Opinion: Wholesale Demolition Has Not Served St Louis Well, Yet Many Still Think It Is The Solution

I applaud KMOV’s Doug Vaughn for raising questions about the appearance of the riverfront to the north & south of the Arch grounds. Yes, we can and should improve these areas.

If you’re  unfamilar, see the following three Doug Unplugged videos:

1. Urban Decay
2. We can preserve historic buildings and still revitalize the riverfront
3. Clean up the eyesores

Vaughn repeatedly used the term “eyesore” which is highly subjective. It means “something unpleasant to look at”. Different people can see the same thing very differently. What Vaughn views as unpleasant I see as beautiful, historic, with great potential.

While I agree a problem exists, I strongly disagree as to the best solution to solve the problem(s).

Vaughn’s proposal is tear down what exists and plant grass.  This is been St. Louis’ answer for well over a century, we’ve been tearing down our city for generations. Luther Ely Smith, who has a square named after him in front of KMOV’s building, was the one who championed the project that would erase 40 city blocks of our city’s origins. He was also instrumental in hiring Harland Bartholomew, who spent decades tearing down many hundreds pf acres of St. Louis, ignoring calls for commuter rail to the new suburbs, and making a car a requirement. Bartholomew famously miscalculated the impact of his massive tear down and rebuilding projects — population dropped rather than increase, as he had thought.

KMOV’s Doug Vaughn wants to continue generations of removing the old from view. Yet it’s the renovation of the old that we celebrate today and has been shown to boost population. Forty years ago Vaughn would’ve spoken in favor of razing Union Station  — it was such a vacant eyesore it was used in the filming of the post-apocalyptic film Escape From New York.

Thirty years ago Vaughn likely would’ve advocated razing all the vacant warehouses just West of the downtown business district, the streets around these had also been in the 1981 film. Thankfully few were razed, and most have been converted into condos & apartments. It took the city investing in narrowing Washington Ave. to get long-stalled loft projects off the drawing boards and under construction. Private investors needed to see the city was committed. Once they saw the commitment, they invested.

The North & South riverfronts have had no such commitment from the city. In fact, the city has repeatedly sent the message to investors the North riverfront is expendable. You can’t blame developers for not investing in an area the city doesn’t care about.

Doug Vaughn is obviously unaware these elevated rail lines are still in use. Yes, the auto lanes on top of the old MacArthur Bridge has been abandoned since 1981 — but the rail level is used daily by freight and Amtrak. . The bridge and elevated lines are owned by the Terminal Railroad Association — acquired in an exchange for the Eads Bridge. These rusty old trestles are part of what I love about St. Louis. Their repetition is pleasing to my eye, the shadows they cast intriguing.

Razing and planting grass hasn’t worked yet for St. Louis yet those without vision who like vinyl-clad boxes with faux “shutters” too small to cover adjacent windows continue to advocate this failed strategy. Sadly, for too long people have listened. Our city & region can’t afford to continue listening to those who espouse a tired failed strategy.

Each Sunday’s poll typically gets about 32 votes — plus or minus 20% depending upon the topic. I could tell right away the recent non-scientific Sunday Poll was being hijacked but I decided to let it go — I wanted to see how far they’d go to defend failed ideas — and I wanted the ad revenue.

Q: Agree or disagree: KMOV’s Doug Vaughn is right, the old vacant buildings on the North & South riverfront should be torn down.

• Strongly agree 120 [65.57%]
• Agree 23 [12.57%]
• Somewhat agree 13 [7.1%]
• Neither agree or disagree 2 [1.09%]
• Somewhat disagree 3 [1.64%]
• Disagree 7 [3.83%]
• Strongly disagree 15 [8.2%]
• Unsure/No Answer 0 [0%]

The vote total in 12 hours was 183 — 571% more than usual for a typical week of regular readers. Clearly someone orchestrated a campaign to get the results that support their view.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a “preservationist.” I’m an urbanist — someone who loves urban environments,  which is best when it’s a mix of old & new. The North & South riverfronts could be incredible neighborhoods — if we renovate the remaining buildings and fill in the holes with new construction. Perhaps we can organize a charrette to brainstorm a vision for these areas beyond…grass.

— Steve Patterson

Dead Sidewalks Won’t Come Back To Life With Overhead Walkways Gone

Enclosed walkways over public sidewalks are generally a bad idea — removing pedestrians from the public realm. However, with these elevated walkways often comes the real culprits to killing sidewalk life: blank walls, inward focus, etc.

A prime example of what not to do in a downtown was downtown St. Louis’ St. Louis Centre indoor mall.

It was 8 years ago today that a big event was held to begin the removal of the very oppressive walkway from over Washington Ave — the first step in transforming the inward-focused mall into outward-facing MX retail with the interior becoming a parking garage.

See:

• 2010: Undoing a huge mistake from the 1980s
• 2012: MX Rises From Former St. Louis Centre, Pi Now Open

Two other walkways have been removed in the last year, one on each side of the former Southwestern Bell headquarters, later an AT&T building on Chestnut between 9th & 10th. The walkways connected the now vacant tower, now longer owned by AT&T with an older Bell building to the West and a 90s data center to the East.

These walkways were very different than those at the former St. Louis Centre — up high, small, transparent, These allowed employees to walk to/from all 3 buildings without having to keep going through security. With AT&T’s significant reduction in the number of downtown employees the center towner became unnecessary. The tower’s new owners needed to reconfigure the tower from a single-occupany headquarters into a multi-tenant building. For them and AT&T that meant disconnecting the three buildings.

The exteriors are all repaired now, though all three buildings are lifeless at the sidewalk level. This us by design. The removal of these two walkways won’t have the dramatic results we’ve seen at MX.

St. Louis has systematically killed street life block by block, neighborhoods by neighborhood. Attempting to bring back vibrant sidewalks for more than a few blocks here or there is likely a waste of time at this point.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Is Doug Vaughn Right About St. Louis’ Riverfront?

After technical difficulties with the poll software last week I’ve added a new plugin to display the polls. This week it should work fine. Should…

In a trio of segment KMOV’s Doug Vaughn has commented on the St. Louis riverfront — both immediately North & South of the Arch ground. In short, he feels the large vacant buildings, old train trestle, etc are eyesores that should be razed.

I couldn’t find a way to get the videos to display within this post, but the three Doug Unplugged videos I’m talking about are linked below:

1. Urban Decay
2. We can preserve historic buildings and still revitalize the riverfront
3. Clean up the eyesores

Please watch the above videos and then vote in today’s poll:

This poll will close automatically at 8pm tonight. Wednesday I’ll share my thoughts on this subject.

— Steve Patterson

St. Louis Board of Aldermen, New Board Bills Week 5 of 2018-2019 Session

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen will meet at 10am today, their 5th meeting of the 2018-2019 session.

It appears I missed numerous new bills last week, they were:

• B.B.#53 – Kennedy – An Ordinance adopting the 2018 International Building Code with amendments, including Appendices E, F, G, H, I and J; repealing Ordinance 68610, Ordinance 68788, and Ordinance 69271; and containing a penalty clause, severability clause, savings clause, and emergency clause.
• B.B.#54 – Kennedy – An Ordinance adopting the 2018 International Residential Code for One- and Two-family Dwellings with amendments, including Appendices E, F, G, H, J, K, M, R, S, and T; repealing Ordinance 68789; and containing a penalty clause, severability clause, savings clause, and emergency clause.
• B.B.#55 – Kennedy – An Ordinance adopting the 2018 International Fire Code with amendments, including Appendices B and C; repealing Ordinance 69600; and containing a penalty clause, severability clause, savings clause, and emergency clause.
• B.B.#56 – Kennedy – An Ordinance adopting the 2018 International Existing Building Code with amendments, including Appendices A, B, and C; repealing Ordinance 68790; and containing a penalty clause, severability clause, savings clause, and emergency clause.
• B.B.#57 – Kennedy – An Ordinance adopting the 2018 International Property Maintenance Code with amendments; repealing Ordinance 68791; and containing a penalty clause, severability clause, savings clause, and emergency clause.
• B.B.#58 – Kennedy – An Ordinance adopting the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code with amendments; repealing Ordinance 68792; and containing a penalty clause, severability clause, savings clause, and emergency clause.
• B.B.#59 – Kennedy – An Ordinance pertaining to the Mechanical Code of the City of Saint Louis; repealing Ordinance 68639 and Ordinance 68847; adopting the 2018 International Mechanical Code with amendments, including Appendix A; and containing a penalty clause, severability clause, savings clause, and an emergency clause.
• B.B.#60 – Kennedy – An Ordinance adopting the 2018 International Fuel Gas Code with amendments; repealing Ordinance 68638; and containing a penalty clause, severability clause, savings clause, and emergency clause.
• B.B.#61 – Kennedy – An ordinance adopting the 2017 National Electrical Code with amendments; repealing Ordinance 68831; and containing a penalty clause, severability clause, savings clause, and emergency clause.

Today’s agenda includes five new bills dealing with liquor licenses, street patterns, and several related to transit funds:

• B.B.#62 – Navarro – An ordinance repealing Ordinance 70026 and in lieu thereof enacting a new ordinance prohibiting the issuance of any 3 a.m. closing permits for any currently non-3am licensed premises within the boundaries of the Twenty-Eighth Ward Liquor Control District, as established herein, for a period of three years from the effective date hereof; containing exceptions and allowing, during the moratorium period, for the renewal of or transfer of existing licenses, under certain circumstances, and containing an emergency clause.
• B.B.#63 – Bosley – An ordinance directing the Director of Streets to make such changes in the present traffic pattern controlling traffic on Greer, Dodier, and University, in the 3500 block of said streets between N. Grand and N. Garrison so that as reconfigured the traffic pattern developed and in place as a result of the changes directed by this ordinance are as follows, namely: Greer – 3500 block – traffic to flow two-way between N. Grand and N. Garrison; Dodier – 3500 block – traffic to flow two-way between N. Grand and N. Garrison; University – 3500 block – traffic to flow one-way southeast between N. Grand and N. Garrison.
• B.B.#64 – Williamson – An Ordinance pertaining to the Transit Sales Tax imposed pursuant to Section 94.660, RSMo., as adopted and approved by the voters of St. Louis City on August 2, 1994, pursuant to Ordinance 63168 creating the “City Public Transit Sales Tax Trust Fund” directing the Treasurer of the City of St. Louis to deposit funds received pursuant to said sales tax into the “City Public Transit Sales Tax Trust Fund – Account ONE” appropriating $11,560,000 from the said sales tax for the period herein stated to the Bi-State Development Agency for certain purposes; providing for the payment of such funds during the period July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019; further providing that in no event shall the Comptroller draw warrants on the Treasurer for an amount greater than the amounts of the proceeds deposited in the “City Public Transit Sales Tax Trust Fund” during the period of July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019; and containing a severability clause.
• B.B.#65 – Williamson – An Ordinance pertaining to the Transit Sales Tax imposed pursuant to Section 94.660, RSMo., as adopted and approved by the voters of St. Louis City on November 4, 1997, pursuant to Ordinance 64111 creating the “City Public Transit Sales Tax Trust Fund” directing the Treasurer of the City of St. Louis to deposit funds received pursuant to said sales tax into the “City Public Transit Sales Tax Trust Fund – Account TWO” appropriating $11,560,000 from the said sales tax for the period herein stated to the Bi-State Development Agency for certain purposes; providing for the payment of such funds during the period July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019; further providing that in no event shall the Comptroller draw warrants on the Treasurer for an amount greater than the amounts of the proceeds deposited in the “City Public Transit Sales Tax Trust Fund” during the period of July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019; and containing a severability clause.
• B.B.#66 – Williamson – An ordinance appropriating the sum of $21,877,000, as described and defined in Section 94.600 through 94.655, RSMo. 2000 as amended for the period herein stated, which sum is hereby appropriated out of the “Transportation Trust Fund” to the Bi-State Development Agency for transportation purposes; and further providing that the appropriation is conditional upon the Bi-State Development Agency supplying the Board of Estimate and Apportionment an annual evaluation report; further providing that in no event shall the Comptroller draw warrants on the Treasurer for an amount greater than the amount of proceeds deposited in the “Transportation Trust Fund” during the period from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019; providing for the appropriation to be reduced if certain funds are used for other than public transit purposes; further providing that the appropriation is conditional upon Bi-State requiring the payment of prevailing wages and benefits to employees of outside service contractors; and containing a severability clause.

The meeting begins at 10am, past meetings and a live broadcast can be watched online here. See list of all board bills for the 2017-2018 session — the new bills listed above may not be online right away.

— Steve Patterson

Technical Issues Yesterday; One Year Anniversary of Kiener Plaza This Coming Saturday

Yesterday something went haywire, crashing the site. When it did work the poll didn’t appear. I’ve pulled yesterday’s post since only two readers were able to vote.

I’ll have a new post on Friday, my usual on new Board Bills being introduced at the Board of Aldermen. If all goes well I’ll attempt to have yesterday’s poll question on Sunday the 20th.

In the meantime, this coming Saturday is the one year anniversary since Kiener Plaza reopened. I’ve been a few times, I need to return and photograph areas to see how the trees have matured.

Here’s a couple of posts from May 2017:

• Remembering The Old Kiener Plaza
• A Look At The New Kiener Plaza (Photos & Videos)

Have a great week!

— Steve Patterson