Dead at 33: North 14th Street Pedestrian Mall (1977-2010)

The North 14th Street Pedestrian Mall, in a vegetative state for 20+ years of it’s short life, has died. The plug was finally pulled but nobody is mourning the passing.

In fact, today from 4pm-8pm is a celebration.

In a bit of irony, 14th Street will not be opened until after a street party.  The center of the newly redone 2-block area is 14th & Montgomery, one block south of Crown Candy Kitchen. The area is easily reached by transit (via #30 & #74) bus routes.  Congrats to everyone in Old North St. Louis for finally reopening North 14th Street!

– Steve Patterson

Citygarden is great, but not perfect

Citygarden has impressed everyone in it’s its first year open in St. Louis.  The two-block sculpture garden is, in most respects, outstanding in design and construction.

The two curb ramps along 10th Street (at Chestnut and at Market) both hold water following a rain.

Numerous ramps downtown have the same problem, but few were built as part of an otherwise high quality project. The mini lake at top is probably the worst downtown. Naturally, that is the one I use most often.  Even when dry I must use the side of the ramp — my wheelchair’s footrest gets caught if I go straight in.

And the environmentally friendly rain garden isn’t getting all the rain water it is supposed to receive.  Hopefully these three areas will be redone someday.  The problem at 10th & Market will be corrected when the wide “hallway” is extended to the west.  Had Citygarden built it’s side planning for the future hallway the current issue wouldn’t exist.

As a member of the Gateway Mall Advisory Board I can assure you I will bring up water retention at curb ramps and planning future projects so the hallway concept is easier to complete.

– Steve Patterson

Forced into the street to reach the bus stop

Last Saturday I decided to catch the #30 Soulard bus northbound to go to Old North St. Louis.  For new readers, I often use a motorized wheelchair to get around.

So you can imagine the challenge of getting past 14th & Lucas to reach the bus stop  on the curve, just before the building in the background.  I ended up going in the street until I got to a drive just before the stop.  My only alternative was to go several blocks further in the opposite direction. The lack of accessibility was no fault of the transit agency.  No, the blame is squarely on the city.  Just a hundred feet away is Washington Ave where tons of money was spent some years ago on a fancy streetscape.  So if I stay on one street the accessibility is decent.

– Steve Patterson

Filling the void at Broadway & Washington Ave

A week ago I did a post looking at a stretch of Washington Ave downtown (Improving Washington Ave between 10th Street and the Eads Bridge/Mississippi River).  Everything I suggested was basic active street 101 — fewer travel lanes, on-street parking, movable street furnishings at large plazas and active facades.  Not banners or other lame efforts that don’t work.  But I did have one suggestion that went beyond the basics — a new restaurant structure at the NE corner of Washington Ave & Broadway.

The existing corner, as you can see above, is lifeless and dated.  Ideally this corner would once again be filled in with buildings as was the case in 1909:

But that isn’t going to happen, unfortunately. The blue in the above map indicates a building with a stone facade so my guess is when this corner was razed the stone wall we see today was offered as a consultation consolation prize to make up for the lost building(s).  It doesn’t cut it.

So here I will detail my suggestion from last week.  Build a 2-story restaurant at the corner (blue, above) with an outdoor patio (purple) surrounded by landscaping (green).  The orange would be a future thin “liner building” to provide storefront spaces facing Broadway that would screen the surface parking lot. The remaining parking lot would need to be reconfigured as well as providing a walkway from the parking lot to both Washington Ave and to Broadway.

The restaurant might be a national or local chain looking to open a downtown location in their own building or even a public restaurant owned and operated by the Missouri Athletic Club, offering a casual outdoor option for members and the public.  An absolute must is the entrance to the new restaurant be at the corner, onto one or both public sidewalks. Building a new restaurant on the corner of this parking lot is not unlike the practice of building in mall parking lots. The difference here is the new building gets immediately connected via existing sidewalks.

With a MetroLink light rail station a block to the west, the new Downtown Trolley bus running right in front of the property, and the addition of on-street parking on both Washington Ave and Broadway the loss of the off-street spaces would be minimal. The new restaurant with outdoor patio and storefronts along Broadway would raise the visual image of this intersection, more in line with the upscale character of MAC.

With early bird parking rates of only $4.50/day it is not difficult to imagine a higher return on the land from occupied space, especially space that increases activity in the area.

– Steve Patterson

New construction and predictions for 2050 and beyond

Nothing is getting built because of the economy, right? Wrong. Seems there are renovation & new construction projects popping up in neighborhoods throughout the city.

The following is a combination of an educated guess based on demographic forecasts, trends and wishful thinking.

I see the 21st century as a mirror of the 20th century.  The first half of the last century started with the earliest suburbs as a means of escaping the industrial city. The initial movement was limited to the wealthy but as time passed the growing middle class sought residences in the new suburbs.

This century I see the wealthy locating in walkable neighborhoods closer to the center and near mass transit.  But more and more people want to experience real places and they realize suburbia (driveable, not walkable) don’t offer the lifestyle they seek.  By 2050 I see the general public seeking to live & work in walkable locations with the option to use mass transit.

Those parts of our region, and other regions, which do not adopt a pedestrian-friendly form will be increasingly viewed as undesirable by most of the population.  The secluded residential subdivision of today that requires a 5-mile drive to reach the grocery store will be the slum of 2075.

During the second half of the 20th century walkable urban centers tried to remake themselves in a way to retain population.  The attempts, which made the core less walkable, failed to retain those who desired life in the new suburbs.  But this century the efforts to retrofit suburbia.

Ellen Dunham-Jones describes it best:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_uTsrxfYWQ

She mentions ArtSpace at Crestwood Court.

I’ve never been more optimistic than I am now.  I’ll be an old man by the time this all happens but I look forward to watching the change happen.

– Steve Patterson