Readers support the rights of cyclists to use the roads

Readers that voted in the poll last week clearly favor the rights of bicyclist to use public roadways and thus opposing a proposed ban in St. Charles County on cycling on some state highways in the county.

Q: St Charles County is considering banning bikes from some state highways:

1. Bikes are vehicles and have just as much right to use public roads. 114 [60.96%]
2. Bikes are fine on local roads, but not on state highways lacking shoulders. 52 [27.81%]
3. Bikes belong on sidewalks or trails, not roads. 13 [6.95%]
4. Other answer… 7 [3.74%]
5. Unsure/no opinion 1 [ 0.53%]

However, nearly 28% think cyclists have a right to the roads, but not highways lacking shoulders.  Almost 7% think cyclists belong on sidewalks and trails.  Seriously? Public roads are for vehicles and a bike is a vehicle.

The “other” answers were:

1. Ban Cars
2. Ban the cars and solve the obesity problem
3. Daft Wankers!
4. stl bikers need education on the laws – until they stop at stop signs ban bikers
5. If a bicyclistg wants to risk life and limb on a state highway, go for it.
6. They are state roads…St. Charles has no jurisdiction in banning bikes on them.
7. Reduce speed limit to 35 from 55mph for the cars – why do the cars go so fast?

I’ll be interested to see how this issue plays out.

– Steve Patterson

Four “county” offices up for election in 2010, only one challenged

A week from today is the Missouri primary.  In some races for State Rep and Congress there are more than a single candidate for each political party, but of the four “county” offices in the City of St. Louis this year only one of the four is challenged, and none will be challenged in the November general election.  The other three will skate through this primary and the November general without an opponent.

The three that will automatically have another four years in office are Collector of Revenue Gregory F.X. Daly, License Collector Michael McMillan, and Recorder of Deeds Sharon Quigley Carpenter.  Clerk of the Circuit Court Mariano V. Favazza is being challenged by attorney Jane Schweitzer.

The domain marianofavazza.com, registered via GoDaddy on 10/14/2008, links to unflattering articles about the incumbent Circuit Clerk.   I’ve not met challenger Jane Schweitzer but I suggest you read her issues page and see what you think.  I did not find a candidate website for Mariano Favazza. Please be sure to vote next week.  For voters in the City of St. Louis you can see sample ballots for each party at the St. Louis Board of Elections.

– Steve Patterson

Citygarden is great, but not perfect

Citygarden has impressed everyone in it’s its first year open in St. Louis.  The two-block sculpture garden is, in most respects, outstanding in design and construction.

The two curb ramps along 10th Street (at Chestnut and at Market) both hold water following a rain.

Numerous ramps downtown have the same problem, but few were built as part of an otherwise high quality project. The mini lake at top is probably the worst downtown. Naturally, that is the one I use most often.  Even when dry I must use the side of the ramp — my wheelchair’s footrest gets caught if I go straight in.

And the environmentally friendly rain garden isn’t getting all the rain water it is supposed to receive.  Hopefully these three areas will be redone someday.  The problem at 10th & Market will be corrected when the wide “hallway” is extended to the west.  Had Citygarden built it’s side planning for the future hallway the current issue wouldn’t exist.

As a member of the Gateway Mall Advisory Board I can assure you I will bring up water retention at curb ramps and planning future projects so the hallway concept is easier to complete.

– Steve Patterson

Kiel Opera House becomes the Peabody Opera House – poll

Note to St. Louis officials: Kiel Auditorium was razed in the early 1990s. I state this because folks are talking about the renaming of the Kiel Opera House to the Peabody Opera House at the Henry W. Kiel Auditorium.  The Kiel Auditorium was replaced by the Kiel Center Savvis Center Scottrade Center.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Tuesday, October 30, 1990:

Plans for an $85 million sports arena that would be built on the site of Kiel Auditorium and replace The Arena near Forest Park are to be announced today at a downtown news conference.

Sources involved in the effort say that some of the area’s top business leaders would form a partnership that would develop the arena. One or more city development agencies would issue about $110 million in tax-exempt bonds to build the arena and a $25 million parking garage west of Kiel .

The 3,500-seat Opera House in the front part of Kiel would remain. The auditorium in the rear of the 58-year-old building and a 900-car parking garage to the south would be torn down to make way for the arena. The city would lease the new facility to the development partnership for about 75 years.

Bonds would be paid back with revenue from arena operations, 10-year commitments from businesses to buy 65 luxury boxes at $50,000 each annually and a city subsidy of about $800,000 a year. The Board of Aldermen would have to approve most of the arrangement.

The 18,000-seat arena would become the new home of the hockey Blues, soccer Storm and basketball Billikens. The Billikens, who now play in Kiel , temporarily would join the Blues and Storm at The Arena, 5700 Oakland Avenue, after its 1990-91 season.

”A lot of effort has gone into development of a new multi-use facility at the Kiel site,” [Mayor] Schoemehl said.

The Kiel Auditorium was named the Municipal Auditorium when it opened in 1934. It was renamed Kiel Auditorium in 1943, the year after 3-term Republican mayor Henry Kiel died at the age of 71.

This is a long introduction to the poll question for this week, how do you feel about the renaming the building? The poll is in the right sidebar.

– Steve Patterson

History bulldozed on this day in 1963

One of my favorite books is St. Louis Day by Day by Frances Hurd Stadler (1989). The entry for July 24th takes us back to 1963, forty-seven years ago today:

Bulldozers moved in to demolish the large cast-iron watering trough at the triangle formed by the intersection of Franklin, Easton and Leffingwell avenues. Made of fourteen sections bolted together, the trough had long served as a refreshment spot for some of the city’s busiest draft horses. Franklin and Easton, now Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, had formed part of the first road to St. Charles. As the nation expanded west, this link became vital, joining with roads beyond St. Charles up the Missouri River, and eventually branching off onto the Santa Fe Trail.

Within the city, Easton was an important business thoroughfare, and the Y formed by the three streets was the logical place for trade wagons to halt and for horses to drink. The only remaining St. Louis example of this once-common feature of equine architecture can be found at Alabama, Virginia, and Ivory avenues, where neighborhood residents have built a small park and planted the old watering through with flowers.

Today the triangle of Franklin, Easton & Leffingwell isn’t a triangle. The Franklin side was removed when Dr. Martin Luther King Drive received new curbs and sidewalks, around 2004.

Since the book was published the flowers have been replaced by a fountain at the Ivory Triangle:

I wonder if the trough that was removed in 1963 would be an interesting community spot had it remain?

– Steve Patterson