Wired Magazine: Roads Gone Wild

In the US, traffic engineers are beginning to rethink the dictum that the car is king and pedestrians are well advised to get the hell off the road. In West Palm Beach, Florida, planners have redesigned several major streets, removing traffic signals and turn lanes, narrowing the roadbed, and bringing people and cars into much closer contact. The result: slower traffic, fewer accidents, shorter trip times. “I think the future of transportation in our cities is slowing down the roads,” says Ian Lockwood, the transportation manager for West Palm Beach during the project and now a transportation and design consultant. “When you try to speed things up, the system tends to fail, and then you’re stuck with a design that moves traffic inefficiently and is hostile to pedestrians and human exchange.”

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It takes five houses to create a village?

Dogtown Village is a series of five infill houses in the Dogtown Neighborhood of St. Louis which is formally unknown as Franz Park. Gee, I thought a Village was bigger but then again I don’t name developments for a living.

?

The city website doesn’t date their entry but these are only a year or two old. As you might guess from past posts, I have no issue with added density – it is much needed. I also don’t have any issue with raising prices in the neighborhood – as long as we don’t eliminate affordable housing. But, I have major issues with walking down the sidewalk and looking at driveways and garage doors. If I wanted to see that I’d move to the suburbs. Yes, these examples are more urban than a wide ranch house with front garage but I have higher expectations.

The Lustron House above, located at Forest & Glades, will be razed for four homes like the ones shown above if the developer, Western Continental LLC, gets their way. This house is in a Preservation Review District so the Cultural Resources Office & Preservation Board would have to approve of the demolition before a permit could be issued. While I love the Lustron houses I know they are certainly not the most urban of structures. But, I don’t think four garage doors facing the street is an improvement. I say let the metal house stay! [note: this parcel does not have a public alley]

The same developer, Western Continental LLC, wants to build three of the same type house on this site at Reber & Sublette in the Southwest Garden Neighborhood. The white alley building the rear of the property would be razed. The three proposed houses would face the long side of the parcel – Sublette. This does several things – snubs the houses facing Reber and introduces more garage doors to the public view.

Part of the idea of having alleys is to get garage doors off the street. Why we’d want to suburbanize our city is beyond me. But, in this case it gets worse. The developer is asking the city to vacate 5ft of the Reber right of way and 9ft of the Sublette right of way. The impact on Reber will not be significant but on Sublette it will be a disaster. To sandwich these houses onto this site the developer wants to move the public sidewalk to the curb – eliminating the tree lawn. Front garage doors, three wide driveways and no tree lawn. Yikes! Can’t we do better than this?

Don’t get excited, the above is not from St. Louis. This is Chicago where urban friendly infill is commonplace. Including basement, this new condo building has five floors and I believe 2-3 units. A garage is in back off the alley. Note the existing house in the left of the picture for a sense of scale.

Above is another Chicago infill project containing two units. As with most of these, space is so tight they finish the basement as living space. The important thing is these buildings add to the public life on the street – not take away from it like garage door projects do.

Much like our classic two-family flats, this two-unit Chicago condo building works well in an urban context.

As a general rule of thumb, if a property has an alley I don’t think the street facades should be allowed to have a garage door.

– Steve

Sprawl Alert: Home Depot proposed at Goodfellow & I-70

Last night the St. Louis Planning Commission voted to approve a zoning change on two large parcels located at Goodfellow & I-70 from a mix of A, F & J to H – basically to regional shopping & office. This is in prep for making it easier to redevelop the site. The only proposal received thus far is from Komen Properties for a big box Home Depot and typical out lot buildings. Geez, not another massive big box development…

Anyone that has lived in St. Louis for any length of time has seen the above building, part of a former Army ammunition plant. Though well known the building has been vacant for many years. This is the largest of the six existing buildings on the roughly 21 acre parcel. A 4 acre parcel to the South, also part of the proposed rezoning, will be discussed in a bit.

Map of
Goodfellow Blvd At Woodland Ave
St Louis, MO 63120

The view above is looking North at the vacant site.

The view above is along the Southern boundary of the large parcel. The proposed Home Depot would be located in the exact spot where this beautiful commercial building now sits.

The above picture is the back of those same buildings along the southern edge of the main parcel.

This view is looking East while on the smaller parcel. The fence in the left of the picture is the dividing line between the large & small parcels. The buildings on the left would all be razed for the Home Depot. The buildings on the right, currently in use, would presumably be part of a phase two.

More of the same commercial buildings are located on the smaller parcel which is just North of Stratford Avenue. So, you’ve got the picture?

So, where do I begin? While I consider myself more of an urbanist than a preservationist, I really like these buildings. I’m very fond of them and would hate to see them go. But, I am realistic to know this site needs to be developed as it should not continue to remain vacant (21 acre north parcel). But, the urbanist in me isn’t thrilled about another big box project with boring buildings, massive parking lots and nothing approaching any urban value.

The realist in me also thinks this project could end up like St. Louis Marketplace – largely vacant (I’m planning a future post on this failed sprawl project). We’ve got Alderman Villa pushing for a big box development with a Lowe’s at I-55 and Loughborough. I guess this is meant to balance “amenities” on the North & South?

This site is about halfway between a Home Depot in North County at Halls Ferry & I-270 and the sole city Home Depot on South Kingshighway. So, I can see some logic behind a building supply store to make it easier to renovate the surrounding homes. I’m more opposed to a bland big box development than a Home Depot. Some might think these are synonymous.

Above is a new Home Depot store on Halstead in Chicago – literally on Halstead. You see, big box stores can be integrated into an urban context. Like so many good things, it takes a willingness on the part of all involved to make urban things happen.

Vancouver’s Granville Island was recently named the #1 North American District, Downtown or Neighborhood by the Project for Public Spaces. Granville Island was a largely abandoned industrial site in the 1970s but visionary leaders saw the potential. My visits to Granville Island in both 2002 & 2003 were very enlightening. The area retains many original industrial buildings & character while attracting full time residents and tourists. The public market is a wonderful space. A major benefit Granville Island has is its waterfront location – but that is true for much of Vancouver.

A creative team could find a way to reuse the metal ammunition plant but, while I love this building, I can also see the need to raze it. But, the two story commercial buildings on the site have lots of potential for reuse. Apparently the Army has placed restrictions on the use of the property – no residential. This is due to environmental reasons. I’d like to know if the site can be cleaned sufficiently for a true mixed use development retaining some if not all the existing buildings while adding new residential buildings. Apartments over new storefronts and some attached townhouses would be great in the mix.

What is needed is a pro-urban planning approach – not just how can we build a suburban big box development in the city and face it with red brick to make us feel better about it.

– Steve

Report: St. Louis Region’s streets rank 17th most dangerous to pedestrians

The Surface Transportation Policy Project has released its findings on pedestrian safety from 1994-2003 in a new report, Mean Streets 2004 – How Far Have We Come? The St. Louis Region ranks 17th most dangerous and that our Pedestrian Danger Index increased 5.7% in 2002-2003. This is despite having the 3rd highest federal spending on pedestrian & bicycle projects for FY1998-2003 for an average of $1.56 per person. So we are spending the bucks but not getting the results!

From the report:
“Overall, the nation’s transportation networks have been largely designed to facilitate high speed automobile traffic, treating our communities and pedestrian safety as an afterthought. Streets designed with wide travel lanes and expansive intersections have been the norm or local zoning and parking requirements that don’t account for pedestrians and public transportation riders is too often standard practice. Private sector actors routinely design malls, shopping centers and housing for automobile access, without suitable facilities for pedestrians, bicyclists or transit users. Importantly, communities with a good design and a focus on features that support travel options from the start don’t have to be fixed later, reducing the dangers to pedestrians today and into the future.”

Mean Streets 2004 – How Far Have We Come? (40 page PDF)

Pedestrian Safety and Spending in Missouri (One page PDF)

APA Press Release, 12/2/2004

Walkable Communities – a great resource

Hopefully we as a region can do better at improving the walkability of our city & region. Spending the funds is not enough – we’ve got to think about how we are spending the money. We also need to stop building more sprawl and focus on rebuilding our existing communities.

– Steve

St. Stanislaus Kostka should not give in to St. Louis Archdiocese

Those of you in St. Louis are well aware that St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish, founded in 1880, is being pressured to turn over control of church property and other assets (including an endowment) to the St. Louis Archdiocese. For over a century the lay board of St. Stanislaus has managed their own financial affairs – a unique arrangement I’m told. Discussion now centers on a irrevocable trust for church property & assets but I don’t trust Archbishop Burke. The members of St. Stanislaus should be commended for maintaining their church, building an endowment and remaining in a neighborhood which has seen a devastating amount of change over the last 50 years. We have this board, not the St. Louis Archdiocese, to thank for their continued presence. I hope they tell the Archbishop where he can go (don’t worry, he’ll get their eventually).

Over the last 50+ years the St. Louis Archdiocese has abandoned the City of St. Louis – closing church after church. It is almost as if they were deliberately pushing their parishioners to the suburbs. Take a tour of North St. Louis sometime – former Catholic Churches abound. Most are vacant. Most are some of the most stunningly beautiful churches I’ve ever seen – even in various states of disrepair.

Not happy with helping destroy North St. Louis, the Archdiocese now has its sights set on South St. Louis. A number of local churches built & maintained by generations of St. Louis families are going to close. The final list is still being debated but it seems to me the parishioners and the neighborhoods that will be impacted have little say in the matter. Meanwhile, demand for services from social service agencies such as Catholic Charities will increase as a result of their abandonment of the City of St. Louis. Perhaps that is the plan? Abandon the city so the social agencies can gain greater control? The residents & parishioners in the city are simply pawns in their game…

While my own personal faith has nothing to do with organized religion, I see the value to many in St. Louis for their local parish. In the suburbs you’re going to drive to church anyway – just based on their sprawl. But, in the City of St. Louis we need to see a return to the local church. The task of trying to attract new residents becomes harder without the local church in the neighborhood.

The St. Louis Archdiocese is making major mistakes that will have a very long lasting affect on the rebirth of St. Louis.

– Steve