24/7 Old Post Office District Closed on the Weekends
Part of the justification offered for razing the Century Building, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was that it had to be sacrificed for parking for the Old Post Office – the centerpiece of a 24/7 district.
It has been a couple of years now and I’m still waiting for the area to get beyond 11/5:
The Pasta House Pronto, located in the Old Post Office, is not offering 24/7 fare. Granted, the customers are not there. But if they were, they’ve got plenty of parking. Most of the exciting 24/7 areas I know of in other cities are known for their numerous businesses and shortage of parking.
Non-profit, government & library tenants also aren’t known for their contribution to 24/7 living.
When the Schnuck’s grocery store, Culinaria, opens next week I hope they maintain at least the daily 7am to 9pm hours that City Grocers has had for years. My fear is they will cut back on days and hours within a year. I hope my fears prove unfounded.
Maybe they will be open 24/7?
– Steve Patterson
So far they have posted on a sign along Olive that Culinaria will have 6 am to 10 pm hours 7 days a week.
Days, not likely. Hours, maybe. You and other downtown residents and workers do have that power, vote with your wallets and your feet. If you want them open after 6 or 8, shop after 6 or 8! Every business downtown (and everywhere else) is open when they’re open and closed when they’re closed because they believe, based on past experience, that those are the hours when it’s profitable to be open! There’s no conspiracy to “roll up the sidewalks”, and it’s not that there’s “plenty of” or too much parking, it’s just all about having paying customers, or not . . .
While 24/7 atmosphere does not develop overnight, and in downtown’s case, should be expected to develop slowly, I do agree with you that razing the Century to build a parking garage was an enormous mistake in attempting to revitalize the area. It will go down as the worst, most backward political/planning blunder of the decade. Should the city continue on its upward track, leaders of the future will look back on that action with utmost shame and contempt.
I hope the Schnucks keeps hours similar to what they now advertise. But I have a feeling they will pull a Wal-Mart. You know, put City Grocers (which did not receive anywhere near the scale of public subsidies as this Schnucks) out of business, then either cut back on their hours or close completely.
Actually, if Schnucks does cut back on their hours, I hope City Grocers will be around to go back to their current business. They are changing their business now to rely more on prepared foods–always one of their strongest points anyway. I’ll be supporting CG for their spunk in helping to make downtown self-sufficient and walkable for these many years. Schnucks can live off their corporate welfare in lieu of my patronage.
Or, maybe City Grocers can pull a Schnucks–change their name and then ask for a bunch of subsidies to be the third “First” downtown grocery store and put this Schnucks out of business.
Schnuck’s will not put City Grocers out of business. The only ones who can do that are the public. Or the landlord.
For the record, Wal-Mart has never put a single retailer out of business.
24/7 happens with residents – something the rehabbed Century Building would have provided. Ideally it could have housed a Schnucks and parking as well. OPO is a failure and will never be 24/7 as long as City Hall promotes parking at the expense of our buildings Downtown.
I’d guess that Schnucks is going in there because the landlord, Desco, aka Schnucks, can’t get another tenant and needs to fill the space to avoid it looking like a complete failure. DESCO manages all Schnucks corporate real estate interests. Mark Schnuck is president and chief executive officer of The DESCO Group. DESCO did the Century demo along with Steve Stogel (and the developers are still suing downtown residents Roger Plackemeier and Marcia Behrendt for trying to stop said demo of a National Register-listed building). Virtually every tenant in the OPO speaks to an act of cronyism or a favor among pols/developers. Pasta House, the library, Webster, the judges. All that’s missing is an office for Richard Callow.
We really must continue to question this farce that produced as measurable results as Real Estate Row demo for Gateway One. We will continue to repeat failures until we say enough! When will we elect and run true progressive candiates who understand urbanism and are not stuck in the 70s?