St. Louis Cardinals Unveil [Model] Ballpark Village

Today the St. Louis Cardinals, The Cordish Company (developer) and the City of St. Louis announced an “agreement in principal” on the much debated Ballpark Village project. The Ballpark Village site is to be located where the old Busch Stadium was located from 1966-2005, currently the mud hole you see at right. To be fair, the new stadium just opened this year with the north facade facing us in this view just getting finished very recently. Clearly, considerable attention and work has gone into the future of the now vacant site. OK, we’ve established they have not been sitting around. What have they been up to?

First, lets get oriented. The view at right is taken from the posh branch office of The Cordish Company located on the 17th floor of the Bank of America tower at the NW corner of 8th & Walnut. The street in the left of the image is Walnut and 8th street is in the right. Clark Street now runs along the north side of the new stadium (Note: I am not sure if this is a “public” street or privately controlled street). At the far side of the image is Broadway in front of the horrible parking garage structure. In the bottom of the image is the roof of the Bowling Hall of Fame. Curving in front of the hall of fame is 7th street with one-way traffic heading north. It should be noted, all the streets mentioned are one-way with the sole exception of Clark.

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Cardinals to hold Press Conference on Ballpark Village

The press released handed to Antonio French, sitting at my right at the Board of Aldermen meeting, says:

The City of St. Louis, The St. Louis Cardinals, and the Cordish Company cordially invite you to a special announcement this afternoon (Friday, October 27) at 1:00pm at The Cordish Company’s Ballpark Village office located in the Bank of America at 800 Market Street, 17th Floor, Suite 1750.

Any guesses on how much the Cardinals are going to ask from the tax payers?

Something Big Happening in St. Louis Tuesday-Thursday but not about Baseball

Yes, Tuesday-Thursday the World Series comes to town. If all goes well, the St. Louis Cardinals will defeat the Detroit Tigers all three nights for a World Series win in St. Louis on Thursday evening. But those same three days involve something far less monumental but in the long run much better: future mass transit routes. Three meetings will be held in different parts of town. The presentations will be basically the same although each one will focus a bit more heavily on alternates in that part of town:

Downtown

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 4:00 p.m.- 6:00 p.m. Presentation at 4:30 p.m. Regional Collaboration Center One Metropolitan Square, 12th Floor St. Louis, MO 63102

Southside

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Presentation at 5:30 p.m. Lift for Life Academy – Cafeteria 1731 S. Broadway St. Louis, MO 63104

Northside

Thursday, October 26, 2006 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Presentation at 5:30 p.m. Fifth Missionary Baptist Church Fellowship Hall 3736 Natural Bridge Avenue St. Louis, MO 63107

In the past I’ve attended all three but as I have class on Tuesday & Wednesday evenings I’ll only be able to make the Northside one on Thursday evening. If you want to be involved in shaping the future of St. Louis this is certainly a good way to do it.

The reality, however, is Metro is broke and needs more tax money simply to operate the current system. We must certainly plan for the future but until our leadership gets serious about funding priorities it is hard to take this too serious. Who among us will still be around in 15+ years when these proposed routes might have their ribbon cutting?

More information can be found at northsouthstudy.org

One Down, Three to Go

Regular readers of Urban Review will note that I am not a big sports fan. In fact, I have complained about the large crowds of people on game days — they rush in to the venue (Busch Stadium, Jones Dome, Scottrade Center) before the game and then rush out afterwards. Sure, some hang out before and after and spend money but the bulk do not. I was also not so happy about the process we went through with the Cardinals over funding of the new stadium. I was, however, reasonably pleased with the final stadium (read my review).

So here we are with the Cardinals holding out their hands, asking the city for more money to build out their vision of Ballpark Village (I’ll address the RFT’s version of Ballpark Village in a separate post). Last night the Cardinals handily won the first game of the 2006 World Series. Game two, played in Detroit just like last night’s game, just started. As much as I hate to admit it, I too am getting caught up in the excitement of the World Series. There, I said it.

Games three & four will be played here in St. Louis at the new Busch Stadium (Tuesday & Wednesday, 8pm). Game five, if necessary, will also be in St. Louis (Thursday). Should they be required, games six and seven will be back in Detroit. While some would like the Cardinals to shut out the Detroit Tigers by winning the first four games I’d rather see a fifth game be played. Why? Money:

St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association (RCGA) Chief Economist Bryan Bezold estimates that the total economic impact of each home World Series game will be approximately $4.5 million; $2.4 million of this total will be direct spending in and around Busch Stadium, and $2.1 million of it will be in indirect spending, as those dollars circulate throughout the region.

This additional World Series economic impact comes on top of the $241 million impact of the Cardinals inaugural regular season and the $3.1 million per game economic impact from the previous rounds of playoffs, at the new Busch Stadium.

So yes, I’d gladly trade off the Tigers winning a single game so that we can have three games played in St. Louis rather than just two, we need the extra $4.5 million in the economy from game five. Of course, I’d rather the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series, it would be a perfect conclusion to the first season in the new stadium. The added attention will only help the local economy.

I also think a World Series win for the Cardinals would go a long way toward getting the wealthy team owners the public welfare they are seeking for the new Ballpark Village development on the site of the old stadium. But we shouldn’t get too carried away. The World Series will bring in less than $14 million total, much of that direct spending going to the Cardinals, yet they are seeking hundreds of millions in subsidies.

However, If they win the World Series this year I say we give them the $600 million or so they are seeking. Sure, why not. But, for each year they do not go to the World Series we reduce the subsidy by $100 million. So, if they were to keep winning the World Series it would be our pleasure to help out. If they start losing games and not winning the World Series we simply start taking back the money. This, of course, could be modified with adjustments for overall regular season record, advancement in the playoffs and making it to the World Series. So, making it to the World Series would help them keep more of the subsidy than not evening advancing to the playoffs. Incentives should be tied to performance.

Play ball.

UPDATE 10/23/06 8am — Looks like we”ll be having a game five in St. Louis. The fun starts Tuesday at 8pm.

Copia’s Valet vs. St. Louis Fire Department

Sometimes I have really good timing. Tonight was one of those times. However, I didn’t have my camera with me to capture the event. It just so happened I was walking back to my car (at 14th & Washington) after having dinner at 10th Street Italian (between Washington & St. Charles). Anyway, I was walking along cursing myself for not having my camera with me. I pass by Copia and see two cars running, lights on and not a person in sight. No valet, no customer. Just a Lexus and Saab running. I keep walking, debating if my camera phone is worthwhile but I decide to let it go. As I get to the corner at Tucker I look back and see a Fire Department SUV has pulled up in front of Copia. After crossing the Tucker I see it has it’s lights on.

Curious and heading to City Grocers anyway, I drove past Copia to see if I could figure out the problem. First, a bit of background. In the last couple of weeks, since my popular video has been out, Copia’s valets have been parking cars on the street rather than leaving all the space empty. It is a start. While I’d prefer to have most of the spaces open for the public I’d rather see them park cars there than leave the space looking desolate. But it looks as though they parked one vehicle where they should not — directly in a no-parking zone in front of a fire hydrant, directly in front of the restaurant. I was able to go around the block and come back on Washington as the valet finally got the keys for the vehicle (an SUV of course) as he moved it from the spot. For a good 5-10 minutes Copia had a fire vehicle in front of their place with the lights flashing, I’m sure the patrons were wondering what was going on. Just another day with Copia and valet parking….