Poll: Will You Use the New Downtown Bike Station & Shop?

Very soon downtown will have a commuter bike station and shop.

The station provides a place for cyclists who commute to shower and change clothes, leaving their bike securely parked indoors while they go off to work.  The shop will provide sales & service.

The Downtown Bicycle Station will be 1,450 square feet, offering secure 24-hour access and featuring more than 100 bike racks, showers and locker rooms, ideal for those cyclists commuting to work. This new Downtown Bicycle Station will be next to a new 3,500 square foot full service bike shop that will offer all necessary bike equipment, repairs and bike rentals. Big Shark Bicycle Co., presently located in the Delmar Loop, plans to open this 2nd location, named Urban Shark, in Downtown St. Louis before the end of the year. (source)

But the location on Locust St between 10th & 11th has me concerned it is too far west of most downtown office workers, hopefully I will be proven wrong.

So the poll question this week is “Will you use the new downtown bike station & shop?” As always the poll is in the upper right corner of the blog.

– Steve Patterson

Sidewalks Reopened Around Former St. Louis Centre

St. Louis Centre, the former failed downtown enclosed mall, was an assault on the sidewalk and the pedestrians that use them.  In typical mall fashion, retail was turned inward rather than facing the sidewalk.  The walkways over Washington & Locust blocked views on both streets in both directions. 1980s thinking at it’s worst!

In the last year the structure has been transformed ground level retail and enclosed parking.  The work is nearly complete.

Storefronts now face the public sidewalks on all sides of the building which occupies the city block bounded by Washington Ave on the north, 6th on the east, Locust on the south and 7th on the west.  During the last year the sidewalks were closed during construction.

Thursday evening I was able to do a complete circle around the building. The only sidewalk not open is the raised part, shown above. Usually you don’t want to place steps between the main sidewalk and retail businesses because that can cut down on foot traffic, but sometimes you have no choice given the grades.

– Steve Patterson

The Backs Are Interesting Too

The back facade of our older building stock is often more interesting than the front facade of newer our buildings. The building detailing and functional fire escapes are beautiful to my eyes. New balconies on the back of Ely Walker

Hopefully the upper floors of the YMCA, vacant for a few years, will get renovated soon. Most recently those floors were senior apartments.  The YMCA space is a separate condo unit from the rest of the building, with separate ownership.  Work began on creating rental units in the Leather Trades building earlier this year.

I see the wonderful fronts of these buildings daily, but it the backs I really enjoying seeing.

– Steve Patterson

On-Street Parking on Clark Ave

On-street parking exists on Clark Ave. between Tucker (12th) and 14th Street but it is all off limits to the general public.

I’m not complaining, the spaces have been designated for police and others in the area, such as the medical examiner.  I’ll be interested to see what happens once the St. Louis Police move their  headquarters to a building on Olive (see post). Will most be made available to the general public? What will become of the old police headquarters?

– Steve Patterson

Parking Needed for Restoration and Occupancy of the Municipal Courts Building?

On April Fool’s Day Paul Hohmann had an excellent post suggesting the city was going to raze the vacant Municipal Courts Building and replace it with a parking garage.

The city isn’t going to raze the building but what are we going to do with the structure? There have been numerous ideas over the last decade but it seems the lack of a large source of dedicated parking is problematic.  Downtown has an excess of parking but the oversupply isn’t where it is needed.  I’ve got an idea.

I still miss the old city jail that occupied the NE corner of Clark Ave & 14th Street, why not build a mostly underground parking structure with street-level storefronts facing both 14th & Clark Ave? The parking could serve the need of tenant(s) in the Municipal Courts, City Hall, Scottrade Center, Busch Stadium and the Peabody Opera House (formerly Kiel).  Retail & restaurants could serve all the above as well as the Sheraton Hotel located one block south and the many daily transit riders at the Civic Center bus & light rail station, also a block south.

Activating the sidewalks along both 14th and Clark Ave would do wonders for improving the walkability of the area.  I’m thinking 3-4 floors of occupied floors about grade. If parking was above grade it should be fully enclosed.  Ideally the bulk of the parking would be below sidewalk level, not above.

The big picture would be to evaluate all 10 blocks of Clark Ave from Busch (8th) to Union Station (18th), finding opportunities to improve the many people who currently walk all or part of this stretch.  Way back in July 2006 I posted about building over the existing MetroLink lines between 15th-18th, also facing Clark Ave.

The Municipal Courts Building would be a premier location for one or more law firms.  Treasurer Larry Williams has the ability to fund the structure, leasing some space to future firns in the Municipal Courts.

– Steve Patterson