Readers Support Replacing Downtown Highway With Boulevard

I’ve been doing weekly polls for a year and a half and in the time I’ve noticed a pattern with the voting as the week goes by the percentage of each answer stays roughly the same as the total vote count grows. Sometimes a few answers will switch places.  Last week was different, the answer opposing highway removal was in last place for the first few day with just under 5% of the votes.

By Sunday morning when I changed the poll it had shot up to get the most votes of any single answer — 172.  The “yes” votes, however, total 186.

Q: Now that 4 of 5 City+Arch+River teams say highway removal is best, do you agree the highway should be replaced with a boulevard from the PSB to Cass?

1. No, highway lanes are still needed 172 [43.32%]
2. Yes, start the day after the new I-70 bridge opens in Spring 2014, even though the boulevard would not be complete on 10/28/2015 (Arch 50th Anniv) 127 [31.99%]
3. Yes, any time in the next decade is good. 37 [9.32%]
4. Inclined to agree, but I want to see a traffic study first 23 [5.79%]
5. Yes, start October 29, 2015, the day after the 50th Anniversary of the Arch (anniversary + ground breaking in one event) 22 [5.54%]
6. Maybe but I need to see the traffic after the new I-70 bridge opens 8 [2.02%]
7. Other answer… 7 [1.76%]
8. Unsure/no opinion 1 [0.25%]

The other votes were:

1. Start today!
2. who’s paying? we have other priorities.
3. Start immediately–remove the lanes completely, create a boulevard.
4. There needs to be a quick and efficient way to bypass downtown from the east.
5. Can I get a hell yes?!
6. begin now
7. Yes! Get rid of the Highway ASAP!

It is clear to me from these results that someone, or a group of persons, against removing the highway, made an effort to throw off the vote count. Also clear is that among those who support replacing the highway with a boulevard favor starting work as soon as possible, even if not done by the 50th anniversary of the Arch.

The following needs to happen:

• Do a very comprehensive traffic study to see how to make the boulevard work in conjunction with other north-south roads.
• Look at redesigning the interchange at the new I-70 bridge so that traffic heading into downtown from the direction of the airport is directed onto a boulevard approach.
• Build the first part of the boulevard between the new bridge and the start of the elevated lanes.
• Change connections to tie in 4th & Broadway into the new boulevard.
• Hold the ground breaking for the rest of the boulevard at the same time as the 50th anniversary of the Arch.

I’d previously noted that four of the five teams in the City+Arch+River competition supported removing the highway.  On Thursday last week the 5th team indicated they assumed highway removal after 2015!

Broadway Has One Less Lane, Still Unfriendly To Pedestrians

The other day I noticed the next to the Edward Jones Dome that one traffic lane of the one-way south Broadway has been blocked off. The road is too wide so I don’t miss the lane, but I didn’t think it could possibly get any more hostile to pedestrians — but it did.

– Steve Patterson

Kroenke, Rams, Dome, Broadway and the Elevated Highway

Last week NFL owners approved Stan Kroenke’s bid to increase his ownership in the St. Louis Rams from 40% to 100%.  The sale is not strictly about sports.

Speculation and rumors about the future of the Rams is swirling after Stan Kroenke was allowed to buy St. Louis’ football franchise.

Will they demand a new stadium? Will they threaten to leave town? Nothing is for sure, but Rams fans are crossing their fingers, getting out their rabbit’s feet and eating Lucky Charms: anything to swerve things in St. Louis’ favor. (Full Story: KMOV)

In the next couple of years decisions will be made that may profoundly change the area between St. Louis’ convention center (aka America’s Center) and the nearby Lumiere Hotel & Casino.  In 2012 the process starts to bring the Edward Jones Dome into the top quarter of NFL facilities by 2015.  If we don’t get the dome into the top quarter, the Rams are free to leave the dome for another facility.

Another facility might be elsewhere in the region or perhaps, back in Los Angeles. The message to us is clear, pony up some serious money to improve the dome or find the dome without a tenant.  The third, but unlikely possibility, is the Rams stay put through the end of the 2025 lease without upgrades to get the dome into the top quarter. From the same KMOV story:

There probably won’t be a lot of new, taxpayer funded initiatives to lure the Rams away from St. Louis, but Kroenke is a developer. There has been speculation that he could push for a new stadium. That stadium could be in St. Louis county, near Earth City or even Illinois.

Sports economist Patrick Rishe said moving the stadium out of the city is not likely.

“I don’t think St. Louisans want to go to the suburbs to watch professional sports,” Rishe said. “I think we’re accustomed to watching it downtown, so I don’t think that’s an option. Geographically that’s an option, but logistically I don’t think it will be a reality.”

Rishe is right — if you are talking baseball.

The poll this week asks what you think Kroenke’s purchase of the rest of the team means for the City/Region, the Rams and the dome. City to River wants to replace the elevated lanes you see above that divide Laclede’s Landing (right) from the city to the left.

– Steve Patterson

The New Orleans I Remember

Six months before I started this blog I met a friend in New Orleans, in April 2004.  More than a year prior to Katrina, you could see poverty and associated issues but the city was beautiful.

I haven’t been back since April 2004, I hope to do so in 2011 or 2012.

– Steve Patterson

Growing Up In Sprawl

Our driveway was three cars wide by three deep, plus room for two more in the garage. We didn’t have sidewalks, when I was older I biked to stores — without a helmet. At times I got glimpses of older neighborhoods.  Our family doctor was located in an older commercial district just south of downtown Oklahoma City, known as Capitol Hill.   As a kid the area was likely in transition downward.  There were vacant department stores and storefronts but there was a clear grid of streets — with sidewalks.

My father would occasionally do carpentry work at our doctor’s house.  When he did I always wanted to tag along because our doctor lived in a big old house in the Heritage Hills neighborhood. When I’ve returned to Oklahoma City over the last 20 years I drive through these areas. They weren’t where I spent my childhood, but where I would escape to once I turned 16 and started driving. If a bus system existed I knew nothing of it.

I racked up a lot of miles for a high school kid with a new license, exploring areas that had long been written off or destroyed by Urban Renewal schemes. I preferred the remains of urbanism to the newness where I lived.

I’m curious why I desired a more urban environment? Most of my friends from high school have done as most people did and just locate in newer versions or sprawl further away from the center. Was it the used brick as the veneer on our frame house that got me curious about old brick buildings? The house next door was veneered with a pink brick made of concrete, it looked as bad as it sounds. Was it the fact I’m gay? I hadn’t read any manual on how to be gay.

Why some people have a strong need to break out of suburbia while others are quite happy fascinates me. My two older brothers were about 7 & 16 when they moved into our custom built new home, less than a year before I was born.  They had both experienced older homes before the move to the new home, in the new subdivision, near the new shopping center.  One has traveled the world with the Navy and he appreciates walkable urbanism. My other brother prefers drivable sprawl.

Does the urban gene skip the middle child?

– Steve Patterson