And on that Note…

Today I was compiling my list of favorite songs of 2004 and even though it has nothing to do with urbanity or St. Louis I thought I’d share the list. Being the Apple geek that I am I’ve created an iMix with the full list on the iTunes Music Store
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East St. Louis Rated ‘Number One City In America’ By Poverty Magazine

EAST ST. LOUIS, IL—The December issue of Poverty magazine, featuring its annual “Top American Cities” poll, hit newsstands Monday, and for the second year in a row, East St. Louis topped the list. “East St. Louis dominated our poll yet again in 2004, topping such categories as unemployment, hubcap availability, and liquor-stores-per-capita,” Poverty editor Felicia Banks said. “The city’s educational system also rated high, boasting a student-gun ratio of 1:1.” Rounding out the top five, in descending order, were Flint, MI; Newark, NJ; Compton, CA; and Gary, IN.

The above ‘humor’ is courtesy of the twisted writers at The Onion. I must admit, I got a good laugh at their jab at East St. Louis.

The only time I go to East St. Louis is for late night (well, technically early morning) visits the infamous bar Faces. Otherwise, why would I go there? What I’ve seen of East St. Louis during the daylight hours certainly tells me it was a great city at one time – good scale and great buildings.

An aunt of time, now in her early 80s, lived there just after WWII – certainly a big and exciting place for a young woman from rural western Oklahoma and raised during the depression. In the last 60 years or so since then East St. Louis has certainly hit rock bottom.

Built St. Louis has a great look at East St. Louis as well as other hard hit areas of the east site – click here to view.

What to do to reverse for fortunes of East St. Louis and surrounding areas is a major challenge. So far the best hope is the Casino Queen. But, the casino can only offer cash to keep city hall in the black (so to speak). Like North St. Louis, the best bet is MetroLink.

Some other urban humor from The Onion includes: “HUD Allocates $260 Million For Low-Outcome Housing” (Issue 3302, 21 January 1998) and “Urban Planner Stuck In Traffic Of Own Design” (Issue 4010, 10 March 2004).

– Steve

Best & Worst Events & Projects from 2004

Developing a list of the best & worst urban places &/or events of 2004 in our region seemed like a good idea a month ago when I started making the list. But, it has proven to be much more work than I thought. Here it is New Year’s Eve and I’m finishing up the list, searching for relevant links, and worrying about the order of the list. But, I think it is a pretty good list so check it out…

Worst of 2004

10 – New Plaza in Lafayette Square

Placing a plaza on random corners was a favorite of architects in decades past. We had kind of gotten away from it more recently but idea of creating ‘open space’ for the sake of space always seem popular. Seldom is the open space needed but the quest to create a feel-good place is often more important than something trivial like need. Read my review here

9 – Issuance of Zoning Variance on Virginia Mansion

In an act of political spinelessness, the St. Louis Board of Adjustment granted a variance to zoning to an organization to allow a 7-unit apartment building in an area zoned one and two family and on a site located between two modest single family residences. Now, I’m an advocate of maintaining/increasing our unit density in the city but I want to do so in a planned way – not by having well funded non-profit groups get political favors that a private developer would not. I’m one of eleven people that have sued the City of St. Louis over this variance – the case is still pending in circuit court. Click here for more info

8 – Proposed SLU Research Building

This 2004 proposal will break ground soon and will guarantee that Grand & Chouteau willl never be as urban as it could or should be. This is on my to-do list of topics to cover in detail so for the moment I’ll just leave you with a link to the official SLU Research Building website.
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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.
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