Urban Review Turns Two Today!

Two years ago today I started blogging here at Urban Review and it has been a terrific ride so far. I started the blog as my father returned home after spending several weeks in the hospital after a heart attack. That entire month I could not focus on anything, until I began writing. Urban Review has given me new a focus and purpose. I had no idea, at the beginning, how life changing this blog would be for me.

I started with my own hosting that Halloween two years ago and on November 19, 2004 joined the STLSyndicate collection of St. Louis made blogs. I had 13 visits on that day! In December 2004, the first full month on the Syndicate, I had 1,086 unique visitors (distinct IP addresses), 3,649 visits and 11,179 page views. I was thrilled. After today the unique visitors for this month will exceed 20,000, visits have already topped 50,000 and page views will be over 120,000. If only St. Louis’ population could grow at such a rate.

In this last two years I’ve done over 900 posts and you’ve given feedback to the tune of 6,000+ comments!!! I’ve learned so much more about St. Louis and its people in the last two years than in the prior 14 living here. In researching and writing these hundreds of posts I have gained greater knowledge about so many areas of planning and design. Your comments have also helped build my base of understanding.

I’m quite happy to report that everyone says, “I don’t agree with you 100% of the time.” Some never agree and some may get to the high 90s but that is what makes this great — the ability to discuss issues and disagree. This means we are all thinking as individuals. Well, I take that back, I think some are still in the group mindset (aka ‘The Establishment’) but their numbers are dwindling and our numbers are rising.

The discussion of urbanism has really taken off in St. Louis and I’ll a part of the credit. Kudos also go out to other sites such as the Urban St. Louis forums, The Ecology of Absence and most recently Steve Wilke-Shapiro’s 15thWardSTL. Add in a healthy dose of political coverage from Antonio French at PubDef and you can see why the firm Civic Strategies in Atlanta wrote:

What does it say about St. Louis that it is nurturing the best urblogs in the country? Perhaps simply that somebody cares in River City.

We do care. We care enough to shape the city the way we want it to be, not the way the suburban developers and their bought politicians have been doing for decades. My readership spans all age groups, all races, economic classes and municipal boundaries. Even those that disagree with me on nearly every subject are here because the issues raised are important for a society to air in public. For too long many topics simply were left untouched by the public.

In the last two years I’ve managed to make a name for myself, although that was never the purpose. The purpose, however, has shifted. I do have access to people and places that even a year ago I did not. I’m not using my access like some do: posing for photos with big wigs, attending fancy parties with free food & drink or free tickets to a Cardinals game. No, I’m using this access to obtain documents to further the urbanist cause, to bend ears about bike racks, sidewalks, the need for new zoning, and to push & prod those in seats of power off the fence. The joy in seeing constructive change is all the personal gain I need. So while self-proclaimed “progressive aldermen” wine and dine at Anheuser-Busch sponsored parties I hope that together the rest of us can actually reclaim the city — taking back the city one public right-of-way at a time.

The next two years should interesting. I will be continuing to work on a Masters in Urban Planning and Real Estate Development at Saint Louis University. With this education will bring increased knowledge and even more ability to give critical analysis of issues. Papers and projects throughout will focus on St. Louis and I will be publishing them here. Despite my time spent in grad school I am beginning to layout a road map for the year ago. Like a magazine or newspaper would do, I am thinking about dates and events for the coming year and researching information for future posts. In November I will be organizing those that have volunteers to be “Ward Advisors” so that we can take a closer look at issues in the city.

A number of people have said I have simply been scratching the surface. This is true. In many cases I’ve been simply a small pest — a gadfly. I will continue scratching around on many different topics but I also hope to dig a little deeper into a few. This will likely come as part of my grad school research. But I also hope to root out some of the more problematic in local government. Recently we’ve seen resignations of St. Peters’ mayor and Berkeley’s city manager, both over issues of corruption. In the case of the mayor of St. Peters, he claims he was seeking a “contribution” from a city contractor. Thankfully, this contractor went to the FBI who helped document the request for money in exchange for not vetoing legislation to hire the firm. Sadly, many contractors in St. Louis seem willing to give large sums of money to our local officials. You can call me a conspiracy theorist but I can’t help but think some of these deals are just not on the up and up. Should the evidence ever come my way, I will not hesitate for a second to expose anyone in office or any local company of such wrong doing. I get whispers of stuff here and there but nothing concrete that I can prove. OK, enough politics.

In February I turn 40. Ugh. What happened to that idealistic 23 year-old that moved to St. Louis in 1990? Time goes by so quickly. A couple of weeks ago I attended the visitation for a former employer who died at age 50 of cancer. He went from diagnosis to death in three months. We will all die at some point but we just don’t know when. I have a feeling my 40s will be great, I will have a new degree and new career choices, but I’m not willing to wait until my mid 50s to have more a more urban St. Louis. I want it now. For example, I will continue to push for modern streetcars which are roughly half the cost of light rail. Local funding of such a system would eliminate costly federal requirements, shaving years off the project completion date. Getting new leadership in place and changing our zoning will all be efforts toward creating an urban city again. Ending the reign of suburban sprawl entering the city limits from the likes of Desco and Pyramid will be paramount to our city’s future.

I will continue on with Urban Review as I have the last two years. Bringing you issues as I see them and then allowing you to agree or disagree. I greatly appreciate your readership and feedback. I truly believe that together we are having a positive affect on the future of St. Louis. To those that don’t want to change I have just one word for you, Boo!