No Trespassing Property of City of St. Louis

Last month I went down street after street, passing vacant lots where homes once stood, all owned by the City of St. Louis. It was depressing to think a once lively neighborhood has been erased, except for roads & sidewalks.  You’re probably thinking I was somewhere in north St. Louis, but I was actually in St. Louis County. At one point I even crossed over I-270! Yes, because of the Lambert runway expansion the City of St. Louis owns hundreds of acres in the City of Bridgeton: the former Carrollton subdivision.

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St. Louis is responsible for maintaing the properties, cutting acres of grass basically. Not only does St. Louis have too much property in St. Louis, they also have too much in Bridgeton!

The land can’t be used for residential purposes, but office/retail/industrial is apparently fine. The problem is St. Louis must repay the FAA if it sells the property, making it very costly to develop based on the amount the FAA paid.

And that runway? From a 2007 MIT-student analysis:

The need for runway 11-29 was actually delay-driven, not demand-driven. Although the levels of demand from the forecast never materialized, the new runway did provide the capability to perform dual independent IFR approaches at Lambert. Again, although the delay cost savings are less than initially projected, there are nonetheless savings that can be directly attributed to the new runway. Thus despite the over-optimistic demand forecast, the construction new runway does seem to have been justified.

With regard to flexible planning, the Lambert officials were indeed responsive to the lower actual passenger traffic than was originally projected. The terminal expansion plans were abandoned after the traffic collapse. Although it is still possible to implement the terminal expansion plans in the future, it would have been wasteful to do so once demand levels dropped. Thus, the part of the Lambert expansion project that was demand-driven was indeed responsive to the drop in demand.

The new runway was probably cheaper to build when it was than it would have been in the future. It is likely that property acquisition costs as well as construction costs would have increased, and so delaying the runway construction would probably have cost more than proceeding as scheduled. Once traffic returns to St. Louis, runway 11-29 will be an invaluable asset. In fact, it may even provide the competitive advantage needed to draw traffic to Lambert. Thus, it seems that despite the strong-armed actions and swift construction in the face of the dramatic downturn in passenger traffic, the new runway at Lambert- St. Louis International Airport was in fact beneficial.

The runway is built and not going anywhere. Now we just need to figure out what to do to remove hundreds of acres from St. Louis ownership, so that it can again produce tax revenue for St. Louis County & the City of Bridgeton.

— Steve Patterson

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Poll: Should schools be forced to take students from unaccredited districts?

The poll this week is an exact duplicate of a poll run by the St. Louis Business Journal in June:

Should schools be forced to take students from unaccredited districts?

• Yes, education is that important
• No, it isn’t fair to taxpayers and students

I couldn’t come up with any better phrasing, so it’ll have to do.

Unaccredited schools are now paying overcrowded schools to accept transfer students. The transfer process was chaotic. Is this really the best we can do as a region?

The poll is in the right sidebar for a week.

— Steve Patterson

Please Help Me Raise $75 For A Bus Ticket For A Homeless Young Man (Goal Reached!)

Early Wednesday morning, on the way to/from the grocery store, I saw a young man sitting at a cafe table at a Washington Ave business that wasn’t open yet. As I passed by both times he looked out of place, you just don’t see young men wearing football shorts & jersey at 7am with a couple of bags in tow. He looked out of it.

After I put away my groceries I decided to return to the spot, I brought a banana for him and I wrote the address of The Bridge on a post-it attached to my business card.  I nervously approached him, asking if he was ok. He wasn’t, he was dropped off in St. Louis a day or two earlier by Rolla, Missouri police.  He’d spent the previous night a Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center. They put everyone back on the street at 6:30am.  He was in shock at his predicament: a 22 year old from an upper middle-class family in Washington state now homeless in downtown St. Louis.

I took him to The Bridge at 16th & Olive so he could get something for breakfast and hopefully some assistance. I looked him up on Facebook and friended him, he’d accept later when he got to the library to use a computer for the 2 hour maximum.

He came to Missouri for a year-long drug & alcohol rehab program located in Cabool MO (south of Ft. Leonard Wood), but got kicked out after 10 months for failing once to comply with their rigorous schedule.  He’s clean & sober, trying to rebuild his life. He’s trying to get to Milwaukee WI where another young guy he met at the rehab center lives with his parents, they’ll take him in and help him get work.

You’re right to be skeptical about his story, but everything he’s told me checks out. His family on Facebook want nothing to do with him.

Thursday I bought him travel-size toiletries, let him shower, shave, made him lunch, let him do laundry, and use a computer. He stayed through dinner when he returned to NLEC for the night. He tried Travelers Aid on Tucker, they’ll only pay 25% less a $10 fee.

So I’m trying to get this young man on a bus, and off our streets. I’m afraid to much time in his current situation and he’ll return to alcohol & drugs.  My goal is $75 total, $65.50 for the ticket and $10 in pocket cash/pre-paid card.
Here’s how I got to $75:

Donation Total:

I’ll update the donation total below and delete the donation buttons once the $75 goal is reached. If 15-16 people would give $5 each this morning I can have him on a bus this afternoon!  In the event something happens and he doesn’t need a ticket I’ll donate the funds to The Bridge. Thank you for your help!

— Steve Patterson

Donation Total after PayPal fees:

• $0.00 (5:45am)
• $72.52 (6:01am)
• $81.93 (7:35am)

Now I just have to track him down! – SP

The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum Opens Today in Midtown

The International Bowling Hall of Fame left St. Louis a few years ago, but we’ve more than made up for the loss by attracting the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence, the World Chess Hall of Fame, and this year, the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.

IPHF was founded in Chicago, in Oklahoma City for a while, and now at 3415 Olive in midtown. This is the 2nd floor space over Triumph Grill.

Today is your chance to see it for free:

The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum is pleased to announce that it will celebrate the museum’s GRAND OPENING on Friday, October 4, 2013.

In conjunction with First Fridays in Grand Center, the IPHF will be providing FREE ADMISSION to the general public to celebrate its grand opening and will have extended hours from 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM. Regular museum hours and admission prices will begin on Saturday, October 5th from 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM. You can find more information to help plan your visit on our website www.iphf.org/contact/plan-your-visit/

The fall exhibition, The Past, Present and Future of Nature Photography, will run from October 4, 2013 through January 25, 2014 and features Hall of Fame inductee Peter Dombrovskis, Noppadol Paothong, a photojournalist from the Missouri Department of Conservation, and select images from the National Geographic Young Explorers (ages 20-28) and North American Nature Photography Association High School Scholarship Students (ages 14-19). (source)

I had a chance to see the IPHF a few days ago, speaking with Executive Director John Nagel and board president Robert Wagner. Wagner is from Kirkwood, but is a practicing attorney in Oklahoma City.

I’ll suggest they add transit directions to their website, the #10 MetroBus will get you there from the Central West End, Downtown, and from much of south city. And the #70 MetroBus is very close.

— Steve Patterson

Presentation: Neighborhood Change in the St. Louis Region Since 1970; What explains neighborhood success?

Two local professors will attempt to answer the question in the headline when they present their research findings one week from today:

The older parts of the St. Louis region have faced serious challenges in the past 40 years. Some neighborhoods have done better than others. Hank Webber, Washington University, and Todd Swanstrom, University of Missouri–St. Louis, will present their findings on St. Louis neighborhoods that rebounded from decline. The “rebound communities” will be the subject of future UMSL “What’s Brewing” breakfast forums that will take place in the neighborhoods with local activists telling their stories of neighborhood resilience.

Is there a secret formula for success? We can find out Thursday October 10th from 7pm-8:30pm, followed by a reception. The event is free.

The event will be held in the Lee Auditorium, lower level of the Missouri History Museum.

— Steve Patterson