Citygarden opened one year ago today

The mature trees make it feel like Citygarden has been around for many years, but it was just one year ago today that the two-block sculpture garden opened.

The park has been an unquestionable hit with locals, as well as people from outside our region.

Lighting at Citygarden is outstanding.

I love Citygarden and I’ve probably visited at least once per week during the last year.

Still, I’m frustrated by a number of things:

• 9th Street is blocked to vehicles between the hours of 10am and 10pm.  9th was designed to narrow the road and slow the little bit of traffic it would get.
• The curb ramp at 10th & Chestnut was poorly executed so that I have to approach just right to get onto the sidewalk.  Plus it holds water.
• Work was not done on 8th & 10th to make extending the “hallway”  to the blocks to the east and west a simpler matter.  Once again we will have to redo that which has just been done.

I’ll be there at noon today for a TweetUp (Twitter meet-up).

– Steve Patterson

Readers: public bodies should stick to business at hand, skip opening prayers

I was pleasantly surprised by the results of the poll last week with more than twice as many saying prayer should be private as opposed to those that want to encourage prayer in public (government) meetings.  Add in those that don’t care and those that are OK with a moment of silence and it is clear this small sample would prefer to have public meetings without prayer on the agenda.

1. Prayer should be private, public meetings is not the right place 79 [43.17%]
2. Prayer at public meetings should be encouraged, not restricted 38 [20.77%]
3. Don’t care either way 29 [15.85%]
4. A moment of silence is ok but anything else is going too far 24 [13.11%]
5. Mentioning God is ok, but not Jesus 10 [5.46%]
6. Other answer… 3 [1.64%]

The three “other” answers submitted were:

1. Religion and politics should never mix…NEVER
2. Prayer at public meetings should be neither encouraged or restricted
3. replace prayer with the pledge of allegiance, like other places do

As I said last week I will strongly defend your right to believe as you wish but to have that forced upon everyone attending a public meeting is anti-American.  Do the government business in one building and your personal religion of choice in your office, church, hallway, restroom or quietly by yourself — just keep it off the official agenda.

– Steve Patterson

I still want urban buildings along the new Grand bridge

In January 2006 I posted the idea of urban buildings with retail next to a new Grand bridge (Grand Bridge Should Follow Columbus Ohio Example):

“St. Louis is planning to rebuild the existing Grand bridge by adding a landscaped median as well as wider sidewalks and bike lanes. The intent is to make it more pedestrian friendly so that St. Louis University to the north and their medical center campus to the south are better connected. You can dress up a bridge all you like but it is still hundreds of feet of dead space. No amount of median planting will make it pedestrian friendly.”

To prove my point I give you Exhibit A:

The new bridge/viaduct for Jefferson Ave (above) is what is proposed for Grand Ave, without question a huge improvement over the old crumbling bridge it replaced.  It is new and pretty but to the pedestrian on the wider sidewalk it is still a long dull stretch. The planted median is there to make the drive less boring for motorists. Buildings next to a bridge?  We’ve had this for decades along Tucker (formerly 12th):

Granted the Tucker bridge/tunnel is falling apart — it is roughly twice the age of the Grand bridge. The point is the Post-Dispatch, St. Patrick’s Center and Globe-Democrat buildings are all built on lower ground up against a bridge structure.  From the sidewalk you don’t realize that is the case.  Along with the Columbus Ohio recent example I cited in 2006 the idea is not far fetched at all.  But in 2006 some felt the idea wasn’t feasible.

Some, incorrectly, thought it was too impossible because of the amount of rail lines.

But as you can see above the width for the rail lines isn’t that wide, perhaps 20% of the total span.  See map.

Two city streets serve the properties on both sides of the bridge  — one north and one south of the tracks.

In the left of the above image you can see a single story structure next to the current bridge.  This structure actually continues under the bridge.

The plan is to redevelop both sides of grand for research facilities.  The #70 Grand bus in the busiest bus line in the region and the MetroLink light rail station is currently roughly in the middle of the pack for station traffic.  When this desolate area is remade transit will be key.

So here is my bridge concept:

• forget the planted center median
• plan railings that can be removed as buildings with storefront floors are built up to the sidewalks.
• Allow on-street parking along the bridge except at the transit station, which would be reserved for buses.
• The area at the station/over the tracks would be slightly wider and have room for a newsstand, food kiosks, seating, etc
• Each side would have a self-cleaning pay public restroom.
• the structures next to the two streets below could have elevators to get get pedestrians to/from the bridge level to the street level.
• the buildings could contain research offices on the lower levels, retail on the bridge level and residential above.
• with transit (bus and light rail) and a few car=sharing vehicles available for use by workers and residents the total parking count could be significantly reduced.
• The retail on the bridge would be the commercial center for all the offices and residential I envision along the bridge and in the surrounding blocks.

Unfortunately my idea won’t happen, the engineering for the new bridge is well under way.  Maybe in 20-30 years the bridge can be retrofitted and it can still happen?

– Steve Patterson

Poll: downtown on-street parking

Urban centers tend to be perceived as having too little parking, downtown St. Louis is no exception. The reality is downtown St. Louis has too much parking, not too little.  The poll this week focuses on street parking — rates, hours, etc.  The question is: On-street parking downtown is free after 7pm weeknights and all day Saturday & Sunday. Thoughts? Pick up to three answers: I’ve provided many answers and you can pick up to three.  You can also provide your own answer in the other spot.

– Steve Patterson

Public plazas part one: people sit where there are places to sit

I’ve been a huge fan of the late William H. Whyte since I bought his book City: Rediscovering the Center when it was published in 1988.  It would be many years later before I would read his 1980 book The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces or see the companion film of the same name.  I had hoped to show you the film but the six YouTube videos that someone had posted have been removed due to copyright infringement.

The book and film are brilliant.  New York City had passed zoning changes that allowed developers to build taller buildings if they provided public plazas.  A decade later Whyte and his team meticulously studied numerous public plazas to determine why some were heavily used and others stood vacant. In the coming weeks and months I’m going to take a closer look plaza spaces here in St. Louis and use Whyte’s findings to see if they apply and how our plaza spaces might be improved.

One important finding was that “people sit where there are places to sit.”  Sounds obvious right? People would sit on steps and any place they could and not necessarily where the designers wanted them to sit.  “People attracted people” was also a finding, people watching is better when there are others to watch.

– Steve Patterson