Biondi Threatened To Move Saint Louis University Medical To St. Louis County

The presentations were completed and the Planning Commission had asked questions of Saint Louis University representatives about their appeal. Don Roe, Director of the St. Louis Urban Design & Planning Agency was discussing procedures with the members of the Planning Commission and Saint Louis University President Biondi got up and spoke for an additional two minutes — saying if the demolition of the Pevely office building isn’t granted he’ll move the medical center to St. Louis County.

Biondi shouldn’t have been allowed to speak at that point — anyone else in the room would have been silenced immediately. But what he said was a very clear threat –don’t overturn the Preservation Board’s decision and we’ll abandon the city like every other catholic hospital in town has done before us!

Sorry for the poor audio:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub8u2khAo3c

“What I forsee, if you don’t approve our request, is that we would have to shut down our medical school and find property in west county,” noting that 35 years ago, Maryville offered up land for the university to move west. Earlier, Biondi cited the school’s record of renovating and restoring historic buildings and also highlighted the law school’s impending move to downtown. (KMOX)

The Planning Commission voted to reverse the the Preservation Board and allow demolition of the corner office building with the condition a permit has been issued for construction of the new project.  They reversed the Preservation Board and allowed demolition of the historic smokestack without any conditions. They modified the Preservation Board decision on the milk plant and garage to allow demolition to proceed at once on those.

– Steve Patterson

St. Louis Question: Answer Depend On If You Attended High School Here

The results from last week’s poll was interesting to me. The question asked is below with the answers presented in order from highest to lowest responses:

Q: The St. Louis Question: “Where did you go to school?” is?

1. Just an ice breaker (I went to high school here) 40 [26.49%]
2. Highly parochial (I went to high school here) 24 [15.89%]
3. Annoying (I didn’t go to high school here) 22 [14.57%]
4. Annoying (I went to high school here) 16 [10.6%]
5. Other: 15 [9.93%]
6. Just an ice breaker (I didn’t go to high school here) 13 [8.61%]
7. Highly parochial (I didn’t go to high school here) 11 [7.28%]
8. Great question (I did go to high school here) 10 [6.62%]
9. Great question (I didn’t go to high school here) 0 [0%]

But it’s hard to draw any conclusions from the above as presented. Of the 151 responses, 136 answered with one of the predefined answers and the other 15 provided their own answer. I took the 136 that used the answers I provided and divided them based on if they went to high school here or not. Two-thirds of these did go to high school here, one third didn’t.

What we can see from the two pie charts is those of us that didn’t go to high school here (right) have very different thoughts on the question, with seventy-two percent of us selecting one of the two negative answers (annoying & highly parochial).  Conversely, fifty-five percent of those that did go to high school selected a positive answer (just an ice breaker & great question). No surprise, where you went to high school (here or not) influences your viewpoint.

The 15 “other” answers were:

1. An ingrained part of growing up in STL. I find it annoying, but am unable to b
2. a way to size someone up by class
3. More than highly parochial, it is often a hierarchical query..
4. It is an accepted, right or wrong, way of identifying you socio-economically. 
5. Lived here 2 and half years, never heard it.
6. used to discriminate and continue prejudice – another reason outsiders move away
7. a salute to St. Louis 
8. It’s part of the St. Louis culture – enjoy it, it makes you unique!
9. a way to pigeonhole people by class. (I didn’t go to high school here). 
10. Amusing. Especially from the perspective of one who was raised in the Metro-East 
11. Who the hell cares? I’m in grad school! 
12. An annoying question asked by dullards who have nothing more interesting to say 
13. Symptomatic of a insular, backwards, anti-progressive community. 
14. county – e, n w or south city east of grand west of grand TIRED TIRED TIRED 
15. not an issue…..not worth discussing…..people make too much of the question

Among the above you get a full range of views.

The city and region needs more people to grow and prosper economically and those from the region aren’t pro-creating fast enough, too many Catholics using contraception.The region must attract more people from outside while not pushing away those raised here or attended college here. Last week the RFT had an article and brilliant flow chart on this topic.

– Steve Patterson

Planning Commission To Hear Appeal On Denial Of Permit To Raze Historic Pevely Dairy (Update w/Agenda)

I have a note on my calendar that the St. Louis Planning Commission will hear an appeal of the Preservation Board’s decision in December 2011 to uphold the staff denial of Saint Louis University’s demolition requet for the historic Pevely Dairy at Grand & Chouteau tomorrow. Yesterday I tried to confirm this but was unable to do so online.

All I got was two links to an agenda from March 2011 — neither of which worked. Frustrating! The main page gave me some general information on the Planning Commission:

The thirteen-member Planning Commission adopts and amends the comprehensive Strategic Land Use Plan and General Land Use Plan for the City of St. Louis.

The Commission adopts zoning ordinances and makes decisions on some variance and all rezoning petitions, thereby guiding the development and redevelopment of the City. It also renews blighting studies and redevelopment plans and provides recommendations to the Board of Aldermen.

The Planning Commission consists of thirteen members. The following city officials are members: The President of the Board of Public Service and the Chairs of the Transportation and Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committees of the Board of Aldermen. The Mayor, Comptroller and President of the Board of Aldermen each designate one member. The Mayor appoints the seven remaining members (“citizen members”).

The directors of the Departments of Parks, Recreation and Forestry, Public Safety, Public Utilities and Streets serve as advisors to the Commission.

I emailed a couple of people and confirmed the Planning Commission will indeed hear an appeal to raze the Pevely Dairy at their meeting tomorrow:

The Planning Commission meets the first Wednesday of every month at 5:30 P.M. Meetings are held at the Planning & Urban Design Agency office located at 1015 Locust Street, Suite 1200 and are open to the public unless otherwise posted.

Hopefully the room will be packed with people supportive of the Preservation Board’s decision.

I’ll be at the meeting, will you? Update: view the agenda here.

– Steve Patterson

Poor Pedestrian Accessibly at Saint Louis (Panera) Bread Co on Chippewa St. at Lansdowne Ave

The comments on a recent post brought up the issue of poor pedestrian accessibility at the Saint Louis Bread Co on Chippewa St at Lansdowne Ave and the fact they added a drive-thru to the existing location last year at a cost of $125,000 (per city records).

The building at 6607 Chippewa was built in 1974 but became the present Saint Louis Bread Co after a major remodel in 2000, a decade after President George H.W. Bush signed the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. Like most places in this part of town, most customers arrive by private automobile, that’s how I arrived earlier this month.

The location is in the Lindenwood Park neighborhood and across the street from the St. Louis Hills neighborhood.  Both neighborhoods include many people who walk recreationally. The Saint Louis Bread Co likely has a fair number of employees that arrive as pedestrians via MetroBus (#10 or #30).

Public sidewalks and public transportation is equality important with respect to accessible route:

4.3.2 Location.

(1) At least one accessible route within the boundary of the site shall be provided from public transportation stops, accessible parking, and accessible passenger loading zones, and public streets or sidewalks to the accessible building entrance they serve. The accessible route shall, to the maximum extent feasible, coincide with the route for the general public. (Source: ADA Accessibility Guidelines)

They are good on the route from accessible parking but they fail to provide a route from “public transportation stops…and public streets or sidewalks.”  There is no “or” in guideline 4.3.2.1, it’s clear a route must be provided for all. Since most public transportation stops happen in the public right-of-way you cover access from a public sidewalk you’ve got transportation covered as well.

The stair as numerous issues, the railings don’t extend beyond the last step. One addition step exists beyond the stair and it does’t have a railing.

In 2000 and in 2011 they made substantial alterations to the property yet they failed to correct the lack of a proper pedestrian access route. I will follow this until a pedestrian access route is finally provided.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Will Komen St. Louis Suffer From Recent National Controversy?

At the start of the month the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation implemented a new funding policy that would cease funding $680,000/yr in breast cancer services at Planned Parenthood, setting off a huge backlash against Komen. On February 3rd the new policy was reversed:

After Komen’s decision to end the grants became public, Planned Parenthood raised about $3 million in pledges from more than 10,000 donors, Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood’s president, said in a call with reporters. Komen announced its reversal in a statement today with an apology “to the American public” from Chief Executive Officer Nancy Brinker. (Bloomberg)

On Facebook, many of my friends said they were done with Komen which got me wondering about the annual fundraiser in St. Louis.

Will the 2012 event have fewer participants than the 64,461 last year?

The 14th annual Susan G. Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure® will take place in downtown St. Louis on Saturday, June 23, 2012.

Sharon Korn and Stacy Kingston will serve as volunteer co-chairs of the 2012 Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure.

“I look forward to seeing a huge crowd gathered in downtown St. Louis on the morning of June 23,” said Korn. “It’s such an exciting day and a meaningful event that directly benefits those in need in our community. I am so honored to be a part of it.”

In June 2011, the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure welcomed 64,461 participants. The event raised more than $3.1 million in the fight to end breast cancer forever.

Up to 75 percent of the net money raised by the Komen St. Louis Affiliate stays in the St. Louis area to fund screening, treatment, education and research programs. A minimum of 25 percent of money raised goes to the national Susan G. Komen for the Cure Research and Awards Program® specifically to fund research. (Komen St. Louis)

This is the setup for the poll question this week — see right sidebar.

– Steve Patterson