Nineteen year ago I started this blog as a distraction from my father’s heart attack and slow recovery. It was late 2004 and social media & video streaming apps didn’t exist yet — or at least not widely available to the general public. Blogs were the newest means of …
The new NGA West campus , Jefferson & Cass, has been under construction for a few years now. Next NGA West is a large-scale construction project that will build a new facility for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in St. Louis, Missouri.This $1.7B project is managed by the U.S. Army …
Book publisher Island Press always impresses me with thoughtful new books written by people working to solve current problems — the subjects are important ones for urbanists and policy makers to be familiar and actively discussing. These four books are presented in the order I received them. ‘Justice and …
This post is about two indirectly related topics: the new Siteman Cancer Center building under construction on the Washington University School of Medicine/BJC campus and an update on my stage 4 kidney cancer. Let’s deal with the latter first. You may have noticed I’ve not posted in three months, …
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In the interest of getting my message out to as many people as possible I have made my flyer available as a downloadable PDF document. The flyer includes information about me, my position on the issues and how to reach me.
Feel free to send out the flyer via email. If you like, print it out for friends and neighbors.
– Steve
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From the Rehabber’s Club list I discovered an exciting housing development corporation in Indianapolis. The group known as Southeast Neighborhood Development, Inc. or SEND So what do I find exciting?
The SEND group actually seems to do something – investing $26 million in their service area since 1991. That is some serious cash. Their website is well organized and includes some great before and after renovation pictures. They include a listing of business locations for sale and for lease. Homes for sale are also included.
But the best part is they partner with other organizations in their community, including local churches, to achieve their stated goals. It appears they are not dependent upon a single source for the bulk of their budget – local city funding is only a part of their budget.
The big lesson here is sometimes it is wise to step back and take a look at our current programs, organizations, and conventional thinking. By doing so we can determine if our current methods are the best way of solving the problem at hand. Perhaps they were 10, 15 or 20 years ago but that doesn’t mean it is still how it should be done.
Looking at organizations in other cities is a great way of gaining a new perspective outside our South St. Louis business as usual thinking. I’m a firm believer in determining the root of problems, brainstorming possible solutions, selecting the best solution and then implementing that solution.
I’m not a fan of doing something simply because that is the way it has always been done, because a group doesn’t want to offend an elected official by asking for change or just skating along with the status quo. We have the potential to be a great urban neighborhood if we put our heads together and work toward a common goal. Fresh thinking, not more of the same, will get us where we are going.
– Steve
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Neighborhood leaders are talking with the League of Women Voters about organizing a 25th Ward debate between myself and my opponent Dorothy Kirner. I hope they can make it happen so voters can see the differences between us.
For the record, I’ll show up for any organized debate regardless of format. I have a clear message and welcome any opportunity to communicate that message.
– Steve
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Never before have I reprinted an entire email received from someone. But, in the case below I hope you get a big smile reading it just as I did:
– Steve
ST. LOUIS – As reported in Martin Van Der Werf’s
column in the Post-Dispatch today, efforts are afoot
to remove the pedestrian “skybridge” from the St.
Louis Centre complex, thereby forever altering the
scenic streetscape along this burgeoning section of
Washington Avenue. In response, a group of concerned
citizens is planning a multi-pronged approach to keep
the historic skybridge intact.
“Changing the dramatic exterior of the St. Louis
Center skybridge would be a mistake,” says Franklin
Jennings, a spokesperson for the ad-hoc “Save the
Skybridge” effort. “Once torn asunder, the views in
this area of eastern Downtown would never be the same.
We consider the skybridge to be part-and-parcel of the
robust nature and dramatic vista of this working
neighborhood. It has been a part of Downtown for
roughly two decades. Our contention is that it should
be serviceable for at least two generations.”
… Continue Reading
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I learned a new term today – Spaghetti Zoning. And it exists not on The Hill but in St. Charles County. Basically it is a small strand of zoning to connect one area to another.
Winghaven is located in O’Fallon through Spaghetti Zoning along Bryan Road. The roadway is in O’Fallon but the land on either side is in Dardene Prairie. If you are developing one of the parcels of land in Dardene Prairie along this portion of Bryan Road you need to get approval from O’Fallon for the curb cut. How messed up is that?
My thought was some sort of land swap so that Dardene Prairie could control the road but that would separate Winghaven from the rest of O’Fallon.
This type of Spaghetti Zoning is not longer permissible by law – so municipalities cannot annex a utility easement just to add a piece of land to their city limits. But, I think people in St. Charles county will be dealing with the ramifications of past SZ for some time.
– Steve