Tow Firm Story is a Literal Dead End

The relationship between St Louis Metropolitan Towing and the St Louis Metropolitan Police has been closely investigated by the St Louis Post-Dispatch. They’ve done an excellent job. The Police Chief Joe Mokwa has already retired amid fallout over the scandal and how his daughter and offers got the free use of impounded vehicles. Last week I shared my own St Louis Metropolitan Towing story.

Articles in the P-D mention the guard stands and razor wire but I thought some visuals were in order for the massive towing operation.

Leaving the relatively small location on 10th, after you’ve paid your ransom, you head Southbound on 10th Street because it is a one-way road used to get high volumes of cars from the interstate into downtown St Louis. At the corner of the tow facility you have a stop at O’fallon St with a view of the back of the beautiful St Joseph’s Catholic church.

Heading West on O’fallon you don’t get very far:

Just past Tucker at 13th O’fallon St is closed to through traffic & pedestrians. The once public street is now private property. This tow facility has managed to acquire quite a bit of public land through street closures. The result is drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians must go around the facility rather than taking a more direct route.

blah

Of course St Louis Metropolitan Towing is not the only private firm to benefit from the city’s bad policy of giving away streets and alleys.

KDNL and Hogan Trucking are two other firms in this small section of the city on downtown’s North edge that count former public streets among their private real estate holdings. The McDonald’s drive-through is the old alley. The McDonald’s consumes it’s entire city block so it is not like adjacent property owners need to use it.

All these street closures serve as barriers between parts of the city on opposite sides of these larger holdings. Decades ago the walk from downtown’s CBD to Crown Candy Kitchen in Old North St Louis would have had numerous possible routes and taken the pedestrian past many buildings. Now, after a half century of bad public policy that devalues land (especially public streets) the walk is limited in route and is very unpleasant. Some things don’t change — a good walk is still necessary after a visit to Crown Candy.

From above we can see the vast waste land that has resulted from destructive urban land policies. The abandoned Schnuck’s is in the upper right corner. St Louis Metropolitan Towing’s main building is just below the old Schnuck’s. Tucker runs North and South in the center of the above with St Louis Metropolitan Towing’s lot #2 in the left half of the image.

This area didn’t always look this way.

As you can see above in 1909 the area was full of structures.  OK, maybe most were in poor condition  — so you replace those structures.  You don’t just turn blocks of land into vast parking areas for towed vehicles while giving away the streets and service alleys.  Yes people left for the suburbs but we’ve also used bad public policy through various entities to destroy swaths of the city such as this one.

I believe this area was planned to be taken by the state for on & off ramps for the original design of the new Mississippi River Bridge before it was scaled back.  Funny that on/off ramps might have actually improved this once thriving area.

Preservation Board Says ‘No’ To Demolition Request in Old North

One of the duties of the city’s cultural resources office and the Preservation Board is to consider requests for demolition permits in much of the city. Some wards are excluded and are free to destroy our history. Other parts of the city are covered by local and national historic districts. Such districts don’t automatically save individual buildings from demolition anymore than individual listing does (see the fugly parking garage where the Century Building stood for decades). Still the Preservation Board has strict criteria used to determine if it should allow a building to be razed. Criteria includes the rehab potential of the structure among other things. It doesn’t mean the current owner has the means to do the rehab or that it fits into their plans but that it is feasible for someone to rehab the building.

Some members naturally lean toward saving buildings while others almost have a perverse pleasure in voting in favor of demolition. The majority sticks to the criteria spelled out in the applicable ordinance in each case.

Last night’s meeting included a controversial demolition request for a rather typical vernacular structure on Hadley St in Old North St Louis. Much of Old North is in the Murphy-Blair National Register Historic District. The very future of the district was potentially at stake according to Cultural Resources director Kathleen Shea and Michael Allen from Landmark’s Association and the excellent Ecology of Absence blog. At the district’s inception in the early 80’s it included some 600 “contributing” structures. By some estimates as much as a third of those have been razed in the years since. The Missouri state historic preservation office has the ability to review districts and de-certify them if they’ve lost enough of what made it a district in the first place. Much of the individual rehabs and the current $35 million dollar project around the former 14th Street Pedestrian Mall were possible thanks to state historic preservation tax credits. If the district were to be de-certified it would be hard to make the numbers work to renovate more buildings in the neighborhood.

At issue last night was a building on the SW corner of Hadley St and Montgomery St., numbered 2619-21 Hadley St (map). While I tend to side with property owners in cases of eminent domain when it comes to demolition the common good of the whole neighborhood must be considered. As is the case in many parts of North St Louis, if you raze enough structures you cease to have a neighborhood.

This is the second time The Haven of Grace, a shelter for pregnant homeless women, has requested permission to raze this structure. In February 2007 they asked the board to consider demolition of this and another building on the same block (agenda item). At that time the Cultural Resources staff recommended the board approve the demolition of one structure but not this one. I was there that night a year and a half ago when The Haven of Grace agreed to save this building if they could demolish the other. Doing so would clear the way for the non-profit to construct three new 4-family buildings. The board then approved the demolition of one structure but not this one.

So last night this building was on the agenda again. This time Haven of Grace was primarily represented by their board President, Harold R Burroughs. Burroughs is an attorney with the firm Brian Cave. Knowing the next step, if the Preservation Board followed the staff recommendation and denied the demo request, would be court he spent a lot of time making his case. Kate Shea spent time making her case too. When the court looks at these cases they simply review the record of evidence presented to the Board to see if they followed the applicable ordinance(s).

Burroughs indicated they could not build their third building on the vacant land as planned because their contractor wouldn’t work next to the existing structure. A non-structural back wall has collapsed since the February 2007 meeting. Another of the criteria used is the redevelopment plan for the site. This time the plan is landscaping, not as compelling as a replacement building. After a good two hours the Preservation Board voted 4-1 to uphold the staff denial of the demolition permit. It was the right decision based on the evidence presented and the criteria they must follow.

Congestion on Downtown…Sidewalks

There have been so many pedestrians downtown lately it is often impossible for me to fly down sidewalks in my wheelchair at high speed. I just want to get to the grocery store but a family is walking in front of me peering in store windows. Every direction more people in my way.

I couldn’t be happier.

This is my first summer as a downtown resident but I did spend a lot of time downtown in the couple of years prior to the move. It certainly feels like pedestrian traffic has picked up. Lots of dog walking. More strollers. Joggers. The cafe tables seem more full.

The diversity of the people is good too, all ages & races. Straight & gay. Renters & owners. Downtown residents, workers & visitors. For the first time in a long time I feel like I live in a real city.

When I first moved to St Louis in August of 1990 (18 years ago!) I lived in a high rise on Lindell. I’d walk to Straub’s for groceries and take evening walks up and down Euclid.  The Central West End has enjoyed a comfortable urban existence for many years but is nice to see other parts of the regain lost pedestrian traffic.

Hopefully downtown, in time, will resume its former role as the employment and retail center of the region. With so many jobs and retail stores spread out this may be an impossible wish. The goal should be to make incremental gains each year.

A strong downtown will increase the desirability of neighborhoods in the rest of the city as well as older inner ring suburbs.  Downtown living is not for everyone but downtown working & shopping reaches a broader audience.  The big question is if we have the right people in positions to make this happen?  To a degree it will happen on its own.  Public Policy, however, can get in the way of market forces.  One small example is the near ban on street food sold through vendor carts.

For the moment I’m going to enjoy all those pedestrians getting in my way.

My Own St. Louis Metropolitan Towing Story

In the current headlines is the relationship with the St Louis Metropolitan Police and a private company, St Louis Metropolitan Towing. As part of the story it turns out the daughter of Police Chief Mokwa was driving and had wrecked a car that had been impounded by the police. Turns out others had driven cars as well and many were able to buy cars at a fraction of market value. Chief Mokwa stated “I’ve done nothing wrong, and I have been forthcoming and explicit with all the information requested of me.” Mayor Slay, a member of the Police Board, is calling for Chief Mokwa to retire. I have my own personal St. Louis Metropolitan Towing Story. Before I can get to the story of my prior car ending up at St Louis Metropolitan Towing I need to give you the long back story.

In January 2006 I hired a guy to help me clear stuff out of a property I was selling as well as at my residence, both in Dutchtown. After a good day’s work he takes advantage of a lapse in my judgment and attention and grabs my laptop, digital camera, cell phone, wallet and keys off my desk and splits. My iPod was in the car — then less than two months old (a 2006 Scion Xa). The responding officer says the car will likely be found but everything else would soon be sold on the street. The date was January 22, 2006.

So I had to cancel credit cards, turn off the cell phone, and get another, get a new driver’s license, have my house re-keyed, and begin filing insurance claims which required finding proof of ownership & serial numbers on things like the laptop, camera and iPod. A couple of days later I get a call on my new cell phone. It was from a gas station in Farmington, MO — a woman used my old non-functional phone as collateral for a few bucks worth of gas. I tell the clerk the story of my stolen car but she doesn’t recall what kind of car the woman was driving. She calls their local police because they’ve been ripped off for $5 with a stolen phone. I call the Farmington Police as well as the St Louis Police to pass along this information. The Farmington Police for some reason called my parents (“Mom & Dad” on the phone). I didn’t want them to fret and worry so I hadn’t told them.

That night, at about 2am my home phone rings. The caller ID was blocked. The woman on the other end is asking how I’m doing. She explains that a couple she sorta knew came into her workplace that evening trying to sell my credit cards, ID, and car to help raise money for me. This woman remembered my name and address. She worked a late shift but when she got home she looked me up online because it all seemed to suspicious to her. I explained the whole sordid tale to her and asked her to call the police. She had seen my car! She didn’t want to get involved. All I knew about her was that she was in Park Hills, MO — a short drive from Farmington.

Less than an hour later the phone rang again this time the caller ID was not blocked. The woman felt sorry for me and thought she knew where the couple was staying if they hadn’t left town yet. She was in her vehicle heading to this motel to see if my car was there. Again I plead with her to call the police. While she is driving and we are talking she says she sees a sheriff’s vehicle coming toward her. “Flag it down,” I proclaim. She did. She explains to the Deputy what she knows and then I tell him more detail such as the make & model, color, plate# and the St Louis Police report number. The Deputy takes off toward the motel where this woman thought they were staying. She follows. It is now well past 3am and I am wide awake despite not having slept well the past few nights.

This couple had just pulled back into the motel as the Sheriff’s Deputy, who was off duty and on his way home, pulled up. Busted. I thank the woman profusely for her help.

Later that day I talk to the officer. The description of the man with the woman didn’t the man that actually stole it. However, the couple both had outstanding warrants. The Deputy had the car towed by a local company and said I could pick it up the following day. My parents were relieved.

So I enlist a good friend to drive me to Park Hills — an hour plus South of St Louis. I had arranged to meet another Deputy there as they hadn’t fully processed the car. The car was packed with clothes, shoes and stuff. The owner’s manual and such were missing. No sign of my computer, camera or iPod — those were long gone. The car had lost it’s new car smell and now reeked like an ashtray. Despite being a cold day in January I drove the car the hour home with the windows down.

I get the car cleaned up and eventually get my other items replaced by my homeowner’s policy. In March of 2006 I do a road trip to Memphis & Little Rock and end up in Oklahoma City for my Mom’s 75th birthday. When my mom passed away in June 2006 I drove back for the services. Over the next few months I drove back at least twice to visit my Dad — alone for the first time in nearly 57 years.

Fast forward now to January 2007. I drove downtown for the monthly Preservation Board meeting, parking on 10th street just around the corner from the SLDC offices at 1015 Locust. The date was the 22nd — the year anniversary of my car being stolen. The agenda was long and there was at least one item I addressed the Board about. The meeting started at 4pm and it went past my two hour maximum on the meter. After the meeting I fully expected to have a parking ticket for the expired meter. Surprise, no ticket, no car!

I see I have a message on my phone.  It was the police saying they recovered my stolen car.  Wow, that is fast I thought.  It couldn’t have been missing for long.  I called the officer and she tells me proudly they found my car that was stolen a year earlier to the day.  To secure the car they had it towed to St Louis Metropolitan towing.

The St Louis Police records still showed my car as being stolen.  The sheriff’s dept that recovered the car the prior year insists they informed the St Louis Police but their records of such have already been destroyed.  I get a friend to drive me back to my South Side place.  The next morning another friend picks me up so I can ride with him to work downtown.  From there I walk Northbound on 10th headed to St Louis Metropolitan Towing to get my car.  The fee was double that from a year earlier.  One reason it was more expensive is they had to use a flatbed truck since the car was locked and they couldn’t put it in neutral and release the emergency brake.

After I paid the ransom I had to walk a few blocks West to the lot where my car was being held.  Nobody had driven the car because it was still locked and they had no keys for it.  Back in my car I head to a luncheon of the Society of Professional Journalists.  The topic was working with the police on getting information for a story.  One of the panelists was an officer who was an aid to Chief Mokwa.  I explain the issue of how the St Louis Police stole my car a year after it had been stolen and how I just had to pay a ransom to get it back.  A few weeks later another officer calls me and asks a few questions.  It was a good 3-4 months later but I got reimbursed not from St Louis Metropolitan Towing but from the St Louis Police.

In December of 2006 my car and a few others were vandalized with gold spray paint.  In 2007 I sold that car and put all these events into the back of my memory.  That is until the stories about St Louis Metropolitan Towing and Chief Mokwa’s daughter appeared in the news last week.

2AM Trash Collection

When lofts first started becoming occupied downtown a few conflicts arose. One was between residents that wanted to sleep in the middle of the night and trash companies that were used to a vacant downtown where they could empty dumpsters at any hour. The problem still exists.

The commercial dumpsters near my loft might be picked up early in the morning but not the middle of the night. For other downtown residents that is not the case. One reader, Jason, sent me a link to a short video he made very early this morning:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BarqDSVyWOw[/youtube]

In the video we see as he walks south on 9th street and then turns left on Pine. An Allied Waste truck driver has rolled out about three commercial dumpsters and is emptying one. This is adjacent to the Paul Brown Lofts. Jason then walks over to the Pulaski Bank branch at 9th & Olive where we see on the public clock that is is 2:08.

This time is unreasonable for trash collection. 10pm? Sure. 6am? Yeah. 2am? I don’t think so.

Now one might say that is to be expected in a major downtown. I’ve walked in Manhattan at 2am and it is surprisingly quite quiet. For all the talk a decade ago about creating a 24/7 downtown we are certainly not there. Like the rest of the city & region downtown shuts down and it is quite. When it is only 75 degrees out at night residents may well have their windows open. The sound of a late night taxi going by is one thing but we all know how loud a trash truck can be.

Some say such late night collection is illegal. Maybe so. I was not able to turn up anything in a quick scan of city ordinances. Ald Young has indicated the downtown is a commercial zone and thus the 2am pickup is allowed. Perhaps this needs to be addressed legislatively? Or maybe Allied Waste just needs to schedule their collections near lofts at some closer to when people are going to bed or just getting up. The ability to sleep is a quality of life issue.