Football Fans Block Public Sidewalk Before Games

One of the joys of living downtown is accepting the influx and outflux of people for events.  At one time in history various events were held throughout the cities, where ever the team or organization could buy property.  Once we managed to kill our downtowns, we used stadiums and other attractions to attempt to prop them up.  And until a better stadium deal is coming along, the St. Louis Rams are not going anywhere.

Sunday I was out for a post-brunch walk and noticed tents and all sorts of otherwise normal looking people, dressed in blue and gold, standing around their SUVs.  After viewing the windows at the downtown Macy’s I was heading back toward my loft when in the middle of the sidewalk was this group of fans.  Once passed I turned back around to snap this shot.

For me this wasn’t really that big of a deal.  My friend and I were able to squeeze by the parking meters to go around them.  You can’t tell from this image but they had a grill out smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk.  I’ve had my share of sidewalk confrontations but I knew better than to argue with a large group of football fans that had been drinking in the AM.

I guess the paved parking lot wasn’t enough room for them?  Or the “plaza” across the street at the US Bank — the site of the former Ambassador Theater?  I’m all for a good time but must it be in the path of pedestrians used by real residents?

I should have asked them where they lived.  Then I could have rented a car and BBQ’d on the sidewalk on their cul-de-sac.   Somehow I don’t think they’d get it.

They’d never do this in say NY or Chicago.  Or course, there, they actually have such a steady flow of pedestrians people wouldn’t think of setting up the tailgate on a sidewalk.  Here we make it almost perfect for such a blockage — back the SUV into the space, open the tailgate and commence partying on the sidewalk.   I’m told this helps downtown but I haven’t quite figured out how just yet.

Expensive Streetscape Falls Short of Having Good ADA Compliance

Since moving downtown I’ve been doing more walking and one of those streets, as you might expect, is Washington Ave — our main focus for the rebirth of downtown.  It started a number of years ago with a complete new streetscape — new paving, curbs and sidewalks.  From Tucker to 18th Street is was completely rebuild for a hefty sum ($17 million or so).  While I think they went overboard with the design, I believe a new streetscape project by the city was necessary to spur private investment in the area.

That said, I’ve noticed some interesting design decisions.  OK, make that some really bad design decisions.  For example, the curb ramps at 16th & Washington Ave:

Probably looks fine?  Look closer.

Anyone using a wheelchair, such as my neighbor two doors down, or to anyone pushing a baby stroller, this is really messed up.  One side of 16th has you aligned with the flow of pedestrians while the other side uses a corner ramp.  The corner ramp in the foreground serves the dual purpose of crossing Washington Avenue as this point — one of the very few places where someone in a chair can cross.

Seen from the other direction, looking Westbound, you can see how someone has to jog and angle to continue straight along Washington Ave.  Several solutions would have been worth considering here.

First, the corner ramp could have continued further to the South so that a person rolling along Washington Ave could continue straight without having to veer out toward traffic.  Second, the ramp crossing Washington Ave could have been positioned in a number of other nearby spots so that the ramps crossing 16th St could have been aligned.  Simple really, all it takes is an eye for details and functionality.

Despite all the money spent on fancy paving and custom light fixtures, little details like this were overlooked.  Do not assume, that because professionals were involved, that the design is always good.  Clearly, more time could have been spent getting these details right.

Mississippi Bridge Opens to Traffic

No, not a new bridge across the Mississippi River, but the revised bridge along Mississippi Ave over I-44 (see map). It appears that this bridge got a new deck as well as tall decorative fencing along each pedestrian walkway, it reopened yesterday. All over town we’ve got bridges closed for repair/replacement (or just closed due to condition), so it is pleasing to me to have this one open again. This bridge was part of my normal route to get to Gravois, even more so now that I have moved downtown.

Other bridges closed are the Jefferson viaduct and the Tucker bridge over the old rail lines into downtown. To the east of there, the Cass bridge over I-70 is closed. Lot’s of infrastructure to maintain. But hey, the bridge near Lafayette Square now has pretty fencing and lighting.

To be more serious though, the newly renovated bridge does have better pedestrian access. From the sidewalk level a row of concrete separates the pedestrian from passing cars. The tall fence along the outside takes away that uneasy feeling that I know I get when walking across bridges with lower railings.

Neighbor Leaves Lights On All Night, All Nine Floors Lit Up 24/7

A neighbor of mine leaves their lights on all night long, on all nine floors. The neighbor I am speaking of is CPI Corp, the Sears Portrait Studio folks.

At right is the view of the CPI corporate headquarters as seen from my balcony. In the far left is the back of the other building as part of the Printer’s Lofts. For a couple of years now I had wondered why people in the other building with their units facing North had such severe window treatments — privacy I presumed — as they would not have a direct sun issue like those facing South.

The answer, as I am finding out, is light pollution. For the most part it would not be so bad except that on their 4th floor (I’m on the 4th as well) you can see to the left that CPI does not have any window treatments on that large window. Other blinds on that floor are turned just so that light from the bright overhead lights beam directly at our lofts.

I’ve sent a very polite email to the CPI feedback email address, asking them to turn off their lights at the end of the day or at least close the blinds on all the floors. We’ll see what response I get.

Other light streaming in my 4th floor windows are from a condo-owned security light between our buildings and a public street light on Locust, both rather annoying but minor relative to the angle and intensity of the light from CPI.

St. Louis’ Planning Director Speaks on Density

This morning Rollin Stanley, St. Louis’ Director of Planning & Urban Design, spoke at the opening plenary session of the Missouri American Planning Association Conference. Stanley took the place of Mayor Francis Slay.

Stanley alluded to spending another week in London coming up shortly — winning another award from an organization that doesn’t disclose the number of entries? Click here to read last year’s post. The topic this time? Who knows. I’m sure I’ll have to do another sunshine law request to get a copy of what is touted as a city-saving plan.

But Stanley’s talk this morning was really good. He is, in fact, a really great public speaker. This morning he talked about changing demographics and how we all need to watch out for it. He indicated that increasingly we will see more and more single person households and how the country will be quickly adding another 100 million people. This led to density — and specifically the need for increased density. Or densification as term goes in planning circles.

He is right, of course. Stanley talked about the need for tax revenues to help support city services. He showed the census tracts for the Central West End and how the population has dropped since the 1970s — some 30% if I am not mistaken. A dropping population cannot support local jobs and retail services.

Yet the city continues to build low-density, often single use, projects in highly urbanized areas. Downtown St. Louis has the urban character is does not through good planning but through the re-use of existing buildings. Buildings our current zoning codes wouldn’t likely allow to be built today.

Another speaker on the plenary this morning was the Chief of Staff to Chicago’s Mayor Daly, Lori Healey. Healey shared real projects that demonstrated, for example, Chicago’s commitment to becoming a green city. Stanley, however, could only illustrate what we are not doing — pointing to the attempt to build a high rise building at the NE corner of Lindell and Euclid — that was stopped due to neighbors. Stanley pointed out the location’s proximity to transit and other amenities and asked, “If we can’t build a high rise here, where can we build a high rise?”

Of course we all know that we can actually have good densification without having high rise buildings popping up on random corners. I’d personally much rather see dense corridors, with localized transit like frequent bus service or streetcars, occupied by 4-8 story buildings their length than the occasional high rise. This discussion of what we build, where we build it and how we fund it needs to happen quickly. As you might suspect, this is really about zoning.

Much of the city is zoning one or two family. Basically, we’ve zoned ourself into low density housing. Sure, there is nothing wrong with single family housing but not everywhere. Our major commercial streets needs to be denser — excellent locations for multi-family housing.

Stanley is a smart man, he understands zoning and urbanity. Unfortunately, he has no power and seemingly little influence without our ward based politics in this city. Hell, he can’t even get nice urban projects built blocks from his house, much less throughout the city. So while he talk on the need for densification was good I just have to wonder how far he will get in city hall. Good luck.