City Needs to Ban Future Skywalks, Ameren’s is Latest to be added

What better way to destroy a city than to take pedestrians off the public street? Back a few decades ago skywalks were all the rage — every city just had to have at least one.

St Louis has it’s fair share and the most noteworthy is the one above as part of the failed St Louis Centre indoor mall. Making Washington Ave feel like a tunnel and blocking urban views up and down the street this is most certainly the largest. This bridge over the street is pretty universally accepted as major urban blunder even though it was hailed as wonderful just 20 years ago.

Many of the skywalks we have connect multiple buildings while others connect building to parking garage.

Above is a new skybridge at Lumiere Place on the formerly historic Laclede’s Landing area. This one connects a renovated hotel structure to the casino, saving guests from having to go outside on the sidewalk.

The latest skywalk being constructed is at the HQ of electric utility Ameren located just South of Union Station. This bridge doesn’t connect buildings or even a building to a parking garage. No, this skywalk goes to a surface parking lot.

In a prior post I was critical of the lack of street trees on 18th/Truman Parkway and as I was taking these images I felt like I was in the roadway given how close traffic was. We really should not be building pedestrian-unfriendly roads like this.

It should be telling that Ameren is going to such expense to keep employees from crossing five lanes of traffic. Their own HQ building and numerous surface parking lots has contributed to the destruction of an active and thus safe public sidewalk.

We need to stop removing people from the sidewalks in this manner — it only makes bad situations worse.

Lumiere Link is Nice, Route to Tunnel Needs Attention

Earlier in the week a new tunnel under I-70 connecting Baer Plaza (East of the Edward Jones Dome) and Lumiere Place casino in Laclede’s Landing opened to the public. St Louis Development Co. head Rodney Crim suggested the city wants convention goers, “when not in session and looking for things to do” to take the tunnel to the casino and Laclede’s Landing. Never mind conventioneers taking a stroll down Washington Ave or other streets downtown where retailers are struggling to have enough customers. See Crim on KSDK here.

So much was made about this great new privately funded $8 million dollar connection I just had to see for myself.

I started by heading East on Washington Ave, passing by the main entrance to the convention center, aka America’s Center. Of course the taxi stand on the sidewalk gets more space than us pedestrians. I can tell you that being in a wheelchair heading straight on toward a taxi that is moving toward me is not a comforting feeling. Oh the driver saw me as he repeatedly tapped his horn as he drove off. Behind the cabs was a St Louis police car that was so far to the right I had to go to the left to get around it. Welcome to St Louis.

When I got to 7th I turned left as I figured conventioneers might use the courtyard/plaza doors as their starting point for their walk to the casino. Above is looking back South from the plaza entry at 7th & Convention Plaza. As a side note Convention Plaza used to be Delmar but it was renamed when it ran in front of the original convention center. Later in the early 1990s when the center was expanded to the current configuration the street go cut off by the building. So now we have this short section of Convention Plaza on both the East & West sides of the center. It should have reverted back to the name Delmar.

Leaving the circle drive area at 7th & Convention Plaza we see surface parking lot and the back of the Drury Inn.

Heading East toward Baer Plaza & Lumiere Link we are along the side of the Edward Jones Dome. I’m not sure why street trees were not part of the plan when this was built but thet are sorely needed. The Jersey barriers were likely added after the Oklahoma City bombing or after 9/11.

Almost to Broadway now and we see a nice collection of Jersey barriers, seemingly blocking our path across the street.

Above, I want to cross Broadway which is to my left but I can’t get my wheelchair close enough to the pedestrian signal button (it is the one on the right on the light pole).

Above is the same pole and signal button from another angle. The ramp to cross Broadway is to the left of all the Jersey barriers you see. Current ADA guidelines require signal buttons to be closer to where they are needed.

Finally we make it. I can’t believe that Rodney Crim wants visitors to make that walk — it has to be among the worst in the city. I’d hope conventioneers would never see this side of the dome — instead making their way down Washington Ave to see sidewalk dining and increasingly active sidewalks.

So we are now at the entry to Lumiere Link. We are at Baer Plaza. Who?

Robert J. Baer was the first chairman of the St Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority. Baer was also the former head of Bi-State Development and he took over the position again at Metro after Larry Salci had a very public crash & burn. From the plaque:

“Preservation of land for this park reflects Mr Baer’s recognition for ‘green space’ as an attractive front yard for the Stadium/Convention Center.”

With the trees now mature this has the potential for a decent public space. Sadly it has no natural users as the area is pretty desolate. Although now we have people coming and going to the casino and maybe a few to Laclede’s Landing beyond the casino. So how attractive is this front yard? Above you can see the weeds popping up between the seams in the concrete, not a good start.

All around the edges is debris from the trees.

There is even part of a dumpster lid. The whole plaza looks and feels rather abandoned. This is not St Louis putting it’s best foot forward. You’d think someone from the Visitor Commission or whomever has responsibility for this space might had tidied up a bit before the opening of the new tunnel.

Visitors to the tunnel have three choices for the decent — stairs, an escalator or an elevator. At the other end of the tunnel you end up right smack in the middle of the complex. You are not on the casino floor of course because you must show ID and such to enter the gaming area. Still you can see the games and certainly the restaurants.

The interior was more posh than I expected. Pity they had to go and ruin it with all the gaming machines. I also have to wonder how of the $8 million for the tunnel was in video screens. Despite the richness of the whole place I couldn’t wait to get out. I may use the link again so that I can check out the exterior of the casino & hotel as it looms over what little remains of Laclede’s Landing.

Overall I think the link is a good thing — the more connections across I-70 the better. If only the route to get to the tunnel wasn’t so pathetic.

Downtown Business Not So Good for Good Works

The giant ribbon-cutting scissors are barely back in their box and Good Works is pulling the rug on their second location, located on Washington at 9th (Banker’s Lofts). I attended the ribbon cutting on December 13th and I must say it was an exciting time, the ribbon cutting for Flamingo Bowl was later that same day.

Above: Deputy Mayor Barb Geisman, Ald Phyllis Young, the store manager and Jim Cloar from the Downtown Partnership cut the ribbon on December 13th, 2007.

In the Post-Dispatch on the 24th of this month the news of their closing:

In the latest blow to downtown St. Louis, Good Works Inc. will close its home-furnishings store next month due to a lack of new customers.Many of the shoppers who visited the store at 901 Washington Avenue were the same ones who frequented the Good Works store at 6323 Delmar Boulevard in University City, said Chris Dougher, one of the owners. Co-owners Dougher and Rita Navarro plan to expand the store in the Delmar Loop.

“We just aren’t generating new business,” Dougher said of the store on Washington Avenue. “It’s a huge disappointment, but we can’t foresee it changing in the near future.”

The 8,000-square-foot store, which opened in November, was one of the larger retailers to locate downtown in recent years.

The store on Delmar, which sells contemporary furniture and accessories, has been successful since opening at that location about 11 years ago.

The owners decided to open a second store on Washington Avenue because they wanted to be part of the downtown renaissance and thought it would become the next Loop.

However, a soft economy has slowed downtown loft purchases, store openings and retail spending.

On opening day I wrote:

“I wish Good Works the best of luck and hope they do get all the support they need from the city — and some on-street parking out front.”

Just imagine the loop as four traffic lanes and no on-street parking, it would totally kill the vibe that it has. That is what exists in front of the Good Works store on Washington — it is a poor pedestrian & retail environment. To do well they needed lots of customers and the area to the immediate East is a dead zone — so dead the taxi cabs get to use the sidewalk as a taxi stand. The loft crowd just doesn’t walk by this location on the way to get groceries, dinner or drinks. Too few people do walk by. OK, back to parking.

As I’ve written before I think so much of St. Louis is auto centric with too many drive-thrus and surface parking lots measured by the acre. Even downtown it is hard to take pictures without getting a damn parking garage in the image. So how can I be arguing for on-street parking? On-street parking does a number of very beneficial things for an area. First it reduces four traffic lanes down to two — much friendlier. This also helps to slow down the traffic on the street. People parking and getting in/out of their cars & feeding the meter creates activity on the street. And finally having parking in front of the store decreases the perception that downtown has a parking shortage. When someone arrives they may have to park in the next block or two but the fact that someone got to park out front helps give the impression that parking is fairly easy. This is not to say that a few on-street spaces out front would have provided a steady stream of customers but it would have changed the feel of the area for the better. Certainly more Loop-like.
Of course they recognize they were basically stealing customers from their Loop location. Not much you can say about that except it takes a lot of marketing to increase a customer base. The Loop didn’t happen overnight and neither will retail downtown. For many places the rents far exceed the number of customers.

This is why we need to take immediate steps to make downtown more pedestrian/retail friendly. On-street parking needs to be added where it doesn’t exist, add street vendors selling hot dogs, toasted ravioli, t-shirts, whatever. Street performers would also be a nice touch. The sidewalks need life to have a good stream of retail customers. If we are not quick to act I can see much of downtown being just a restaurant zone with very little retail.

U.S. Auto Industry Caught with wrong product mix again

In the 1970s The U.S. auto industry was blindsided by the 1973 Oil Embargo. Efficient imports autos like Datsun, Honda and Toyota swept in to fill consumer demand for more economical transportation. Homegrown solutions were way off the mark — Ford already had the heavy Pinto. I owned a 1974 Ford Mustang II — what a POS that was. Did they learn anything? Nope!

Today Ford, GM and Chrysler are caught with too many trucks and SUV’s in showrooms as sales of these segments decline in the double digits. Toyota has passed Ford for the #2 sales position in the U.S. Honda is set to pass Chrysler for #3.

Why does it matter? Well the auto industry is an important part of our national economy. Many thousands of workers build the cars and many others work for suppliers to the industry. Until we can shift these people to other jobs a large part of the economy depends upon all of us doing our part and buying a new vehicle. But with the new reality of $4/gallon +/- gas consumers are finally rejecting trucks and SUVs. Frankly the U.S. economy is to reliant upon sales of autos and of new mostly suburban homes.

For years the big 3 (GM, Ford, & Chrysler) have bought and rebadged efficient vehicles to meet demand. They’ve also revised their own models that were designed and sold in Europe and other countries where fuel efficiency has long been important. For much of the 1970s and 1980s Chrysler had a deal with Mitsubishi — my 1984 Dodge Colt was a rebadged Mitsubishi Mirage — it was also a great car. Ford brought us their German built Fiesta and later rebadged Kia’s. GM looked through products offered elsewhere and brought us Vauxhall Chevettes and today they sell the Aveo built by GM Daewoo in South Korea. The Pontiac Vibe is a rebadged version of the U.S.-built Toyota Matrix. Saturn’s Astra is a European Opal. For some reason these auto makers can’t manage to design and build a small & efficient car on our shores.

This year Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes vehicles, began importing the tiny French-built smart fortwo. It only holds two people while showing we don’t all need massive vehicles to get around.
According to fueleconomy.gov the Toyota Prius remains the most fuel efficient mass production car available to U.S. buyers. Meanwhile U.S. automakers were busy trying to prop up sales of trucks and SUVs with hybrid and flex fuel technology — so now thee vehicles just get poor mileage rather than abysmal.

U.S. auto buyers have fewer efficient choices than the rest of the world. We’ve been buying land yachts for so long now the auto makers don’t waste their time with more efficient and useful vehicles. Buyers in other markets, for example, can get a Honda Accord station wagon or a 4-door Civic with a hatchback Sedans we’ve got but a handy hatchback is a rare find.

For used car shoppers the prospects are even fewer. For those on limited budgets the big gas hogs often become the most affordable vehicles to purchase. Thus, those who can least afford the price of gas have the worst mileage.

Ideally we’d have such a great mass transit system we wouldn’t need private autos but the reality is our region is so spread out that we’ll never have such a system. As gas prices rise people will still have cars. I just hope our choices of cars improves.

Not all residents are happy with the King

Some owners of lofts in the King Bee building on Washington Ave have taken their complaints to court.  From a current RFT article:

In 2006 building and fire inspectors confirmed several problems: a furnace system without proper ventilation; a four-story staircase with several air conditioners stored on landings, also improperly ventilated; and untested sprinkler and alarm systems.

St. Louis’ acting building commissioner Frank Oswald calls the violations at the King Bee “major,” but says none of them are severe enough to warrant condemnation. What’s unusual to Oswald is the way they arose in the first place.

“Usually when somebody else is [violating code],” says Oswald, “they’re doing it on their property, and they haven’t sold it as a condominium.”

The fundamental issue, adds Oswald, is that the developer failed to alert the St. Louis Building Division before converting the warehouse to residences. He explains that most developers begin by filing a plan, which kicks off a series of reviews and inspections, before anyone moves in. “It clearly was not done appropriately,” Oswald says.

Deputy Fire Marshal Baron Ross agrees. “The life-safety requirements for a warehouse or factory are quite different from where people are going to be sleeping,” he explains.

Interesting.  As the article also notes, the developers asked for and received tax abatement.   So while the building division didn’t have a master plan in front of them the developers would have had to show something to St Louis Dev Corp and the Board of Aldermen.  This is probably one of the most glaring examples of a breakdown in communications between the many city departments and agencies.