Gateway Cup 2008 Bicycle Racing – Day 2

It’s just not Labor Day Weekend for me unless there is bike racing on the streets of St Louis. The Gateway Cup is an annual must-see for me. In years past I’ve made it to all four days of racing but I’m not as mobile as I once was. On Saturday I did travel the few blocks from my downtown loft to check out the final mens race of the day.

For the past few years the downtown course was a simple clockwise circle on Washington, 14th, Locust and 20th with the start/finish on Washington between 16th & 17th. This year the race shifted west and rather than a big circle it was a sort of figure 8. The start/finish was the Tap Room on Locust at 21st. The course ran clockwise on Locust, 20th, Washington, 18th, Locust, 20th, Olive, 23rd back to Locust. At times there would be riders making one turn onto 20th as other riders further back in the course making the opposite turn on 20th.

This year riders also had a new challenge. A week earlier the city put down lose gravel along Olive/Lindell. By the day of the race most was compacted into the asphalt road surface. A classmate of mine a SLU lives a block from me and rides his bike to class. When the gravel was first applied it required more work driving a car and safely riding a bike in it had to be a challenge. Nice of the city to wait until classes were back in session.

OK, back to racing. The top mens riders always have the last race of the day. Typically they ride for 75 minutes plus five laps. Saturday when they started the final race they recognized they were behind on their schedule and losing light quickly so they cut 15 minutes off the time — 60 minutes plus five laps. On the very last lap a car heading east on Washington didn’t see the orange metal barricade and crashed right into it. I had just crossed the intersection 5 minutes earlier. Thankfully nobody was injured.

So for all of you that were cutting your lawns or attending your grandson’s 2nd birthday I put together a 7:53 minute video of the final race on Saturday.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-15S3jgEZek[/youtube]

The Gateway Cup starts on Friday evening of Labor Day weekend in Lafayette Square. Saturday is downtown while Sunday is on The Hill. The racing continues in the Loop on Monday. See www.GatewayCup.com for more details.

Have a great Labor Day everyone!

Slay Says Centene “taking advantage of the state incentives”

Last month Mayor Slay got a bit ticked at a board meeting of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments.  These meetings are recorded and below is Slay’s comments as they were transcribed and sent to me.  This was following a staff report on the use of tax incentives:

“We have a situation that I hope you look at. There is a Modesa that is being used, I think the way the statute is written I’m not suggesting anyone did anything wrong. It’s available and people are going to take advantage of whatever is available. But we have a situation now that there is a long time law firm that’s been in downtown St. Louis and they have announced they are moving to Clayton* The reason they have given me is because that they threw so much money at this law firm that they had no other choice other than to leave the city even though they like being downtown and it was actually pretty controversial within the firm itself.

“They are moving to Clayton because they threw so much money at them, and I’m not saying it was Clayton who did it, but through the state, Centene who went to the state and got some incentives to build spec office space. They want to build their own headquarters plus they want to build their own spec office space, they want to try to fill that space and to create jobs is what they told Missouri Development Finance Corps. What they didn’t tell the Missouri Development Finance Corps is what they were going to do to create some of those jobs was to bring some jobs out of St. Louis city into St. Louis County, into Clayton, one of the wealthiest municipalities in the state if not the wealthiest, certainly from a school district standpoint, out of one of the most depressed and distressed school districts anywhere in the state.

I hope you take a good look at that one. I do think there should be some kind of changes at the state level to prohibit that from happening in the future. It is not good policy to shuffle jobs around like that, particularly from a distressed area into an area that cannot be considered distressed. That is going to have a tremendous impact on downtown by itself. There is another effort being undertaken by Brown Shoe to attract Thompson and Coburn into Clayton, using the same types of incentives. Thompson Coburn is the largest law firm in the region*we’re talking with the two firms somewhere between 800 to 1,000. Not only is it the reality of losing those jobs out of downtown, and we all agree it’s important to have a strong downtown, not only important to have a strong downtown, but it is the psychological impact on our ability to maintain a strong downtown. If people see major law firms that have been downtown forever, leaving for the suburbs. That does not bode well for the confidence level people have.

It’s happening because of one reason and one reason only * they having so much money thrown at them.

What I’m being told is that they are being offered $95 per square foot for tenant improvements — $95 per square foot. That is unconscionable. I’ve never heard anything close to that being given anywhere. They are offering $95 a square foot. They could not do that without the state incentives. Centene is not just giving it to them, they are in some way taking advantage of the state incentives to be able to offer this to the law firms to bring them out of the city to Clayton.

He’s right. Using tax incentives to move jobs across municipal & county lines is not what the programs meant by creating new jobs.  Using tax dollars to move jobs out of a disadvantaged area into an affluent area  is certainly wrong.

Centene is not the first nor the last to twist tax incentives to their favor.  Remember West County Mall’s TIF – Des Peres blighted the old mall saying it was obsolete so they owners could get tax incentives to raze and rebuild.  So now Centene is creating new jobs by stealing jobs from the city.  It is a system run a muck.    Incentives should be reserved for those circumstances where the market needs a little help.

Fox2 covered the Mayor’s view on Centene on August 21st (see their story).  Do we just end all the incentives to prevent the haves from using what was intended for the have nots?  Better yet we get our state legislators to tighten up the criteria.

I like this Mayor Slay. Angry.  Passionate.  Vocal.  We need more of this mayor and less of the one that is more diplomatic.

ADA Notice to Those Who Build in our Region

Construction of new buildings and the renovation of existing structures continue in the region — a very good thing given current concerns over the economy. Unfortunately, many of these are failing to provide a pedestrian access route from the public sidewalk as is required by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

While I don’t expect every building owner to upgrade existing sites to include an access route I do expect new and substantially rehabbed facilities to comply. Sadly building codes don’t always require the same things as the ADA so while a project might fully comply with the building code that doesn’t exempt it from needing to comply with the ADA.

I’ve written before about finished projects not complying with the access route requirement — Lowe’s at Loughborough Commons and several Starbuck’s locations, for example. I’ve also written about locations that do comply — such as the new Arby’s on Lindell across the street from the new McDonald’s under construction. It frustrates me that municipal and county officials fail to include a pedestrian access requirement in their codes and thus don’t enforce it. In the city and other areas where you have pedestrians local officials should have the local power to require that places connect to the existing sidewalk network

So it occurred to me that nothing prevents me from notifying companies of their need to comply as I see projects being built. I’m thinking I draft a standard letter that I can send out via certified mail giving them notice of the need to provide an access route. Of course I cannot assume they are not going to comply.

Here is a first draft:

Dear sir/madam,

I see that you are constructing a new [insert name] in the City of [city name]. Please be advised that while your plans fully comply with the locally adopted building code they may not be fully compliant with a provision in the 1990 American’s Americans With Disabilities Act that requires a pedestrian access route from a public sidewalk to the accessible entrance.

The relevant section to which I am referring is 4.3 of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities (ADAAG) which can be found online at access-board.gov:

“(1) At least one accessible route within the boundary of the site shall be provided from public transportation stops, accessible parking, and accessible passenger loading zones, and public streets or sidewalks to the accessible building entrance they serve. The accessible route shall, to the maximum extent feasible, coincide with the route for the general public.

(2) At least one accessible route shall connect accessible buildings, facilities, elements, and spaces that are on the same site.“

Hopefully your Architect/Engineer has already included such an access route in your site plan. If not you should contact them at once to verify they are willing to assume the liability for non-compliance.

The ADA is Federal Civil Rights legislation. Failure to comply can result in an investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice and/or private legal action.

An access route not only helps the disabled but anyone that may be arriving at this location on foot. I understand this may differ from how you’ve done things in the past. However, the ADA has been the law for nearly two decades now.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

Steven L. Patterson

UrbanReviewSTL.com

Again the above is just a first draft. Hopefully I can get a few places that didn’t have an access route planned to alter their plans to include one prior to the completion of the project. If not, the letter will help in any future litigation.

I’m determined to make our region more walkable. Even if that means we drive our cars to the strip mall but choose to walk to the out parcel once we are there.

Busch Stadium Parking Garages Need to be Razed

There are ugly parking garages and then there are the twin garages known as Stadium East and Stadium West. These garages used to be on either side of Busch Stadium II (1966-2006).   They will bookend the East & West sides of Ballpark Village.  Each occupies a full city block.

The design of these garages is worse than most downtown in that they lack any sidewalk level retail/restaurant space.  The levels of the floors also prevent any such retail space being carved out of a corner or two.

The brutal design of the garages, their mass and blank walls deadens the sidewalks on all four sides.  When Ballpark Village is done these garages will serve as they have for four decades — as barriers.

These garages need to go if we want any hope of sewing back together our downtown.  At least the equally ugly Kiener Garages have retail/restaurant space at the sidewalk level making them marginally tolerable.  These garages have no redeeming qualities.

Plans for Ballpark Village need to include razing these garages and the construction of new more sensitive parking wrapped by buildings.  Eventually we can undo all the bad planning and bad structures done to downtown over the last half century.  Nothing will bring back the nicely scaled buildings we lost — but we don’t have to keep these monstrosities around forever.  Maybe if we get these garages on the National Register of Historic Places then our elected leaders and developers like Steve Stogel will want to raze them?

SLU’s “Urban Oasis” Open on Former Vista Ave

A year ago another street near Saint Louis University’s Heath Sciences complex was closed to traffic.  The one block section of Vista Ave East of Grand was closed on Aug 24, 2007 (see prior post).  From the press release issued by SLU last year:

Saint Louis University soon will increase beauty, safety and accessibility to the Medical Center with a new pedestrian mall.

The area along Vista Avenue between Grand Boulevard and Carr Lane Avenue will be transformed into an urban oasis that mimics green space near the Doisy College of Health Sciences building as well as parts of campus north of I-64/Hwy. 40. The section will be bordered by the School of Medicine complex on the north and the building that now houses the department of neurology and psychiatry on the south.

Pedestrians will be welcomed to the mall [by] one of SLU’s signature red brick monuments, and beautiful landscaping, trees and flowers will provide a parklike atmosphere. Safety also will be enhanced, as city streetlights will be replaced by upgraded lighting that will shine brightly on the mall.

In addition, SLU’s design and construction team is extending the “green” attributes of the Edward A. Doisy Research Center to the mall project. By removing heat-soaked pavement and adding more grass, the area will become more environmentally friendly.

The block of Vista Ave was your typical street — part of the disappearing street grid in the immediate area.  It’s sidewalks were old and it’s lighting poor:

Today there is no traffic but there is green grass:

There is nothing inherently safer about Vista Ave now that it is closed to vehicular traffic.  The lighting is certainly improved but that could have been changed without shutting off through access. Sidewalks could have been replaced too.

By removing traffic and on-street parking they’ve removed eyes from the street.  In people’s minds this may seem safer but that has more to do with the care-for look and improved nighttime lighting.  Granted someone walking here now doesn’t have to worry about a guy jumping out of a parked or passing car and mugging someone.  On the other hand a criminal knows that nobody in a car is suddenly going to drive down the block and catch them being mischievous.  Again, the cared-for image sends a message to criminals to stay out.  The same could have been accomplished by redoing the sidewalks & lighting and perhaps eliminating on-street parking at each end by having curb bulb outs.  This would have slowed traffic and sent the same message to criminals.

The neighbors in the next block East wouldn’t feel cut off from Grand as I imagine they now feel.  But I think that is part of the intent – to isolate adjacent property owners to the point they are willing to sell out to the university.  By cutting them off from a major arterial road this limits and alters their access to their homes.  This limited access reduces marketability and price.  Unable to sell to others they are happy when  the university comes knocking with any offer.

For years now SLU has slowly been choking off the neighborhood to the East and buying property and razing buildings.  The neighbors see the writing on the wall.  When an entity such as SLU can make you change your route home you know it is only a matter of time before they come for your house.  SLU is not buying property to build new housing.  They don’t want a strong residential neighborhood next door because that would mean people that would object to more parking garages.  SLU wants to wipe out everything East to Compton and little by little it is happening.

Furthermore, the above is hardly an oasis.  If they really wanted it to be park-like a park bench or two would have been nice. When you have a disabled blogger walking down the former street a place to sit and enjoy the oasis would be nice.  But they realize it isn’t really a safe place to sit and hang out — there are no building entries facing this block and pedestrian traffic passing through is pretty minimal.

If closing streets to cars was such a safe thing to do then 14th Street in Old North must have been a really safe place since 1977.  Why not close all the streets in the city?  That would reduce crime big time because we’d all leave because we could no longer get around.

Redo streets? Yes!  Narrow streets?  Yes!  Improve lighting for pedestrians? Yes!  Close streets?  No!