Hobo Park Becoming Lucas Park Again

After a 3rd Saturday of work in the park I think it is finally becoming a place where all will feel welcomed. Sorta.

One homeless man told me it is like having someone come into your living room and rearrange the furniture without consulting you. I can see that. This park, known to many as hobo park, is home to many. Now they feel like we are taking it away. Others see it like one of those decorating shows where someone comes into your home and gives it a much needed makeover.

I have no desire to make Lucas Park a homeless-free zone. However, I don’t want it such that it is used only by the homeless. Just like the housing projects where the concentration of poverty can be hard to overcome for those in it, the same is true for hobo park.

One of the biggest problems is the continual delivery of food to the park by well meaning church groups. Last night I headed past the park on the way to the store. A church from Fairview Heights Illinois was there passing out food from a church van. We simply cannot have our small urban park be the dumping ground for the region’s food donations.

Some say these groups need to open shelters & soup kitchens in their own backyard. Perhaps, but I do think a downtown is the best place to serve the needs of the homeless. This is not to say that all services must be in a downtown, just most. We do need to have services outside of downtown.

This can also help the homeless. For many this becomes a lifestyle that is hard to break free of. With transitional housing near a bus line away from downtown it can be easier for some to get & keep a job. The park/shelter model is just not conducive to getting beyond being homeless.

The trick will be is to figure out how to focus the many people who want to help by bringing vans of food to Lucas Park. Can we get them to work in conjunction with established places for feeding the homeless? One of the reasons the homeless congregate in Lucas Park is they want to be nearby when the groups bring food. This is not a good pattern.

The city has been trying to crack down on this by insisting any food be packaged food so they know how it was prepared. I’m not sure of the best solution to still have groups from all over the region contribute to the solution. Right now I feel like many are just contributing to the problem.

On Saturday we had a BBQ for those of us that worked in the park. We had one homeless guy help for several hours so we were glad to share with him. As we were eating another guy came up and asked what we were giving out. “Sorry, the food is only for those that helped clean up the park, ” we said. “That doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

Work remains. We are taking a needed break this coming Saturday with work resuming on Oct 11th & 25th.  A lot of the work involves changing perceptions on the part of residents, the homeless and those seeking to help the homeless.

I asked one neighbor if she ever brings her dog to the park.  She indicated no because she didn’t want her dog bit by a rat.  I’ve never seen even a field mouse in the park.  I have seen a few squirrels but that is it, no rats!

To see photos from all three Saturdays click here.

Driver Parks in ADA Loading Zone at Mobil Station

Most people are generally nice to me when they see me walking slowly with a cane. However yesterday I had words with a woman that parked in the loading zone next to my car in the disabled space.

I was at the Mobil Station at Delmar & Jefferson — the same one where a woman had visited and was later killed as she was using her wheelchair in the street due to poor sidewalks and missing curb ramps (see post from Dec 2007). After getting gas I parked in the disabled space so I could go into the store. A non-disabled woman was parked in the space while I was getting gas. The station at this time had 3-4 of their regular spaces blocked off while they washed the concrete. As I come out of the store and head to my car a vehicle pulls into the loading space to the left of the disabled space. The driver gets out and starts walking toward me heading to the entrance.

In my friendliest manner possible I said something like, “Excuse me, that space is marked no parking for a reason.” Her reply as she walked passed me, “Yeah I know.” My best response at the time was to call her a bitch. “Did you just call me a bitch? “, she replied. I confirmed, she laughed and continued into the store. I was so furious! A “normally I would never park there but they’ve got these spaces blocked” would have been nice. I don’t think she cared. When I got to our vehicles, with my cane in my right hand, I wondered how much damage I could cause with the cane. Of course I didn’t do anything but it was sweet thinking about it. Instead I got out my other weapon, my camera.

My regular camera was in the car so I used my phone to get a couple of quick shots:

Before getting in my car I stepped to the back to get a shot of the license plate.

I put my cane in the rear seat of my car and get into the driver’s seat. As I start the car she is coming out. Hopefully she saw me taking pics. I get my digital camera out, pull out of the space and start to leave. In doing this I’m right behind her vehicle as she is getting inside. I put down the passenger window to get an overview shot — again I hope she noticed.

I’d like to see these loading zone require a pole or other device to prevent someone from parking in them. Some are too narrow but most are wide enough where they are tempted to park there.

UrbanReviewSTL Honored Twice This Week

This week my blog received two honors.  First, the folks at Outside.In named UrbanReviewSTL the top blog for the St Louis area.  Check out their Blogiology 101: St Louis report.  Thank you!

And in this week’s RFT “Best Of” issue, UrbanReviewSTL was selected by the readers as the best blog.  This is the 3rd year in a row for that honor – thank you so very much!  Four years ago the editors named my blog the Best Civic Minded Blog.

The editors named one of my favorite blogs as the best blog, Angry Black Bitch.  I know Ms. Bitch and while she is black I don’t think she is all that angry or bitchy.  Except when writing, then it all comes pouring out.  Congrats Angry Black Bitch!

Thank you to all my readers, contributors of guest pieces and commenters.  Thank you to my friends for keeping the blog going following my February 1st stroke! – Steve

Lucas Park Events Being Planned

Two events are in the early planning stages – a Halloween event in October and a design charrette in November. This is basically a save the dates post.

Saturday October 25, 2008 we will have a “family friendly” event in the park with face painting, a series of costume contests (kids, adults, dogs), games and such. The event will run 4pm-8pm.

On Monday November 17, 2008 we will have a design charrette to look at the park long term with the goal being to get ideas to incorporate into an official master plan. This event will be held from 6pm-9pm
at the soon to open Crepes in the City at 500 N 14th (between Lucas Park & Washington Ave, on 14th).

A clean team crew from St Patrick’s Center has begun power washing the sidewalks and stone benches — it looks amazing! Crews have also started looking at problems with the sprinkler system. Once dark lights are working again. This park is now becoming a park for all downtown’s residents – owners, renters and homeless.

Details on the events to follow – stay tuned.  A website will be up soon to communicate upcoming events.
This Saturday September 27th we’ll have our third clean up morning.  Edging of the sidewalks will continue as will paining of the wood benches.  Stop by to help or just enjoy the park.  We start at 8am and go until noon.

Tough Decisions: Useless Plaza Vs. Another F-ing Parking Garage

The large law firm Thompson Coburn, who was being lured to Clayton, is staying downtown in floors of the US Bank tower on 7th. That is the good news. The bad news is the deal will cost about $700K in tax incentives to keep from losing a huge number of jobs. Furthermore, the Missouri Development Finance Board will build yet another parking garage downtown (garages are more prolific than Walgreen’s with sometimes more than one per corner).

The site of the new garage is the NW corner of 7th & Locust. Over a decade ago the Ambassador Theater was razed on that corner by then Mercantile Bank (now US Bank). I recall going downtown and seeing the once magnificent building being demolished. Mercantile Bank wanted a proper entry for its mid-1970s tower.
For twenty years the two had managed to co-exist next to each other.

At the same time the owner of the Arcade-Wright buildings a few blocks away wanted to raze those structures for surface parking. The Post-Dispatch editorialized at the time against razing the Arcade/Wright for surface parking but in favor of razing the Ambassador for Mercantile’s “urban plaza:”

January 30, 1995, Monday, FIVE STAR Edition
A PLAZA FOR DOWNTOWN
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 6B

Downtown St. Louis will lose another of its landmark buildings later this year when Mercantile Bank knocks down the 17-story Ambassador Theater Building at Seventh and Locust streets. That’s too bad, but the reality is that not every older building can or should be saved.
After the building is demolished, the site will be turned into a landscaped plaza with a fountain and trees. The plaza will be an enhancement to downtown besides setting off the bank’s modern office tower and its bank building at Eighth and Locust.
Built in the 1920s, the Ambassador Theater Building housed an elegant movie palace, which was also used for stage productions, but its lights went dim in the 1970s. The theater portion of the building was stripped bare before Mercantile acquired the structure in 1989. It has been vacant, or nearly so, since then. The city’s Heritage and Design Commission assented to the historic building’s demolition, influenced, no doubt, by the bank’s plan to create an attractive plaza there.
Meanwhile, the owners of the historic Arcade and Wright buildings on Olive Street, at Eighth, also seek permission to demolish. They want to replace the buildings – one 18 stories tall, the other 16 and both more than 75 years old – with a parking lot. That is hardly the kind of open space that will add to the quality of downtown life or promote its economic growth.

So presumably the paper’s editors in 1995 felt an “attractive plaza” with a “fountain and trees” would add to the “quality of downtown life.” So where are they now decrying the loss of this “enhancement?” It didn’t take long for everyone to realize this new plaza was just an elaborate circle drive – a seldom used one at that.

The public was fooled by the idea of a great public space in place of the fabulous but vacant Ambassador. The plaza does indeed have grass, a fountain and trees. I’ve also never seen anyone use the space. I think I biked through the circle drive once but it is truly a forgetful space.

In addition to losing the Ambassador and with threats against the Arcade/Wright the owner of the nearby Syndicate & Century buildings notified the city in May 1995 they were revising their plan for the block bounded by 9th, Olive, 8th & Locust to be surface parking.

The Ambassador didn’t come down until 1996, and it didn’t go willingly:

AMBASSADOR IS GIVING ITS WRECKERS A WORKOUT
St. Louis Post-Dispatch – September 3, 1996
Author: By Elizabeth Holland ; Of The Post-Dispatch Staff
After considerable struggle, Spirtas Wrecking Co. employees finally cut and removed a chunk of a truss of the Ambassador Theater late last week. Workers had been waging a battle with the building’s massive, concrete-filled trusses and expect to continue doing so until all of the trusses are removed, said Gail Partain, an executive with Mercantile Bank.

But back to the dreadful plaza that replaced the well-built 17-story Ambassador.

Butt look, grass and a fountain!

Again I don’t recall seeing anyone in the space – ever. I take that back, I have seen security guards make sure nobody dare use the space. When I was taking these pictures a guard came outside. Perhaps he thought I was a disabled terrorist in a bright orange wheelchair?

Perhaps a parking garage is a better use of this space? It couldn’t get any worse…unless they copied the other garage on this city block:

Does it get any worse than this?  We lost a spectacular building on another corner of this block so the bank could have a ‘nice’ entrance.  They should have started here.

Since I started writing this post I’ve made a couple more visits.  Yesterday afternoon I spotted a few smokers at the base of the tower — not in the plaza itself.  Again no seating is provided and sitting on the grass would probably upset the guards. The Plaza was designed by Gene Mackey who was just honored by the AIA St Louis.

Demolition of the Ambassador cost over $2 million.  Spiratas & Mercantile Bank ended up in court over the extra costs due to the concrete filled trusses.  When built the Ambassador was meant to stay around longer than it was.

While we have too many garages already I think we have too many vacant corners as well.  At least a garage will bring some urban form back to this corner.

Further reading:

• The Ambassador on Built St Louis (w/photos)
• St Louis Doesn’t Need More Parking by Matt Mourning on The Beacon
• Thompson Coburn and the Economics of Parking Downtown by Michael Allen on The Ecology of Absence
• Thompson Coburn to stay in Downtown St Louis in the 9/9/08 St Louis Business Journal
• Slay Says Centene “taking advantage of state incentives”, Aug 29th on this site