Following on the excellent report by KMOV Channel 4 TV earlier tonight (see post), I will be a brief guest on the Mark Reardon show on KMOX radio, AM 1120 talking about the same issue. That will be in the 11 o’clock hour.
KMOV News (Channel 4) will be airing a story tonight on their 6pm news about city employees parking on the public sidewalk along 14th Street (see prior post). I met with KMOV’s Russell Kinsaul this afternoon on 14th to discuss the issue. He gave me a copy of a statement received from Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce. You will recall that I emailed her Friday afternoon prior to posting my story on this subject a couple of hours later. To date, I have not heard back from Ms. Joyce.
I will post a copy of the statement and some additional thoughts after the story airs tonight on the 6pm news, KMOV Channel 4.
UPDATE 1/8/2007 – 6:20pm
This story was Channel 4’s leading story if you don’t count the breaking news of a double stabbing in North St. Louis. As mentioned in their story, and referenced above, Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce issued a statement about this issue:
Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention, as I was unaware that vehicles from this office were parking in this manner.
The Circuit Attorney’s Office has historically been assigned parking spots along 14th Street. My staff has informed me that the parking spots allocated to the Circuit Attorney’s Office on 14th Street are occassionally occupied by other city vehicles. To correct the situation, I will do the following:
- I have directed my staff to never, under any circumstances, park on the sidewalk, even if our spots are illegally occupied by someone else; and
- I have asked and will continue to ask the city police to ticket and tow unauthorized vehicles in our parking spots or on the sidewalk; and
- I will speak to other city agency leaders to request their staff members don’t park in our parking spots on 14th Street.
Click here to view the statement in PDF format, with thanks to Channel 4 for providing me a copy of the statement even though I made such a request Friday afternoon. All in all this is a good statement, it says she was unaware of the issue and then lists specific steps that are being taken to address the oversight.
But I want to look at the bigger picture here for a moment. Their office has “historically been assigned parking spots along 14th Street.” Ok, that is nice. Assigned by whom? Does the Treasurer’s office who runs the City’s parking garages and members have authority over all on-street parking? When the Circuit Attorney’s Office moved two blocks East to the other side of Tucker was the parking situation not evaluated?
I love the fact that an elected official must inform her staff that it is not OK to park their cars and SUVs on a sidewalk. This would seem to be common sense in my book. And finally Joyce is going to speak with other leaders and ask them not to park in their spots. This goes back to the question about numbers of spaces, who assigns them and how often this is evaluated. Yet another example of poor parking management downtown.
UPDATE 1/8/07 @ 10pm – link to KMOV story & video.
Walking along 14th Street between Market and Walnut, across from the Kiel Opera House/Scottrade Center one finds an unusual sight, cars parked on a sidewalk. This is not, by the way, some fluke I happened to catch. No, this is routine parking for city employees, mostly those in the Circuit Attorney’s office. I have driven past this numberous times and not really noticed but recently Ecology of Absence did a post on this subject so while I was down there today I snapped a few pictures (ok, 24 in total).
Above you can begin to see cars along the sidewalk, taking up more than half its width. Vehicles are also parked in the right turn lane. The adjacent Municipal Courts building (left in above image) is currently vacant and awaiting renovation into a hotel.
In total six vehicles were parked along this stretch of sidewalk, all displaying a notice on their dash indicating “official business.” All were from the Circuit Attorney’s office except for a couple which were from the Sheriff’s office and one from the St. Louis Redevelopment Authority. The SUV above was my favorite, the owner did a great job of centering the vehicle so as to make it hard for someone using a wheelchair or mobility scooter to get by.
Above is an example of the type of authorization shown on the dashboard of these vehicles. I can see allowing some liberty on the streets when out on official business but not as a license to park on the sitewalk.
This is the best shot, the sign reads, “Reserved Parking Circuit Attorney’s Office Only. Tow-Away Zone.” So you or I should not park on the sidewalk or we might get towed for preventing other vehicles from parking on the sidewalk. All this across the street from the home of the St. Louis Blues and a block from a major transit hub, what must visitors to our city think of us?
I sent an email to Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce before 3pm this afternoon asking for any comment on this issue, at this time I have not heard back from her.
[UPDATE 1/8/07 @ 3pm: St. Louis’ KMOV Channel 4 is doing a story on this issue on their 6pm news (1/8/07). See follow-up post.]
As a follow up to my post from earlier today, I received a phone call from Ald. Lyda Krewson (D-28th Ward). Krewson, as I’ve noted in prior posts, has been dealing with valet parking issues in her ward primarily around the intersection of Euclid & Maryland. I actually received an email from Krewson last night, before the post, asking me to call her (which I did this morning but she was already in sesssion at the Board of Alderman). The point here is she was calling me to update me, not just reacting. Much appreciated Ald. Krewson!!!
So what is the update? Krewson and new Director of Streets Todd Waeltermann have talked, emailed and met in person to discuss the issue of valet parking. They have been discussing the various issues such as length of valet area, cones or no cones, signage and such. The goal, she says, is to develop a written policy within the Streets Department that will eventually be adopted as the city’s ordinance on valet parking.
While nothing is yet finalized it sounds to me like both Krewson and Waeltermann are in agreement as to the issues and solutions. Here are a few of the areas discussed, but again no final language has been drafted at this point so don’t hold it as the gospel:
There were a number of other points but I don’t have all the details in writing, plus it is all a draft at this point. I suggested that after the policy is enacted we actually live with it for 6-9 months before adopting it in ordinance form. This would give us time to see if loopholes have been found or if other tweaks are required.
Ald. Krewson’s attention to detail and follow up on this issue have been impressive. It helps that her constituents in the Central West End have been contacting her about their compliants of aggressive valets. All in all I was very pleased with the solutions Ald. Krewson and Mr. Waeltermann have developed. Once they have something ready for public commentary I will pass it along for everyone’s feedback.
Despite months of ongoing controversy over valet parking, including personal conversations with three aldermen, the City’s Department of Streets has issued new permits to Midwest Valet for at least two Washington Ave establishments that are less restrictive than earlier permits. Prior permits had similar language such as this from a permit issued on January 30, 2006 (see Flickr to view):
NO DOUBLE PARKING NOR VIP PARKING PERMITTED AT ANY TIME, ALL VEHICLES MUST BE MOVED TO A DIFFERENT LOCATION IMMEDIATELY. NO CONES, TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES, NOR TEMPORARY STRUCTURES TO BE PLACED IN THE RIGHT OF WAY AT ANY TIME.
I guess the valet companies found that too restrictive on their businesses operating in the public right of way? Below are copies of permits I received today related to Lucas Park Grille and Copia, respectively.
The Lucas Park Grille permit seems to be valid seven days a week, whereas the Copia permit is not valid on Sunday (they are closed that day). As part of my request I inquired about the cost and formula for the permits. Here is the answer: $20/day up to $2,000. Given this casual formula I suppose it makes sense for the valet companies to seek as much real estate as possible — the price they pay is the same. Of note, the new Lucas Park Grille permit does not include any provisions for the 1300 block where they routinely have cones out. We’ll see if they have them out tonight trying to take those spaces.
[UPDATED: 1/5/07 @ 10am: Handwritten below the Copia permit was a note with time from 5:30pm to 1:30am with an OK by JWS. Jim Suelmann is the recently retired Director of Streets. See PDF. The problem here is the last time I checked the street has no parking from 4pm to 6pm. Are they allowed to start valet at 5:30pm because they have a permit even though parking in the next block must be left open until 6pm due to our “rush”?]
Again, the prior permits issued by the Department of Streets indicated no cones or other devices in the public right of way (which is street and public sidewalk, btw) but that restriction is now gone. Presumably they can virtuallly paint the street orange with cones and signs. Similarly, the language indicating cars must be moved/no vip parking is also gone. So for $2,000 you can own a street in the city of St. Louis.
We’ve gone from bad to worse on this issue.