The last part of filling in the old railroad tunnel under Tucker was the NW corner of Tucker & Washington Ave. In January I posted the Last Remaining Corner of Tucker Project, at that time,
Washington Ave sidewalk in from of the Bogen Lofts is now reopened.
The basement of the Bogen lofts extends under the Tucker & Washington sidewalks, requiring more work to to create the concrete top over the basement vaults. Up top the Washington Ave sidewalk looks the same as it did before, the bricks were reset on top of the concrete. I’m glad I can finally use the north side of Washington.
Last month when I posted Chippewa Road Diet, Bike Lanes, Pedestrian Lane the project wasn’t finished, I was holding out judgement until complete. The project now appears to be complete, but I’ve only experienced it as a passenger in a passing vehicle.
March 2014: Looking east you see the westbound bike lane to the right of the orange cones.April 2, 2014: Now the bike lane is separated from the pedestrian area
I’ll take MetroBus there this Spring so I can check it out end to end using my wheelchair, paying close attention to the transitions from the sidewalks at each end. On the reverse trip we noticed lots of water covering the sidewalk on the south side of the street.
The sidewalk along 14th Street, just north of Clark Ave, has pedestrians throughout the day & night because of the Civic Center MetroBus Transit Center, Civic Center MetroLink station, and the Gateway Transportation Center (Amtrak & Greyhound), so the south. The sidewalks aren’r packed, but the pedestrian traffic is steady. When events are held at the Scottrade Center or Peabody Opera House the pedestrian level increases dramatically as people make their way to these venues. Sidewalk space becomes scarce, especially if you’re going again the flow.
The other day, as I returned downtown on MetroLink, and I headed north on 14th to go home, people were headed into the Scottrade Center en mass. This isn’t the first time I’ve posted about these sidewalks being used for vehicles rather pedestrians:
The examples above were on the east side of 14th, the other day it was the west side of 14th getting squeezed:
I couldn’t believe my eyes…what kind of podunk are we?Cars on the north side of the bus stop made it impossible for buses to pull up to the curbLooking back south from next to the Peabody.
The remaining sidewalk was tight as I met people heading to the event at the Scottrade. I find this unacceptable, I’m just not sure how to get it to stop.
In December I showed a blatant ADA-violation at Fields Foods, no ramps where the pedestrian route crosses a driveway. Once we got a break in the weather they began busting out concrete to build it how they should’ve in the first place. A friend and I took the bus there on February 22nd, I was pleased:
You can see the mew ramp in the foregroundThis ramp is also new, as is the crosswalk paint. Pedestrians entering from 14th or from the east still aren’t considered.
I’ve suggested ways to connect to the East once the last part of the site is developed, and I’ve suggested the route, above, be connected to 14th — assuming the 14th St entrance remains open. The other topic I raised was that of conducting multiple buildings within the same development.
The ADA also requires a pedestrian route between buildings within the same development, which wasn’t considered here at all.
The other day we needed to get something from Walgreen’s & Fields Foods, I was able to see how easy it would be to connect these two. Of course, it would’ve been much easier if planned in advance.
We drove to Walgreen’s first. It was obvious connecting these two would be fairly simple by extending the Walgreen’s sidewalk until it reaches Fields Foods.We then drove the short distance to Fields Foods. Looking back we can see the direct route or connecting to the existing ramp at Walgreen’s. Planned in advance, a sidewalk connecting these two would’ve been easy and been an asset to the development.
Some might say this would result in the loss of two spaces. I’d argue if planned right from the start no spaces would have been placed in the way. The drive aisles are wide, asphalt is everywhere. Poor site planning isn’t an excuse for violating the ADA. Given the proximity and lack of obstacles, it can’t be argued as not readily achievable.
In the 1970s civic leaders were busy destroying large swaths of downtown in order to retain/attract workers/employers & residents. In 1977 the Cervantes Convention Center opened with largely blank exterior walls and occupying 4 formerly separate city blocks.
The following Spring, 36 years ago today, they continued in the same direction advocated by our first planner Harland Bartholomew decades earlier:
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved three bills that would set the stage to develop a proposed downtown shopping mall, with the only further step being the acquisition of federal funding. The headquarters of Stx, Baer, & Fuller, which would become Dillard’s just months before the mall’s completion, and Famous-Barr existed with one block separating them between Washington and Locust at 6th Street. The goal was to create an enclosed, urban shopping mall with these two companies as anchors, and the estimated budget was nearly $150 million. St. Louis Centre opened in 1985 as the largest shopping mall in America. It had over 150 stores and 20 restaurants, and was initially a great success. Challenges appeared in the 1990s however, as the Westroads Shopping Center was redeveloped into the St. Louis Galleria and stores began closing. St. Louis Centre closed in 2006, and since then has been redeveloped into a 750-car parking garage and retail center. (STL250 on Facebook)
Seven years later the internally-focused mall opened. The pedestrian realm in St. Louis was officially dead.
Looking west from 6th Street on May 22, 2010 as the pedestrian bridge over Washington Ave is being razed.
In the 1970s big indoor shopping malls were all the rage. We know now in an urban setting, like a central business district, turning blank exterior walls to the sidewalk and putting all retail activity indoors out of view to people passing by is a formula for disaster. In hindsight, it’s obvious. At the time few realized the magnitude of the mistake.
When the Cervantes Convention Center was expanded a block to the south in the early 1990s it was given a new more inviting facade, controversial at the time. St. Louis Centre was converted into a large parking garage in this decade, with retail spaces facing outward to the sidewalk. Slowly we’re relearning that a CBD can’t appeal to the suburban motorist. The urban core of any region should distinguish itself from the suburbs.
Suburbia can’t match old urban neighborhoods, usually failing when it tries. Conversely, older urban areas fail when trying to be like new suburbs. Most people chose suburbia, I get that. In the St. Louis region we have plenty of suburbia for those who prefer it, we need to double-down on making the City of St. Louis the pedestrian-froendly urban environment preferred by the rest of us. These can co-exist in the same region. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten to the point of having so little good urban area that those seeking an urban life have had no other choice but to leave the region.
A few urban block here and there won’t support an urban life, we need a city 100% committed to the urban dweller.
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