Earth Moving at the Old Sears Site on Grand
Via 15thWardSTL.org comes news that some activity is taking place on the old Sears Site, the very one Pyramid had hoped to switch for a McDonald’s.
Pyramid has started pushing dirt around on the former Sears site in preparation for construction of their proposed Senior Housing apartments. They appear to have staked out the corners of the building (perhaps in preparation for soil testing). At this time they do not have a building permit (per Geo St. Louis), nor have they appeared in front of the Board of Public Service for any variances.
It looks like we are continuing our pattern of pushing projects through the system with little public input. Ald. Jennifer Florida’s last update on her blog was October 27, 2006 — just shy of two months. Where is all the planning for South Grand? Where is the input from citizens on the future of our commercial corridors? Seems like as soon as the pressure is lifted in this town things go back to “normal.”
This project apparently has been funded by MHDC http://www.mhdc.com/notices/2007/2007_Rental_Production_Funding.pdf
It means drawings, budgets and all information has been submitted to the Missouri Housing Development Commission or MHDC
As I posted on 15thward.org:
where/when/how/why did the MHDC get involved? I don’t remember them being mentioned prior to this, but logic leads me to think that they have been in the loop for a few months to get funding approval.
Going back to normal? Or going on with development? Your piece lifts from the 15thward only the information that you wish to use to support your negative view that Florida disregards public opinion, hasn’t updated her website, and development is pushed through with no thought to public opinion. You failed to site the additional paragraph that also states moving dirt around is normal before plans are submitted for field testing, etc.
Why couldn’t you just say there was no information available on Florida’s site? I would agree that I think there should at least be a monthly update on anyone’s website, and more so for a public position such as Alderman, but that issue has been hashed already. You continue to use negative subjective comments about the leaders and area. I hold my breath for when you post something positive, or go after the other parts further south of South Grand/Gravois that have no plans, no development going on, etc etc.
You often push for a mix use of development that has residential and commercial. It would seem to me that adding residential to this section of Grand is in bringing that to the mix. In other words, that section of Grand is all commercial, there is no residential. The senior community would add that. Or are you upset because this type of residential development won’t be of the style (not old-style brick/terra cotta), won’t be of the proper type of residents (non young urban professionals), or just because they didn’t listen to you?
Don’t get me wrong Steve, you often post thought provoking comments (or I wouldn’t be responding so many times), sometimes you raise some very good issues, other times, I think you beat a dead horse, and other times I think you just go on and on with negativity (such as anything related to Florida).
I would prefer to know now if Pryramid was planning something like Sullivan Place at that site. As far as I can tell, the lack of publicity for a project precedes the public finding out what kind of horror is already too far advanced in planning to be stopped. How often have we seen that happen?
This is a prominent site and the public should at least get to see what’s going there.
I love the idea of senior housing in an urban setting. I’m just not sure Pyramid understands urban structures.
Here’s a question: if “urbanity” is so great, why do most Americans aspire to live in the suburbs?
Or do you fascists think that everyone should be required to live where you think they should?
Quite a question indeed there, Com. I really go by what most of America likes to decide what’s great. In fact, I use your exact logic to know what the truly great things are on this earth.
If “The Wire” is such a great show, how come more americans watch American Idol. I mean, c’mon Steve!
Most Americans chose to live in the suburbs because government policy has dictated that is the way to develop the land. It is impossible to describe the history of the city here, both recent and over thousands of years. The real fascists are in government. People today are simply looking to apply democratic principles, especially when government money is involved. In any case if people decide to live in the suburbs, then have at it! Meanwhile there are people in the city who aspire to more than the mindless consumer, auto sick culture than so many Americans have been sucked into.
While the day of reckoning may be a little ways off, the time will come when the abhorrent wastefulness of this society comes back to haunt if not destroy us.
History will view this age as one filled with small minded people who have little appreciation for the world they live in.
Why open this to public opinion? The public cannot decided anything. They are clearly ignorant.
The lack of transperency in government and the lack of involvement of the public is how we got to this point in the first place. Just as the Iraq War was shoved down the throats of Americans, many other policies have been forced on Americans. Otherwise why have any discussion, why have blogs?, just let the government continue to manipulate society for the benefit of a few people. That to a large extent is what is happening now.
Democratic principles need to be applied on Grand Avenue and throughout St. Louis. It is not the public that is ignorant, rather government policy and it’s application that is ignorant. That’s the real issue.
Democratic principles are exactly what you fascists despise, unless the people have decided to agree with you, that is unless they have bought into your hipster “urbanity.” People have voted with their feet and their dollars, and they have voted for cars, and for suburbs, and for a way of life that you are equally free to disagree with. But rather than just disagreeing, you fascists seek to command the decisions that others should make. That ain’t democracy.
And as for the federal highway system leading to mass suburbinzation, that favorite bugaboo of the “urbanist” set: people didn’t just move to the suburbs because highways and tax policies made it cheaper (and that is YOUR gross oversimplification of what happened), they moved there in no small part because they found a way of life that they thought was better. Now, you may disagree, and that’s your right, but you don’t get to tell them what to do.
Now, I’ll give you that sometimes the people make bad decisions, but that’s their right. You have a right to convince them otherwise. Maybe you’re doing it with this blog, I don’t know; most of the time it seems like an echo chamber.
It would be a moot point to argue the validity of the proposal today but, as someone one familiar with the MHDC process, government funding is not actually a behind the scenes or dark rooms process. It is really public.
Go to the Missouri Housing Development Commission and you will find how secret the process for funding really is. The Commission published a Notification of Funding Availability on August 21 asking for proposals to be submitted. A list was posted in October stating that the Pyramid proposal had been submitted to the commission to meet the Oct. 19 deadline.
Public hearings were held in St. Louis at 6 p.m., Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at the Renaissance St. Louis Airport Hotel where every who wanted to comment about the proposal could.
A file was posted on Dec. 8 that showed the MHDC staff had recommended the proposal for funding and asked the Commission to approve the funding with some 38 other proposals during the Dec. 15 meeting. Objections or affirmations of the proposal could have been presented at any time to the Commission before that time.
Not only was it open to public discussion, it remained that way from mid-October to mid-December. I am not privy to these proposals but I know they are usually are submitted to the Commission in a 3 to 5 inch binder filled with hundreds of pages of information regarding the proposal that include an independent market study, support letters from local elected officials, detailed descriptions of the entire proposal and on and on and on.
Hardly secret.
[UrbanReviewSTL — Go back and read the very long history. The tax credits have been around for a long time — in fact the state board awarded them to Pyramid in advance of the calendar year — a new first as I understand it.
I quote what makes sense and then link to the full post for you and others to read. South Grand further south doesn’t have much going on, either way. The part in the 25th has not be screwed up like the part that is now in the 15th (not Florida’s fault, just saying).
But you missed the point entirely, I haven’t seen enough of the new design to know if I like it or not. We need to know more.]
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Actually if you go to MHDC’s web site, you will find that this year’s funding (for 2007) announcements are the third year in a row that the funding approvals were done before the first of the next year. It also happened for 2005 and 2006 funding.
mkgsxf-
You might want to look into the political contributions of John Steffen to Matt Blunt.
Blunt appoints the MHDC commission.
It would have been helpful for the notice of the public meeting to have been posted on the alderman’s website. I wonder if she even knew about it.
Com you’re not under attack by anyone. This is about the betterment of communities we care about. I think you may have misspelled ‘freerepublic.com” in the address bar.
What happened to daring young John Steffen?
Once he set trends, now he’s behind them clinging to heavily-subsidized megaprojects of questionable urbanity.
I find it funny that people who are urging democratic discussion of the policies in the urban environment are called fascists.
After 50 years of shoving policies down the throats the American people there is finally a challenge to the way things are done in this society and somehow that democratic challenge, the right of free speech, is characterized as fascist. It seems to me the real fascists are those who want to keep things the way they are, who complain about anyone who dares to speak against the status quo.
Here is an antidote that demonstrates the mediocrity of leadership and policy formation in St. Louis.
Stockholm Sweden realized suburban development was going to occur in the fifties; they devised a plan where train lines radiated out from the center like fingers on a hand. This left green space between the suburban developments. So today fully 70% of the traffic into the center is on mass transit, in addition the people have the benefit of easy access to green space. Truly it is government policy concerned about the health and welfare of the people. The government of Sweden is concerned about the happiness of the people.
Compare this to the chaos of St. Louis. Highway 40 is to be tore up for 3 years, there is not even a mass transit system in place that would allow as much as 70% of the populace to travel to the center of St. Louis. Once more MoDot and EWGCC did not even provide funding for new bus lines to accommodate citizens trying to travel to the center while Highway 40 was tore up. There is a clear lack of concern for the welfare of the people by government policy makers. Either they are incompetent or more interested in serving a narrow corporate interest group. In any case the people of St. Louis will be faced with the chaos of poor urban policy.
If criticizing this incompetence is called fascist by mouthpieces of the status quo, then the situation is more dangerous than I thought.
I would take my fascist urban life over that of glorified suburbia anyday. Here in urbania I know my neighbors, their children, their birthdays, and on and on….in suburbia you’re lucky if you know more than one or two of your neighbors and you only meet them when you wheel the trash to the curb.
Steve and I may have disagreements over the details, but I think most readers on here want the city living experience and want to see the city be better than it is because it CAN be better than it is.