Poll: Initial Reaction To The Updated Flying Saucer (Formerly Del Taco)?

Lsat year one of the big controversies was the threat of demolition of the “flying saucer” on Grand adjacent to the Saint Louis University Campus (the Del Taco tenant had just closed). In June 2011 I wrote a post trying to find justification for razing the iconic structure (see Pros & Cons of Saving the 1960s Flying Saucer at Grand & Forest Park), the following are selected quotes:

“I won’t lose any sleep if the Del Taco is razed but I will be mad as hell if some generic anti-pedestrian strip mall is built in it’s place.”

“I can picture the Del Taco structure gone, replaced with a high-design modernist structure to compliment the other buildings. But I don’t think that’s what we’ll get.”

“If I were developing this site I’d use the Del Taco building as a draw. Renovate the building and accenting it with great lighting, new pedestrian-friendly site design connecting to a new structure to the east on the existing surface parking lot. I can see the building not as a fast food joint but as a pub with a focus on great outdoor patio seating. This could become THE corner where SLU students hang out.”

“Most developers would kill to have such a widely known building to attract customers to their development! Certainly the 24 hour drive-thru is nice after you leave the bar but let’s face it, the use of the building can easily change.”

“Razing this building makes zero sense no matter how you try to look at it, believe me I tried!”

I couldn’t justify razing the building. Thankfully the developer changed his mind — or the demolition threat was just a clever way to demonstrate to prospective tenants the affection many in St. Louis have for the building. If so, well played!

To refresh your memory let’s go back a bit.

For the poll this week I want to get a sense of your initial reaction to the change to the building. The poll is in the right sidebar (mobile users switch to full layout). The poll will be open until Sunday October 7th and results will be presented on Wednesday October 10th along with my detailed take.

— Steve Patterson

Promote Your Local Nonprofit Or Community Event On UrbanReviewSTL.com For FREE

Do you run a nonprofit or an event in the St. Louis region? If so, I want to talk to you about giving you free ad space here to help promote your event or organization. You read that correctly — free.

The St. Louis region has so many nonprofits doing great work to better the communities they serve, I just want to help make sure more people are aware.  Same with events, from the Festival of Nations to MetroEast Pride, we have great events more should be aware of.

So what’s the catch? Just a few but they will hopefully make sense:

• Event/organization must have a unique URL so when someone clicks the ad they’ll get the page for that event/org. This means if you have a website (mynonprofit.org) and you temporarily put up the event info on the homepage without a unique URL (mynonprofit.org/greatevent) then I can’t help you with free ad space. I don’t want anyone clicking the ad to have to search for event info. Ads will not be linked to a Facebook event or page since not everyone is on Facebook. If your nonprofit doesn’t have it’s own web presence yet then getting that done should be a high priority — it’s almost 2013! I am happy to meet with you to discuss getting to a modern website.
• You must supply the actual ad image(s). Two sizes are available — 728×90 at the very top and 300×250 in the right sidebar.  Accepted formats are JPEG, PNG, or GIF. Flash isn’t accepted but animated GIF files do well.
• Black text on a white background  is too boring, use color and good graphic design to catch the eye.

• Contact me via email before creating the ad(s) to make sure your organization or event is one I’m willing to promote here, please include the URL the ad should link to. The region is large and in two states so I want to include everyone. That said, I wouldn’t be interested in promoting a Ladue orchid club, for example. A youth bike program in East St. Louis, however, would get my attention. Your church isn’t a nonprofit so don’t even try that. Regular readers know I lean to the left so a right-wing organization/event (i.e: gun training for babies) doesn’t stand a chance — my site, my time, my rules.
• Once ok’d the ads need to be submitted at least a week prior to the event date, 3-5 weeks is much better so the ads can be viewed by many more people. Ads for organizations should be able to be run for a full year without becoming outdated.
• Just because your business hasn’t made a profit this year, or ever, doesn’t mean it’s a nonprofit.  For-profit businesses can purchase ad space at very low rates but I have given ads to startup businesses. I especially want to help minority-oewned businesses  providing employment in the community. Let’s talk.

Why am I doing this? I often get requests to write a blog post about an event that hasn’t happened yet but for the most part I write about an event I attended or a place I visited — I like to use images I took myself and share my personal experience. Better than a single post about an upcoming event is weeks of exposure to thousands. I may still write a post about the upcoming Shaw Art Fair or MetroLink Prom because I’ve attended both in the past and have images to use, but if I do it’d be no more than a day or two before these events. Giving away ad space allows me to promote great events & organizations without dictating the schedule of my blog posts.

I hope to hear from many of you soon.

— Steve Patterson

ADA Access Into Historic Buildings Is Often Relatively Easy

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law just over 22 years ago by President George H. W. Bush. Retrofitting older building for accessibility  isn’t always easy but surprisingly some of the monumental buildings from late 19th and early 20th centuries aren’t bad.

So many of these buildings have very grand entrances with multiple series of steps, but the main floor is often enough above grade the basement isn’t excavated at all or very little. Here are some examples.

Going in the back way isn’t glamorous but neither would ramps out front. We wouldn’t build this today but it works. But not all basement entrances are around back.

Another example is the building I posted about yesterday — the vacant German House on Lafayette Ave:

These buildings were built with elevators so going from level to level is also easy, the elevators are generally replaced or modernized during renovation. At times I get to ride in an old elevator though, such as at Scottish Rite, which is fun.

— Steve Patterson

The German House & A New Book On St. Louis Germans

For a while now I’ve been thinking about doing a post on the huge boarded building on Lafayette Ave but I didn’t have time to do the research. Then I received a review copy of Jim Merkel’s new book: ‘Beer, Brats, and Baseball: St. Louis Germans‘ and there among the many stories was the history of the building.

Jim Merkel sent me the text from that story from the book to use as a preview for you here:

The Place for Gemuetlichkeit

In the years before America fought the Nazis and Japan, Das Deutsche Haus was the place for all things Gemuetlichkeit. Opened in 1929 after a campaign that included help from such German luminaries as former mayor Henry W. Kiel, it soon became the center of German-American life here. The four-story brick building at 2345 Lafayette Avenue was the home of seventy-six German societies within three years after it opened. Built for $380,000, it had meeting rooms and halls able to accommodate crowds from 40 to 1,200. The building was full of activity.

Carl Henne, a St. Louisan born in Germany, remembered those days in a 1972 article in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “It became the home Hall, which was right across the street,” he said. “We had balls, dances, concerts and Christmas parties there. Every Sunday night we used to always someone to talk to.” He liked it so much that he chose it as the place for his wedding breakfast.

Then came the war, or at least the events leading to the war. In January 1939, word got out that Colin Ross, an agent for a Nazi publishing house in Germany, wanted to give a speech at the German House about the German occupation of the Sudetenland. Groups ranging from labor groups to the VFW to the American Legion to the St. Louis Council for American Democracy protested. Seeing the uproar, the board of directors of the German House turned the request down. Later, when the war started, the name was changed to the St. Louis House. Otherwise, though, it remained a place for Germans.

When the war ended, the name reverted to the German House. But times were different. People were leaving the city and didn’t feel safe in the neighborhood. Poor finances almost forced the place to close. Still, it remained a popular place for local German groups to have their offices and for events. “We had 800 people at our affair last fall,” Henne, the president of the Schwaben Singing Society, said in a 1972 Globe-Democrat article. “If the neighborhood and parking get better again more German societies will go back — there’s no better place in town. The acoustics are great.” The acoustics were so good that the St. Louis Symphony recorded an album at the German House, produced by Columbia Records. But the place wasn’t good enough to survive just on Germans, and an owner said anyone who wanted to could use it. A Mexican bar and restaurant opened in the basement. The bowling alley closed. It was a matter of time before the place joined the ranks of shuttered German gathering places.

The German House was just one of the buildings Germans put up around St. Louis to gather for singing, dancing, exercising, arguing, or the theater. One was the Strassberger Music Conservatory. The three-story building at Grand Boulevard and Shenandoah Avenue once was a place to celebrate the city’s German music culture after it was built in 1904-05. Today it has a mix of upscale apartments, offices and stores.

Another building originally meant for a gathering place of Germans stands at 2930 North Twenty-first Street. In 1867, German settlers founded the Freie Gemeinde, or “Free Thinkers” Congregation. The building was home of a Gesangverein (choral club) and a library with three thousand books.

Some other buildings in the city formerly served as homes for Turner groups. They include the North Side Turnverein, 1925 Mallinckrodt Street, and the South St. Louis Turnverein, 1519 South Tenth Street. One building that is home to a still-active group is the Concordia Turners, 6432 Gravois Avenue. But that’s an exception. Almost all have a different purpose from the original German intent, and that includes the German House.

The end for the German House came in 1972, when the Gateway Temple of St. Louis, Inc. bought it for a church and school. In 2007, the Church of Scientology of Missouri bought the building for $1.6 million. Church officials plan to renovate the building, which would include a counseling area, classrooms, and an area for services. But for now, it’s unused.

The building doesn’t appear to be listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places, but it’s included in the Lafayette Square Historic District (PDF of nomination).

The building was just a decade old when Germany invaded Poland, suddenly a bad time to be of German ancestry. Had WWII never taken place would the building still be open and filled with German societies? Would it have shuttered anyway due to the city’s population decline? Of course, we’ll never know the answers.

More relevant questions are in present time; does the Church of Scientology of Missouri still have plans to renovate and occupy the building? If so, would the public get a chance to see the interior at any point?

Pick up a copy of Jim Merkel’s new book for a fascinating look into the German part of St. Louis history.

— Steve Patterson

Readers: Why Didn’t The Homeless Sleep Inside The Shelter Instead Of The Sidewalk?

Nearly forty-percent of the readers that voted in the poll last week wanted to know why the homeless slept on the sidewalk rather than inside Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center:

Q: Your Thoughts On The City Closing The Sidewalks Around Larry Rice’s Homeless Shelter:

1. Why aren’t the homeless sleeping INSIDE the shelter rather than on the sidewalk? 58 [39.46%]
2. About time, they need to shut that place down 37 [25.17%]
3. Rice is just using the homeless to build his organization 15 [10.2%]
4. Larry Rice’s shelter is being unfairly targeted because he serves the homeless 11 [7.48%]
5. Other: 10 [6.8%]
6. Downtown residents are too intolerant of the homeless 9 [6.12%]
7. I just hope the city doesn’t push the homeless to my neighborhood/city 5 [3.4%]
8. Unsure/No Opinion 2 [1.36%]

As to be expected the responses to the given answers (above) and other answers  (below) ranged from support of, to opposition, of the NLEC model for dealing with the homeless.

1. There has to be a better solution but I don’t know what solution would be.
2. Sidewalks are public space. Close down the shelter and protect our sidewalks!
3. There is definitely something political going on here beneath the surface
4. empty school buildings + social worker and police = safe housing for winter?
5. Let’s get Larry a one way ticke to Yemen. What a fucking jerk.
6. moving the homeless doesn’t change the fact that poverty is a problem
7. its bullshit. i needed to walk to 17th from OPOP and had to walk in the street
8. No social workers. Dense facility. = bad
9. 4: nimby, pawns, inside, intolerant
10. Larry Rice is a publicity-seeking clown.

That model is basically require them to pray to Larry Rice’s deity if they want a place to sleep. Through other agencies the homeless can collectively get:

• a hot meal prepared in a health department approved kitchen,
• a mailbox,
• use of computers & phone,
• storage of personal belongings,
• a place to shower,
• use of laundry facilities,
• social workers to help with issues such as drug/alcohol dependancy ,
• occupational therapists to assist with skills needed to function in society,
• and even travel assistance to return home if they’re stuck in St. Louis.

Many individuals without a home don’t want to be on the street but the road to get back to having their own place becomes so overwhelming by the time they find themselves sleeping on a sidewalk or park bench it takes many people to help them get their lives back together.

Imagine trying to get a job when all your clothes are in a plastic garbage bag, when you have limited access to a computer to search, no phone or a limited cell to get call backs, and have to wait in line to shower. Many homeless are employed, receive disability  or veterans benefits but they lack accounts for direct deposit and pay huge fees to get checks cashed. Much work needs to be done to get those who don’t want to be homeless into housing and provide for those in the future that find themselves in that situation. I don’t see NLEC being part of the solution.

— Steve Patterson