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, …
Decades ago traffic engineers converted many downtown St. Louis streets from two-way traffic to one-way traffic, 9th & 10th going north & south, respectively. The 9th/10th couplet extended north to I-70, basically serving as very long on/off ramps, cutting through the Columbus Square neighborhood. Today the former Cochran Gardens high-rise public housing project is gone, replaced with mixed income apartments. The 1980s Columbus Square condos and townhouses are still nice, the neighborhood is generally pleasant and safe. Despite the fact that 9th & 10th are no longer connected to I-70, they remain very wide one-way streets, undermining the positive investment in the area.
Looking south at 9th from Cass
The St. Louis Housing Authority owns this retail building on 9th at Cass, one-way streets as a freeway on ramp aren’t good for neighborhood retail businesses.
Most streets perpendicular to 9th/10th have a nice neighborhood scale. This is New Haven Ct.
Looking north on 9th from O’Fallon St, lanes aren’t marked but wide enough for at least 3
Looking north on 10th St from O’Fallon St, just as wide and useless as 9th
Looking north on 9th from Cole
Looking south at 9th from Cole St., the dividing line between downtown and the Columbus Square neighborhood
Looking north at Cole St & 10th St
I’d like to see 9th & 10th be two-way all the way through downtown, but that’s more complicated with garage entrances/exits. signals, etc. But from Cole St. to Cass Ave it would be very simple, just some changes to the signals at Cole & Cass, the rest is signs and paint.
We ran these long on/off ramps through this neighborhood for decades, now we need to do the right thing and make 9th & 10th neighborhood streets again!
In 2009 I was part of a Partnership for Downtown St. Louis committee looking at parking downtown, including areas where on-street would be beneficial for helping retail businesses and their customers. On November 12, 2009 @ 6:34am I emailed the following to Director of Streets Todd Waelterman, copied to 7th ward alderman Phyllis Young:
Todd, I was delighted to see the addition of on-street parking on 10th & Olive recently. I emailed Patrice but I haven’t heard back from her yet.
Another area where there is an immediate need for on-street parking is the North side of Washington Ave between 11th and Tucker. The curb lane is hardly used for traffic. In this block there are now more businesses than ever. Copia is expected to reopen so when they resume valet that will take away spaces used by the general public.
The East side of Tucker between St. Charles and Wash Ave is very wide. There is room for on street parking here as well.
On 11th at Wash Ave there are two polls from what used to be metered spaces. For some reason they are no parking now. I see no logistical reason for these not to have parking.
These three spots could add 12-15 more spots in this area. The parking would help all the businesses in the area and have no real impact on traffic flow.
Please ask your staff to look into allowing meters to be added to these areas.
Thanks, Steve
To my surprise he replied less than an hour later @ 7:18am:
Thanks for your ideas. These areas will be utilized for turn movements when tucker is complete.
Todd Waelterman City of St Louis Director of Streets 314-647-3111
Young never replied. I dropped the subject, waiting for the rebuild of Tucker to be completed and the new I-70 bridge to open. Since the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge opened to traffic on February 9th, 2014 I think it’s time to revisit these areas as candidates for on-street parking. Let’s take a look at these three separate areas, all located within a block of each other:
The three areas where on-street parking would help businesses and improve walkability by creating a fixed barrier between traffic and pedestrians. Original aerial from Apple Maps.
A) North Side of Washington Ave from 11th to Tucker (12th)
This block of westbound traffic is very odd. Both of the blocks before and after have one westbound travel lane and one parking lane. Yes, city staff seem to think the entire right lane for the full length of the block needs to be a right turn only lane.
This view is from Saturday, but the weekday rush hour is similar, the through lane has 5-6 vehicles each cycle but the right turn lane has few if any cars.
Occasionally a car or two will park illegally in the block-long turn lane. This isn’t really a problem because not many going west on Washington Ave want to turn right to go north on Tucker
Sure, leave room before the crosswalk for a couple of cars to get into the right lane to turn northbound on Tucker, but park cars from the Flamingo Bowl to Empire Deli.
B) East Side of Tucker from St. Charles to Washington Ave
The short distance from St. Charles (a named alley) to Washington Ave is far more complicated, not easily resolved.
b
Looking south from the crosswalk crossing Tucker at Washington Ave we see space crossed out between the left turn land and two through lanes. The Meridian bldg (left) has a vacant storefront space facing Tucker, all facing Washington Ave are leased.
Looking north from St. Charles we see the vast amount of asphalt, the bus stop should remain
Briefly in May 2013 this was to be a valet stand instead of on Washington Ave. The experiment lasted a week or two but the signs are still up nearly a year later.
What’s complicated about this block is northbound Tucker traffic goes from three through lanes down to just two on the new section north of Washington Ave. As I’ve said last August, the new Tucker Blvd streetscape needs to be continued from Washington Avenue to Spruce Street. In the meantime Tucker could get a restripe road diet. But a left turn lane is needed onto Washington Ave., the current concrete median is getting in the way of aligning lanes better. The easy short-term solution is to remove the median from Locust to Washington Ave.
C) 11th Street at Washington Ave
This is the easiest of all three, just put meters back on the two poles where they once were.
Throughout downtown 11th Street is an annoying one-way street, at least parking is allowed on both sides much of the way, including between St. Charles and Washington Ave.
But for some reason two meters were removed long ago, the polls remain.
As you can see the left lane is a left-turn lane. I can’t think of any reason why these two spots should not be returned to use as on-street parking.
I’ll be emailing this post to various official in the hope of getting some quick action on two out of three of these (A & C).
Then in February 2014 her sudden resignation began to make sense:
A former St. Louis alderwoman has sent out a letter of apology, admitting to using campaign money for personal use.
Kacie Starr Triplett says her illegal use of campaign funds was done on a small-scale, but did not disclose the amount of money she used. NewsChannel 5 obtained a copy of the Missouri Ethics Commission court filing, which states she misused as much as $18,900. (KSDK)
See her February 27, 2014 email here. On Friday we learned some of the consequences she’ll face as a result of her actions and admissions:
A once-rising star in city politics avoids possible jail time but agrees to a stiff fine in a deal with the circuit attorney’s office.
The deal between Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and Kacie Starr Triplett was signed on March 6th, but announced Friday only after Triplett made good on several payments.
In total Triplett has agreed to pay $22,000 in restitution, which that money will go to the St. Louis city public schools. (Fox2)
Jennifer Joyce, in an email reply, indicated the agreement is for 3 years, saying: “March of 2017 is when it will conclude.” Apparently she could also face a $100,000 fine from the Missouri Ethics Commission.
For the poll this week I want to know your reaction to her illegal use of campaign funds and the consequences, I’ve provided numerous answers but you can also add your own. Pick up to two.
According to the calendar it has been Spring for three weeks now, but it sure hasn’t felt like it. Finally, on Wednesday we began to warm up. That day I met friends for lunch…al fresco. They’re from Springfield IL, they came in the day before for the Cardinals game, we met at Pi downtown, as it was near their hotel and they have a nice outdoor patio.
Pi MX at 11:30am on Wednesday, by noon every table was occupied.
After lunch I had grocery shopping to do but they had two hours to sight see until they needed to be back at the Amtrak station. They hadn’t seen Citygarden yet, so I showed them. Culinaria was next, I stayed to shop while they continued on. I’d suggested places a few places for them to see:
Big Shark bike shop & adjacent bike station
Central Library
Soliders Memorial
I’m just very glad we’re above freezing. Now if we can get rain at night, but dry clear days.
Entrance to the Treasurer’s office in city hall, though the main office is a block away,
Yesterday I went to city hall to attend the monthly Parking Commission meeting, held every 2nd Thursday, but was told it took place the day before. Really? I’d checked the Treasurer’s Twitter account before leaving home, no mention at all. I tweeted about the change from the hallway, mentioning @stltreasurer. The response was “@urbanreviewstl It was on our website: https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/events/eventdetails.cfm?Event_ID=8145 …” I guess I should’ve checked the website every day since April 1st on the off chance the meeting date will be moved a day early? If only there was a way for me to subscribe to get notices of interest, like RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds allow you to get the latest news from your favorite sources, all in one place. The City of St. Louis offers the following feeds:
RSS allows subscribers to be notified of new content. But with only four feeds another way is needed to let people know, enter Twitter & Facebook. The subscription page the Twitter profiles and Facebook pages of numerous city departments/officials, including the Treasurer’s office, below the four RSS feeds are. No RSS, follow on Twitter &/or Facebook. The Treasurer’s twitter account currently has 782 followers, the Facebook page has 125 likes. The Facebook page is updated via Twitter.
The city relies on Twitter & Facebook instead of having hundreds of RSS feed, but the departments need to use these tools for them to effectively keep the public informed. It’s one thing to not tweet about a meeting being held a day later than usual, but it’s very important when moving up the meeting a day. Not using social media in this instance makes me suspicious of the goings on. The agenda listed only two items, but potentially controversial ones:
ICM/Summer Rocks Parking Agreement
Review and Approval of FY 2015 Budget
I usually attend meetings, tweeting discussions during. It appears the meeting was moved up a day so I wouldn’t be present. There may well be another reason for the change, but the appearance remains the same in my eyes. Since the prepared minutes aren’t shared online I’ll only know what took place if I make it to the next meeting on May 8th when I can get a copy. I’ll have to make a note to start checking the website starting on May 1st in case it’s decided to move the date again. So much for transparency….
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