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, …
In May I posted about the upcoming Civic Center MetroBus center revisions, see: Civic Center Transit Center Sans Trees, Awaiting Redo. Since then Metro held two open houses on the same day, presenting the design as I showed previously.
Sign announcing expansion project
Click image to view larger version on Scribd
My main criticism remains the useless plaza at the clark, right above. The “Triangle Park Plaza” is lifeless and in very poor condition. I think the plaza needs to be replaced with one or two small kiosk/buildings with outdoor seating. I understand these aren’t in Metro’s current budget, I’m sure fixing the plaza isn’t either. Let’s take a look:
Looking east toward the plaza, in 1993 the metal boxes were light/steam sculptures but the haven’t been on in years
The material used for the narrow decretive strips has failed
It looks very bad, unkept
This creates a hazard for pedestrians
It has failed throughout the plaza, plus the Jersey barriers along Clark are tacky!
All the paving has settled, creating trip hazards that exceed ADA maximums
Another issue is the settling creates places were water pools. This looks bad and creates places for mosquitoes to breed when wet.
More areas where water has collected in the past
The ramp at 14th & Clark isn’t directional for crossing Clark, also too narrow. The paving here creates a serious trip hazard.
The “Triangle Park Plaza” is low-quality left over space, a negative rather than a positive. Clark has an increasing number of pedestrians. This is a good opportunity to build something to hold the corner. Ok, the budget doesn’t include anything here — I get that. But, plan ahead so when when work is done on the bus transit area you don’t prevent something better for the plaza space.
Apply for grants, work with local non-profits on incubator space, try something to find the money to redo this space so it’s a positive.
The brightly colored Downtown Trolley MetroBus debuted four years ago. In the last four years service was expanded to seven days a week, it originally didn’t include Sunday. More recently the original buses used were replaced with new low-floor buses.
I’m exiting the original Downtown Trolley after the initial ride on July 1, 2010. Photo by Jim Merkel, Suburban Journals.
The CVC’s downtown pedestrian directories don’t show the trolley route or stops.
Instead the official responses were “it’s a moving target”, meaning they don’t want to print the route & stops on directories because that would require reprinting all as changes are made. I fully agree that we don’t want to present obsolete information to downtown visitors. While most MetroBus routes change often, the Downtown Trolley route hasn’t changed at all in the last four years.
The route used is exactly the same as it was on July 1, 2010. One stop moved a block in the first week, another was added later.
In fact, in the last four years, only one stop moved and one was added. The one stop that moved from one block to the next likely just had the sign installed at the wrong spot.
Worker installing the special trolley stop sign on Washington Ave, just west of 15th, on June 30, 2010 @ 6:30pm.
The next day I took this pic of the signs.
Within a week after the Downtown Trolley began service these signs were moved to the next block east. As the colorful map shows, the stop was intended to be between 14th & 15th, not 15th & 16th. So not really a moved stop, more a correction on the placement of the sign. In the last four years other stops may have been moved to another post within the same block, but no other has moved to a completely different block. The only route change I’ve found is the addition of a stop on eastbound Clark just east of 14th.
Added trolley stop on Clark
Ironically the route map on the sign at this stop doesn’t even show the stop! Really?
I expect the pedestrian wayfinding throughout downtown to show the trolley but the three partners can’t even get the signs at the stops correct. It gets worse, the trolley page at the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis still lists the original press release from four years ago, including:
The new downtown trolley service will operate from 5:30 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to midnight on Saturday. Service will reach each stop every 10 minutes from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, and every 20 minutes the rest of the time.
So? Remember, the service was expanded to include Sunday service. You’d never know it from their website! In fact, the colorful graphic with the route map also shows the days and hours without Sunday — not updated since July 2010. Because they’ll very likely finally update the page after this post, you can read a PDF version from last night to show how out of date it is. The graphic is here.
The “moving target” line was complete and total BS, the CVC & Partnership seem to be deliberately sabotaging the Downtown Trolley. As a taxpayer into the special downtown community improvement district I’m highly displeased. I’m going do a new round of emails hoping to get action on adding the downtown trolley to the next printing of the pedestrian wayfinding as well as current and consistent marketing materials.
Please vote in the poll, located in the right sidebar
The poll this week is very straightforward, I simply want to know where you reside. Here is the list of options:
St. Louis (North)
St. Louis (Central Corridor)
St. Louis (South)
St. Louis County (North)
St. Louis County (Central/West)
St. Louis County (South)
St. Clair County, IL
Madison County, IL
St. Charles County, MO
Jefferson County, MO
Illinois (not St. Clair or Madison counties)
Missouri (not St. Louis city; St. Louis, St. Charles, or Jefferson counties)
US Midwest, except Missouri & Illinois
US Northeast
US Southeast
US Southwest
US West/Northwest
North America, NOT the United States
Elsewhere in the world
The poll is in the right sidebar, mobile users need to select the desktop layout from the bottom of the mobile screen (sorry, doesn’t show within Facebook). I look forward to seeing the results.
One hundred forty years ago the Eads Bridge opened after seven years of construction:
The structure was dedicated 4 July, 1874. It had a double deck structure. The upper deck extended over the entire width with a vehicular roadway and two pedestrian walkways. In 1947, this deck was replaced with concrete filled “I Beam Lok” and the roadway was widened to 41 feet. The original highway deck had consisted of treated gum flooring and wood stringers supported on steel floor beams. There were two “street car” tracks at floor level. The trolleys stopped running on the bridge in 1935, and the track work was removed in 1942. (St. Louis History — recommended!)
Wow, wood flooring!
Looking east, May 2011
Eads Bridge with the Admiral in early 1991
Hopefully civic leaders will come up with a great way to celebrate the Eads Bridge on its 150th a decade from now. Happy Birthday America & Eads Bridge!!
Fair Saint Louis begins today in Forest Park. The event is usually held on the Arch grounds but will be relocated to Forest Park this year and next year due to City+Arch+River construction.
For weeks now we’ve been hearing complaints about having to pay $30/car to park in Forest Park. I’m glad such a premium is placed on parking, this has hopefully forced people to consider transit, carpooling, etc.
Layout of the fairgrounds within Forest Park
For those who have mobility issues, there is is a substantial walk just to reach a gate. If you’re taking a friend or family member that has difficulty walking distances please consider taking their manual wheelchair along, no wheelchairs will be available in the park. The best view of the stage will be from the top of Art Hill, which is accessible using the trail & sidewalk network.
AARP Livibility Index
The Livability Index scores neighborhoods and communities across the U.S. for the services and amenities that impact your life the most
Built St. Louis
historic architecture of St. Louis, Missouri – mourning the losses, celebrating the survivors.
Geo St. Louis
a guide to geospatial data about the City of St. Louis
