Highway On-Ramp Over Civic Center MetroBus Transit Center Reopened

Westbound ramps onto I-64, aka highway 40, are now reopened after being closed since late September:

Starting next Monday, drivers heading west from downtown will need to avoid the ramp from 14th Street to westbound I-64, as crews will close the ramp for two months to remove, repair and replace the driving surface.

Crews will close the ramp after 7 a.m. Monday, September 23. It is expected to reopen in mid-November. (MoDOT)

The ramp from 14th Street didn’t open in November, as originally planned. It reopened earlier this month.

This ramp was interesting as it goes over Metro’s Civic Center MetroBus Transit Center. It’ll be nice not having to go around all the barricades when going from bus to light rail, and vice versa.

New infrastructure is sexier, but it is far more efficient to maintain what we’ve already got — we can’t afford neglect and total replacement.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Should Missouri Eliminate Personal property Taxes?

It’s that time of year. Holiday parties, sure. But I’m talking about personal property taxes. Our bill is on our fridge with a calendar reminder. We pay online so we can wait until the last minute.

Our bill is significantly higher than previously because of the newer used car we bought in 2018.

At present, Missouri residents pay a yearly property tax on their vehicles. State Senator Bill Eigel from St. Charles County wants to put an end to that practice.

“I’ve been getting lots of feedback from my constituents, not only in St. Charles but around the St. Louis area, that are talking about the burden placed on households for having to pay for personal property tax on vehicles for a single year,” he said.

When the lawmakers go back to session in Jefferson City on January 8, Eigel said he will be working to get his bill out of committee and passed through the legislature so Missouri residents can vote on it. (Fox2)

This is the subject of today’s poll.

This poll will close at 8pm tonight.

— Steve Patterson

St. Louis Board of Aldermen: New Board Bills Week 26 of 2019-2020 Session

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen meet at 10am today, their 26th meeting of the 2019-2020 session. As previously noted, they have the first two meetings labeled as Week #1, so they list this as week/meeting 25.

Today is their last full meeting prior to winter break, they’ll resume January 10, 2020.

Today’s agenda includes four (4) new bills.

• B.B.#182 – Ingrassia/Coatar – An ordinance approving a Redevelopment Plan dated November 19, 2019 for the La Saison Scattered Sites Area.
• B.B.#183 – Roddy – An ordinance approving a Redevelopment Plan dated November 19, 2019 (“Plan”) for the 4500-4540 Swan Ave. and 1305 & 1305R South Taylor Ave. Area.
• B.B.#184 – NUMBER NOT USED THIS SESSION
• B.B.#185 – Coatar – An ordinance approving a Redevelopment Plan dated November 19, 2019 (“Plan”) for the 618-624 & 700- 702 North 2nd St. Area.
• B.B.#186 – Clark-Hubbard – An ordinance authorizing and directing the Fire Commissioner, to enter into and execute a Grant Agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, through the Missouri Department of Homeland Security, for the purpose of funding to support the Cybersecurity Coordinator position at the St. Louis Fusion Center, and to expend funds by entering into contracts or otherwise for grant purposes and containing an emergency clause.

The meeting begins at 10am, past meetings and a live broadcast can be watched online here. See list of all board bills for the 2019-2020 session — the new bills listed above may not be online right away.

— Steve Patterson

Missouri Is A Solid Red State

When I moved to Missouri in 1990 it was a swing state, a bellwether:

The Missouri bellwether is a political phenomenon that notes that the state of Missouri voted for the winner in all but three U.S. Presidential elections from 1904 to 2016 (the exceptions are 1956, 2008 and 2012). While states like Ohio, Nevada, Florida and New Mexico have been arguably stronger indicators of political trends in recent years, Missouri was a consistent swing state throughout the 20th century. Prior to the 2008 elections, Lincoln County, Missouri was said to be the only bellwether county in a bellwether state. (Wikipedia)

Missouri would go red or blue throughout the 20th century. However, the last time Missouri went blue was in 1996. The country went blue in 2008 & 2012, but Missouri stayed red. The 2008 election was very close in Missouri, but widened in 2012 & 2016.

Twentieth century bellwether, 21st century red state.  Here’s the results from the recent non-scientific Sunday Poll:

Q: Agree or disagree: The right Democratic nominee could turn Missouri from Red to Blue in the 2020 General Election

• Strongly agree: 4 [13.79%]
• Agree: 2 [6.9%]
• Somewhat agree: 2 [6.9%]
• Neither agree or disagree: 2 [6.9%]
• Somewhat disagree: 3 [10.34%]
• Disagree: 6 [20.69%]
• Strongly disagree: 9 [31.03%]
• Unsure/No Answer: 1 [3.45%]

Most agree with me — regardless of the Democratic nominee a majority of Missouri voters vote for Trump. Illinois, meanwhile, remains a safe blue state.

— Steve Patterson

Examining the St. Louis MLS Stadium Site Plan, Part 3

Today I continue my detailed look at the proposed Major League Soccer (MLS) stadium site plan and surroundings. In part 1 I looked at the stadium and practice fields to the south of Market Street. In part 2 I looked at the need for a pedestrian crossing at 21st & Olive, plus the development potential north of Olive.

Today I’ll look at the area east of the stadium, including 20th Street itself. As you can see above, the stadium is set back from 20th Street to create an urban plaza for events. The problem is the other side of 20th isn’t urban at all. It’s either an open plaza (Aloe Plaza) or surface parking.

Parking lanes are fine if the corners are “bulbed” to reduce crossing distances, but unacceptable if they’re marked as “no parking.” If the outside parking lanes aren’t going to be used for parking then the space needs to be sifted from unused roadway to pedestrian space. The site plan looks like it is trying to reduce crossing distance, hopefully we’ll get some detail soon on their plan for 20th.

A plaza across from a plaza. I’d like to see Aloe Plaza get completely redone — the 1939 Meeting of the Waters sculpture/fountain is the only thing significant about the two block space. At the 20th Street end I’d place a new park building with a restaurant and rooftop dining. This would help create a sense of urban feel at 20th & MarketChestnut.  Perhaps the space isn’t one restaurant, but several with shared dining space? A way to serve as restaurant incubator space for up & coming chefs?  A 2-story building is needed facing 20th between Market & Chestnut — food makes the most sense.

Back to 20th & Chestnut, specifically the block on the NE corner.

The only way to urbanize this is the same as the west end of Aloe Plaza — at least a 2-story building. This wouldn’t need to be deep, it could be a shallow liner building.

There’s nothing that jump-starts a place people will love to walk like liner buildings. It doesn’t matter whether you’re helping a place recover from sprawl or building a new neighborhood center; liner buildings get far more bang for the buck and make things possible today that would be completely impossible until years in the future using conventional mixed-use building types.

Liner buildings are very thin buildings that line the edge of a street, plaza, square, or other public space. They can be as little as 8-10 feet deep for retail uses and 12-14 feet deep if they include residential uses. They may be a single story high, or they may be several stories tall.

Liner buildings are a great way to build affordable housing, especially for those who don’t have a car.

Ideally the apartment owner would build underground or above grade structured parking for their tenants to make much better use of the large site. That said, no open parking garage should face Aloe Plaza — it should be closed with mechanical ventilation if across from the park. My guess is they won’t want to block views from the apartment’s windows. It could be great from an urban perspective, but would be challenging for a private for-profit owner.

The block to the north (bounded by Pine, 20th, Olive, and 19th) will likely see the most change in the next 10-20 years.

Like the other directions, there will be some who wish to raze & pave, others who want to go up. These are mutually exclusive as surface parking devalues land to the point it doesn’t pay to build up nearby.

The area to the east includes areas that need development, but current ownership means that might not occur for many years, if ever.  The next part will look at building back 22nd Street and the blocks to the west of the proposed soccer stadium.

— Steve Patterson