Beyond the Motor City highlights infrastructure issues

Infrastructure is not the sexiest topic, unless you are really into infrastructure as I am.

On Monday I attended the free screening of Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City.

Director Aaron Woolf joined a group of us beforehand for dinner.  The dinner was organized by Courtney Sloger from Metro & NextStopSTL.org where she wrote a nice summary of the film and the post-film panel discussion, here is an excerpt:

“The film shows rich pictures and details of Detroit’s downtown area during its heyday in the 1920s – vibrant skyscrapers, retail and industries surrounded by neighboring burroughs [sic] and connected by bustling corridors with streetcars, automobiles and pedestrians. The rise of the American automotive industry ushered in a boom for the Motor City, and many of the city’s residents and industry moved to the suburban areas with the explosion of highway infrastructure and affordability of the automobile. Now the depopulated city (which had lost over half of its residents by turn of the century, but maintained its land acreage) is having problems affording services when people and places are so spread out. Providing services like public transit, fire, police, streets works, sewers, etc. have become almost prohibitively expensive, and residents lament the loss of community that happens when people do not live and interact with one another on a daily basis. The images of Detroit are stark, and the frustration of its citizens and leaders are palatable. As the movie points out, there are very significant costs, both economically and socially, of sprawl.”

Woolf pointed out in the discussion his films are not about assigning blame but offer hope and direction to solve problems.  You can stream the entire film at the link above.

– Steve Patterson

Readers say new bridge should be named for Dred & Harriet Scott

The poll last week asked about the name of the new bridge being built across the Mississippi River.

Q: The new Mississippi River bridge is named “Ronald Wilson Reagan Memorial Bridge” but should named in honor of?

1. Dred & Harriet Scott 39 [16.05%]
2. Miles Davis 36 [14.81%]
3. Other answer… 33 [13.58%]
4. Ronald Wilson Reagan Memorial Bridge is good. 29 [11.93%]
5. Pierre Laclede 24 [9.88%]
6. Ulysses S. Grant 15 [6.17%]
7. Louis Armstrong 14 [5.76%]
8. Auguste Chouteau 13 [5.35%]
9. Josephine Baker 10 [4.12%]
10. Elijah Lovejoy 8 [3.29%]
11. Phyllis Diller 7 [2.88%]
12. Vincent Price 5 [2.06%]
13. Katherine Dunham 5 [2.06%]
14. Susan Blow 2 [0.82%]
15. Agnes Moorehead 2 [0.82%]
16. Shelley Winters 1 [0.41%]
17. Irma Rombauer 0 [0%]
18. Harland Bartholomew 0 [0%]

“Other” placed third, here are those answers along with the date & time received and commentary by me.

1. John Hinckley, Jr. [ouch!]
2. Mound City
3. Henry Shaw Bridge [he has enough stuff with his name on it.]
4. Nelly
5. Tru-Link (Truman-Lincoln)
6. Ike Turner
7. Generic Design
8. James E. Slagle Memorial Bridge [a friend that passed away last year]
9. Tennessee Williams
10. Anyone/thing BUT Reagan.
11. Anyone but Reagan
12. Ronald Reagan
13. T. S. Eliot Bridge
14. Charles Lindbergh
15. Meriwether Bridge
16. George W. Bush [I’d go with Reagan before Bush]
17. Homer G. Phillips
18. I-70 bridge
19. Don’t name it after a person. [suggestions?]
20. Luther Ely Smith
21. Mark Twain
22. Albert Pujols Bridge
23. Dave Sinclair
24. Albert Pujols
25. John Berry Meachum
26. Veterans’ Bridge
27. Mary Meachum (underground railroad)
28. Dred Scott
29. nobody, no one
30. Malcolm X
31. Stan Musial
32. Peter E. Parisi
33. Max Factor

I’m still not sure if the name of the bridge is up for debate or if it is a done deal.

– Steve Patterson

Walkable environs still seeing investment

The economy tanked and work stopped.  New strip centers on the suburban fringe are not getting built and many that exist are quite vacant.  But in older established areas we are seeing individual buildings and spaces within buildings get renovated.

It has been a joy watching crews working to renovate the interior and exterior of this building on Washington Ave.  The detailing around the openings on the ground level had been badly damaged over the years but they are repairing it.  The big projects are on hold but the small projects are so much more exciting to me.

– Steve Patterson

Inner-ring Montgomery Bank lacks proper ADA access route to adjacent public sidewalk

As we build new buildings it is important to construct them so they are accessible to everyone.  Unfortunately, many still design buildings to be reached only by automobile.

I recently noticed a fairly new Montgomery Bank on Laclede Station Rd at Watson Rd.  It is certainly an attractive building with nice massing.

The problem is the building ignores the public sidewalk along Laclede Station Rd.  The location is surrounded by existing homes and apartments.  People do walk in the area.  Sidewalks are provided for pedestrian use but some businesses, such as Montgomery Bank, design only for motorists.

If you are able-bodied you can step over the curbs and grass to reach the front door of the bank.  However, if you use a wheelchair or mobility scooter you must “drive” far into the site to get to a point where you can get out of the way of cars and head toward a door.  If I had the power I’d make this bank redo their site to provide an ADA-compliant access route.  Good pedestrian access is the first step needed  to get people to walk.  I don’t expect us to go back and retrofit decades of sites and buildings.  I do expect businesses to do a better job when building today.

– Steve Patterson

Poll on displacing homeless living under the Tucker bridge

Last Friday was the final deadline the City of St. Louis gave to the homeless persons living in the old railway tunnel under Tucker Blvd.

The homeless living in a place called ‘Hopeville’ have to be out from the Tucker Tunnel before 8 a.m. Friday in preparation for the City of St. Louis’ $34 million construction project. However, some homeless have resisted the move, waiting until the last minute.

Two homeless men are hanging onto what they call home at Tucker Tunnel.  (KSDK)

The name “Hopeville” is a recent name for the space under the road.  Others have called it scary and dangerous.  The deadline is now past and the removal of the tunnel and collapsing road will proceed.

The poll this week seeks to find out your thoughts about removing the homeless to reconstruct this stretch of Tucker Blvd.  The poll is in the right sidebar.

– Steve Pattersoon