Street Repaving Presents Accessibility Problem

In the short time span between the opening of Citygarden and the All-Star game the city repaved Chestnut street between Citygarden and AT&T.  Generally new paving is a good thing, except for those of us using wheelchairs.  Certainly during the time that old asphalt is removed and new installed streets can be difficult to cross.  But once the new asphalt is down it should be good, right?  Wrong.

The repaving changed the relationship with the ADA ramp at 10th & Chestnut.  As you can see in the above picture the footplate on my chair now hits the ramp on approach from the street.

Similarly, the footplate hits the asphalt when attempting to enter the crosswalk from the ramp.   I’m alerting the appropriate officials about this issue so the excess asphalt at the corner can be shaved off.

This is not the first time I’ve had to do so — it is a recurring problem.  It is hard to capture in a photo without a chair as I’ve done above but anyone with any sense should be able to see the problem.  The street paving crews must be reminded to pay attention as they are putting down new asphalt — now many other ramps out there have the same issues?  I can’t check each and every ramp in the entire city.

Thanks to my friend Marcia Behrendt for taking the above pictures.

– Steve Patterson

Accessing One Memorial Drive

The other day I had a meeting st the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, the St. Louis regional MPO. The building houses a number of firms as well as KMOV Channel 4 and KMOX radio.  I’ve been here numerous times before — including one in my wheelchair.

As you approach the building entry, above, you see the revolving door and individual doors to each side.  Obviously a wheelchair is not going through the revolving door.  So two choices remain.  Many buildings have door openers that can be activated by button — a nice feature.

There is the button just below the black square.  Interestingly they didn’t put the opener on the door on the left with the level sidewalk.  They opted for the door with the angled sidewalk.  In my power wheelchair this is not a major problem but anyone in a manual chair would have issues.  When walking with a cane I often use the openers to help with doors but I wouldn’t even think of walking near that button.

So often designers making decisions don’t realize how bad their choices are.  This door was probably selected over the left door because it is closer to the elevators.  The person that made the decision on which of the two doors would get the auto opener had a 50/50 chance of getting it right… or getting it wrong.

– Steve Patterson

Community or Die!

The key to inner-city rejuvenation is the establishment and invigoration of communities. Without coherent social structures empowering, educating, and energizing individuals cities tend to fall apart. The worst aspects of modern infrastructure planning involve the isolation, division, and starvation of communities. The resulting individual atomization ends in isolation and dehumanization.

Humans need communities, they need them just as much as they need families and friends. How else do they come by these? Per chance? From the masses of strangers that surround us we select our friends, our lovers, our mates. From thence we find love, happiness, and identity. Without that, what are we? The struggle for community is a struggle for the bonds which hold all of us together. It is the basic unit upon which our country is built on. Even the family wouldn’t exist without a community to support and encourage mate selection, and what family could do without the vast educational and social support of the greater society?

Suburbia is perhaps the most horrific example of dehumanization through the lack of community. The obvious Lack of intellectually-stimulating diversity is not the most damaging consequence of moderate-density life. Suburban Americans suffer from relative detachment from the rest of the population. The immediate population! It is not unusual for someone in O’Fallon to have no idea who their neighbors are. From five houses down to next door. Television, fences, the internet, motor vehicles, and corporate malls have allowed people a relative mental detachment from everyone else.

This is far from the “good ‘ole days” complaints of our grandparents. The isolated existence of suburbanites results in sociological catastrophes. Many of our socio-economic problems arise directly from the collective choices of millions to live in a most abnormal manner. Global Warming, cultural depreciation, educational lagging, Wal-Mart, Garth Brooks, Republicans; the most daunting problems of the 21st century find their root in freshly trimmed, identical lawns.

Great men and women, great ideas, great projects; these all rise from the cities and dense villages of the world. From communities.  If we are to generate those geniuses and a culture to rally behind them we must regroup and recommit to each other on a local level.

To put it plainly, every suburban sprawl zone must be evacuated and leveled. For the sake of our people, for ourselves individually, and for the future of our country. This is not necessarily an extreme program, people must voluntarily leave their yard gnomes and three car garages behind. There must be a grand national campaign to bring the people back to the cities and town centers, leaving the razed ground to return to nature. Our cities and towns must develop in a humane and socially-oriented manner. Our cities must be welcoming places; places of peace, prosperity, ingenuity, art, and diversity. The best of the Urban must be magnified and the worst must be diminished to negligible proportions. Crime, poverty, educational atrophy, and prejudice need to go the way of the dinosaur.

What have we to lose? Should we allow catastrophe to occur? Most importantly, do we have hope and faith that such important and integral policies can be implemented successfully?

In future installments I will identify what the former suburbanites will return to, current examples of strong communities and community centers. Additionally, methods and tactics for community-building will be enumerated and left to public debate. By working together we can create an Urbia attractive and enticing to the lonely denizens of the counties. Your lowly idealist (myself) will strive to present alternatives and methods for establishing them.

This will be a series much like what Brick By Brick will become.

– Angelo Stege

Delmar Crosswalk Missing ADA Ramps

Twice now in the last few weeks I’ve crossed Delmar at the crossing shown below:

Both times I drove to the Loop area in my car and parked in the disabled parking next to the Pageant.  Note to Secretary Salazar, I have a state permit to allow me to park there.

Both times crossing Delmar I had to deal with the curbs on each side of the street.  A person that requires a wheelchair would be completely out of luck.  Many people use wheelchairs.  I use mine downtown all the time.  I’ve taken MetroLink to the Loop in my chair too.  Some folks, say just after surgery, use a chair temporarily.  But while walking I still find the ramps very helpful.  Parents pushing baby strollers also find ramps helpful.

When the roadbed was narrowed and sidewalks widened a few years ago the idea of crossing the street was overlooked.

The distance between Rosedale Ave on the East and Skinker on the West is nearly 1,000 feet – roughly the distance of three blocks downtown – with no place to cross in between.  This distance needs two, not one, crosswalk with curb cuts.

– Steve Patterson

Welcome All-Star Fans

Visiting St. Louis for the 2009 All-Star Game?  Welcome to St. Louis.

Whether this is your first visit to our city or you’ve been here often I want to share a few things with you. We’ve been busy sprucing up downtown for weeks & months.  Actually we’ve been working on downtown for decades.  Efforts over the years have been a mixed bag — some positive and others destructive.

Next month marks my 19th year in St. Louis.  For me it is a love-hate relationship.  This city is worth fighting for so I stick around.

The most recent in the positive category is Citygarden between 8th & 10th on North Market St — a couple blocks North of Busch Stadium.

As you walk around downtown spending money (thank you) you will notice a couple of things.  First, not all intersections have pedestrian crossing signals.

Please be careful crossing streets — look at other signals to see who has the right of way.  In the above example if you are leaving Citygarden heading south on 9th you get no clue as to when it is safe to cross Market St. It would be nice to get some stimulus money to make sure we get pedestrian signals at all intersections.

Normally I’d also warn you about cabs on the sidewalk in front of our convention center but they have been displaced by vehicles related to the Fan Fest.

We have a long way to go but we’ve come a long way in the nearly two decades I’ve lived here.  So please enjoy your visit and spend money so we will have funds to address our shortcomings.

– Steve Patterson