Poll: How Will Macy’s Closing Their Downtown Location Affect Downtown St. Louis In The Long-Term?

You likely heard the news last week about the Macy’s store downtown:

Retailer Macy’s will close its downtown St. Louis in the Railway Exchange Center later this summer.

A final closing sale will begin June 2 and last 10 weeks. (KSDK)

Immediately following the announcement people were upset, but clearly not enough to keep the store open. The poll this week asks: How will Macy’s closing their downtown location affect downtown St. Louis in the long-term? The provided answers are:

• Very negatively
• Negatively
• Neutral
• Positively
• Very positively
• Unsure/no answer

These answers will be presented in random order in the poll (right sidebar) so the order doesn’t influence the results. You the comments below to share your thoughts.

— Steve Patterson

Gateway Arch Inaugurated By VP Humphrey Forty-Five Years Ago Today

For  a few years now many people have been gearing up for the 50th anniversary of the last piece of the Arch being set into place, that will be on October 28, 2015. I wasn’t born yet so the topping of the Arch isn’t the big deal as it is to those alive at the time, watching it take shape. To many they only knew the Arch grounds as a parking lot.

This parking lot is the subject of chapter three of a new book: The Gateway Arch: A Biography by Tracy Campbell. If you want a coffee table book on the Arch, this isn’t it. If you want an interesting biography of an iconic object, this is your book. This book will be released on the 28th.

The Gateway Arch was expected to open to the public by 1964, but in 1967 the public relations agency stopped forecasting the opening date. The arch’s visitor center opened on June 10, 1967 and the tram began operating on July 24.

The arch was dedicated by [VP] Humphrey on May 25, 1968. He declared that the arch was “a soaring curve in the sky that links the rich heritage of yesterday with the richer future of tomorrow” and brings a “new purpose” and a “new sense of urgency to wipe out every slum.” “Whatever is shoddy, whatever is ugly, whatever is waste, whatever is false, will be measured and condemned” in comparison to the Gateway Arch. About 250,000 people were expected to attend, but rain canceled the outdoor activities. The ceremony had to be transferred into the visitor center. After the dedication, Humphrey crouched beneath an exit as he waited for the rain to subside so he could walk to his vehicle. (Wikipedia)

Hopefully we’ll have dry weather on October 28, 2015.

— Steve Patterson

MetroBus Guide For SLU Law Faculty, Staff, & Students

Very soon the Saint Louis University School of Law will move into a renovated building downtown, near the courts.

But this post isn’t about the alterations to the building, this post is meant to help faculty, staff & students understand how to use the MetroBus system.

The distance between the current law school on the main SLU campus and the new building is 2.3 miles via Lindell/Olive & Tucker. Driving time is 9 minutes end to end, but no parking is available at the ends, so walking time needs to be added.

Taking the #10 (Gravois Lindell) MetroBus is 16 minutes, per Google Maps, including walking time.  Time on the bus is 11 minutes plus 5 for walking, so taking the bus is competitive with driving in this example.

Those going from the main campus can catch the #10 in one of two places: on Lindell east of Spring or Lindell east of Grand. You’ll exit the bus on just after it turns on 14th St., next to the Ford Building.

In the opposite direction you’ll walk two blocks west along Pine to the stop shown above. You can exit at Grand to Spring for the main campus.

Frequency is every 30 minutes, 40 minutes after 11pm. The #10 line is the bus I use most often, the 30 minute frequency isn’t a problem when you know the schedule. I personally don’t use the printed schedule, I just check the times on the Google Maps iPhone app (or online) as needed.

Here are some other things to remember:

1. Make sure you look for your bus, if you are busy reading the bus driver may not realize you want to board and pass you.
2. Transfers offer a good value. Say you board the bus at 10:30am and pay $3 ($2 fare + $1 transfer), you’ll get a transfer good until 1pm!
3. Bus drivers can’t offer change, so having $1 bills is a good idea, a monthly pass is $72. Hopefully a new SLU administration will join the Metro campus programs like St. Louis Community College, Washington University, and University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL).
4. Let others get off the bus before boarding, when you exit use the back door rather than the front door. This reduces delays.
5. You’ll need to pull the cord to signal you want to stop at the next bus stop.
6. Don’t be afraid to sit toward the back, the front seats must be given up for elderly & disabled passengers.
7. Other MetroBus lines within 2 blocks of the law school include: 30, 41, 74, 94, 97, 99. Four blocks away at 14th & Market adds the 4 & 11.

Anyone else have any positive advice?

— Steve Patterson

Central Valet Zone Now On Tucker

I’ve been writing about valet parking since July 2005. Years ago valets would take every on-street parking space on the block in front of the restaurant that hired them. leaving no spaces for the public to use. They’d place valet signs in bike lanes.

Finally the city to placed signs on the meter of the spaces that were permitted for valet service, including days of the week and hours of operation. The valets continued to take more spaces than given, again inconveniencing the general public. For example, until recently, we had three different valet stands in the two city blocks of Washington Ave between 10th and Tucker (12th), two were directly across the street from each other!

The city has permitted valet on Thursday-Saturday evenings after 6pm. Lately the city did something it should’ve done 8 years ago — created a central valet zone to cover these two blocks. So now on Tucker from St. Charles St to Washington Ave you have a bus stop and a valet zone. This area didn’t have any on-street parking before, it was just excessively wide.

Valet problems are solved, right? Wrong! The valet companies still feel they have the right to take public parking whenever and where ever they like.

Empty spaces mean the city isn’t getting revenue to pay off bonds to cover parking garage debt. Since it was before 5pm I was able to email the above pic to the appropriate people so they could come out and tell them they couldn’t do this.

I personally don’t care if valeting happens 7 days a week, as long as it is in the central spot on Tucker so the public spaces remain available for the public to use.

— Steve Patterson

Two-Thirds of Readers Opposed Decision to Raze Cupples 7 Warehouse

No surprise in the poll last week, readers are opposed to the city razing the Cupples 7 warehouse building, here are the results from the poll last week:

Q: The city plans to raze Cupples 7; support or oppose?

1. Strongly oppose 65 [44.52%]
2. Oppose 31 [21.23%]
3. Support 24 [16.44%]
4. Unsure/No Answer 10 [6.85%]
5. Strongly support 9 [6.16%]
6. Neutral 7 [4.79%]

Nearly half “strongly opposed” to razing the building. If they’re like me, they’d risk collapse while holding out for a developer with deep pockets.

When we simplify the results the contrast becomes even stronger: two-thirds are opposed.

Yesterday I met with Treasurer Tishaura Jones and Cupples 7 was one of the topics we discussed. Per the previous treasurer, that office must buy the bank note on the property if the city demolishes the building. Jones told me they don’t have any definitive plans for the site once it is cleared. I suggested a transparent process to get the community involved in brainstorming ideas.

I want to see a building, not parking or green space.

— Steve Patterson