Much Needed Change at City Hall

No, I’m not talking about Charter Amendments A, B, C, & D. I’m talking about beverage & food service at City Hall. Brother & Sister team of Scott & Lynn Josse will be serving food & coffee at City Hall as they expand their ‘People’s Coffee’ business.

Scott & Lynn started their first People’s Coffee at The Commonspace. Then they expanded to the Carnahan Courthouse. Scott & Lynn closed the Commonspace location a few month ago – shortly before Brian Marston & Amanda Doyle closed the physical location of The Commonspace. I’m glad to see Scott & Lynn doing well and expanding as well as seeing Brian & Amanda still working hard to make St. Louis a better place.

Below is from STLToday .

Ready To Vote?

Missouri voters are being asked to stop diverting funds from transportation to the general fund. This is simply misleading. The transportation lobby wants more money at Mo-Dot for road building. They don’t want to work on mass transit solutions – just roads for cars. How does that help us in urban areas? We can’t continue building auto-dominated regions.

Furthermore, this state wide amendment will take millions of dollars from the general fund. How does the state then balance the budget? The supporters claim this amendment has no fiscal impact yet they can’t say how the state’s budget will be balance. Cut services? Raise taxes? Both? I’m voting no on Amendment 3.

In St. Louis we have to decide on some charter amendments which will bring about major change to St. Louis government. I have long thought St. Louis as both a city & county was fucked up. We need change. However, the proposed amendments are funded by the civic progress types which are acting in their best interests. They are seeking a stronger mayor type government which I don’t necessarily oppose. I believe their goal is to streamline government so it will easier for them to purchase politicians. Fifteen aldermen rather than 28 can save a lot of money. A stronger mayor means not having to suck up to the President of the board of aldermen and comptroller. I’m voting no on A, B, C, & D.

Good things come to those who wait

Today I shopped at the new City Grocers downtown (920 Olive, no web site yet). Those waiting in St. Louis for things to happen have been rewarded yet again.

Yes, the historic Century Building isn’t even razed yet for a massive parking garage and signs of a renewed downtown neighborhood are everywhere. A neighborhood, unlike a business district, is full of residents and an active street life. City Grocer will do far more for downtown than the Old Post Office project ever will.

A whole new group of people, myself included, will seek out downtown residences simply based on having City Grocers and the smaller but very niceLucas Park Market as urban amenities. These new residents will encourage other businesses to start in downtown or relocate from other areas to downtown. We are witnessing the reverse of what happened as people & businesses left downtown and the city in the mid to late 20th Century.

I have many more thoughts on many more subjects. Please bookmark my blog and let me know what you think.

Kirkwood Station Plaza, another great idea with questionable execution

Nearing completion is Kirkwood Station Plaza in the affluent St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood. The site was, for several decades, a huge parking lot and a Target store. Prior to the Target store it was the site of a historic hotel. Some in Kirkwood opposed the project because they thought it was too dense. I personally think the density is appropriate for the location. Like many projects this one had the right concept but falls short in the details.

A plaza complete with patriotic flags, detailed paving and even a fountain does a nice job of welcoming the public to the project. The main building in the first photo is a bit too retro-colonial for my taste but this is the suburbs where originality is not considered a virtue. From an urban perspective it does a pretty good job. However, the ground floor is store fronts and from the sidewalk along the main road you really wouldn’t know it. The entire plaza has something like four trees. The only real shade is provided by the pavilion seen in the background – a mockery of the stunning Kirkwood train station across the street.

MLP had this to say about the project, “Designed with a pedestrian-friendly emphasis, a highlight of Station Plaza will be the European-Inspired plaza and fountain that will provide a community gathering point, directly across from City Hall.” Source.

In good urban fashion the developer, MLP Investments, has re-cut Madison street through the site and reconnected the project with the surrounding charming downtown area known as Kirkwood Junction.

But take a closer look at the photo below. As you walk along the sidewalk heading toward other housing down the street you see this big yellow box forcing the sidewalk to jog out of the way.

As you get closer (below) you see this mechanical box jutting out from a parking garage covered in the same yellow fake stucco. This is the main connector street from the housing to the East to the Plaza and main downtown district to the West.

Below is the view heading West from the apartments on the East end of the project.

Aside from being really ugly, the structure is an assault to a pedestrian. This dramatically reduces the pleasantness of strolling from your new condo to one of the new shops or restaurants along Kirkwood road. So much for being “pedestrian-friendly!”

Additional mistakes abound. First, the sidewalks are not given any street trees to shade the pedestrian. Street trees also would have visually separated the pedestrian from parked cars. The sidewalk width is designed not for any real use but to give the illusion of being pedestrian friendly. Try to walk side by side past that ugly mechanical structure. The original site plan did not have these issues, click here to see the site plan.

Once the project is complete and businesses have moved into the retail/restaurant spaces I’ll take another look at the project and how it relates to the rest of downtown Kirkwood.

Lessons not yet learned from Jane Jacobs

I hate to admit that I’m nearly 38 years old and I am just now reading Jane Jacobs’ classic, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” I’ve read plenty of books on city planning and urbanism in particular. Most reference this 1961 classic.

This morning at brunch I started chapter 5, “The uses of neighborhood parks.” In just over four chapters I can see why this book is so well regarded in urbanist circles. Unlike many urban planning text books she has yet to use the word demographics nor has she presented countless charts on age, race, population, etc… Instead, she comments on what she observes in cities – what works and what doesn’t. How refreshing. Unfortunately, she knew in 1961 what many architects, planners, developers, politicians, and civic ‘leaders’ in St. Louis still don’t get. Over forty years later her lessons are still being ignored.

Future entries in this blog will detail specific examples throughout St. Louis and the region of such mistakes and how those making the mistakes should know better.