Taxi Cabs Block Sidewalk at Convention Center, Exit Via Crosswalk
Today I was walking up and down Washington Avenue this morning checking out the parking situation and ran across another of those problems that I’d seen myself, and been reminded of by a reader, but never got around to documenting: Taxi cabs blocking the sidewalkl in front of our convention center.
Above is the Westbound view along Washington Avenue at 8th street. Other convention center entrances I’ve seen often have street vendors selling hot dogs and bottled water but not in St. Louis, we have cars!
Here is the same area seen from the opposite perspective, note the yellow taxi in the direct path of pedestrians. The wide area to the left is a circle driveway for dropping off people at the convention center, not a place we should expect pedestrians to be walking.
The taxis wait here as part of a designated taxi stand until called over by an attendant at the Renaissance Grand hotel show above, right. How do they get there? Yes, they exit via the pedestrian crossing shown above. Don’t believe me? Watch the video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRusfBYJ-_8[/youtube]
This is how visitors to our city are treated. No place to buy a snack or newspaper, US Bank’s ugly parking garage immediately across the street, taxi’s running you down in the crosswalk. And yet we wonder why this section of Washington Ave is not more lively.
The solution is rather simple actually. Set up the taxi stand on Washington Ave between 7th and 8th, moving the existing bus stop to the West of 8th but still in front of the convention center. Also allow parking on the opposite side of Washington next to the Renaissance Grand Hotel. A few spaces could be short-term spaces (15-30 minutes) for those running into Starbucks or Kinkos). The rest would serve the general area. At the end of that block An American Place restaurant could have 60ft or so for valet. Back at 7th and Washington I’d set up a single short-term space immediately adjacet to the visitor’s center.
As you might expect, I will be bringing this matter to the attention of the St. Louis Metropolitan Taxicab Commission, the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, the Downtown St. Louis Partnership, 7th Ward Alderman Phyllis Young and the Slay administration.
Update 1/12/07 – 12:15pm — for those that don’t know, I’m a big country music fan. This situation and the one from last week with city employees parking on the sidewalk along 14th (see post) reminds me of the recent hit song by Jason Aldean, “Hicktown”:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4_hCdNwvO0[/youtube]
Welcome to St. Louis, a hicktown on the Mississippi.
Thanks Steve! I tried to address this issue three years ago with the convention center poobah (Bruce somebody — a very nice man) and only got so far as them limiting cabs to two or three at a time there. They used to have five or six cabs in that space at a time.
Adding to the problem is that there is no clear identification of where the sidewalk is. I guess that’s because it really doesn’t exist there — it becomes a driveway!
Good luck … and keep getting results.
This is one of the most surreal videos I have seen on any blog in a long time. Did that driver actually occupy pedestrian space then use a pedestrian crosswalk?
Keep fighting the system Steve! I cannot believe this is common practice! Without the eyes and ears of those dedicated few, these roadblocks to progress would remain. Those in power will not address our problems alone. Citizen-leaders must be involved in policy decision making and review.
Steve, You hit the “St. Louis problem” right on the nail. That is, we have lost our sense of being a great metropolitan region. The average St. Louisan has been conditioned to believe that it’s all about avoiding the city and the older suburbs as much as possible, letting them deteriorate as “obsolescent”. As a result our mind-set has changed from being a small big city to being a big small town. It really hits you when you visit more progressive smaller cities, and envy their creative approach to revitalizing their downtowns and neighborhoods.
A few comments and ideas:
1. The US Bank garage realy does kill the area across from the convetion center. If Pyramid ever does get STL Center and the Dilliards completed, then I think the City should seriously put presure on US Bank to at least give the garage a reskin and see about a vender or two on the ground floor.
2. While I like the idea of on street parking all along Washington, I am not sold on your taxi stand idea. Considering how St. Charles Street has been abandoned and ignored between 8th and 9th streets, doesn’t making both sides or at least one side of St. Charles as the designated taxi stand make more sense? I mean there are two ways to think about it. A) the Taxi stand is right next to both the Mayfair and the Renissance and B) If people really must have their taxi pull through the front circle drive, then the 1-way streets work out perfectly for that (St. Charles to 9th to Washington to 8th). I think this is a much better idea and would allow more space on Washington for the general public to park.
Boy if this video was an indication of being a hicktown then OK, let’s party! Yes the StL region is incredibly autocentric and anti-pedestrian but calling it a hicktown is throwing mud in the eye of locals who brag about being the “biggest small town in America”. We need to put the brakes on this disregard for pedestrians and cyclists ASAP and enlightened the public and local leadership. We need more sidewalks, bike paths, bike lanes and improved law enforcement. It’s just not the sidewalks under assault but on everyone who is not driving a car. My children in walking to school know not to trust crosswalks and walk signs as MetroLink buses and cars run red lights… every day! I wish Critical Mass was more evident here.
That US Bank garage can’t have significant retail in its current configuration, because the corner space provides ventilation to the MetroLink tunnel. It’s built partly on air rights, partly on solid ground. That tunnel has been in place for, what, 130 years now? The garage was built in 1975 as part of the Mercantile Center development to account for that ventilation and emergency access requirement, first of the railroads and now of Metro.
While I agree the garage is incredibly ugly, I’d consider a rethink of the Convention Center entrance a higher priority. This taxi stand configuration has bothered me for years, too.
Also I don’t think MetroBuses are allowed to stop directly in front of the Convention Center on the north side of Washington (i.e., westbound). There are no stops between the one under the St. Louis Centre bridge and the one by 911 Washington on the westbound side.
Taxis wait to enter the taxi stand along the east side of 7th Street, next to St. Louis Centre’s backside. That’s their designated waiting area.
Of course all this (taxi stand, taxi pooling, and MetroBus stops) will probably have to change if Pyramid requires exterior scaffolding as part of the Centre redevelopment. Since the mall arcade extends to within 24″ or so of the curbline, they’d have to take up the parking lane on 7th — not to mention the mess that will be created with the demolition of the skybridge.
Surprisingly, this is an ideal location for some good small retail attached to the main convention center building. With the amount of space directly inside, it could be done rather easily. Most of the space directly on the other side isn’t used during conventions either. The garage is a disaster and nothing you can really do about that.
IMO, the single biggest thing you could do to improve downtown St Louis is to get developers to lower their rates on square footage with regard to store frontage. SF is outrageous right now and the potential for return isn’t that great. If building owners recognized the fact that good retail keeps a block intact…
Running a small biz in stl is difficult enough. If they found a couple of good biz tenants with good ideas, they would soon stop wondering why their fabulous 2 br lofts haven’t sold.
Steve, you are very right about the hick mentality.
That mentality has prevented any real built environment advocacy from getting established here. We have the timid AIA, complacent Landmarks, impotent Planning and Urban Design Agency and no real major media critics (even Robert Duffy basically gave up in his last few years at the Post).
It’s only recently with you, Ecology of Absence, the Urban St. Louis community and others that I’ve found any sense that maybe some people could organize opposition to the hideous visual culture our leaders — both in the establishment and loyal opposition — are forcing us to see.
Keep up the great work.