Vote Daily For A St. Louis Bike Station

The monthly “Pepsi Refresh Project” is a tough competition.  Projects across the country compete for up to 32 grants.

What are the Pepsi Refresh Grant Levels?
Each month, up to $1.3 million will be awarded as follows: 2 Grants at the $250,000 level; 10 Grants at the $50,000 level; 10 Grants at the $25,000 level; and 10 Grants at the $5,000 level.

So what am I asking you to vote for?  The press release, in full, explains:

On December 1, the Downtown St. Louis Community Improvement District (CID) entered the Pepsi Refresh Challenge to win $50,000 to help launch and market our new Downtown Bicycle Station. The only way to win this fierce competition is to turn out the most votes. So, for every day of December, we ask that you encourage your followers to vote for our Downtown Bicycle Station!

Here’s how: Vote online at the Pepsi Refresh project site (http://www.refresheverything.com/biketotownstl); vote by texting 104458 to Pepsi (73774); sign up for daily reminders (vote@downtownstl.org); retweet to your Twitter followers (www.twitter.com/downtownstlouis), and share the project by posting it to your Facebook wall (www.facebook.com/downtownstl)

What Are the Benefits?
By creating a safe, clean and welcoming hub for bike commuters, the Downtown CID will inspire a healthier, simpler lifestyle. This means fewer cars looking for parking and more people enjoying Downtown on two-wheels and two feet.

What does the $50,000 Grant pay for?
With our grant, we will spread the word about the region’s first Bicycle Station:

• Advance an aggressive marketing and awareness campaign about the benefits of bicycling to work.
• Promote the Downtown Bicycle Station with 25 bicycle giveaway packages and 50 free 1-year Bicycle Station memberships.
• Develop collateral to market the new Downtown Bicycle Station.
• Install an informational kiosk for prospective members.
• Make the Downtown Bicycle Station welcome with a bright, hip mural on the exterior alley wall of the facility, and post signs to introduce the Downtown Bicycle Station to St. Louis and the world!

The Partnership for Downtown St. Louis serves as the catalyst for investment, creating a regionally celebrated asset and nationally recognized downtown. The Partnership also manages the Downtown St. Louis Community Improvement District (The CID) that provides enhanced services to make Downtown St. Louis a cleaner, safer, more vibrant place.

Your vote is needed — not just once but each day through the end of the month.

Vote Here

– Steve Patterson

New Incandescent Lighting Downtown…In 1928

Eighty-two years ago a big change occurred downtown, modern street lights were switched on.  From the 1989 book St. Louis Day by Day by Francis Hurd Stadler:

Today we take modern lighting for granted but to earlier generations the streets of St. Louis were not always so well lit. Most likely these lights were a result of the 1923 bond issue:

The first effort to coordinate the City’s street pattern came in 1917, when the recently organized City Plan Commission published its first major street plan. The majority of the street widenings, connections and openings which were accomplished under the 1923 bond issue were based upon this plan. The City is indebted to the wisdom of the electorate of 1923 for wide streets such as Olive, Market, Gravois, and Natural Bridge. A glance at a city map made prior to these improvements shows many of these streets to be in 60 feet rights-of-way accommodating only two streetcar tracks and one lane of parking on each side. In addition, they were paved with cobblestones, a rough surface for motorists. The passage of the 1923 bond issue of $87, 000, 000 was a notable achievement in a period characterized by a much slower growth rate than had been enjoyed immediately after the World’s Fair. St. Louis became aware of its outmoded physical features and gave itself an extensive face lifting by means of the bond issue. Civic inertia was attacked on many fronts resulting in new hospitals, electric street lighting for the entire City, construction of the Memorial Plaza, Kiel Auditorium and the Civil Courts building, as well as extensive street improvements. The largest single project to be completed was the River Des Peres drainage works which eliminated an open sewer in the West End and provided for proper drainage of flood waters over the full length of the stream within the City.

The lights came on less than a year before the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

– Steve Patterson

Sidewalk In Front Of Convention Center Now Just For Pedestrians

Nearly four years ago, January 12,2007, I first blogged about the situation with cabs at our convention center: Taxi Cabs Block Sidewalk at Convention Center, Exit Via Crosswalk.  More than a year prior to the stroke that disabled me, I was fighting for space for all pedestrians.

The headline, first picture (above) and post wording all communicated the issue was the placement on the stand within the sidewalk space. However, I included a video of a cab exiting via the pedestrian crosswalk.

So rather than relocate the stand so it wasn’t on the sidewalk, the convention center added bollards to prevent the cabs from using the crosswalks when exiting.

The main issue — the blocked sidewalk remained a problem. That is, until last month.  First, the back story.

Kitty Ratchliffe came to St. Louis from New Orleans to serve as the President of the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission.

“The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) is the sales and marketing organization responsible for selling St. Louis City and St. Louis County as a convention and meeting site and as a leisure travel destination. In addition, the CVC manages and operates the America’s Center® convention complex which includes 502,000 square feet of prime exhibit space, 80 meeting rooms, the Edward Jones Dome at America’s Center, the 1,411-seat Ferrara Theatre, a 28,000 square-foot ballroom and the St. Louis Executive Conference Center.”

Ratcliffe had worked at the CVC in the 80s but when I brought up this taxi stand issue she was only months back into St. Louis, and their offices were blocks away in the Metropolitan Square building.  A staff person told her about the issue and and that he had a solution — the bollards.

Finally this summer I stopped by the CVC offices, now on the 3rd floor of the convention center, and left my card for Ratcliffe and got the email address for her assistant.  That prompted some emails and phone conversations.  I was finally able to communicate the main issue was walking along the sidewalk (east-west) not crossing Washington Ave.

I know in the big picture this is a minor issue but it will make a difference for the quality of life of residents and visitors. Persistence pays!

– Steve Patterson

Adaptive Reuse Not Just For Historic Buildings

My downtown loft condo is within a 7-story building constructed in 1919 and used for decades by a printing firm.  It now contains 38 lofts and one commercial space.  The adjacent 9-story building in our condo association includes another commercial space and 40 lofts.  Throughout downtown this story is repeated over and over, old structures re-imagined for different uses than when originally constructed decades ago.

But what about buildings that are less than charming? St. Louis Centre comes to mind.  When it opened in 1985 it was the “largest urban shopping mall” [WikiPedia]  in the country.  When I arrived in St. Louis just five years later I could see the mall was in a death spiral.

Being a mall, it turned inwards putting large blank walls the street. Not what we want downtown now (we never should have wanted this…).  To many the answer to these buildings that no longer serve our current needs is the same as it been for decades — tear it down to the ground and build something new.  But we know the old historic buildings can be adapted to new uses.  In those cases, reuse usually requires stripping away decades of attempts to modernize the building.

With newer buildings the process involves stripping away those blank walls and reorienting the structure to embrace the sidewalk and surroundings.

Work continues on the former St. Louis Centre.  The first part was to strip away the interior walls from the old mall as well as the blank walls.  Along Washington Ave an entire bay of the building was removed to uncover the sidewalk.

Most of the three upper floors will be parking for 750 cars — to serve the attached 600 Washington tower (formally One City Centre) and the U.S. Bank tower across 7th Street.  The 2nd & 3rd floor of the Washington Ave side will contain a movie theater.

I recently got a glimpse inside the construction site on a private tour with Matt O’Leary.  O’Leary, a former VP of Pyramid Construction, has been working on this project for years.  The reuse concept has changed dramatically over the years, but the goal of opening the building to the sidewalk hasn’t changed.

b

This parking will have the best natural lighting.  In my tour I learned that Macy’s, in the Railway Exchange building across Locust, has receiving and customer pickup in the ground floor of this structure.  Trucks unload here and merchandise is taken down elevators to a tunnel under Locust. Who knew?

The following are some images from the developer, click to view larger size.

Once complete I will do a review of the finished project.

– Steve Patterson

Look, Pedestrians!

Lately readers have commented they never see pedestrians in my photos.

My photo library contains just over 46,000 images — few with people.  In St. Louis there are quite a few pedestrians but they pass as quickly as they appear so you are more likely not to get pedestrians in pictures.  In NYC, on the other hand, it is nearly impossible to take a pic without people.

No matter when you press the shutter there will be people in your photo.  I’m going to try to get pictures that are more representative of our pedestrian traffic.

– Steve Patterson