In April I posted a list of buildings I’d like to see rehabbed. Then in July Ald Hubbard introduced a Redevelopment plan for 1701 Locust, one of the buildings on my list.
The building, in the block West of my loft, will be divided into apartments. Looking forward to seeing this long-vacant building come back to life!
— Steve Patterson
A year ago the St. Louis Metropolitan Police moved from their old headquarters at Tucker & Clark to their new HQ on Olive, between 19th-20th. Back in April 2011 I wondered what would become of police-only parking on Clark between Tucker & 14th once the move happened. It seems nothing would happen.
The old police headquarters is, presumably, vacant. So who’s parking on Clark in spaces marked for “police vehicles only”? My guess is the police academy at Tucker & Spruce, just south of the old police HQ.
When the police left their old building the on-street parking on Clark should’ve become metered parking for the general public.
— Steve Patterson
Nearly three-quarters of readers think the 5-year exemptions from St. Louis’ smoking ban should expire, as scheduled, after January 1, 2016. Nobody selected the option to repeal the ban altogether.
Here are the results from the Sunday Poll:
Q: Small bars were exempted from St Louis’ smoking ban for 5 years, it expires in January. What should happen:
I agreed with the one “other” answer that casinos should also be smoke-free. I’m going to email this to all the aldermen, but I ask you to contact your alderman as well. Please contact them to let them know the exemptions shouldn’t be extended.
Click here to find your alderman.
— Steve Patterson
Yesterday’s post was about the bike lanes on Chouteau that aren’t there…yet. While I was photographing the absence of bike lanes late last month I noticed something else as I crossed Chouteau at Tucker. The annoying pedestrian crosswalk buttons aren’t next to the curb ramp where they should be.
Pedestrian buttons should be reachable from the ramp, not 20 feet away! Personally I don’t think pedestrians should have to seek out and press button to get a walk signal — they should be automatic. Imagine driving and having to know just where to stop at a red light to give you a green light.
Pedestrian buttons are great for the sight-impaired. If done properly, once activated, it’ll verbally announce to the user when the walk sign is on and that it’s ok to cross. The rest of us shouldn’t have to press a button to get a walk signal.
Chouteau is maintained by MoDOT, I’ll alert them and the city about this.
— Steve Patterson
Last Monday I posted a detailed look at the new semi-protected bike lane on Chestnut Street, today a follow up to a January 2009 post on the narrowest bike lane. As was the case six+ years ago, the latest Bike St. Louis map (web | Scribd) shows bike lanes on both sides of Chouteau. Some say it had bike lanes at one time, but MoDOT restriped Chouteau and did away with them. What I saw in January 2009 was two solid white lines in the Westbound direction — they remained when I visited again on July 23rd.
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Todd Antoine, from Great Rivers Greenway, told me MoDOT is starting now to resurface Chouteau, when finished it’ll be striped with dedicated bike lanes. The map available in January 2009 also showed dedicated bike lanes, I don’t know what maps in between indicated.
Given the road width I expect to see a reduction in the number of travel lanes from four to two, which shouldn’t be a problem given our light traffic. Still, it’ll likely upset those who want lots of wide lanes for cars.
— Steve Patterson
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