One Less Urban Building on South Jefferson (Updated)

Driving home recently I spotted the demolition of the storefront building on the NW corner of Jefferson & Ann (map), I stopped to snap a picture and went on. ?

It’s just another old vacant building, what’s the problem?

The problem I have is we have absolutely nothing in place to require any new construction to continue to be urban in form — built up to the sidewalk and at least two stories in height with windows and doors. The only other building on this block of south Jefferson Ave is a former Taco Bell, built in 1994.

The Taco Bell was an affront to good urbanity and it didn’t stay open long. The last use of the building was a credit union but it closed in 2010.

One by one urban buildings are razed and replaced with non-urban buildings, creating a place not worth caring about much less walking through.

Non-urban buildings are designed to be approached only by car, even making access by pedestrians difficult.

We must change our zoning to require new construction to have an urban form so we don’t erode our commercial streets with non-urban structures that end up vacant and useless.

– Steve Patterson

Update 3/6/2012 @ 9:20am:

Thanks to @icsesq for a link to a story on what’s planned for the site — a new facility for the Southside Early Childhood Center:

To get a conditional use permit, the new building had to meet Fox Park’s historical building standards, which require a brick facade and alignment similar to buildings along the block. Demolition is expected to start fairly soon, after a plan for asbestos abatement is approved. (full story)

The drawings in the article illustrate how inadequate Fox Park’s standards are. An entire block of a one-story building? Sure, it will be up to the sidewalk and wrapped in red brick.

River City Casino Has Surprisingly Good Pedestrian Access Route

River City Casino, located in south St. Louis County, opened for business two years ago yesterday. I’d visited the site in 2010 shortly after it opened but last week I visited again — this time as a pedestrian. I knew from my prior visit in my car they’d done a good job with sidewalks but I wanted to experience it first hand.

The #40 Broadway MetroBus I took ends at the Catalan Loop in far south St. Louis. According to Google Maps, the walk to the casino from the transit center is one mile. Many places I seek to visit using my power chair can’t manage to connect just 50 feet to the door so I was still a bit skeptical.

Overall I was highly impressed by what could have been a pedestrian’s nightmare, like Loughborough Commons. Good pedestrian circulation, just like vehicular circulation, doesn’t happen by accident. Someone made pedestrian access a high priority. Perhaps River City’s owner, Pinnacle Entertainment, was sued because of poor ADA access at another location? Or the professional design firm(s) included it as a design priority? Or St. Louis County required River City to plan for pedestrians in addition to cars? However it came to be, this shows good pedestrian access is possible when planned in advance. You can view an aerial image here.

Hopefully the pedestrian network will serve them well as they expand this year:

Construction works are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2012 with an expected completion in the second half of 2013. The new expansion at the Missouri casino will add a 200-room hotel, a 10,000 square-foot multi-purpose event center and a covered parking structure with capacity for approximately 1,700 vehicles. Additionally, the $82 million project will create nearly 100 permanent jobs and 350 construction-related jobs. (Source)

I’ll return next year after the new work is completed to see if hotel guests can walk to/from the casino via sidewalks.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Thoughts On Missouri Bill That Would Prevent Homeowner’s Associations From Banning Political Signs

Many live in places where a homeowners association may restrict your rights, one Missouri state rep has introduced a bill to curb that:

The measure, by Republican Rep. Kurt Bahr, would prevent homeowners associations from enforcing or adopting bans on political signs.

“Should a private organization allow you to contract away constitutionally protected inherent rights?” Bahr asked. (STLtoday.com)

The bill is  HB 1380 — Restrictive Covenants

This bill prohibits a property owners’ association from enforcing or adopting a restrictive covenant that prevents a property owner from displaying on his or her property one or more signs advertising a political candidate or ballot item for an election on or after the ninetieth day before the date of the election to which the sign relates or before the tenth day after that election date.

A property owners’ association is authorized to:

(1) Enforce or adopt a covenant that requires a sign to be ground-mounted or limits the property owner to displaying only one sign for each candidate or ballot item;

(2) Enforce or adopt a covenant that prohibits a sign that contains a nonstandard decorative component, is attached in any way to plant material, a traffic control device, a light, a trailer, a vehicle, or any other existing structure or object;

(3) Enforce or adopt a covenant that prohibits a sign that contains the painting of architectural surfaces; threatens the public health or safety; is larger than four feet by six feet; violates a law; contains language, graphics, or any display that would be offensive to an ordinary person; or is accompanied by music or other sounds or by streamers or is otherwise distracting to motorists; and

(4) Remove a sign displayed in violation of an authorized restrictive covenant.

This is the subject for the poll this week.  Mobile users need to switch to the desktop layout to see the poll in the right sidebar.

– Steve Patterson

Raising Urban Kids

One of the great things about downtown’s Citygarden is I almost always seen someone I know when I pass through.

Last Sunday was no exception, I stopped to talk to two friends and the young son of one friend. It seems like just last week when his son was in a tiny infant, now he’s playing ball. How’d that happen so quick? Downtown has a growing number of young kids being raised in the region’s most urban area. As you might expect schools and education is a concern for these parents. Rather than immediately flee the suburbs or exurbs a growing number of urban parents expect they can continue the walkable urban lifestyle they love while ensuring their kids get a good education as well as being exposed to a broad range of people.

These kids won’t be sheltered, they’ll know how to walk to the store alone when their older, they won’t be shocked when their out with friends in college and they spot a homeless person. The idea of a cleanup project won’t be a foreign concept either.

– Steve Patterson

St. Louis to Study Removal of Elevated Highway

Some potentially good news reported in the Post-Dispatch on Wednesday:

“…now the city is poised to fund a study of how knocking down the elevated section of 70 might work. Last week, the St. Louis Development Corp. issued a request for proposals for a $90,000 “downtown multi-modal access study.” It focuses on ways to improve connections between downtown and the riverfront.” (STLtoday.com) 

This is encouraging to see the city taking this step to study the issue. While I want to see easier connections to the Arch grounds at multiple points it’s the elevated highway between Laclede’s Landing and the Edward Jones Dome and the area billed as The Bottle District that’s a bigger block to development and connectedness.

Way back in August 2005, in a post about the then-proposed Mississippi River Bridge, I ended with a somewhat radical idea — replace the highway through downtown with a boulevard:

So imagine the existing I-70 removed from the PSB to the new bridge (North of Laclede’s Landing & the proposed Bottle District). In its place a wide and grand boulevard lined with trees and shops. The adjacent street grid is reconnected at every block. Pedestrians can easily cross the boulevard not only at the Arch but anywhere along the distance between the bridges. Eads Bridge and the King Bridge both land cars onto the boulevard and into then dispersed into the street grid. The money it would take to cover I-70 for 3 blocks in front of the Arch can go much further not trying to cover an interstate highway. Joining the riverfront and Laclede’s Landing to the rest of downtown will naturally draw people down Washington Avenue to the riverfront. In one bold decision we can take back our connection to the river that shaped our city. The decision must be made now. The interchange for the new bridge is being designed now — we’ve only got one chance to get it right. Similarly, the lid project in front of the Arch could shift to a removed I-70 and connecting boulevard design before we are too far along the current path. (view full post)

Of course the bridge is under construction and the lid is proposed to cover part of the highway west of the Arch. Still there is a way to remove the elevated highway and have a boulevard go under the lid once finished. How many people want to walk directly from Busch Stadium to the south end of the Arch grounds? Just a fraction of the number that currently navigate under I-70 going from our convention center to Laclede’s Landing.

I’ve spent quite a bit of my time around the elevated highway and it’s miserable space. A high volume roadway/boulevard can move the traffic but also be much more hospitable to pedestrians. For more information on the subject see the grassroots group City to River.

– Steve Patterson