On December 12th I told you an announcement was coming in January for the Gateway Mall (see post). Well, Monday was the day with a press conference on the 12th Floor of the lovely Civic Courts building — between 11th and Tucker smack dab in the middle of the Gateway Mall. The big announcement? Nothing!
Despite claims of new items by Rollin Stanley, the city’s Director of Planning who is taking a new job in the DC region next month, we already knew about the 2-block sculpture garden. That would be the one announced before the city asked the public for feedback on the master plan for the too long space (see post from June 11, 2007). We also knew that The Lawrence Group was looking at doing a couple of blocks around their project, The Park Pacific.
Did the Lawrence Group get funding worked out to do those two blocks? Nope. Maybe someone else stepped up to do another area? Nope. Perhaps something new to announce around the sculpture garden? Nope. Well, Mayor Slay indicated a couple of pieces have been purchased by the Gateway Foundation but that doesn’t justify a news conference.
But I was there and took photos and video so I put together a 10-minute video which includes various speakers as well as a collection of images taken from the 12th floor promenade at Civil Courts:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSZoUEL_aCM[/youtube]
CD’s were handed out with the Master Plan on them in a single PDF file. Interestingly the cover and the file on the CD both indicate October 2007. Again, nothing new, although I don’t recall them having the full document available before. Still, I think they’ve had it for months and held onto it until now to drag this into 2008 and timed it just before Stanley’s departure. The city has the PDF available at http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/planning/gatewaymall/STLouisGatewayMallMasterPlan.pdf.
The conceptual plan still has lots of bells and whistles — lots of little activity centers strung together by a sidewalk that is supposed to draw us along the path for blocks and blocks. These unfunded spaces will be so compelling that we will get international attention — people will come from all over the world just to see them. Well, maybe a few blocks will get that sort of attention. They are also supposed to draw loft residents, like myself, over to the mall. Unfortunately, that is time where we are not over on Washington, Locust or in other places downtown spending money in shops and restaurants.
Stanley brought out the late 60s argument that we have too many streets — talking about how little space is green relative to street pavement. Their solution is not to narrow Chestnut, as should be done, but close it entirely. The plan also calls for the removal of short term on-street parking along the North side of Market. Taking the place of on-street parking will be a bike lane — a two direction bike lane. A curb will separate cars on Market from an 8ft wide bike lane. Still, a bike lane is not something you can do two blocks at a time so I have to wonder what will become of that space along the sculpture park in the meantime? Will they remove the parking now and do a temporary bike lane without the protection of the curb? The big issue is creating traffic signals in such a way that permit cyclist movement that is not in conflict with turning vehicles. In such a relatively short distance, I think the 2-way bike lane will prove to be another failed experiment.
The press conference offered me a chance to get my camera to the top of the building to take advantage of some great views. But next time guys, actually have something new to share.
