Congestion on Downtown…Sidewalks
There have been so many pedestrians downtown lately it is often impossible for me to fly down sidewalks in my wheelchair at high speed. I just want to get to the grocery store but a family is walking in front of me peering in store windows. Every direction more people in my way.
I couldn’t be happier.
This is my first summer as a downtown resident but I did spend a lot of time downtown in the couple of years prior to the move. It certainly feels like pedestrian traffic has picked up. Lots of dog walking. More strollers. Joggers. The cafe tables seem more full.
The diversity of the people is good too, all ages & races. Straight & gay. Renters & owners. Downtown residents, workers & visitors. For the first time in a long time I feel like I live in a real city.
When I first moved to St Louis in August of 1990 (18 years ago!) I lived in a high rise on Lindell. I’d walk to Straub’s for groceries and take evening walks up and down Euclid. The Central West End has enjoyed a comfortable urban existence for many years but is nice to see other parts of the regain lost pedestrian traffic.
Hopefully downtown, in time, will resume its former role as the employment and retail center of the region. With so many jobs and retail stores spread out this may be an impossible wish. The goal should be to make incremental gains each year.
A strong downtown will increase the desirability of neighborhoods in the rest of the city as well as older inner ring suburbs. Downtown living is not for everyone but downtown working & shopping reaches a broader audience. The big question is if we have the right people in positions to make this happen? To a degree it will happen on its own. Public Policy, however, can get in the way of market forces. One small example is the near ban on street food sold through vendor carts.
For the moment I’m going to enjoy all those pedestrians getting in my way.
We prefer the term runners and I don’t mind when people are in my way either. And let’s not forget the different
faiths that are no doubt represented by city life? I assume your list is not exhaustive.
Maybe the right people have been in charge, hence we have all this progress now? It certainly didn’t happen by itself!
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Getting all those vacant downtown warehouses converted into residential lofts was on the planning agenda of the City for years before the first investors started arriving.
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The city has been a key partner in the process, and deserves some recognition.
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Let’s celebrate that this time we can give credit to our city for getting it right!
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Part of good leadership is recognizing as many supporters as possible. The city has been a key supporter in this long term transformation.
Ya, Downtown neads to be the hub of the city if St. Louis is ever going to be a world class city. Not that Clayton is all bad, but I haven’t ever seen a world class city that looks like Clayton, they look alot more like Downtown.
Now all you need is a Wal·Mart Super Center in Ball Park Village! 😉
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Yeah, more pedestrians are a good sign. The real question, however, is are they just in the new loft areas (Washington & Locust) or are they further south, along Market, Chestnut, Olive, Pine and Broadway, as well? North of Delmar? Does this trend have staying power?
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Yes, we need need to celebrate the small successes, but we can’t get complacent, either. As the current 20%+ vacancy rate for downtown office space shows, combined with little new construction in that sector, the vision on downtown as a retail hub is very much dependent on a broad-based, healthy local economy, not one based on serving a relatively small (but growing) residential population and the vagaries of entertainment venues.
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Personally, as someone who gets downtown maybe a couple of times a month, I see two big, fundamental hurdles that need to be addressed before downtown can “resume its former role as the employment and retail center of the region”. One, paying to park, whether at a meter or in a garage, is a psychological, if not a real, hurdle when comparable shopping and work options offer “free” parking in the suburbs. Yes, in a perfect world, those costs wouldn’t be hidden in the suburbs, but hey, we don’t live in a perfect world. And two, the more you make the more the city earnings tax is a disincentive to working in the city, especially to the CEO’s who get to pick where their businesses (and their employees) are located. Combine that with the nearly 10% sales tax that city restaurants are now forced to collect, and the suburbs, even in their bland predictability, start having a lot more financial appeal!
[slp — fyi, downtown’s on-street parking is free on weekends.]
the Boy and I went to the Gelateria after the ball game on Thursday night. I was really surprised how much activity there was on the street, especially so late and so far west. We could hear music from several different clubs, and he wanted to stroll the sidewalks, to see what was going on. There were enough people out that I felt comfortable doing it. Very cool.
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JZ, I don’t think most suburbs seeking a similar demographic collect that much less in sales taxes. According to MO DoR, it’s about 0.5% difference between the City and Clayton and Richmond Heights. Not that much.
Good points Jim. Every major city requires a fee to park so I’m hoping that’s not too big of a turn-off. And personally, I don’t mind paying the 1% earnings tax, it makes me more connected to the City and I feel like I have a voice in its future. But I can see where a CEO may not feel that way.
Here’s my opinion on how the City can once again become the anchor of the ship. For all that is holy and righteous, will someone get the school system accredited!!? We sold our home last month and I looked at several homes in Soulard, Shaw, Tower Grove, etc. And I’m thinking what in the world and I’m going to do for education as we have four kids. It would cost $10,000 per year for Tower Grove Christian and Mr. money bags I am not. So you want to attract families, fix the schools and fix them yesterday. (Oh, and we did not purchase a home in the City.)
Trash. Everywhere…not just in the City but all over the state. I grew up in Vermont and while we may have our share of problems, you could drive through the entire state and not see one piece of trash on the ground. Okay, that’s not really going to make the City a hub again but trash ticks me off to no end.
I work on the corner of Spruce and Tucker (Federal building) and my lunch time runs take me north to Cass, St. Louis Ave; South to the Brewery and West to St. Louis University…and all points in between. I only see heavy foot traffic along the Washington Ave corridor, some in Soulard, and some in Lafayette Park but overall it’s pretty quiet.
Off-topic: I saw in the USA Today that Missouri has toll roads, news to me. Is this true? If so, could someone enlighten me to the location(s) in this state that it exists. Thank you.
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I am assuming this is a case of poor reporting, as they cite the Turnpike Association as the only source.
There is a bridge at the Lake of the Ozarks that is tolled.
I live in the city and work in Clayton, so I pay the city earnings tax out of choice, because I want to live in the city (it’s a tax, so it’s not something I enjoy, but it’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make). My point is based on conversations with many of my coworkers – the earnings tax is not well liked by people who have a choice in the matter, and it does tend to steer county businesses away from relocating to the city. The same goes for paying for monthly parking (outside of Clayton) – it’s a cost of doing business that needs to be factored into the equation – either the company pays for it to keep their employees or their employees have to pay, and it’s viewed, correctly, as a pay cut.
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For many people, working and/or living in an urban environment is worth the “price of admission”. And as John Daly pointed out, paying for schools is another major hurdle for anyone with school-age kids (I’m not one of ’em, so it’s not on my radar). But there will be a tipping point where the added costs simply aren’t worth it, and other locations will be chosen for purely pragmatic financial reasons. I want St. Louis to succeed, so I’m not trying to find excuses for failure. Rather, I want to identify the impediments, both real and perceived, so that they can be addressed. And the reality is that people’s financial situations evolve over time – it’s easier to be urban when you don’t have the responsibilities that kids bring, which makes downtown living more attractive to both recent graduates and empty nesters than it does for soccer moms.
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Finally, we all need to remember that St. Louis, the city, is much, much more than its downtown core. Success there is a good thing, but it can’t be the sole focus of our leaders. We’re a city of neighborhoods, and too many continue to struggle. A stronger downtown can (and likely will) have some positive impacts further out, but the reality is that “the desirability of neighborhoods in the rest of the city” is more closely tied to the qualities of the neighborhoods themselves, and their adjacent neighborhoods, than to what’s happening on the “other side of town”, which, for many folks, includes downtown. I live in the Lindenwood Park area. My “world” is more focused on places like Manchester, S. Kingshighway, S. Grand, Maplewood and the Delmar Loop than on downtown – these places are all closer and do a great job of meeting my day-to-day needs. I don’t want to detract from downtown’s incremental successes, but I also don’t want my ‘hood neglected to achieve those successes . . .
I have noticed this increase as well. The key that is driving the return of pedestrians is mixing high density residential in amongst the other uses downtown. The most active pedestrian areas have workers and visitors on the sidewalks during the day and residents and in the evening. You have to have both to make it lively all the time.
My wife and I occasionally head to Clayton in the evening for a Fatted Calf burger, and it blows me away how dead the streets are after 6pm… because there are no residents in the core of downtown Clayton.
I would guess that on a non-sports event night that South of Market is pretty dead at night as well, but this will change when residents move into Cupples 7, 8, and 9, and if residential is ever built at the Ballpark Village. Some areas of Downtown west of 14th are not as active in the daytime because there is not a large amount of office in the area (or hotels) and more residential. Conversly the financial district between Old Post Office Square and 4th Street is not as active at night due to lack of residential. Integrating a good balance of uses in all areas of Downtown is what is needed.
As for parking, Downtown should implement single pay stations on each block face… who carrys change these days anyway? This could allow retailers or restaurants to give parking credit to patrons who make a purchase. Downtown department stores used to validate parking long ago, maybe this would help people get past the paying for parking issue in terms of Downtown being a retail/restaurant destination.
Interesting point Vanishing STL:
While I may be a bit biased to central pay stations for parking as I sell them for a living, the city did install a few next to the Farmers Market. Unfortunately those are not very efficient for the purposes that are outlined in the original bid prospectus. For the sake of brevity and perhaps I shouldn’t, I will not go into details.
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But if interested I could go into how pay stations would be beneficial to this exact scenario you indicate in validating parking along the street. There is enough case study to indicate that the cost/benefit analysis is close to 30% or higher in real revenue over that which is currently received.
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I would love nothing more than to describe what I am communicating to the city. If interested, a scaled down version can be seen at the soon to be operational SLU lots behind Grand Center.
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While at the higher end in acquisition costs, the units that I think beneficial to the city are completely customizable to the needs of this area, so if you would like me to explain more I would.
In order for downtown to become more vibrant, I think that you have to attract more businesses. Downtown needs to attact those businesses that move into the office buildings on the outer road of highway 40 or in the industrial park off highway 70 near the airport. I think many people though that work in those offices also live out in the County. Most people don’t want to commute long distances to work.
Thus I agree with the person above, you have to fix the schools in order to get a large segment of the population to move into the city. If people were to live in the city, they would more likely want to work close by, shop, eat at restuarants etc.
I lived at one time in the Central West End. I now live Washington, DC on Capitol Hill. I live in a row house eight blocks from where I work so I can walk to work and shop nearby. In DC, there has been a large shift in people moving back into the district. A lot are professionals and young families like mine. We plan to stay when our kids hit school age (may be Catholic schools). The main focus of the new mayor here has been to solve the shool problem and it just may work. DC has a lot to offer downtown. But, I think the City of St. Louis has a lot as well, such as a large stock of historic homes and buildings, and potentially a great riverfront. St. Louis needs to keep building on the excitement that the city can offer, compared to Chesterfield.
There was a street vendor on 8th and Chestnut a couple years ago who made excellent burgers and hot dogs. Decent guy. The first year he had a line for two hours around lunch from SBC and BofA employees. Then some lady mentioned his burgers were too spicy. He changed the recipe and voila the lines disappeared. After only two years, he was gone and went back to the daily grind. So sad.
That said, he had to pay quite a bit for a permit which gave him essentially the entire area covered by the new “sculpture garden”. That seemed fair to a degree since he was paying to keep competition out and manage his market. I would still like to see one vendor every couple blocks with different food. Why no kabob or gyro stands? Cheap street food is a great incentive to get people out of their company cafeterias and onto the streets.
For street food utopia, visit Portland, Oregon. Whole ground level parking lots have developed a squatter culture where small trailer kitchens serve up the most diverse menu of delights I have seen anywhere. A picture can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51776830@N00/809139377/in/set-72157600740743623/
It is great walking is better around your home. I was downtown several times in the past few days and saw the sculpture park is underway.
Beyond that questionable effort, if you look at one building, the KSDK Channel 5 Building you swill see that it is anti green, anti sustainable, anti walkable, anti urban, anti city around the whole perimeter. Most of the building is blank facades or vehicle puking stations ( I mean parking of course). Even the entrance is detached from the street so that the casual pedestrian feels disconnected and in disarray.
Given the fact that St. Louis is the demolition Queen, I would say the KSDK building should be the first to go, it is inhumane and a dead zone. Pedestrians merely are walking by to go elsewhere.
In contrast, the lively street you are talking about is the result of a past culture that valued the street, storefronts and lively economic interaction. Thus it is possible to resurrect the walking format of the architecturally submissive and responsive building forms into a present day success.
While I would attribute some success to the current administration for Washington Avenue. I am disappointed, especially if they are regular readers of your blog as they should be, that they do not understand the ramifications of both individual architecture and planning for urban connections.
The failure in their planning policies is evident, and while you might enjoy some measure of success on your current routes, much of the city is suffering under outmoded planning policies.
What is a great street?
Remember, as a city, we’re competing with pretty much every other city out there, both to attract new businesses and to retain and grow existing ones: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08214/901021-28.stm
Ya know, 1010 Market is what it is — a high-rise office building. It does at least have a small greenspace in the front, a street-level restaurant space albeit set back quite aways from the street, and a walk-through arcade connecting “Television Plaza” to Walnut Street. Yes, the Walnut Street facade has several garage doors, and 10th Street is a totally banal blank wall, but at least the Market Street side is moderately pleasant. Personally I find the Bank of America Tower much less appealing, with its glass walls, massive drive-thru bank, and cavernous space towering over 9th Street.
But these buildings are functional, class-A office space. We don’t need to get rid of them. We need to fill them with solid, stable tenants who will employ people.