Citygarden is great, but not perfect

Citygarden has impressed everyone in it’s its first year open in St. Louis.  The two-block sculpture garden is, in most respects, outstanding in design and construction.

The two curb ramps along 10th Street (at Chestnut and at Market) both hold water following a rain.

Numerous ramps downtown have the same problem, but few were built as part of an otherwise high quality project. The mini lake at top is probably the worst downtown. Naturally, that is the one I use most often.  Even when dry I must use the side of the ramp — my wheelchair’s footrest gets caught if I go straight in.

And the environmentally friendly rain garden isn’t getting all the rain water it is supposed to receive.  Hopefully these three areas will be redone someday.  The problem at 10th & Market will be corrected when the wide “hallway” is extended to the west.  Had Citygarden built it’s side planning for the future hallway the current issue wouldn’t exist.

As a member of the Gateway Mall Advisory Board I can assure you I will bring up water retention at curb ramps and planning future projects so the hallway concept is easier to complete.

– Steve Patterson

Kiel Opera House becomes the Peabody Opera House – poll

Note to St. Louis officials: Kiel Auditorium was razed in the early 1990s. I state this because folks are talking about the renaming of the Kiel Opera House to the Peabody Opera House at the Henry W. Kiel Auditorium.  The Kiel Auditorium was replaced by the Kiel Center Savvis Center Scottrade Center.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Tuesday, October 30, 1990:

Plans for an $85 million sports arena that would be built on the site of Kiel Auditorium and replace The Arena near Forest Park are to be announced today at a downtown news conference.

Sources involved in the effort say that some of the area’s top business leaders would form a partnership that would develop the arena. One or more city development agencies would issue about $110 million in tax-exempt bonds to build the arena and a $25 million parking garage west of Kiel .

The 3,500-seat Opera House in the front part of Kiel would remain. The auditorium in the rear of the 58-year-old building and a 900-car parking garage to the south would be torn down to make way for the arena. The city would lease the new facility to the development partnership for about 75 years.

Bonds would be paid back with revenue from arena operations, 10-year commitments from businesses to buy 65 luxury boxes at $50,000 each annually and a city subsidy of about $800,000 a year. The Board of Aldermen would have to approve most of the arrangement.

The 18,000-seat arena would become the new home of the hockey Blues, soccer Storm and basketball Billikens. The Billikens, who now play in Kiel , temporarily would join the Blues and Storm at The Arena, 5700 Oakland Avenue, after its 1990-91 season.

”A lot of effort has gone into development of a new multi-use facility at the Kiel site,” [Mayor] Schoemehl said.

The Kiel Auditorium was named the Municipal Auditorium when it opened in 1934. It was renamed Kiel Auditorium in 1943, the year after 3-term Republican mayor Henry Kiel died at the age of 71.

This is a long introduction to the poll question for this week, how do you feel about the renaming the building? The poll is in the right sidebar.

– Steve Patterson

History bulldozed on this day in 1963

One of my favorite books is St. Louis Day by Day by Frances Hurd Stadler (1989). The entry for July 24th takes us back to 1963, forty-seven years ago today:

Bulldozers moved in to demolish the large cast-iron watering trough at the triangle formed by the intersection of Franklin, Easton and Leffingwell avenues. Made of fourteen sections bolted together, the trough had long served as a refreshment spot for some of the city’s busiest draft horses. Franklin and Easton, now Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, had formed part of the first road to St. Charles. As the nation expanded west, this link became vital, joining with roads beyond St. Charles up the Missouri River, and eventually branching off onto the Santa Fe Trail.

Within the city, Easton was an important business thoroughfare, and the Y formed by the three streets was the logical place for trade wagons to halt and for horses to drink. The only remaining St. Louis example of this once-common feature of equine architecture can be found at Alabama, Virginia, and Ivory avenues, where neighborhood residents have built a small park and planted the old watering through with flowers.

Today the triangle of Franklin, Easton & Leffingwell isn’t a triangle. The Franklin side was removed when Dr. Martin Luther King Drive received new curbs and sidewalks, around 2004.

Since the book was published the flowers have been replaced by a fountain at the Ivory Triangle:

I wonder if the trough that was removed in 1963 would be an interesting community spot had it remain?

– Steve Patterson

New grocery co-op offers rare product in north city neighborhood: fresh vegetables

Last Saturday hundreds turned out for the ribbon cutting on the Old North Grocery Co-op.

They were still stocking the shelves but it was far better than when I saw the very raw space a week earlier. Congrats to everyone that made the store a reality!  You do not need to be a co-op member to purchase from the store so be sure to visit after you stop at the North City Farmers’ Market (Saturday before noon).  The farmers’ market is located at 14th & St. Louis Ave (across from Crown Candy Kitchen) and the co-op is a block east at 13th & St. Louis Ave.  Both are easily accessed from the #30 or #74 bus lines.

At the opening of the grocery co-op I talked with many people, two on camera.  First is farmer Rusty Lee of Lee Farms LLC:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Khc9S_FVcw

Second is Dr. Jon Hagler, Director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture:

The Old North Grocery Co-Op is initially open Monday-Thursday 3-7 pm , Friday 3-6:30 pm, and 9-3 on Saturday. Closed on Sunday.

Next door to the co-op is the 13th Street Community Garden.

Tonight at the garden “find out how to prepare your garden harvest.”  This event is at 7pm tonight, Friday July 23rd.

– Steve Patterson

Forced into the street to reach the bus stop

Last Saturday I decided to catch the #30 Soulard bus northbound to go to Old North St. Louis.  For new readers, I often use a motorized wheelchair to get around.

So you can imagine the challenge of getting past 14th & Lucas to reach the bus stop  on the curve, just before the building in the background.  I ended up going in the street until I got to a drive just before the stop.  My only alternative was to go several blocks further in the opposite direction. The lack of accessibility was no fault of the transit agency.  No, the blame is squarely on the city.  Just a hundred feet away is Washington Ave where tons of money was spent some years ago on a fancy streetscape.  So if I stay on one street the accessibility is decent.

– Steve Patterson