Poll Results Regarding Kroenke’s Purchase Of The Rams

Last week I should have provided one additional answer in the poll:

Q: What does Stan Kroenke buying the rest of the St. Louis Rams mean for St. Louis, the Rams and the Edward Jones Dome?

1) He’ll be able to get big money to renovate or replace the dome 32 (28.32%)
2) Very little 24 (21.24%)
3) The Rams are more likely to stay in St. Louis 24 (21.24%)
4) Unsure/no opinion 20 (17.7%)
5) Other answer… 13 (11.5%)

The additional answer I should have included was that the team might leave the St. Louis region. Readers used the “other” to provide that answer.

– Winning is all that can save the “St Louis” Rams and the dome
– He’ll move the team back to CA
– Easier to move the team, or blackmail the region for a new stadium
– relocate to LA
– He will move them back to LA
– blahblahblah, sport get too much money blahblahblah
– let ’em move away
– Rams more likely to move out of STL
– Rams will stay and get new site, I also can see him later buying the Cardinals.
– The Rams are a net loss for St. Louis. The dome was built as a convention site.
– Don’t let he door hit you on the way out . . .
– What, you want that I should write a book about? What a ridiculous question.
– Rams move back to L.A.

One other answer is way off, saying the dome was built for conventions. The fact is St. Louis was so devastated in the late 80s when the Cardinals NFL team moved to Arizona that we started to build the dome as a way to attract a team and then to get an expansion franchise. The dome was built for football with use as convention space being secondary.

Note: I’m still out of town, daily posts will resume on Sunday.

– Steve Patterson

Public Hearing Today On Citation Against Lure Nightclub

Today at 10am a public hearing will be held in City Hall (Rm 208) regarding a citation from the city against the nightclub Lure, located at 1204 Washington Ave.

“In a letter to Lure dated July 28 the city accused Lure of having improper employees and blamed its patrons for three acts of violence occurring near Lure on Thursday nights or early Friday mornings dating back to last November. Those complaints include a June 11 report in which people in a nearby parking lot allegedly fired an assault rifle at police.” (RFT Blog)

I attended a meeting at Lure recently where members of the Trupiano family make their case about how they manage Lure.

I can’t make the hearing but I know I will get reports from people in attendance.  Some will say downtown residents are just being NIMBY‘s while others will say they like nightlife but say other establishments are better neighbors.

– Steve Patterson

Poet Eugene Field Was Born 160 Years Ago, At Start Of Dred Scott Case

Eugene Field’s father filed the lawsuit to win freedom for slave Dred Scott.  Soon after (1850) his wife gave birth to a son, Eugene.  He was born at the family home at 634 South Broadway, now the Eugene Field House & Toy Museum.  Eugene Field went on to write children’s poetry in his short 45-year life.

The house has a lush green garden to the north and south (above) surrounded by a brick wall.  Roswell Martin Field was an attorney so it is fitting they would live well.  But looking at the house today gives you a false picture of South Broadway in 1850. But before I go back let’s start with the present conditions.

Of course the highways and ramps didn’t exist, nor did the acres of surface parking.  But neither did the lush walled garden you see today!

I don’t know the exact conditions in 1908 but I’d guess not much different.  City records indicate the house was built in 1845 – five years before Eugene Field was born. Very likely the area was all new at the time.  By the time the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map was created in 1908 the house was 63 years old  — equal to a house built in 1947 relative to today.

By 1958 all the other houses in the area had been replaced by industry and I-55 was built to the east.

By 1971 the industrial buildings were gone and highway 40 was now in place.

So much has changed in St. Louis over the decades it is important to peel back the layers to see how the city has evolved  — devolved

– Steve Patterson

Union Station 25 & 116 Years Ago

St. Louis’ Union Station opened to a massive crowd on September 1, 1894 – 116 years ago today.  Twenty-five years ago Sunday, August 29, 1985, Union Station reopened as a “festival marketplace” after being closed since the last train pulled out seven years prior on October 31, 1978.

St. Louis had gotten so bad the 1981 film Escape From New York was filmed here, able to pass for 1997 New York  – as a maximum security prison.  A big fight scene took place in the Grand Hall of Union Station prior to the restoration you see above.

In 1985 I entered architecture school, Union Station’s reopening was widely studied. In the days when 100,000 passengers a day would pass through Union Station there was no shortage of activity.  For the last 25 years the busiest spot has been the Fudgery:

When new Union Station was considered to be too far west of the central business district — the location is 8 blocks west of the station built under present-day Tucker in 1875.  When I arrived in St. Louis 20 years ago there were many well-known stores in Union Station as well as St. Louis Centre, also downtown.  In a few years a small mall just outside the city limits would expand and become the St. Louis Galleria — the shops quickly relocated.

– Steve Patterson

Readers Support Replacing Downtown Highway With Boulevard

I’ve been doing weekly polls for a year and a half and in the time I’ve noticed a pattern with the voting as the week goes by the percentage of each answer stays roughly the same as the total vote count grows. Sometimes a few answers will switch places.  Last week was different, the answer opposing highway removal was in last place for the first few day with just under 5% of the votes.

By Sunday morning when I changed the poll it had shot up to get the most votes of any single answer — 172.  The “yes” votes, however, total 186.

Q: Now that 4 of 5 City+Arch+River teams say highway removal is best, do you agree the highway should be replaced with a boulevard from the PSB to Cass?

1. No, highway lanes are still needed 172 [43.32%]
2. Yes, start the day after the new I-70 bridge opens in Spring 2014, even though the boulevard would not be complete on 10/28/2015 (Arch 50th Anniv) 127 [31.99%]
3. Yes, any time in the next decade is good. 37 [9.32%]
4. Inclined to agree, but I want to see a traffic study first 23 [5.79%]
5. Yes, start October 29, 2015, the day after the 50th Anniversary of the Arch (anniversary + ground breaking in one event) 22 [5.54%]
6. Maybe but I need to see the traffic after the new I-70 bridge opens 8 [2.02%]
7. Other answer… 7 [1.76%]
8. Unsure/no opinion 1 [0.25%]

The other votes were:

1. Start today!
2. who’s paying? we have other priorities.
3. Start immediately–remove the lanes completely, create a boulevard.
4. There needs to be a quick and efficient way to bypass downtown from the east.
5. Can I get a hell yes?!
6. begin now
7. Yes! Get rid of the Highway ASAP!

It is clear to me from these results that someone, or a group of persons, against removing the highway, made an effort to throw off the vote count. Also clear is that among those who support replacing the highway with a boulevard favor starting work as soon as possible, even if not done by the 50th anniversary of the Arch.

The following needs to happen:

• Do a very comprehensive traffic study to see how to make the boulevard work in conjunction with other north-south roads.
• Look at redesigning the interchange at the new I-70 bridge so that traffic heading into downtown from the direction of the airport is directed onto a boulevard approach.
• Build the first part of the boulevard between the new bridge and the start of the elevated lanes.
• Change connections to tie in 4th & Broadway into the new boulevard.
• Hold the ground breaking for the rest of the boulevard at the same time as the 50th anniversary of the Arch.

I’d previously noted that four of the five teams in the City+Arch+River competition supported removing the highway.  On Thursday last week the 5th team indicated they assumed highway removal after 2015!