The Mayor of Affton?
J. Patrick O’Brien recently declared victory in the April 4th general elections as Mayor of Affton. What is funny about this is despite the huge number of municipalities within St. Louis County, Affton is not one of them. Like Lemay, Affton is a portion of unincorporated St. Louis County. These areas, although not separate towns or cities, have a strong history and local identity.
I’ve enjoyed reading the blog of “mayor” J. Patrick O’Brien as he declared his candidacy, created yard signs and such. Sometimes he just injects a bit of humor and other times he is commenting on real issues in his bit of the region.
O’Brien, as Affton’s (un)official Mayor, is far kinder than I would be about development. For example, a recent post talks about how QuikTrip has moved a bit further west on Gravois:
It was before my time, but another Afftonian says that they fought very hard to get the “wedge” corner at Gravois & Siebert. My source tells me that the old location ended up being a bad layout and when the new parcel became available they jumped at the chance to get more space. As you can see in the second photo, the new layout is nice and spacious such as you normally see at their other locations.
Nice? Spacious? Let’s see, they probably strong-armed someone into selling their properties on the wedge where they’ve been for the last 10 years or so and now have left it vacant while they build an even bigger (read: sprawling auto-centric) location. You can see his post for pictures. Maybe during the campaign QuikTrip gave O’Brien a free slurpee?
What I love about O’Brien’s attitude and resulting site is that he is taking charge and talking about issues in a specific area of region. Maybe we’ll see him on the actual St. Louis County Council someday…
– Steve
Slurpees are at 7-11. QuikTrip’s sell “Chilly Willies”.
The old wedge QT was a good landmark if you ever wanted to visit the Oakland House, prettiest spot in Affton.
Steve,
Normally, I would agree with you on the issue of sprawl, and auto centric issues. In the city. Affton isn’t anything resembling a walkable community, nor could it be, without a wholesale redevelopment of the entire area. Moreover, Gravois, as the main corridor, is too damn long to be walkable. There isn’t anything wrong with what QT did then, or what they are doing now. Having grown up in Affton, they have several things to worry about, including the quality of the Affton and Bayless school districts. ANY development at this point is a positive. Urban or not. IF Metrolink ever goes south, I’d like to see it jog down 55 and help create a TOD center in Affton, but that’s a long way off.
One of my cabinet members this morning directed me to visit your site. We here at the Mayor’s Office are tickled pink that we are worthy of consideration by Urban Review. Thank you. (The Mayor is a much bigger fan of QT’s Rooster Booster, BTW.)
Hey, now, that Affton Mayor guy is pretty much doing satire, best I can tell.
The QT at Gravois and Seibert replaced the bright-yellow complete with 70s smiley-face Burns Auto Body, who is still in business a few blocks east on Gravois.
Parts of Affton are actually more walkable than you might think. Yeah, much of it is 1930s and Post WWII subdivisions without sidewalks, but not everything.
Particularly in the Gardenville section, basically south and east of Gravois and close to the city limits, you’ll find some relatively dense blocks where a lot of Bosnians have moved in recent years – including those German-named streets like Oldenberg and Hanover.
My late grandmother lived in the 4900 block of Heege Road, a 1920s neighborhood with sidewalks! Well into her 70s, she still walked uphill to St. George Catholic Church at Gravois and Heege, or downhill to (now closed) American Legion Post 300. My mom, when she lived there, used to walk to Hampton and Gravois to catch buses. I did too, for a little while when I was taking care of grandma.
A fair number of kids still walk to Bayless schools.
I don’t think those areas would be impossible to retrofit for transit-oriented dev. But if the line runs along the BNSF corridor instead, yeah, it’s going through the heavily industrial and very suburban western part of Affton.
I hope it hits the eastern edge of affton. The M-Link coming in through Shrewsbury doesn’t make much sense.
I’m pleased to see many good comments here about Affton. This is precisely why the campaign and the blog were started! You are talking about Affton and that is exactly the point.
Where do “the people” get to have a say in Affton? We can vote for our reps, but that happens once in a blue moon. The Affton Chamber of Commerce is comprised of business owners who are largely deciding EVERYTHING on behalf of the residents. I don’t call that representation.
I have yet to go to the Affton Comm. Betterment meeting becuase they are usually held in the MORNING at Commerce Bank! I don’t call that getting representation either. (There is an evening meeting coming up.) Should we be denied any decision-making opportunities just because we decided to stay unincorporated? Certainly not.
I do have some fun with the topics, but who says politics have to be so serious and stuffy? Ceratinly that guy running the country isn’t taken too seriously, right?
I don’t have all the answers or the strong opinions that Patterson does, but I’m willing to listen to all sides of an issue and make a decision for the benefit of Affton. What more could you want in a Mayor?