KSDK Doesn’t Know Where Downtown Is

Today a Newschannel 5 news anchor said, and I am paraphrasing, ‘Head downtown for this year’s First Night in Grand Center.’

Since when is Grand Center in downtown?

To suburbanites from Chesterfield or St. Charles County everything in the City of St. Louis is “downtown.” Those who live in the land of strip malls, front garage tract homes and office parks don’t understand urbanity and the difference between downtown and other urban areas. To them, if it doesn’t look like suburban hell it must be downtown.

I’ve got a long way to go to get people to understand urbanity…

This New Year’s consider Grand Center’s First Night 2004 located in midtown’s Grand Center.

– Steve

New Washington Avenue East streetscape falls short of expectations

Firms are paid big money to design & build new streetscapes. Unfortunately, logic doesn’t always seem to be important. Just check out the image to the right.

The facing benches have a great view of the trash can!

I have no idea if the exact placement of these items were on the part of the design firm or the general contractor but someone fucked up. It is my understanding the trash cans are being relocated. But, were they designed this way and properly installed by the contractor? Will the city end up agreeing to a change order and additional costs? Who knows?

Local firm, CDG Engineers, was responsible for the design of the $2.5 million improvements for Phase Two. While site improvements are listed on their web site most of their work seems to involve major industry. But, for the most part I think they’ve done a good job.

Arnold firm Kozeny-Wagner was the general contractor on Phase Two as well as the previous improvements of Phase One on Washington Avenue from Tucker (12th) to 18th.

For more information on the Phase One improvements on Washington Avenue check out this summary on Saint Louis Front Page. For very detailed information including plans, cross sections and design guidelines click here.
… Continue Reading

Laclede’s Landing: a non-place for locals

Despite many civic efforts to revive the Laclede’s Landing area just to the North of Eads Bridge and the Arch Grounds it is by most accounts another failed urban experiment. Laclede’s Landing is a scattered collection of spectacular old warehouse buildings – much like those that existed on the forty city blocks that were raised in the 1940s for what became the grounds for the Arch.

While I love the Arch as a piece of sculpture – the decision to destroy those forty blocks was tragic and regrettable. While cities like New Orleans saved their old riverfront areas, St. Louis’ leaders, following the 1904 World’s Fair, wanted nothing to do with the past. But, I’m getting off track – back to Laclede’s Landing.

Ead’s Bridge formed a sufficient barrier to the wholesale destruction for the Arch grounds. Nevertheless, the Laclede’s Landing area managed to suffer many losses followed by the addition of some dreadful buildings such as the Embassy Suites hotel and construction of the King Bridge. It is too small of an area to be a complete viable neighborhood – in the true sense. A neighborhood, of course, combines a variety of uses all mixed together – what we are seeing develop with the addition of lofts, stores and grocers to the downtown.

In the 14 years I’ve lived in St. Louis I can count on one hand the times I’ve been to Laclede’s Landing. Why should I or anyone else go there? I personally avoid tourist traps in favor of authentic neighborhoods – whether in St. Louis or when traveling. The area is basically a tourist zone with a few offices added for good measure.

The moving of the President Casino on the Admiral to just North of Laclede’s Landing a few years back has only made the area worse. The garish casino drop-off area and entrance turns the riverfront into a tacky roadside attraction. It sickens me to see it. I hope the casino does go bankrupt (again?) so we can tear all that shit off the bank of the river.

But, city leaders are busy trying to boast gaming in Laclede’s Landing by designating the area a gambling district. How ludicrous is that?

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on a proposal nearly a month ago:

Hmmmm, add “residential, retail and more parking.” Given the bulk of the land now considered Laclede’s Landing is parking I’m not sure how or why they’d want to add more parking. This continues our city’s long-standing parking fetish. No wait, a fetish can be OK – make that Parking Addiction (“I’m St. Louis and I love parking.” “Hi, St. Louis!”). Residential and retail are certainly a needed addition to offset the destructive forces of tourism & gaming but just building condos and designating something as retail doesn’t mean it will work. Sure, the condos would have some spectacular views but in my opinion they’d offer little else in the way of neighborhood amenities. The last place I’d purchase a condo would be in the middle of a tacky amusement park.

Also in November the St. Louis Business Journal announced that Las Vegas gamer Pinnacle Entertainment was to buy the Embassy Suites hotel on Laclede’s Landing. But, Columbia Sussex said they might not do the President deal if they can’t build a parking garage. At dispute is land owned or condemned by the city and promised to rival Pinnacle.

Here is the gist of what is going on as I see it. The city is involved in getting the President out of bankruptcy and helped secure bidders – Columbia Sussex submitting the winning bid at $57mil. C-S pays the Cherrick family $5 million for a parking lot so they can build a parking garage. Seems like a logical business decision. But, the city through St. Louis Development Corp Executive Director Rodney Crim says the area is condemned for redevelopment – the land is promised to Pinnacle. Why? Because the President is the least producing casino in the region so the city wants to build a riverfront casino which is barely within the 1,000ft of the river as required. Money – not good urban design – is the driving force here. But, why should the Landing be any different than elsewhere in the city & region?

So projects of hundreds of millions of dollars are being tossed around with the usual “look we are going to improve this area by spending money” foolish thinking so prevalent at city hall and 1015 Locust (St. Louis Development Corp). Hello you dumb asses – it doesn’t work that way! Of course, these are 20 year cycles so it doesn’t really matter if it works or not as they will all be collecting their pensions when the next generation attempts to fix the area.

When I was at the Preservation Board meeting on Monday afternoon I saw a beautiful color drawing on the wall of the Pinnacle proposal. I say beautiful but that refers only to the computer drawing – not to the proposal.

Sorry for the reflection of the lighting – I wasn’t able to find a better picture online. The Pinnacle website does offer this description:

Our site at Laclede’s Landing, near the famed Gateway Arch, will feature a $208 million casino and a 200-guestroom luxury hotel. The project will help revitalize the downtown St. Louis area by serving as a catalyst for additional neighborhood redevelopment. Pinnacle Entertainment has also committed – likely with one or more development partners – $50 million of investment into a new residential, retail, or mixed-used development, to be completed within five years of the casino and hotel’s opening.

You see the promised land? The very tired and unproven claim of revitalizing downtown and acting as a catalyst. Bullshit! Fucking bullshit! Overblown, complicated redevelopment projects have been making these claims for 50 years. If we are stupid enough to believe this BS then we deserve to have this crap dumped on our riverfront. I personally am not that gullible.

Just look at the scale of that building – it is as big as the ungainly dome. The Embassy Suites, which doesn’t really fit in on the Landing due to it’s scale being out of wack, looks tiny in comparison. The few remaining buildings on the Landing – those elements which should define the scale of the area – are just specks. This proposal is anti-urban at its very core and no amount of red brick to glue-on “traditional” details will change that. it is fucking wrong and should not be built. This is not progress!

This is nothing more than another attempt at trying to bring in as many people as possible to the area for a single purpose – gambling. I am certainly not a prude – if some chain smoking person wants to waste their money in a slot machine then be my guest (provided they are not on welfare…). I just don’t think such development is in the greater public good. Given the scale of the proposed design I can say, without any hesitation, is against the greater public good. Do we really need a gaming district? Can the city not survive without the revenues offered by gaming? Can we survive the damage that will be done by such an out of scale project when it fails to revitalize & act as a catalyst?

If it were up to me I’d say “fuck off” to the President Casino, Columbia Sussex and Pinnacle Entertainment. I’d also say “fuck off” to any city official – elected or otherwise – that thinks any of this is a good idea. Yes, the old stainless steel Admiral tour boat is a head turner. However, with all the President Casino crap along the riverfront you can’t see it. So, we need to come up with a use for the Admiral that doesn’t need such a tacky entrance. Gaming on a small scale mixed with other functions on the boat might be the right idea. I’d be OK with spending money just to keep it mored on the riverfront as a floating piece of 20th century sculpture.

Moving to dry land (usually) I’d cut several streets running West from the river. Right now the area North of the King Bridge is lacking needed cross streets. All the streets North of the King bridge should have two vehicle lanes and on-street parking on both sides. All should be two-way, have sidewalks and street trees. The big thing is I-70 needs to be recessed at this point – allowing the Landing to literally reconnect with the city. As long as the highway is elevated it will remain a fringe area. Again, no amount of gambling tourists will overcome the obstacle that is the elevated highway.

With the highway buried and the streets of the Landing reconnected with the streets of downtown we can begin mending an area that has been literally fucked up for decades. Reconnecting to the city via public streets – not a massive casino – will save this area. The Landing potentially could become a great place to live, work and play in St. Louis. Existing access to MetroLink and the North Riverfront Trail are big bonuses for urbanites like myself. These amenities, not casinos, are what we to build upon.

It is decision time folks – more fucked up massive anti-urban projects or true neighborhood building based on sound principals of making places for people? Tragically, the decision is not ours to make except on election day.

– Steve

Loving Lindell Blvd!

Yet another long vacant building on Lindell – the Moolah Temple – reopened to the public yesterday. Once again, we have Amrit & Amy Gill to thank for their vision and hard work. In this age of ridiculously large multiplex theaters, the Gills and Harman Moseley are opening a single screen. The Post-Dispatch tells you what to expect:

What they’ll see is astounding, a theater space that is unlike anything else in town. It starts with the lobby, restored to its Moorish splendor after 20 years of slumber behind locked doors. To the right is the Moolah Lounge, a self-contained bar that Moseley hopes will attract a late-night clientele. Straight ahead is the ticket counter and concession stand, staffed by employees wearing conical red fezzes. And through the massive interior doors is the theater space, which is utterly unique from floor to ceiling. Six stories overhead is a barrel-vaulted ceiling, hung with chandeliers. Underfoot is carpet – rare inside a movie theater – and a flat-surface floor that leads to one of the largest movie screens in town. At 45 feet wide and 20 feet tall, it’s not exactly IMAX proportions, but it’s wide enough for Cinemascope.

BTW, I don’t like to Post-Dispatch stories online because they only work for a short period of time and I hate links that don’t work. So, not P-D links until they keep their stories online.

I tried to eat dinner at Nadoz in the Coronado last weekend but they were closed for a special event. The menu looks great. The new rush of activity along this stretch has been missing for decades and it is nice to see things happening. Saint Louis University (SLU) has been so busy fucking up the street grid, tearing down buildings and putting up fences they haven’t had the time, money or vision to do anything that actually makes a positive contribution to the city.

The Moolah is a major step forward and a very creative solution to the question about what to do with the building. The Biz Journal wrote a good story on the Gills & Moolah back in 2002. In August they wrote another story on a parking garage being built behind the Moolah to handle the extra crowds.

The Structural Engineers for the project go into great detail about what they had to do to make the project work. The city development website is rightly showing off all the activity in the city.

I personally can’t wait to see a film at the new Moolah. Bowling at the new lanes also will be fun. Great architecture and diversity of activities – a great combination. Now if only they had selected some simpler lights for the front of the Moolah I’d be completely happy…

– Steve

We need street cars, not planted medians

All over the City of St. Louis you can see newly constructed medians along our wider boulevards – Delmar West of Union, Russell near Jefferson, and most recently along S. Grand from I-44 to Arsenal. Unfortunately, these aesthetic improvements serve as a barrier to what we really need – street cars.

MetroLink is great but it currently only covers a small fraction of the region. Soon it will extend out to Clayton, Brentwood & Maplewood. But, much of the city & region is served only by bus service. Even when the south & north MetroLink routes are constructed much of St. Louis will not be within walking distance of a station.

Light rail is far more costly to construct than streetcars. In cities such as San Francisco – both fill an important need. The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) rail system in SF is only about a 5 minute drive from my brother & sister in-law’s house which is nearly an hour drive from San Francisco. Taking BART into SF I am able to get around quite easily on their system of streetcars and cable cars.

While I have ridden the bus here and in other cities I don’t think it is the best way to get around town. Not sure what it is but buses just seem like second class transportation. Street cars, on the other hand, are very enjoyable. Waiting for a bus is different than a street car – I can’t quite put my finger on why this is. Figuring out bus lines, especially for a visitor, is maddening. Street car & light rail lines are easily seen on a map. I think it is mostly a mental state of mind I need to get over. Still, street cars have proven to be very popular in other cities – if it will get more people out of their cars when why not?

Currently I know of only one planned streetcar line for the St. Louis region – serving Forest Park and the Delmar Loop. Given that the Loop got its name from an old streetcar line making a loop in the area, it seems fitting to return streetcars to this area.

• Heritage Trolly – St. Louis; a good description of the proposed streetcar line.
• Trollys To Go was created to promote the new Delmar Trolly/streetcar.

Here are some other streetcar lines I’d like to see in St. Louis:
• Grand Blvd from the North Water Tower to Arsenal. This line would pass the MetroLink stop at the Grand Viaduct. Future MetroLink stops at Natural Bridge & Chouteau would make this line critical for getting mass transit to areas in North & South St. Louis that will never be served by our light rail.
• Jefferson from Natural Bridge to Broadway/Chippewa.
• Broadway from downtown to Lemay.
• Tucker/Gravois. Starting at Tucker & Cass heading South through downtown and following Gravois as far into St. Louis County as is feasible.
• Dr. Martin Luther King or Page. Start at Tucker & MLK and head West
• Union & Goodfellow.
• Chippewa from Jefferson/Broadway West to Watson Road/River Des Peres.

Such streetcar lines, combined with MetroLink and bus service would add needed diversity to our transportation system. I’d much rather invest in mass transit systems than pretty flower beds. Another blogger, Citywmn, posted her thoughts on Grand today – click here to read her take.

– Steve