Architects Labeled 17th Street An Alley
When Ald Davis & Ald Hubbard visiting our condo association on June 8th they left behind developer’s plans intended to convince to stop fighting the city giving away an important piece of the street grid: 17th Street. See: Proposed 17th Street Closure Would Reduce Safety & Security For Existing Residents Around Monogram Project.
I looked through the materials — many of which are Google Street View screen captures. They couldn’t even come take photographs? One page explained a lot about the view of the developer & architects:
The final vote on BB64 will likely take place tomorrow, hopefully the full board will reject it outright. Many signatures have been collected on petitions opposing the vacation of 17th St, from numerous adjacent condo projects. The Downtown Neighborhood Association has also gone on record in opposition. We want to see the Monogram/CPI building occupied, but not at our expense. The public uses 17th Street daily.
Thankfully we’ll know how each alderman voted after the fact — votes are now listed online.
— Steve Patterson
One, aldermanic “courtesy” is a big part of the “problem”. Two, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck”. No different than a “city” in north county being no more than a few streets in a single-family subdivision, a “street” can be anything from a multi-lane Market Street to this stretch of 17th, which IS essentially just a glorified alley. And no, I don’t support vacating it, just don’t rely on verbal nuances and legal chicanery to “justify” your position. The real argument is taking PUBLIC property and GIVING it to some private entity. Once it’s gone, it’s gone, and it’s gonna cost us, the public, big bucks to get it back! This is a self-imposed “problem”, one that the public should not be forced to “solve”!
Since I use this stretch 17th Street almost daily to access my garage from Washington Ave., I would take issue of it as a glorified alley. There are no dumpsters, loading docks or garage entrances…wait…that’s St. Charles Street which they want to pile more traffic on. And 17th Street is a direct link to Olive and Market. That being said, I agree the bigger issue here is GIVING public property to private developers. It’s obscene!
Umm . . . that big concrete thing on the left in the photo IS a loading dock . . . and it appears to be on the public right-of-way!
Yes, the city allowed an additional loading dock to extend into the PROW, or maybe a prior owner added it without official authorization. In my 8+ years here I never saw CPI use it. They got by with the ones on the back of the building.
My guess is that it predates CPI, when these structures were used for actual manufacturing operations . . .
those human cockroach panhandlers still shake you down on 17th. they don’t care what it is called. thanks, Sarge
don’t be a dick, sarge