I’m Not Lost. I’m Free

Spotted earlier today at Citygarden:

A book sitting on a bench, proclaiming to be free.  Nothing inside with credit for the good deed. I like little things like this — better than any splashy development.  We need more unexpected pleasantries such as this.

If you have not yet visited Citygarden I suggest you check it out this weekend.  Take MetroLink to the 8th & Pine stop and walk 2 blocks South.  Live out of town?  When you fly in you can take the light rail from the airport to a downtown hotel. Don’t delay, book you flight, train or bus pass now.

The Terrace View Cafe at Citygarden opens Monday August 17, 2009.  The menu includes many locally grown & raised items. I’m rolling my pennies now so I can afford to go.

– Steve Patterson

Downtown Pedestrian Signals Dangerously Inadequate

The sidewalks in downtown St. Louis are as busy as I’ve seen them since my arrival in August 1990.  The sidewalks are increasingly busy with downtown residents, workers and visitors going about their lives and going to long-time favorites like the Arch and to newer destinations like City Museum & Citygarden. As time passes I expect we will see this upward trend continue.

But downtown’s crosswalks are a mixed bag.  Some are quite good with countdown timers in addition to push to cross buttons:

But the bulk of the intersections lack these.  In fact, throughout the City of St. Louis our pedestrian crossings are sub-standard.  I’m just focusing on downtown for this post.

If the signals don’t work or the intersection has changed it is common to simply covered over the pedestrian signals  (above &  below):

In other cases the crossing lacks a pedestrian signal all together, below:

We do not need another tragedy like the one on March 21, 2002:

ST. LOUIS — A Washington state woman who was one of the country’s top experts on bicycle and pedestrian safety was killed yesterday morning when she was struck by a tour bus while crossing a downtown intersection here.

Susie Stephens, 36, of Winthrop, Wash., was struck shortly after 8:30 a.m.  (Source)

In addition to consistent and improved signals we need to reduce the distances to cross many streets.  Reducing the crosswalk width to just the through lanes will help considerably.

I timed the pedestrian signal crossing 14th Street along the North side of Washington Ave.   Took 21 seconds until the walk sign began to flash to not walk.  Total time allowed was 36 seconds.  Different story crossing the considerably wider Tucker Blvd (aka 12th, map link).  There the walk sign went to flashing don’t walk in less than 4 seconds and you have 30 seconds total to cross.  Wider street but less time.

Now that we have more pedestrians we’ve got to work harder to ensure the street crossings work for people using them.

– Steve Patterson

9th Street Is Open to Traffic, Sorta

Since construction began on Citygarden the Northbound block of 9th Street between Market & Chestnut has been closed.  When the two block sculpture garden opened earlier this summer 9th Street remained blocked to traffic.  This block of 9th was designed to be opened to traffic but due to the enormous crowds it remained barricaded.  But once again 9th Street is open to traffic — at least from 10pm to 10am.

Hopefully this is a first step toward 9th Street being open 24/7. The open sometimes, closed others might actually prove more confusing.  The important thing to do is look before crossing what looks like a street.

I want to reopen the street grid where it has been closed along the Gateway Mall — 6th & 16th.  19th Street is OK closed because Union Station prevents a through street and the sculpture & fountain is stunning.

Restoring our street grid will help disperse traffic on all streets.  This is superior to concentrating traffic onto a fewer number of streets.

– Steve Patterson

Larger Downtown Grocery Store Opens Today

Today a grocery store 3 times the size of the one we’ve had for the last 5 years opens.  Culinaria opens at 9th & Olive in the ground floor of the 9th Street Garage on the site of the historic marble-clad Century Building.

Culinaria is a small format store by local chain Schnuck’s.  A typical new Schnuck’s is 63,000 square feet whereas Culinaria is a third that size at 20,000SF.  Still that is a far cry larger than the 6,500SF City Grocers that opened in October 2004.  We all owe developer Craig Heller thanks for stepping into grocery business when nobody, including Schnuck’s, would locate downtown.

The shelves are stocked and tables are set up on the sidewalk. 15 minute parking is allowed on 9th in front of the store – no meters yet.  Additional parking is available in the garage which is entered from Olive.

I’ve not been inside yet but from the outside I have some complaints.

A new “dish rack” bike rack has been added to the public sidewalk.  The worst possible rack choice.  Once used the bikes will project into the walking path of the sidewalk.  As I’ve mentioned before, with this type of rack you can only secure one wheel but not the frame.  With so many bikes having quick release hubs it is easy for a thief to leave the wheel and take the rest of the bike.  I doubt this rack will get much use — a good thing because the sidewalk won’t be blocked. The rack type that should have been selected is the inverted-U:

This type of rack places bikes parallel, rather than perpendicular to, pedestrians on the sidewalk.   The rack that was installed on 9th should never have gotten city approval.

The store entrance is not very appealing.  This door takes you to the elevators to go up into the parking garage.  Past the elevators is an automatic door for entering Culinaria.  The problem for me in my wheelchair and for parents pushing strollers is the door lacks an electric assist.  The button-activated door at City Grocers has been very handy.  I’ll need to hug the ash tray to get where I can open this door.  Hopefully they will add an opener to this door soon.

Store hours are to be 6am to 10pm daily.  I just hope they don’t cut back on those hours in the future. I’ll appreciate the extra hour in the evening — City Grocers has always closed at 9pm.

City Grocers, at 10th & Olive, is retooling and becoming City Gourmet.

– Steve Patterson

No Overnight Parking

My brother’s subdivision, located in a far sprawling area within Oklahoma City’s huge city limits, is a curiosity to me.  No doubt we have similar subdivisions in the St. Louis region.  Every region in the US likely has a similar situation.

The subdivision is gated.  Not just to outsiders but from one part to another – wouldn’t want the Riff Raff from 3 blocks away in our part of the same subdivision.

The sidewalks don’t leave the subdivision because the major roads outside the subdivision lack sidewalks.  I can see the grocery store from his front walk but to get there requires a car trip.

Although they have plenty of room between the curbs & sidewalks, they have zero street trees.  Apparently tree-lined streets are a bad thing?  The one decorative tree in each front lawn is kept back so it can’t won’t shade the sidewalk.

The streets are not public but are privately owned & maintained by the home owners.  All houses have 3-car garages – the minimum allowed.  You can leave a non-commercial vehicle on your driveway but don’t think of leaving your car on the too wide subdivision streets overnight.  Commercial vehicles (company SUV with name on the side, for example) must be kept in the garage.

The logic goes that parked cars on the street overnight is low class and tacky.  To protect their home values, the streets must be free of vehicles.  They live in an environment where the car is a must but they don’t want to see the cars at night.

I don’t get the logic at all.

To me the narrower tree-lined streets in older areas or New Urbanist areas like New Town at St. Charles (above) are so much more appealing, visually & functionally.

The 3-car wide driveways and the series of garage doors is much more an issue for me.  Narrow streets with parked cars help slow traffic.

Are people selecting the suburban subdivision because they is what they want or are people buying in them because they are the current perception of the ideal living environment?  Has anyone given it much thought?

Clearly the developers, in writing the rules for subdivisions, have set out guidelines that are counter to my way of thinking.  It is not like buyers have any real choice — all the new development follows the same formula – except for the New Urbanist developments which are hard to build because zoning mandates the suburban/sprawl ideal.

I’d love to buy a house in such a subdivision and plant street trees after removing the original lawn ornament tree.  I wouldn’t want to live there, just challenge their view of an ideal place to call home.  But seriously, we’ve got a major sticking issue if people don’t want cars on the street overnight.

– Steve Patterson