Jefferson Avenue Needs A Road Diet, Corridor Study Part 1

Jefferson Avenue is a 5+ mile north-south arterial road in south, central, and north St. Louis (map). Along this stretch the road has 4-6 travel lanes, a center turn lane, and sometimes 2 parking lanes. What’s pretty consistent is the public right-of-way and curb to curb widths are excessively wide.

Here are some examples of the right-of-way width in locations you might be familiar:

• Jefferson @ Russell: 120 feet
• Lindell @ Euclid: 100 feet
• Kingshighway @ Delmar: 100 feet
• Grand @ Hardford: 80 feet
• Chouteau @ Mississippi: 80 feet
• Manchester @ Taylor: 70 feet

The above figures are from Sanborn Maps, mostly from 1909. Again, these are the public right-of-way (PROW), which includes the road and sidewalks. In an urban context this is measured from the face of a building to the face of the building on the opposite side. The road & sidewalk widths can vary within the PROW.

At Russell, Jefferson has a wider PROW than streets like Grand, Lindell, and yes — Kingshighway! This partly explains why Jefferson doesn’t have the same “feel” as South Grand. The wider the curb to curb, the faster traffic travels. The faster the traffic, the fewer the pedestrians. Fewer pedestrians & faster traffic means businesses will focus on customers in cars, not pedestrians. This reality conflicts with adjacent neighborhoods that seek a more urban environment, like McKinley Heights whose code required Family Dollar to build more urban than usual.

Jefferson passes by many neighborhoods and political wards, with different ones on the east & west sides. With schools & residents on both sides crossing the street is important. Some intersections have pedestrian signals, others, like Russell, do not.  The east side is the McKinley Heights neighborhood & 7th Ward while the west side is the Fox Park neighborhood and the 6th ward, such fragmentation makes it challenging to get projects done.

Hopefully enough residents from both neighborhoods can convince Phyllis Young (7) and Christine Ingrassia (6) to take a closer look at Jefferson Ave.

I’d like to see the following in the short-term:

1. Stripe Jefferson to just 4 travel lanes end to end
2. Include a solid white outside line separating the right travel lane from the parking lane as MoDOT did on Gravois
3. Add pedestrian signals with countdown timers at existing signalized intersections currently lacking pedestrian signals
4. Stripe crosswalks in the more visible “Continental” pattern

In the longer term I’d like to see:

1. A detailed corridor study looking at all transportation modes (car, bike, transit, pedestrian), development patterns & potential, etc
2. A charrette to look at designing a new streetscape.

In the coming weeks & months I’ll post more about problems & solutions for Jefferson Ave.

— Steve Patterson

Commercial Property Owners Need To Consider Accessibility When Making Alterations

Being an old city we have many old buildings that aren’t yet wheelchair accessible. When a business opens up they need to be aware of the ADA, especially when spending money remodeling.

The building on the SW corner of Jefferson Ave & Winnebago St has had many establishments over the years, including quite a few since the 1990 passage of the ADA. Most changes over the years have been relatively minor. According to city records the previous owner owned the property from December 1977 to July 2007. In 2008 the current owner added a new patio out front, mostly in the public right-of-way. This was the perfect opportunity to make the first floor of this 1890 building wheelchair accessible.

When the patio was built the owner could’ve easily modified the sidewalk to provide access to the side door. It would’ve been a relatively minor add on to the patio project. To do it now will be far more costly.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: How Many Vehicles Per Licensed Driver In Your Household?

It has been nearly a year and a half since I sold my last car. In that time I’ve managed fine without a car, except for 2 times this year when I rented a vehicle to go out of town. Not having a car has got me thinking about cars I have owned over the 30 years I’ve been driving.

Growing up in suburban Oklahoma City our driveway could hold nine vehicles, with two more in the garage. Pretty consistently we had more than one vehicle per licensed driver.   Yes, not a typo — our driveway was 3×3.

I once owned three Volvos at one time, later I owned two Saabs concurrently. Now I don’t have a car, but my boyfriend does. Years ago my personal household had a peak of three vehicles per licensed driver, but now it is 0.5 vehicles per licensed driver. But for the most of the last 25 years on my own I’ve been one driver with one car.

For the poll question the week I’d like to know about the number of vehicles per licensed driver in your current household. The poll is in the right sidebar, I’ll post the results on Wednesday October 2nd.

— Steve Patterson

Update On Participatory Budgeting St. Louis From 6th Ward Ald Christine Ingrassia

Guest post from 6th Ward Ald Christine Ingrassia

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. Participatory Budgeting Saint Louis (PB STL) seeks to empower residents via direct participation in the allocation of public monies in order to expand civic and political participation of citizens; and increase government transparency, with a focus on inclusion of historically disenfranchised or uninvolved populations. While PB is a fairly new concept in the United States, it is already being implemented in Chicago, New York City and Vallejo. ??During St. Louis City’s 2013 municipal primary, Michelle Witthaus and I, both candidates in the 6th Ward’s Aldermanic race, learned there was an interest on the part of residents to feel more connected to the political process and to see greater governmental transparency and accountability. After a training MORE’s (Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment) Zach Chasnoff received and reported on, Michelle thought PB could address this interest. After the election, we decided to form a Steering Committee, which first met in May 2013, to bring PB to St. Louis City. I set aside $50,000 this year and will do the same next year, so that $100,000 of 6th ward capital improvement funds for fiscal year 2015 will go towards a pilot project to introduce St. Louis to this new endeavor.

From May through September the PB STL Steering Committee worked on rules for implementation, created a fundraising plan and canvassed in low voter turnout areas of the 6th ward. We are now ready to host Neighborhood Assemblies in October. Residents will learn how PB STL will work in its inaugural year and will have the opportunity to volunteer to plan projects the rest of the 6th Ward will vote on.

Trainings for budget delegates (volunteers planning projects) will occur in November and over the winter they will work with the Steering Committee and me to create project proposals. In March 2014 Project Expos will held. At these expos presentations of proposals will be made to the 6th Ward and changes can be made to them, as needed. ??Voting will occur in several different forms over the course of 1 – 2 weeks in April and will hopefully include an online option. In May 2014 winning projects will be provided to the City’s Board of Public Service to be included in the fiscal year 2015 budget. In June 2014 we will undertake evaluation of our first year’s efforts and the projects we voted on will begin to be implemented in July.

I’m hoping this project will increase community participation, act as an agent of government accountability and will spark an interest on the part of residents regarding how the budget process works.

Here is a listing of our upcoming assemblies; PB STL would love to see you at one.

1. Monday, October 7th
   Jefferson Warehouse
   2501 S Jefferson Ave
   Koken Art Factory (location change as of 9/29)
   2500 Ohio Ave.
   6:30pm-8:30pm
2. Wednesday, October 9th
   Barr Branch Library
   1701 S Jefferson Ave
   12:00pm-2:00pm
3. Monday, October 14th
   Stray Dog Theater
   2348 Tennessee Ave
   6:30pm-8:30pm
4. Wednesday, October 16th
   Lafayette Park United Methodist Church
   2300 Lafayette Ave
   6:30pm-8:30pm
5. Saturday, October 19th
   Barr Branch Library
   1701 S Jefferson Ave
   10:00am-12:00pm

Courtyard Apartment Buildings Gracefully Add Density

St. Louis, like most cities, has a variety of housings types. I’m rather font fond of this type of apartment building.

It has 18 apartments, 6 one-bedroom & 12 two-bedroom, on a lot measuring 91 feet wide  x 120 feet deep. That’s 18 units on a quarter acre lot! To the west is apartments over commercial storefronts and to the west single family detached homes, all from the late 1930s.

These were new modern light-filled apartments, a contrast to the old tenement slums in the old part of the city. This was the suburban ideal at the time. You’re thinking it can’t be called “suburban” since it is in the city. Wrong, it was sub-urban compared to how flats were built decades earlier.

Many of these exist in St. Louis, north & south, as well as in the inner ring of suburbs. Though I’ve never lived in one, I enjoy seeing them as I pass by.

— Steve Patterson