Sidewalks Reopened Around Former St. Louis Centre

ABOVE: Former walkway over Washington Ave, looking west from 6th on May 19, 2010

St. Louis Centre, the former failed downtown enclosed mall, was an assault on the sidewalk and the pedestrians that use them.  In typical mall fashion, retail was turned inward rather than facing the sidewalk.  The walkways over Washington & Locust blocked views on both streets in both directions. 1980s thinking at it’s worst!

In the last year the structure has been transformed ground level retail and enclosed parking.  The work is nearly complete.

ABOVE: Looking west from 6th on December 10, 2010

Storefronts now face the public sidewalks on all sides of the building which occupies the city block bounded by Washington Ave on the north, 6th on the east, Locust on the south and 7th on the west.  During the last year the sidewalks were closed during construction.

ABOVE: Looking west from 6th on April 14, 2011

Thursday evening I was able to do a complete circle around the building. The only sidewalk not open is the raised part, shown above. Usually you don’t want to place steps between the main sidewalk and retail businesses because that can cut down on foot traffic, but sometimes you have no choice given the grades.

– Steve Patterson

 

PR: Mayor Slay, City Officials to Participate in St. Louis Serves Day Saturday, April 16th

April 15, 2011 Press Release Comments Off on PR: Mayor Slay, City Officials to Participate in St. Louis Serves Day Saturday, April 16th
ABOVE: Opening of phase 1 of Stray Rescue, July 2010

The following text is from a press release:

Mayor Francis G. Slay and other City officials will join hundreds of St. Louisans to participate in St. Louis Serves Day on Saturday, April 16th. AmeriCorps St. Louis, in partnership with the Office of Mayor Francis Slay and the United Way of Greater St. Louis, will organize volunteers to complete “done-in-a-day” projects that range from school and neighborhood beautification projects to exercising adoptable animals. St. Louis Serves Day is part of the Gateway to Service Initiative, which promotes St. Louis as a “City that serves.”

“St. Louis Serves Day is a great way to get involved and give back to your community,” said Mayor Francis Slay. “I encourage all City residents to participate in this event. It doesn’t take a certain education level or specific skills to serve – anyone and everyone can get involved to improve their community.”

Volunteers may sign up for projects at: http://www.stl.unitedway.org/getinvolved/volunteercenter/volunteer/stlserves.aspx.

St. Louis Serves Day projects in the City include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Exercise adoptable animals at Stray Rescue of St. Louis (2320 Pine St.) – 8 a.m. to noon
  • Incubator farm field work at International Institute to prepare an incubator farm (4030 Folsom Ave), which will offer agriculture-based career training programs for refugees – 9 a.m. to noon
  • Spring cleaning with St. Vincent de Paul at St. Vincent’s Church Projects (1408 S. 10th St.) – 9 a.m. to noon
  • Set up for the Earth Day Celebration in Forest Park’s Muny Grounds – 9 a.m. to noon
  • Play with children at Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club (2901 N. Grand Blvd.) and help with registration and food service at an educational reunion event for current and past Haven of Grace clients – 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
  • Assist Gateway Greening perform general spring cleaning in the Bell Garden (3871 Bell Ave) – 9 a.m. to noon

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The Backs Are Interesting Too

ABOVE: Leather Trades (left), Ely Walker (center) & YMCA (right) at 16th & Locust as seen from 16th & Olive

The back facade of our older building stock is often more interesting than the front facade of newer our buildings. The building detailing and functional fire escapes are beautiful to my eyes. New balconies on the back of Ely Walker

Hopefully the upper floors of the YMCA, vacant for a few years, will get renovated soon. Most recently those floors were senior apartments.  The YMCA space is a separate condo unit from the rest of the building, with separate ownership.  Work began on creating rental units in the Leather Trades building earlier this year.

I see the wonderful fronts of these buildings daily, but it the backs I really enjoying seeing.

– Steve Patterson

 

On-Street Parking on Clark Ave

April 14, 2011 Downtown, Parking 10 Comments
ABOVE: looking east on Clark Ave toward Tucker

On-street parking exists on Clark Ave. between Tucker (12th) and 14th Street but it is all off limits to the general public.

ABOVE: example of permit only sign

I’m not complaining, the spaces have been designated for police and others in the area, such as the medical examiner.  I’ll be interested to see what happens once the St. Louis Police move their  headquarters to a building on Olive (see post). Will most be made available to the general public? What will become of the old police headquarters?

– Steve Patterson

 

Readers: Clusters of Cities Need to Lead Effort to Consolidate

Readers last week indicated how consolidation of St. Louis County’s 91 municipalities should happen:

  1. Clusters of cities need to lead the effort. 74 [44.85%]
  2. County leaders need to lead the effort 48 [29.09%]
  3. The state needs to force consolidation 32 [19.39%]
  4. Other answer… 6 [3.64%]
  5. We don’t, 91 municipalities in St. Louis County is fine 4 [2.42%]
  6. Unsure/no opinion 1 [0.61%]

The top vote getter is the one that will never result in any meaningful consolidation – leaving it up to cities.  I personally think the state needs to step in to make this happen.

  1. not going to happen. these clusters formed to separate themselves for a reason
  2. Reduce it to what number? Or how many can be disolved?
  3. Cities need to join together for better fiscal responsibility
  4. Enforce a minimum population requirement on municipalities.
  5. Why? Who cares?
  6. Voters in the munis should decide

Voters? Again, that is the same as saying nothing should change.

The list above will not change substantially unless the county and/or state takes action.  A first step though, is for some to unincorporate. Saint George is the only one considering such action. Actually just dissolving each of the 91 would be the simplest.

– Steve Patterson

 

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