no plans to ride a bus ever 13 [5%]
5. Not yet but I plan to do so 4 [1%]
6. Other answer… 3 [1%]

The three other answers were:

1. Rode in STL; vacationed in San Antonio
2. I certainly have and I was born in West County, went to public school
3. Yes, but never riding again

Only 5% had no plans to ride a bus for the first time.  Hopefully these folks will reconsider at some point.  I’m curious if they have ridden our light rail?

Nearly 20% hadn’t ridden a bus elsewhere but not in St. Louis.

– Steve Patterson

Public notice signs face drivers, not pedestrians

If you are not paying close attention you could miss required public notice signs.

The expectation must be that motorists driving by at 35mph are going to read the notices.  But even up close it is not easy.

With the curve of the sign on the poles I couldn’t see all the information at one point.  I didn’t spot these until after the fact.

We need a public notice system for the 21st century.  Where you register your address and then set your preferences to how far away you want to be notified: 100 feet, 1/4 mile , 3 miles, etc.  You’d be notified via email for anything within the set radius from your address. Perhaps it would be tied to your voter registration?  Such a system should be regional and cross the many jurisdictional boundaries.

In the above example the pedestrians on the sidewalk probably have more interest than the motorists driving by.  At least post the signs where both can see they exist.

– Steve Patterson

Seeing our downtown disconnect first hand

On Saturday I participated in the City to River walking tour from Busch Stadium to Laclede’s Landing.

Of course we could have walked North up Broadway and then used the Lumiere Link to go under the highway to reach Laclede’s Landing.  But we have this large urban park that is supposed to be an asset so including the Arch grounds on the route makes sense.

Some say Memorial Drive is the problem, not the depressed lanes of the highway. But it is the highway that makes Memorial Drive such a dead street. Get rid of the highway and we can begin the process of transforming the street.

Much of the problem is buildings adjacent to Memorial Drive present blank walls to the sidewalk. The Arch is the biggest attraction in town but the buildings on the edge don’t connect to the sidewalk!

Parked cars occupy what should be some of the best real estate. Of course tunneling the highway here would solve the problem in a few blocks.

But North of Washington Ave the highway is an overhead obstacle.  We are building a new highway in Illinois to replace the stretch of I-70.  Now is the time to place to eliminate the redundant lanes after the bridge opens in February 2014.

– Steve Patterson