Seventh Anniversary of UrbanReviewSTL.com!

To my knowledge, UrbanReviewSTL.com is the oldest urban blog in St. Louis, with the first blog posts appearing on Sunday October 31st, 2004 – seven years ago today!

ABOVE: The "about me" section created on Oct 31, 2004

At 12:50pm on October 31, 2004 I created the “about me” section, shown above.  Here is the text, sans my real estate pitch:

WHAT IS IT ABOUT ME THAT WANTED TO BLOG ON ST. LOUIS?

I’m often involved trying to save buildings from being demolished all the while stating I am not a preservationist. How can I put so much effort into saving old buildings and not be a preservationist?

I view myself as an urbanist first and foremost. Dynamic urban life is more important than any individual building, sports team, business or mayor. Great neighborhoods, by nature, incorporate existing urban-friendly buildings – especially those that are historic by virtue of architect, design or simply age.

[snip]

As an urbanist I see many mistakes being made in our urban environment. My intention with this blog is to highlight the positive and decidedly pro-urban parts of our city and region as well as show the mistakes. I hope that by showing the mistakes (and explaining why it is a mistake) we will begin to rebuild St. Louis into one of the countries [country's] great cities.

My first post was a short while later at 2:30pm that day:

ABOVE: My first pic was a bike locked to a bike rack on Washington Ave

A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT

A month ago I was having lunch at Wasabi on Washington Avenue and I captured the essence of urbanity emerging in St. Louis.

Four more posts would follow later that same Sunday! Thousands of posts later, I’m still having fun. Hard to believe the eighth year begins tomorrow…

Tune in to KDHX 88.1FM tonight at 8:30pm to hear me on DJ Wilson’s show Collateral Damage. Thank you for reading!

- Steve Patterson

Urban Review STL’s New Look

ABOVE: "FallSeason" theme used 1/2006-9/2011

Usually on Wednesdays I share the results of the readers’ poll from the prior week, but I had no poll last week as I was changing the look of the blog. The prior theme, the 3rd I’d used since starting the blog on Halloween 2004, had been in use since January 2006.

So much has changed since January 2006, integrating social networking sites like Facebook & Twitter are now a must.  I did my best with the old theme but it was written many years ago and could no longer be patched.  It was time for change.

I know basics of WordPress but for the job of updating the blog I hired Justin Chick to do the heavy lifting. We aren’t finished but at this point we are just tweaking the settings.

I started over on links, weeding out old links and adding new ones.  Hopefully they are better organized too.   Those listed under “research” are very helpful sites. I’ll be adding more links, especially in organizations and places.

This week ads returned – a horizontal banner (728×90) at the top and a rectangle (300×250) in the sidebar. As before, non-profits should email me about free ad space to promote your organization. For businesses, the rates are very reasonable ($10 CPM).   $150 buys 15,000 ads which is 41 ads per day, every day, for a year. Not getting rich, just trying to cover my costs.

Your support is appreciated, thanks for reading!

- Steve Patterson

Today Is The Last Day

Today, April 1st, is the last day of this blog. I’ve enjoyed the last six and a half years but I want to move on. The archives will remain up. Peace.

- Steve Patterson

Some Expectations For 2011

Wow, 2011 already?  In my 20+ years in St. Louis I’ve seen a lot of good &  bad change, I suspect both will continue. Hopefully the good will outnumber the bad.

This year the city, like the states, faces the issue of redistricting. A decade ago it got ugly! St. Louis made the national news when 20th ward Ald Irene Smith allegedly urinated into a trash can rather than cease a filibuster on redistricting.

“Twas the whiz heard ’round the globe as Ald. Irene Smith apparently decided she’d rather fill a bucket than give up a filibuster. Shielded by aldermanic allies, the alderwoman-with-’tude — a former city judge, mind you — allegedly peed in a garbage can after she was refused a potty break during a rigorous redistricting debate.” (RFT)

Click here to see video from that meeting.

Missouri & Illinois will each lose one seat in the US House of Representatives, but the total remains at 435. In the city the total remains, for now, at a staggering 28 – the same number as when the city had half a million more residents.

So for the city the issue becomes how to draw the new ward boundary lines with an equal number of constituents. Will the changes in population result in fewer predominantly white wards? Fewer black wards? Will the lines be drawn so that we might see an Asian or Hispanic ward so that our representatives better reflect our population numbers?

And just what will our population be? Will this be the first decennial census in decades that we’ve not lost population?  Did St. Louis County lose population?

In a few days the filing will close for the spring 2011 elections, half of the Board of Aldermen (even numbered wards) as well as the President of the Board.

In April voters will decide if we continue to collect the earnings tax on the wages of residents as well as those who work in the city.

We should expect to see some construction start on the first phase of Ballpark Village. Who knows what year we will see the rest of the site completed, hopefully before the Cardinals want to replace the 2006 stadium.

ABOVE: The Kiel...Peabody Opera House under renovation

The opera house formerly known as Kiel will reopen this year as the Peabody.

The clock is ticking on the Rams lease for the dome, expect some maneuvers in 2011 that will hint at if the Rams will exercise their option to get out of the lease if the done is not in the top quarter of the NFL. It won’t be. I think they will get out of the lease in 2012 but stay put because options for an other facility are slim. California can’t afford to bankroll a new stadium to get the Rams to return to Los Angeles.  The real action will be in 2012 though.

Some long-established businesses will fold in 2011, no doubt blaming the new smoke-free law that starts tomorrow. There are some places I look forward to visiting again but others that I think will need a few months to air out.  I’ve already visited some formerly smoking places that decided to get a head start by going smoke-free in 2010.  I still haven’t decided how much effort I’m going to put into making complaints against establishments that deliberately don’t comply.

I don’t expect to see a lot of new construction to review.  This is probably a good thing as most new construction is so horribly anti-pedestrian.

Overall I’m far more optimistic than pessimistic about 2011. Are you?

- Steve Patterson

2010 Highlights

What a year 2010 has been! I started the year with a list of Regional goals/strategies.  Only one came to be — the April passage of the transit tax in St. Louis County.  That vote triggered a previously approved tax in the city.  Metro has restored & improved transit service, keeping the region mobile.

We saw the Obama Administration announce high speed rail with improvements from St. Louis to Kansas City and to Chicago.  It will be some time before this pays off but when it does St. Louis will benefit.

The City to River concept of a tree-lined boulevard replace 1.5 miles of soon to be former I-70 gained momentum, including acknowledgment from all five finalists in the City + Arch + River Competition.

ABOVE: Paradowski Creative's new offices were completed in 2010.

We did see some construction projects get completed in 2010, such as the offices of Paradowski Creative at 20th & Locust.  The St. Louis Centre bridges over Washington Ave & Locust were removed and the former indoor mall is being turned inside out with retail facing the sidewalks on all four sides.

Just down the street, the long-annoying taxi stand on the sidewalk in front of the convention center has been relocated to 8th Street.

Work has started on the adaptive reuse of the Clemens Mansion on Cass.  Other small projects have been completed or started in the city.

The St. Louis Rams were sold and the team seems to be trying to impress their new owner.  All in all, not a bad year.

On a personal note, August 2010 marked 20 years of living in St. Louis, in 2013 I will have lived half my life here.  To the natives, it doesn’t matter.  I wasn’t born here, I can’t stand St. Louis-style pizza, and I didn’t go to high school here. For me, St. Louis is home.

Celebrate safely tonight.

- Steve Patterson

Happy Holidays!

No matter what your beliefs are, I hope you are not home alone today.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK2Btk6Ybm0

Best wishes!

- Steve Patterson

Look, Pedestrians!

Lately readers have commented they never see pedestrians in my photos.

ABOVE: Two men cross Washington Ave at Tucker (12th)

My photo library contains just over 46,000 images — few with people.  In St. Louis there are quite a few pedestrians but they pass as quickly as they appear so you are more likely not to get pedestrians in pictures.  In NYC, on the other hand, it is nearly impossible to take a pic without people.

ABOVE: midtown Manhattan in October 2001

No matter when you press the shutter there will be people in your photo.  I’m going to try to get pictures that are more representative of our pedestrian traffic.

- Steve Patterson

Sixth Anniversary of UrbanReviewSTL.com

ABOVE: Steve Patterson on his 37th birthday February 28, 2004, eight months to the day before starting this blog. Location: Marin County Civic Center by Frank Lloyd Wright

Today marks the sixth anniversary of this blog. I had no idea what I was doing at first, I just needed  a distraction from my Dad who was recovering from a heart attack on 10/1/2004. Many things have happened since:

• In early 2005 I ran for alderman in the 25th ward. I lost the race.
• After Katrina I bought a 49cc scooter.
• In 2006 my Mom passed away. Later that year I started the Master of Arts in Urban Planning & Real Estate Development (UPRED) program at Saint Louis University.
• In 2007 I went car-free and moved to a loft downtown.
• On New Year’s Day 2008 my Dad passed away.  A month later, to the day, I had a massive stroke from a hemorrhage on the right side of my brain.  I was hospitalized for three months.
• In 2009 I finished the coursework for my degree.

As my life has changed this blog has changed.  Where I live, where I go and how I get there plays a big role in what I write about.

Tomorrow, as I start year seven, I look forward to the next six years and beyond.  Thank you!

- Steve Patterson

Top Six Posts From The Last Six Years

This month I’m celebrating six years of UrbanReviewSTL.com.  This post looks at the top six posts from those six years, sorta.  My current analytics go back to mid-January 2009 so it is possible an earlier post was more popular prior to then.  No matter the rankings of #2-#6 I know the #1 is the #1.

#6 Missourians Against Red Light Cameras, February 17th, 2009

#5 The History of Problems in North St. Louis, May 26th, 2009

#4 Flashing Lights Outside Walgreen’s, February 5th, 2009

#3 NorthSide Project Has Potential to Transform St. Louis, May 27th, 2009

#2 Can We Please Ban Smoking in the St. Louis Region? Missouri?, January 29th, 2009

#1 My Honda Metropolitan Scooter, Two Years and Six Thousand Miles Later, September 4th, 2007

ABOVE: When I'd buy gas for the scooter I'd photograph the odometer

I loved that little scooter and this post is ten times more popular than any of the others.

- Steve Patterson

Celebrating Six Years Of UrbanReviewSTL This Month

Halloween marks the sixth anniversary of this blog. In that time I’ve published over 2,300 posts. To celebrate I’m going to have some Top Six lists this month.

To start things off here is my Top Six Priorities I want to work on in the next 12 months (short term):

6) Moving the taxi stand off the sidewalk in front of the convention center.

5) Getting good policy, procedures and oversight in place regarding valets.

4) Opening up food vendor options (stand & truck) throughout the region.

3) Increased bike parking in the region.

2) Some municipality in the region to begin adopting form-based zoning, even if for a small area.

1) Switching city elections to be non-partisan.

These are not the region’s top priorities but what I’m personally interested in working on.  Discuss.

- Steve Patterson