Sunday Poll: What Should Qualify As A Disability?

Twenty-five years ago today President George H.W. Bush singed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. A national poll released Friday showed support for the ADA but disagreement over what should qualify as a disability. For the poll today I want to see how reader’s views compare to the national results.

Select all that apply. There are additional qualifiers not listed — this list matches those from the poll — enabling a comparison. Please vote above and come back Wednesday to see how the results compare to the national poll.

— Steve Patterson

Parking Conflict Resolved

A year ago the police were called to a parking dispute at our condo association. The issue was a fight between residents and the tenant of one commercial space, see Parking Battle Close To Home.

A couple of months ago everything was resolved — much better than anyone could’ve predicted. It did require legal action. The original developer, the now-defunct Loftworks, was seriously delinquent on condo dues for the two commercial spaces and a few residential units. After years of negotiations and missed payment plans, our board had enough and for a foreclosure sale.  They were mortgaged for more than their value, but our board then began negotiating with the bank(s).

The best part is the commercial tenant in my building, Stealth Creative, was able to purchase their space. Every parking spot on the lot between the two buildings has been assigned to a commercial space.  So just like our residential spaces, both commercial spaces now have assigned parking. While the other commercial space is vacant and for sale, those parking spaces are leased to residents seeking a 2nd parking space.

As I mentioned a year ago, I think my neighbors and the employees are too auto dependent. Hopefully having a fixed number of parking spaces will help change that attitude. I also want to make the case to Enterprise that their CarShare service needs vehicles West of 11th Street. They’re waiting for more members, we’re waiting for the service before joining.

— Steve Patterson

Reading: Parking Management for Smart Growth by Richard W. Willson

Parking management is a popular topic, I have numerous books on the subject. Now I have one more: Parking Management for Smart Growth by Richard W. Willson:

The average parking space requires approximately 300 square feet of asphalt. That’s the size of a studio apartment in New York or enough room to hold 10 bicycles. Space devoted to parking in growing urban and suburban areas is highly contested—not only from other uses from housing to parklets, but between drivers who feel entitled to easy access. Without parking management, parking is a free-for-all—a competitive sport—with arbitrary winners and losers. Historically drivers have been the overall winners in having free or low-cost parking, while an oversupply of parking has created a hostile environment for pedestrians.

In the last 50 years, parking management has grown from a minor aspect of local policy and regulation to a central position in the provision of transportation access. The higher densities, tight land supplies, mixed land uses, environmental and social concerns, and alternative transportation modes of Smart Growth demand a different approach—actively managed parking.

This book offers a set of tools and a method for strategic parking management so that communities can better use parking resources and avoid overbuilding parking. It explores new opportunities for making the most from every parking space in a sharing economy and taking advantage of new digital parking tools to increase user interaction and satisfaction. Examples are provided of successful approaches for parking management—from Pasadena to London. At its essence, the book provides a path forward for strategic parking management in a new era of tighter parking supplies.

To see the topics covered, here’s the contents:

1. Introduction: What is a Parking Space Worth?
   Parking as a Contested Space
   Problems of Unmanaged Parking
   Understanding Parking Behavior
   Strategic Parking Management
   Key Terms
   Map of the Book
2. Parking Management Techniques
   Origins of Parking Management
   Understanding and Organizing Parking Management Methods
   Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Parking Management
   Parking Management Gone Wrong
   Conclusion
3. Creating a Parking Management Strategy
   Planning and Strategy in Parking Management
   Parking Management Stakeholders
   Process for Developing a Parking Management Strategy
   Process Pays
4. Managing an Integrated Parking Supply (Rick Williams)
   Management Principles
   Organizational Structure: Administration and Management
   Defining the Role of On-Street Parking
   Relationship of On- and Off-Street Parking Assets
   Rate Setting Policy and Protocols
   Measuring Performance
   Identifying and Communicating the Integrated Parking System
   New Technologies
   Financial Analysis and Management
   Conclusion
5. Best Practice Strategies
   Best Practice: Individual Measures
   Best Practice: Integrated Strategies
   Global Perspective
   Case Study Conclusions
6. Implementing Strategic Parking Management
   Politics and Community Participation
   Technical Challenges
   Greening Parking Operations
   Parking Enforcement
   Conclusions on Implementation
7. Parking Management for Smart Growth
   A Paradigm Shift
   Why Not Rely on Pricing Alone?
   A Broader Vision for Strategic Parking Management
   It’s Time
   References
   Index

I’m looking forward to diving into some of these topics. The book came out last month, you can read an excerpt or order from Left Bank Books.

— Steve Patterson

Readers: New Building Should Replace Condemned Parking Garage

No surprise, but most who voted in the Sunday Poll favored an occupied building to replace a condemned parking garage downtown:

Q: The parking garage at Tucker & Locust, built in 1967, was condemned a few months ago. What should be the long-term outcome? (PICK UP TO 2)

1. Raze for new building w/zero parking 22 [34.92%]
2. Raze for new building w/some parking 21 [33.33%]
3. Renovation of structure, reopen garage 6 [9.52%]
4. Raze for new parking garage 5 [7.94%]
5. Unsure/no opinion 3 [4.76%]
6. Other: 3 [4.76%]
   1. Apartments, parking, ground level retail.
   2. Restaurant
   3. Traditional incremental urbanism
7. Raze for surface parking lot 2 [3.17%]
8. Nothing, leave as is 1 [1.59%]
9. Raze for open space 0 [0%]

I was very happy nobody voted for “Raze for open space”, because we’ve got more open space than we need. I have to wonder about the person who voted that leaving a condemned parking garage is the best long-term outcome. Really!?!

Even in the short-term I’d oppose a surface parking lot. If built properly, it would likely stick around until fully depreciated — which isn’t short-term. We need to build on many of our existing surface lots to reduce holes in our urban fabric. A case could be made for a new parking garage on the site. At this point I’d give little chance the existing garage will be renovated — the repairs are just too costly.Without a doubt, a new building, with or without internal parking, is ideal.

The New Jersey-based entity that owns the condemned garage likely doesn’t care about what’s best for creating a more urban St. Louis, but I don’t care about their bottom line! In the Downtown Neighborhood Association’s Planning & Zoning Committee I’ll advocate for a position on this site that opposes just letting it sit or a surface parking lot, supports a building.

— Steve Patterson

Changes Needed on South Broadway to Prevent More Pedestrian Deaths

For over a decade I’ve written about pedestrians, including pedestrian deaths. It’s difficult to visit the sites and write about how the area could be designed better, but nothing like the pain experienced by the families & friends who’ve lost a loved one. Most recent was Bapi Gupta:

Gupta’s mother, Genie Dee, and Georgie Busch, who lost her daughter, Amber Wood, in a hit-and-run accident in the same location in 2012, are hoping to bring change to the stretch of roadway.

The string of fatalities and near misses has many calling for slower traffic in the area.

“Why is it 35 miles an hour here? Why isn’t there a stop light up the street here, which they took down, by the way,” said Michael Chekoudjian, the driving force behind a change.org petition asking for changes to the area. (KMOV)

From the change.org petition:

With 3 fast lanes of traffic heading south, trying to beat the lights cars are exceeding the speed limit by 20 to 50 MPH. This is very Dangerous in an “Entertainment District” with as many as a 1000 people in the streets at times and as we know by the hit and run death of “Amber Wood” at the 700 block of Broadway in April of 2012 this is a very dangerous stretch of roadway. We the signers of this petition want Mayor Slay to put a stop to this speeding on this dangerous stretch of road in the name of “Amber Wood” NOW!

First let’s look at a couple of recent suggestions offered by family & friends:

Lower the posted speed limit: Motorists currently exceed the 35MPH speed limit, they’ll drive the same speed regardless of the posted limit. This is because people drive at what they perceive to be a safe speed based on the design of the road. If you want to lower the speed — you must change the design! More on the design later.

Traffic signal at previous intersection: The previous light at Cerre St was removed when a new ramp onto Eastbound I-64 made it a dead-end street. Putting a signal back doesn’t make sense. However, a flashing yellow signal overhead would be a good idea, changing to red if activated by a pedestrian wanting to cross Broadway.

There are things that should change, let’s take a look:

I sat here for a few cycles to time the lights. For vehicles the light is green for about 38-40 seconds. However, the pedestrian signal is “walk” for just 4 seconds before it begins to flash! It flashes for 10-15 seconds before going to a solid don’t walk, but the traffic signal remains green. Having such a short walk time with a longer traffic time encourages pedestrians to go for it rather than wait on the longer Broadway signal.  The pedestrian signal timing needs to change immediately! Ok, let’s cross.

Based on my visit, here are my suggestions:

Immediate solutions:

• Change pedestrian signal timing at Gratiot.

Short-term solutions:

• Reinstall traffic signal at Cerre St., on yellow flash, changing to red if activated by a pedestrian.
• Restripe Broadway, narrowing the 3 drive lanes.
• Add a solid white lane to separate the outside drive lanes from the adjacent parking lanes.
• Change pedestrian signals to have a countdown timer.

Long-term solutions:

• New streetscape, putting the road on a diet with curb bulbs at all corners. Include mid-block planters in the parking lanes.
• Return 4th & Broadway to 2-way traffic.

More observation, at different times, is needed. But this area must change or we’ll see more pedestrians hit.

— Steve Patterson