Cordish & Cardinals Failed To Plan for Pedestrians at Ballpark Village
Last month Alderman Scott Ogilvie called Ballpark Village a “total failure”:
“Taxpayers have earned a better project than they have delivered,” Ogilvie tells us. “The city of St. Louis has been a great home for the Cardinals…and this is a place downtown where we could use a great project…. It’s just maddening to see what I would call the total failure of this project. It is completely unacceptable that the citizens of St. Louis have been asked to subsidize two themed bars [and a parking lot].” (Riverfront Times)
It’s too soon to call it a total failure, large undeveloped areas used for parking is par for the course with a multi-phase development. They should’ve planned the site as a phased project from the start, they’d be further along by now. But it is what it is, we must wait to see about the success of the total project.
In the meantime, I can already say the pedestrian access & circulation is a failure. I got a sense of this back in February when the Phase 1 site plan was released:
No internal pedestrian was shown on the drawing, but I knew the final might be more detailed. Might, but it quickly became clear the released site plan was pretty accurate. In fact, what’s built so far isn’t even as good. Let me show you what I mean:
Looking at the above images it may not be obvious to you, but to the various city staff that I emailed in July they quickly knew Cordish would need to redo this corner of BPV. Upon site inspection, one city staffer said; “Everything they’ve done so far is questionable. Many areas are extremely tight. ”
Expect to see these mistakes busted out and corrected. If only Cordish & the Cardinals had taken pedestrian access seriously…
— Steve Patterson
Even the sidewalks on the edge of the site are abyssmal. Thousands of people walking from the Northern parking lots, through what, a 5 ft wide area? Not great. And at times, especially when leaving the game, not really safe either.
The only thing missing are the barbed wire fences to keep the fans from entering into the big, bad city. Put hey, they’ll rob you of $20, $30 to park so you don’t have to walk more than a few feet.
Looks like parking is the money maker. Truthfully I don’t expect to see any additional phases any time soon. The parking will become a permanent feature. And you’re right Steve, it is another terrible example of pedestrian access. Scott Ogilvie is correct too, and while it may not be a total failure yet, it is completely unacceptable. It is a cartoon of a city. At least St. Louis has one alderman that has the guts to speak up. Where are the mayor and the rest of the aldermen and alderwomen on this? The project certainly does not deserve any public subsidies. Another joke is played on St. Louis.
In that striped walkway in the first picture, just imagine dodging the side mirrors of big ol trucks that park next to them. Maybe the Cards trainers can be on hand for those injuries. But really, don’t those stripes mean “Do not do anything here, either drive OR walk.” ? Those cannot be walkways right? I had like five inspectors come to my house just when I redid my kitchen. Fine, but isn’t there supposed to be someone checking THIS?
dont hold your breath for the city to do anything about ballpark village. They left it a vacent lot
with weeds and trash that for anyone else would have the city on their necks. But the
city wont go after the cardinals owners –after all, they are some of our best citizens. Can;t
drag them into housing court
Steve, in looking at the first photo in your post, the one looking East from the Stadium West Garage says it all. The Cordish and Cardinal owners could care less about the city, and our government apparently is behind them. You have pointed out many times the poor walk ability involved with parking lots, especially immense ones.
Who is going to want to walk downtown to other activities passing parking space after parking space? The whole design is an afterthought and not a very good one. Compare to Victoria Station in London where customers are dropped into a commercial district surrounding the source of activity.
The point being this is another city stroll from hell.
The City of St. Louis should declare eminent domain on all parking property surrounding the stadium, not only at this site. Return to the grid and sell 50 foot lots to small and medium size entrepreneurs. Let’s see if they can do something with the property.
The mega corps and billionaires are clearly not worth a shit.
I certainly have no issue with parking on future building sites, but I hoped for very good pedestrian circulation in the phase one. Cordish and their civil engineers are clueless.
It would appear that the sidewalks at the entrance/exit were truncated towards the ends of moving more cars out of the lot after games, ‘cos OMG you can’t expect me to wait an additional 88 to 129 seconds or so to file out of Cardinals Cordish Place at the Mews on 7th Parking Centre Plaza, do you?