Roberts Market Place at Kingshighway & Delmar Hostile to Pedestrians

The Roberts Market Place has opened at Kingshighway & Delmar, the site of a former Schnucks. Discount grocer ALDI, the only business so far, is the anchor. Unfortunately, it is designed to be driven to, not walked to.

Seriously? The one minimal pedestrian route from a secondary road is blocked by a bollard!?! As I mentioned in April, the site has been divided into three parcels.

It would’ve been relatively easy to plan a north-south sidewalk through the site connecting Enright to Delmar, with a perpendicular walk connecting to the bus stop on Kingshighway. This would’ve provided a pedestrian route to all three adjacent streets and to all three parcels. Instead we’ve got another development that ignores pedestrians almost entirely.

The #97 (Delmar) bus and #95 (Kingshighway) bus generate lots of pedestrian traffic at this location. Many customers & employees of ALDI, a new drive-thru, and a third place will arrive on foot. Development in our neighborhoods should be designed to welcome motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. This must be mandated, developers aren’t going to do it on their own — especially not in low-income areas where they do as little as possible.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: How Did Sesame Street Influence Your Childhood Perceptions of Urban Neighborhoods?

Forty-four years ago today  a new children’s program debuted that was very different from predecessors such as Howdy Doody (1947-1960), Captain Kangaroo (1955-1984), and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968-2001). These earlier shows weren’t set in the gritty inner-city. I was a few months shy of being 3 years old when Sesame Street first aired on November 10, 1969, so I didn’t notice the change. Mister Rogers Neighborhood had only been on the air a year.

Officially located in New York City, as is often confirmed by regional references and the adjacent New York subway, Sesame Street was designed to resemble an urban, inner city landscape, recognizable to children although slightly idealized (though urban grunge was still well accounted for thanks to Oscar the Grouch). While many of the inserts took place in puppet-scale interiors, ranging from Ernie and Bert’s apartment and Charlie’s Restaurant to the countless walls or the varying game show sets of Guy Smiley, the main storyline scenes have always focused or at least begun on the street and its environs, outside of special location episodes. It serves as a meeting place for human and Muppet cast members alike. (Muppet Wiki)

My family moved into a brand new home in suburban Oklahoma City just months before I was born. Our subdivision lacked sidewalks, we had a 9-car driveway (3×3).

To my eyes Sesame Street seemed exotic, nothing like where I lived. Sure, I’d see neighbors, tinkering in their garages or sitting in a lawn chair  — on their driveway. But the interaction was different on Sesame Street, they couldn’t help but run into neighbors as they went about their lives. Since my dad worked on new homes, I rarely got to experience older/walkable neighborhoods closer to those on  Sesame Street.

Thankfully our family doctor had his office in OKC’s Capital Hill area, a once-thriving shopping area similar to the Wellston Loop. My father would also do carpentry work on his personal home from time to time, it was located in the historic Heritage Hills neighborhood, just north of downtown Oklahoma City. Otherwise I saw new homes going up in subdivisions far from the center. We drove to buy groceries, clothing, etc. — anything really other than a few things I might get at a convenience store I could walk/bike to.  We shopped at an L-shaped strip mall built in 1965 called Southwestern Plaza 1+ mile away, or a big Sears, also from 1965, a mile further away.Watching Sesame Street though, I knew there was another way to live.  I’m not sure when I got too old for Sesame Street, but the images of the conversations on the front stoop stayed in my memory.

Looking back, I think Sesame Street gave me a very positive image of urban neighborhoods.  This is the subject of the poll this week, the question being “How did Sesame Street influence your childhood perceptions of urban neighborhoods?”

Answers provided in random order are:

• Very positively
• Positively
• Neutral
• Negatively
• Very Negatively
• Unsure/No Answer/Not Applicable

The poll in the right sidebar for one week.

— Steve Patterson

Rare Original Compton Heights Mansion

The last occupant of the large home at 3262 Hawthorne was born on August 5, 1908. No, the home hasn’t been vacant for years, he died in January at the age of 104. The home was built in 1893. Here’s his obituary:

Bokern Sr., Eugene A. 104, Fortified with the Sacraments of Holy Mother Church on Thursday, January 17, 2013. Beloved husband of the late Lucille (nee Lynch); loving father of Robert F. (Joyce), Gene Jr, John F. (Shirley), Edward C. (Nina), and the late Karen Sue Watkins; 19 grandchildren, 30 great grandchildren, brother of the late Robert and Francis Bokern; dear cousin, uncle, and friend to many. Services: Visitation Monday, Jan. 21, 4-8pm. Funeral at HOFFMEISTER COLONIAL MORTUARY 6464 Chippewa at Watson, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 10am. Interment Calvary Cemetery. Friends may express condolences at: www.hoffmeistercolonial.com – (Source) 

Last Sunday the house was open to lookers even though an offer had just been accepted, see listing & many photos here. A friend I ran into at the open house said he saw the place shortly after the owner had died. It was “stacked high with papers”, he said. On Sunday all the stuff, including old carpets, had been removed. Ideally the original windows will be retained, appropriate reproductions would be very expensive and cheaper windows wouldn’t alter the look significantly.

Apparently the owner had lived there since the 1940s, with few updates. Old boiler with radiators for heat, no central air conditioning. The kitchen and bathrooms were antiques. Fairly original houses like this are very rare, the buyers will have many decisions to make. Do they clean the stone exterior to look like it did in 1893? Or perhaps just a light cleaning so some of the old patina remains?

— Steve Patterson

New Pedestrian Access Route At Third Degree Glass Factory

The last time I was at Third Degree Glass Factory, about six months ago, I tweeted the fact it lacked an ADA access route from the public sidewalk to the entry. The entry walkway led to the side parking lot. Pedestrians arriving on foot, by bus, or those parking on-street had to enter via the parking lot. I never got a response to my tweet, nor did I follow up.

Recently heading home on the #97 MetroBus, I spotted work being done to build a pedestrian access routeI  I meant to return to check it out but it didn’t happen. Then yesterday I attended an event held at Third Degree. I’m pleased with the result. Like so many businesses, this isn’t something they naturally think of. Third Degree is great about teaching you glass blowing. If St. Louis had a law requiring such an access route their architect would’ve included it in their original project. We don’t, so it took a few years until I raised the issue.

Kudos to Third Degree for listening and taking concrete action, pun intended. Now if I can only get the city/region to require such access when buildings are built or substantially renovated….

— Steve Patterson

A June 2014 Wedding

Monday night on KDHX I announced that my boyfriend and I got engaged last month. We didn’t plan to go to any of the 14 states, or Washington D.C., to get married. We wanted to get married in Missouri (where we live) or Illinois (his state of residence until this past February). We knew that meant a possible long engagement but we also knew there had been talk of the Illinois General Assembly approving a same-sex marriage bill most of this year. As late as a week or two ago it didn’t look like a vote would happen this year but 2014 looked promising.

Then suddenly, Tuesday morning, we hear the vote will happen. By the end of the day both the chambers passed the bill, sending it to the governor! To pass the measure the sponsor removed the paragraph making the law effective in 30 days. The law becomes effective on June 1, 2014.

Gov. Pat Quinn (D) said in a statement Tuesday that he would sign the bill into law, although he did not specify a date. The House, which had adjourned in May without passing a Senate bill legalizing same-sex marriage, approved the measure Tuesday by a vote of 61 to 54.

“Today the Illinois House put our state on the right side of history,” said Quinn, who campaigned for the measure, which is scheduled to take effect in June. (Washington Post)

So Tuesday night we set a date in June and started a wedding website. Yesterday I began the process of confirming the location. Today we’re going to city hall to register as Domestic Partners.

When I came out 30 years ago I didn’t think marriage would ever be an option…

— Steve Patterson