Undoing a huge mistake from the 1980s

At 5:10pm Today a wrecking ball will take a swing at the 4-story pedestrian bridge over Washington Ave.  The bridge, and it’s twin across Locust St, were certainly a mistake but the real mistake was the construction of an indoor mall downtown.  The grand scheme to revitalize downtown by razing an entire city block between two large department stores to make a massive 3-block indoor shopping mecca was so amazingly flawed. The large blank walls of the pedestrian bridges  distract from an entire city block razed and the land assembled into a monolithic mall.

“St. Louis Centre, built in 1985 for $95 million, was once the largest enclosed urban shopping center in the country with 120 stores and a food court with 20 restaurants. The mall has deteriorated in recent years and now only a handful of stores remain.” [St. Louis Business Journal 2007]

“In April 1981, [Mayor] Schoemehl hit the office running. He continued the work begun by his predecessor, Jim Conway, on the St. Louis Centre shopping mall downtown and pushed to completion the long-discussed St. Louis Union Station renovation.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch 11/1/1992]

Some would say the city was just responding to the market, that retailers wanted to be in indoor malls so we had to build an indoor mall to attract those retailers.  I don’t believe in chasing every trend in suburbia (malls, houses with front garages, etc) to attract that market.  I believe in working toward the best urban public streets and spaces as possible and people will follow and the retailers will follow the people.

Older urban centers can’t  — and shouldn’t — try to compete with new suburban areas on their terms — large parking lots, huge setbacks, etc.  No, the urban core needs to provide an urban experience.  Suburbia can build all the New Urbanist developments on greenfield sites or even retrofit a “downtown” into an once auto-centric suburb but they can never offer what an older core has to offer.  The core tossing aside what makes it unique to capture a suburban audience is just foolish.

But St. Louis and nearly every other city in America did just that — ignored existing urbanism to chase the suburbanite.  So we can take comfort knowing we were not alone — other cities were just as stupid as we were.

U.S. Bank is sponsoring a big street party tonight as the wrecking ball hits the bridge.  The event is timed for live coverage on the local TV news.  The bridge will take 3 weeks to remove so don’t expect to see down Washington Ave Saturday morning.

But what about the rest of the shuttered mall? Retail will finally face the direction it always should have — the sidewalk.

“When considering the future of vacant and underused space downtown, it is important to consider what I believe to be certain realities. Among these are the following: …. (2) Given the presence of world-class shopping at St. Louis Centre and Union Station, we cannot hope to fill all of the ground floor space downtown with retail shops.”

– Richard Ward in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch March 30, 1989

How times have changed!  The spaces are not full and it will be many years before they are full but building the “largest enclosed urban shopping center in the country” set us back at least a decade if not more.

The upper levels of the mall will be occupied as well — by parked cars, not people.  750 cars I believe! These spaces will help keep some firms located downtown but we really must get a handle on our supply and demand of parking.  To me our allowance of parking spaces is excessive except where it is really needed — on the street in front of sidewalk-level storefronts and restaurants. Those going to work for 8 hours shouldn’t park on the street just as those just hanging out downtown should be able to park on the street near their destination.  Arriving at a street with zero on-street says “good luck parking” whereas arriving at a street with on-street parking spaces — even if full — says “this is a popular area.”

I’m glad we are finally at this point but we still have a long way to go to undo the many mistakes made over the last few decades. The “Bridge Bash” will be held on Washington Ave (7th-9th Streets) from 4pm to 7pm tonight.

– Steve Patterson

Beyond the Motor City highlights infrastructure issues

Infrastructure is not the sexiest topic, unless you are really into infrastructure as I am.

On Monday I attended the free screening of Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City.

Director Aaron Woolf joined a group of us beforehand for dinner.  The dinner was organized by Courtney Sloger from Metro & NextStopSTL.org where she wrote a nice summary of the film and the post-film panel discussion, here is an excerpt:

“The film shows rich pictures and details of Detroit’s downtown area during its heyday in the 1920s – vibrant skyscrapers, retail and industries surrounded by neighboring burroughs [sic] and connected by bustling corridors with streetcars, automobiles and pedestrians. The rise of the American automotive industry ushered in a boom for the Motor City, and many of the city’s residents and industry moved to the suburban areas with the explosion of highway infrastructure and affordability of the automobile. Now the depopulated city (which had lost over half of its residents by turn of the century, but maintained its land acreage) is having problems affording services when people and places are so spread out. Providing services like public transit, fire, police, streets works, sewers, etc. have become almost prohibitively expensive, and residents lament the loss of community that happens when people do not live and interact with one another on a daily basis. The images of Detroit are stark, and the frustration of its citizens and leaders are palatable. As the movie points out, there are very significant costs, both economically and socially, of sprawl.”

Woolf pointed out in the discussion his films are not about assigning blame but offer hope and direction to solve problems.  You can stream the entire film at the link above.

– Steve Patterson

Readers say new bridge should be named for Dred & Harriet Scott

The poll last week asked about the name of the new bridge being built across the Mississippi River.

Q: The new Mississippi River bridge is named “Ronald Wilson Reagan Memorial Bridge” but should named in honor of?

1. Dred & Harriet Scott 39 [16.05%]
2. Miles Davis 36 [14.81%]
3. Other answer… 33 [13.58%]
4. Ronald Wilson Reagan Memorial Bridge is good. 29 [11.93%]
5. Pierre Laclede 24 [9.88%]
6. Ulysses S. Grant 15 [6.17%]
7. Louis Armstrong 14 [5.76%]
8. Auguste Chouteau 13 [5.35%]
9. Josephine Baker 10 [4.12%]
10. Elijah Lovejoy 8 [3.29%]
11. Phyllis Diller 7 [2.88%]
12. Vincent Price 5 [2.06%]
13. Katherine Dunham 5 [2.06%]
14. Susan Blow 2 [0.82%]
15. Agnes Moorehead 2 [0.82%]
16. Shelley Winters 1 [0.41%]
17. Irma Rombauer 0 [0%]
18. Harland Bartholomew 0 [0%]

“Other” placed third, here are those answers along with the date & time received and commentary by me.

1. John Hinckley, Jr. [ouch!]
2. Mound City
3. Henry Shaw Bridge [he has enough stuff with his name on it.]
4. Nelly
5. Tru-Link (Truman-Lincoln)
6. Ike Turner
7. Generic Design
8. James E. Slagle Memorial Bridge [a friend that passed away last year]
9. Tennessee Williams
10. Anyone/thing BUT Reagan.
11. Anyone but Reagan
12. Ronald Reagan
13. T. S. Eliot Bridge
14. Charles Lindbergh
15. Meriwether Bridge
16. George W. Bush [I’d go with Reagan before Bush]
17. Homer G. Phillips
18. I-70 bridge
19. Don’t name it after a person. [suggestions?]
20. Luther Ely Smith
21. Mark Twain
22. Albert Pujols Bridge
23. Dave Sinclair
24. Albert Pujols
25. John Berry Meachum
26. Veterans’ Bridge
27. Mary Meachum (underground railroad)
28. Dred Scott
29. nobody, no one
30. Malcolm X
31. Stan Musial
32. Peter E. Parisi
33. Max Factor

I’m still not sure if the name of the bridge is up for debate or if it is a done deal.

– Steve Patterson

Walkable environs still seeing investment

The economy tanked and work stopped.  New strip centers on the suburban fringe are not getting built and many that exist are quite vacant.  But in older established areas we are seeing individual buildings and spaces within buildings get renovated.

It has been a joy watching crews working to renovate the interior and exterior of this building on Washington Ave.  The detailing around the openings on the ground level had been badly damaged over the years but they are repairing it.  The big projects are on hold but the small projects are so much more exciting to me.

– Steve Patterson

Inner-ring Montgomery Bank lacks proper ADA access route to adjacent public sidewalk

As we build new buildings it is important to construct them so they are accessible to everyone.  Unfortunately, many still design buildings to be reached only by automobile.

I recently noticed a fairly new Montgomery Bank on Laclede Station Rd at Watson Rd.  It is certainly an attractive building with nice massing.

The problem is the building ignores the public sidewalk along Laclede Station Rd.  The location is surrounded by existing homes and apartments.  People do walk in the area.  Sidewalks are provided for pedestrian use but some businesses, such as Montgomery Bank, design only for motorists.

If you are able-bodied you can step over the curbs and grass to reach the front door of the bank.  However, if you use a wheelchair or mobility scooter you must “drive” far into the site to get to a point where you can get out of the way of cars and head toward a door.  If I had the power I’d make this bank redo their site to provide an ADA-compliant access route.  Good pedestrian access is the first step needed  to get people to walk.  I don’t expect us to go back and retrofit decades of sites and buildings.  I do expect businesses to do a better job when building today.

– Steve Patterson