What Happened To The CBD Traffic Study?
A month ago I posted the following from the mayor’s blog:
Next week, Downtown Now staff will begin inviting downtown’s businesses, entertainment venues, residents, and other stakeholders to participate in the Traffic Circulation and Access Study being conducted by the City, in partnership with Downtown Now, the Downtown St. Louis Partnership, and the Office of the City Treasurer.
It has been a month and I’ve yet to find someone that has been asked to participate in the study. Has anyone seen the questionnaire? If so please let me know.
The mayor’s site from July 5th said: “Downtown Now is currently conducting a stakeholder survey designed to evoke input on these issues from downtown’s customers.” Could they have jumped the gun on the announcement?
My pessimistic side thinks the “study” is being performed in a vacuum — given only to those pre-determined to give the correct responses of “I love one-way streets” or “We can’t have parking on Washington Avenue because it will slow traffic.”
Recent Posts on Traffic & Parking — mostly Washington Avenue:
> July 20, 2005: New Poll on Washington Avenue Parking
> July 18, 2005: Observations and Traffic Counts on St. Louis’ Washington Avenue
> July 15, 2005: Downtown Partnership’s Jim Cloar Takes Action to Keep Parking off Washington Avenue
> July 5, 2005: Mayor’s Office Shares Details About the CBD Traffic/Access Study
> July 3, 2005: New St. Louis CBD Traffic Study
> July 1, 2005: East Washington Avenue: To Park or Not To Park?
> December 28, 2004: New Washington Avenue Streetscape Falls Short of Expectations
– Steve
I haven’t received my survey yet.
And you’ve reminded me — in the category of “what happened to?” — does anyone know the status of the huge downtown wi-fi zone that was announced, it seems like, two years ago? I think 02 Connect was doing it, with the mayor’s office running point, but it seems to have dropped off the radar.
I received a letter the other day from Barb Geisman, responding to an email I sent the mayor about the parking situation. She said she believes CDG, the company that designed the stretch recomended against parking. The letter goes on to say that she is sending a copy of the letter to me to Otis Williams, so he can obtain CDG’s rationale for no parking, and to see if parking could be possible, and get the pros and cons of each. Then it says she will respond more fully when a response is received from CDG. The letter was copied to Slay, Rainford, Rodney Crim, Otis WIlliams, and Rollin Stanley. Who knows what will happen, but at least I got a response.
I haven’t heard anything about the traffic study itself either, though.
thanks matt for posting that. unfortunately it pisses me off even more. Maybe I’m off base here, but it seems to me that Barb is the one overseeing all the sub-departments relating to development in the city- they may not coordinate with each other, but they report to her. and thus, she should be more informed.
also, regarding the traffic study. over at urbanstl.com someone from The Bottle District posted this, “Both Pinnacle and us are working with the city to do some “manuvering” of the current traffic flow around the Dome – nothing in stone yet.”
Margie, I think once Chris Dornfeld left Room 200, that project may have fallen off the radar screen. Now I think Barb is responsible for it, as she is for so many other things…