A New Saint Louis: Erasing Our Political Boundaries Through Consolidation

It is time for the St. Louis region to realize that, over the years, we’ve created too many political entities, most from the last (20th) century. I propose a complete overhaul.

Before I get into my solution I want to outline the problem(s) as I see them:

1. A strong “City vs. County” attitude exists dividing us, holding the region back.
2. Municipalities within St. Louis County disagree how to share revenues.
3. St. Louis County experienced a drop in population in the 2010 Census.
4. We have poor & affluent school districts providing very unequal education to future voters.
5. Numerous police & fire departments exist.
6. St. Louis, and the region by association, is viewed nationally as on the decline. This limits the potential to retain talent and attract employers.
7. In 1876 the bulk of the region’s population lived east of Grand, but now the population lives mostly in St. Louis County. As a region we’ve outgrown our 19th century viewpoint.

OK, so here is my solution: government consolidation on a massive scale.

1. St. Louis County would become an independent city and absorb the current City of St. Louis and all 91 municipalities within it’s current borders.
2. The new City of Saint Louis would have a population of 1,318,248 (998,954 + 319,294), instantly making it the 8th most populated U.S. city, after San Antonio and ahead of San Diego (see list).
3. The Greater St. Louis MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) would remain the 15th largest with  a population of 2,779,939.The new Saint Louis would contain 47% of the region’s population.
4. Planning districts would be established to plan corridor/transportation projects.  These would be classified using DPZ’s Transects, shown above, offering something for everyone.
5. Existing government buildings (city halls, for example) would be evaluated and some used as district offices.
6. St. Louis County’s existing buildings in Clayton would become the new City Hall for the new Saint Louis.
7. Expenses would be incurred in the short term but in the long run savings would be realized.
8. A Council-Manager form of government would be adopted, a professional municipal administrator hired.
9. A new non-partisan city council would contain seven members, the presiding officer (“Mayor”) would be selected by a vote of these seven. The mayor would oversee meetings and cut ribbons. As an alternate two representatives could be elected from each of seven districts and a mayor elected by the public.  Either way administrative power would reside with the city manager.
10. Staff would be empowered to enact the policy established by the city council.
11. Former municipalities such as Florissant, Ladue & Pacific would become neighborhoods for planning and identification purposes,

None of this is new, cities and counties have merged in this manner before. Evansiville Indiana is currently in the process:

Tonight is likely the final workshop between the Vanderburgh County Commissioners and the Evansville’s City Council before they reconvene their public hearing on June 30 to address a possible city-county merger proposal.

Members of the two bodies have met for five weeks to work on changes to the initial consolidation proposal drafted by a citizen committee earlier this year. Both bodies must ultimately approve identical merger plans for the issue to go to referendum, possibly in November of 2012. (source)

This sort of radical departure from the current forms is needed for the region to end the 21st century better than when we started.  Discuss.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Thoughts on the Regulation of Food Trucks & Carts?

Saw this bit of information last week about a new regulation regarding food trucks in the St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights:

The code requires rolling merchants to operate within health regulations and have a trash receptacle available. They may operate only on occupied properties, with the owner’s permission, and only while the primary establishment is operating or for 12 hours, whichever is less. Also, they may not establish a stand within 25 feet of a public road. (STLtoday.com)

Unlike urban places, I don’t think Maryland Heights has any on-street parking, except maybe in residential neighborhoods. Still, food trucks are booming in St. Louis:

The food truck trend has hit St. Louis with a bang, with more trucks than ever now trolling the streets to serve up everything from pizza to tacos to cupcakes to hungry St. Louisans willing to track down their mobile meals on Facebook and Twitter. (Sauce Magazine)

Cities, including the City of St. Louis, are grappling with how to regulate food trucks and other food vendors. Health regulations seem a no-brainer but the issue of where they are or are not allowed to vend is the big issue.

Officials may long for the day when the most mobile food vendors just had a stainless steel hot dog cart.

There are 190 food-service establishments in downtown St. Louis, and some restaurateurs fear being pushed out of business. “Inherently, it starts out being unlevel, because of the cost to operate a food service in a truck versus an established lease,” said Maggie Campbell, president and CEO of Partnership for Downtown St. Louis. While food trucks reflect the vitality of the neighborhood, Campbell wants to make sure their presence doesn’t end up hurting brick-and-mortar restaurants. “The most ideal outcome would be for food trucks to enjoy being downtown and have a strong enough customer base to invest in a storefront,” she said.

So there you go, regulation isn’t about public safety, it’s about protecting other businesses. Pi has two locations in the City of St. Louis and will open a downtown location at 6th & Washington in the Mercantile Exchange bldg (formerly known St. Louis Centre).

I personally love street food from carts and trucks.  I’ve purchased food from all four trucks pictured in this post, but I understand the need to have some regulations in place so it’s not a free for all (like valet parking).

I recently started a Street Food STL list on Twitter to help track the growing number of trucks and other mobile food vendors.  The newest truck on Twitter is literally the oldest:

The Fire and Ice Cream Truck beat the food truck trend by a few years, quietly selling locally made ice cream from a rehabbed vintage fire truck along the riverfront. But now the truck has joined the fray, moving to a semi-permanent location on Tenth [Ninth!] Street between Market and Chestnut, in the middle of Citygarden (Ninth and Market streets; 314-802-9571 or citygardenstl.org). And it couldn’t be more perfect. (Riverfront Times)

The poll this week seeks to find out reader’s thoughts on efforts to regulate mobile food vendors. The poll is in the upper right corner of the blog, results will be published Wednesday June 29th.

– Steve Patterson

Leather Trades Artist Lofts Nearing Completion

September 1st is the move in date for the Leather Trades Artist Lofts at 16th & Locust. Before I talk about the development I want to talk about the area 100 years ago.

According to city records, the Leather Trades building was built in 1912. The YMCA to the east across 16th Street wouldn’t come until 14 years later in 1926. The small building to the west was built in 1917.

The blocks of Locust from 14th to 18th once contained large homes but the growing city would expand into this area once known as Lucas Place. On a 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map stone fronted houses and flats stood on the south side of Locust between 14th and 17th.  The massive Butler Brothers warehouse between 17th and 18th had just been built a year earlier.

On the north side of Locust the evidence of the change was more clear.  At 14th & Locust, now surface parking, you had the Gayety Theater.  Heading west you had houses, many now boarding houses by 1909, until you got to the NE corner of 16th Street.  There was a building attached by two bridges over St. Charles St to the huge Ely Walker Dry Goods building facing Washington Ave.  Ely Walker is still here but the building at 16th & Locust was razed at some point and now has a parking structure.

At the NW corner of 16th & Locust you had the Blackwell-Weidlandy Bldg.  It was built in 1907 and labeled on the 1909 Sanborn map as the Jno L. Boland Book & Stationary Co. Sadly this beautiful building was razed in 1988 and the land is now a surface parking lot. The rest of the block was houses in 1909, my building and our other building at Printer’s Lofts were built shortly after 1909.

Of all the houses that once existed in this area only one remains, the Campbell House at 15th & Locust, which has been a museum for decades:

Built in 1851, the first house in the elegant neighborhood Lucas Place, the Campbell House was the home of renowned fur trader and entrepreneur Robert Campbell and his family from 1854 until 1938. The museum contains hundreds of original Campbell possessions including furniture, paintings, clothing, letters, carriages and a unique set of interior photographs taken in the mid-1880s.

If you haven’t been before I strongly suggest you check it out!

Back to 16th and the Leather Trades Artist Lofts:

Located in the downtown warehouse district, Leather Trades is ideally situated for working artist and cultural workers to live, create and connect in one of the most established arts scene in St. Louis. Leather Trades Artist Lofts will consist of 86 affordable homes for working artists and cultural workers, opening September 1st, 2011.

Our community at Leather Trades will include several working studio spaces for artists who live in the building. A painting & drawing studio with 16 foot ceilings will overlook Locust Street. A pottery studio with fully vented kiln will provide room to wedge and sculpt. Dancers and musicians will benefit from a spacious dance studio with cushioned hardwood floors and a sound-proofed studio for media and music. Picture rails throughout the building and the large windows to 16th Street will be designated for residents to display their work.

Last week I attended their open house and hard hat tour.   The open house was held at Whiz Tech Cafe and groups of 8 at a time went across Locust to tour the unfinished 7th floor of Leather Trades.

The last time I was in the Leather Trades was 9/6/2007 when the now-defunct Pyramid Construction had a party in the newly completed condo display unit. Pyramid’s plan was for 63 high-end owner-occupied condos. When the building opens on September 1st it will have 86 “affordable” one & two bedroom apartments for artists. Frankly, I think this is much better than 63 condos. I got to meet many of the people who were putting in applications for a loft, the neighborhood is about to get far more creative come this fall.

One bedroom lofts will rent for $679/month and two bedroom lofts for $827/month but there is a catch:

This property participates in an affordable housing program. Household income limits are as follows, however, future residents of this community need to speak directly to a leasing agent to learn more about how your household can qualify.

• 1 Occupant – $29,040
• 2 Occupants -$33,240
• 3 Occupants -$37,380
• 4 Occupants -$41,520

The other is you must be a cultural worker (aka artist):

You do not have to make your living off the creation and sale of your work. We also recognize that there are many creative fields other than the ones listed above. If you’re curious, just call us and ask.

We define cultural workers as:

1. Someone who works for an established arts organization, both non-profit and for-profit.
2. Someone who works for an established non-profit arts service organizations.
3. Consultants who have a history of work with established arts organizations, both non-profit and for-profit, or with established non-profit arts service organizations.

Here is a just released video from the developers showing a similar project elsewhere:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMzXosn3RBU

As a neighbor I will be very happy having a building full of artists across the street.  We’ve got enough bankers & lawyers downtown already.

– Steve Patterson

Castle Ballroom: “Exclusively for the Best Colored People of St. Louis”

Segregation meant blacks had to duplicate all the establishments that were not open to them, including dance halls. One such place was the Castle Ballroom on Olive & 29th (now T.E. Huntley).

Across the street to the south is the Mill Creek Valley Urban Renewal area. This 454-acre tract was the result of a clearance project which razed one of the city’s densest African American neighborhoods beginning in 1959. The low-rise community called Laclede Town was built south of the ballroom in the early 1960s; after subsequent expansions, it was closed in the 1980s and later razed. The property now belongs to the Sigma Chemical Company; most of it is open space. In this context, the Castle can be understood as one of a few remaining buildings with significant associations with the population of Mill Creek Valley.

The nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, quoted above, was written by Lynn Josse.

I’d passed by this building thousands of times over the last 20 years but I had no clue to it’s history.  Again from the nomination:

For the purposes of the National Register, the most significant space in the building is the ballroom, which retains integrity. The dance floor, balcony, stage, even much of the plaster and woodwork are largely intact. Although some of the elements may not reflect the 1908 appearance, nearly all are original to the pre-1954 period of significance.

Thankfully the “pent roof” that was added to modernized the building has now been removed.  I can picture new storefront’s and the building occupied again.

Our buildings have so much history, it just takes someone to bring it to our attention.  In my case it was my friend Leigh Maibes, who has the property listed for sale. I’ve seen dark pictures of the ballroom space but without power I wasn’t able to see inside in person (walking is difficult enough for me in well lit spaces).

The renovation of midtown is moving east and downtown is moving west, in a few years they will meet along Washington, Locust or Olive.  Hopefully all three within a decade.

– Steve Patterson

Guest Opinion: Champaign-Urbana Transit Employing Useful Technology

Contributed by Matt Heil

When it comes to planning and this blog, in particular, public transit is a hot topic. In case you were unaware, transit funding is extremely different between the two states of Illinois and Missouri. I’m originally from the St. Louis area but spent the past few years living in Champaign, IL, going to school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Even though the Champaign-Urbana region (pop.120,000) is significantly smaller than St. Louis, their public transit agency, Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD), is much more organized, runs more frequently and has embraced many new technologies in public transit.

Some of their technologies include: GPS tracking, hybrid buses, a multi-modal transportation hub and elongated buses.

Their GPS tracking was extremely useful and, during my stint in Champaign, I used this feature almost daily but at least two-three times a week. Every bus is equipped with GPS receivers that forward real-time arrival and departure information to MTD’s website, which is accessible via-smartphone; their texting service, which every bus stop has a specific code you can text to MTD; and also high volume bus stops, which are all equipped with LED signs that post the arrival times of the next buses.

Hybrid buses were added within the last two years and incorporating hybrid technology into urban buses make quite a bit of sense. Buses mostly operate at lower speeds and make frequent stops, which are both, important for the regeneration of battery power.

Another great part of Champaign’s transit system was that the system integrated multiple hubs within the network. Most of these hubs were in and around the University of Illinois’ campus but two other important ones included Downtown Urbana and the largest one in Downtown Champaign. Illinois Terminal, located at the southeast portion of Champaign’s downtown, was built in 1999. At the time, it was a state of the art facility and continues that legacy today. Like the new Gateway Multimodal Transportation Center (Amtrak and Greyhound Station), finished in 2008; Illinois Terminal integrates intercity bus service (Greyhound and MegaBus), intracity bus (MTD=Metro) and Amtrak, all into one location and was designed as a multi-modal (intermodal) transportation hub.

As mentioned earlier, Champaign is significantly smaller than St. Louis yet their public transit works extremely better than St. Louis’. This is because Champaign’s main employer (13,000employees) and destination is the University. Additionally, the population living within a 2-mile radius of campus is quite dense. Both density and a central employment/destination hub are very crucial for maximizing public transit’s efficiency. MTD has much higher ridership on some of their routes, compared to St. Louis. To cope with higher ridership, some of the busiest routes use elongated or extended buses, which aren’t even seen on St. Louis’ busiest line: the #70 Grand Bus.

Champaign might be a sleepy college town and surrounded by cornfields but, when it comes to their public transit, Champaign can compete with some of the largest cities in the country. Some have even referred to the Champaign-Urbana area as a micro-urban area. Compared to St. Louis, Champaign built their multi-modal transportation hub almost an entire decade before St. Louis. So, we should probably expect Metro to incorporate other technologies like, extended buses and GPS tracking within the next decade too, but still lagging behind areas with less than 10% of our regional population.

- Matt Heil

Matt Heil is a native of Edwardsville, IL and current resident of St. Louis. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).