St. Louis’ 22nd Street Interchange Part of McKee’s Plan

I’ll have a full report next week on McEagle Developments vision for North St. Louis but I wanted to put out one tidbit today.  They indicated a desire to create four job centers where large companies could relocate.  One of the four is currently the site of a highway interchange for a highway that was never built, the 22nd street interchange for the 22nd street parkway that was to go around the West edge of downtown.  That was the vision in the early 20th Century.  The highway has been dead for years but the interchange at I-64/highway 40 exists.  I fully support reclaiming this land.  I talked about the idea several years ago when reviewing ideas for the West end of the Gateway Mall.  I last blogged about the idea in December 2008 in the post MoDOT Needs To Put The 22nd Street Interchange On Any Wish List For Funding.  So go back and read that post & comments again so you’ll be up to speed when I mention it again next week as part of my review of Paul McKee’s plan for St. Louis’ North Side.

Controversial “Blairmont” Project to be Revealed Tonight

Tonight we expect politically connected developer Paul McKee, of McEagle Development, to publicly unveil the controversial development project nicknamed “Blairmont.”

The project got this name after one of the early holding companies used to acquire properties, Blairmont Associates LLC.

Here is a video that explains Blairmont:

Another source of info on Blairmont is a January 2007 RFT article.

Out of the controversy came an August 2007 bus tour of McKee’s properties.  Here is 5th Ward Alderman April Ford Griffin:

The next month the meetings continued.  Here is 19th Ward Alderman Marlene Davis:

I got involved by asking a question of Alderman April Ford Griffin.  Griffin is the chair of the Neighborhood Development committee at the Board of Aldermen.  She has a warped view of zoning.  Rather than have excellent zoning that codifies the community vision, she likes outdated zoning so developers must come to her.  The video starts out rough but gets better:

Congressman Clay talks about a hearing held at city hall with a reference to the 1970s Team Four plan that called for reducing services in parts of the city:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsx_Ph8vEj41976

Here is a summary of the infamous Team Four plan:

This document contains the technical memorandum that was submitted to the Plan Commission by Team Four, Inc. in 1975. This memorandum proposed public policy guidelines and strategies for implementing the Draft Comprehensive Plan that was prepared by others. It offered a series of considerations concerning the process of adopting, staging, budgeting and ultimately implementing the Draft Comprehensive Plan. In addition, this document contains a preface dated 1976 that attempts to clean up any inconsistencies and or controversies surrounding the proposed implementation strategies and a bibliography or annotated listing of Technical Memoranda and Appendixes. Part I of this document focused on strategies for three generic area types: conservation, redevelopment, and depletion areas; and Part II of this document discussed major urban issues and their solutions.

Today “shrinking cities” are studied and various techniques are debated.  In the 70s in St. Louis the Team Four plan was seen as a racist plot to deny services to a minority population.  We know more today about how to adjust to shrinking populations.

Tonight we will see another, a huge heavily subsidized redevelopment plan.  Many are opposed simply based on the history of the project to date.  I for one plan to go with an open mind. I have reservations about both the developer and the political leadership.  Griffin’s view on the role of zoning doesn’t give me a lot of hope for what may be presented in pretty artist renderings actually being completed as promised.  A good framework of a zoning code can help ensure the promised vision develops into reality.

Tonight’s meeting starts at  7pm at Central Baptist Church Education Building 2843 Washington Ave (Google Map).  I’ll be there and will report on the presentation next week.

The Origins of the River des Peres

When most of us think of the River des Peres we think of the (mostly) waterless ditch that runs near St. Louis’ limits, just South of I-44 (map).  It runs out to the Mississippi and seldom has much visible water.  Last night it was as full as I’ve seen it save for a few flood events.

Of course all waterways have both a history and a point of origin and the River des Peres is no exception:

Perhaps the first sewage the River des Peres received was from St. Louis’ Central West End chamberpots. In response to the volume of waste, the city wrote an ordinance in 1887 “to prevent discharge of sewerage or offensive matter of any kind into the River des Peres.” If the city had funded the ordinance, then a separate sewer system would have been built and the River des Peres’ history might have taken a different course. Instead, the government of St. Louis began a trend that has plagued the river for more than a century: St. Louis would support ideas to protect the River des Peres as a sewer more than as a river.

As St. Louis grew westward, so did the expanses of pavement. With less open ground to soak up the rains, the River swelled with runoff. The River des Peres flooded in 1897, 1905, 1912, and 1913. The flood of 1915 killed 11 people and forced 1025 families from their homes. Flooding – not sewage – prompted St. Louisans to action. Mayor Henry W. Kiel called for a hydrologic study, which was completed by W.W. Horner and presented to the St. Louis Board of Public Service in 1916. St. Louis voters chose to implement Horner’s recommendations, which cost $11 million.

The project was called the River des Peres Sewerage and Drainage Works, and it took nine years to complete (from 1924 to 1933). Workers re-graded and paved the River’s banks and straightened its bends. Elsewhere the River was directed below ground to join with the sewer. The engineering innovations brought national recognition for Horner (who was also the project engineer). Scientific American and Engineering News-Record featured the marvelous new River des Peres. In 1988, the American Society of Civil Engineers recognized the project as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.  (Source: River des Peres Watershed Coalition)

So our once natural waterway became an engineered & buried system until it reached the open air channel we all know.  Even there the river is still buried beneath the open channel.  But what about the origins?  For that we need to travel to the St. Louis suburb of Overland, MO to a subdivision of mostly ranch homes built around a lake (map).  Seriously.

This lake is not a naturally formed lake.  Here, I’ll let the historic marker explain:

It is just over 6.5 miles from this spring fed lake to where the River des Peres opens up near I-44 — in a straight line shot.  As creeks & rivers do the River des Peres took a much longer winding course. It is open in places and covered in others.

All water runs downhill, every bit of land is in a watershed.  How we treat these watersheds are important — especially to those downstream.

Back to the River des Peres Watershed Coalition:

Unfortunately, channelizing and straightening the River channel has had undesirable side effects. The River now travels much faster and the banks are much steeper. What this means is greater erosion of the banks, which threatens trees and structures and increases the sediment in the River. Repairing riverbanks and structures along the River des Peres is challenging and expensive. Many St. Louis area residents have a very negative perception of the River des Peres, viewing it as nothing more than an open sewer. Some don’t even realize that it’s a river. This unfavorable attitude toward the River allows some to mistreat it, by dumping or allowing pollutants and debris into the River. There are some very important reasons to take better care of the River des Peres. The open stretches of the River des Peres are still home to wildlife such as fish, turtles, dragonflies, and birds. The microbes in the River perform the valuable task of helping to purify the water. The River also provides aesthetic value in areas like Ruth Park Woods in University City, where it flows in a more natural state. And the River des Peres – and all the pollutants and waste it carries – empties into the Mississippi River, which is home to hundreds of species of aquatic life, including the federally endangered pallid sturgeon.

The River des Peres is at the same time part of the region’s sewer infrastructure as well as part of our natural landscape.  It connects the City of St. Louis to inner-ring suburbs.

Poll Results on Mayor Slay’s Odds of Getting Charter Reform

My poll last week asked:

Will Mayor Slay get 1) Charter Reform, 2) local police control; 3) the city back into STL County by the end of his 3rd term (April 2013?

Forty percent of the responses say none of the 3 will happen:

But more importantltly, 60% of you think some change will happen in the next four years.  I think the 12 that thought all 3 would happen are foolishly optimistic.  I don’t see St. Louis County taking the city back after a 130-year separation.  Of course I also didn’t think county voters would approve the Page extension through Creve Coeur Park.  I’m not convinced we need to be back in the County.  I’m on board with charter reform and local control of our police.

So Much Work Still to be Done

The real estate ad for this property might read something like:

Historic Hyde Park fixer upper.  Lots of light, airy interior.  Just needs some tuck pointing and TLC.

We all know how real estate ads can sometimes gloss over obvious flaws.  Clearly this house needs a new gutter too.

Driving through parts of North St. Louis this past weekend I was reminded about how great our city once was and how much work remains ahead of us.  It is one thing to have fewer residents than our peak in 1950 (500K fewer).  On paper that is just percentages.  On the ground it translates into vast areas with more vacant lots & buildings than current residents.  To be sure much of North St. Louis is a bombed out mess but as much or more is like the rest of the city — a wonderful grid of tree-lined streets with well maintained homes.  Some blocks have few houses standing while others have only a few gaps.

I visited newly elected 21st Ward Alderman Antonio French at his residence in the 4500 block of Athlone (map), just West of the beautiful O’Fallon Park.

Saturday was the Operation Brightside blitz cleanup day in French’s area.  Orange city trucks were everywhere.  I drove French through some alleys so he could check the progress in the afternoon.  Considerable amounts of debris had been hauled off but we saw tree limbs and tires remaining.  One of the few vacant lots in the area is directly across the street from French’s house.  But many houses a block over are vacant and need rehab.  Many of the homes on the blocks are stately and impressive.  Even those in need of major rehab are impressive.

At one time all the infrastructure was new.  The houses were new.  The businesses were new.  Now they are historic.  They rival areas in South City for architectural interest.  The cost to rehab a house here costs as much as the same house in South City.  But the house on the South side will likely have a higher sale price.  So the house down South gets rehabbed while the house on the North remains vacant.  Somehow we’ve got to find a way to increase interest in all of St. Louis’ neighborhoods.  We will never again reach the 850,000+ population we had in 1950 but we need to occupy our structures and build new on our vacant lots.

It is a tall order.  Can we do it?  Can we afford to not do it?