We’d Never Have Roads As Incomplete As Our Sidewalks

Wednesday I was out photographing along Jefferson for future posts, the hottest day of the week. I had taken the #94 (Page) bus to Jefferson & Dr. Martin Luther King.  I was going to up to the signal at Stoddard St. to cross Jefferson to the east.  I get to Mills St. and see there is no curb cut on the other side, I can’t go any further. For new readers, I use a power wheelchair to go further than a block from my house.

Not that I would dare cross Jefferson without traffic stopped but I turned that direction. After all, the curb ramp was placed to serve two directions.

Of course, the two-direction corner curb ramp is installed without thought as to logical use. It has been a default. If a person in a wheelchair were to cross Jefferson at this point and be hit by a car the city would attempt to argue the person shouldn’t have done so. I’d argue the city, through the placement of the curb ramp, is implying that crossing Mills or Jefferson from this point is equally accessible. In fact, the ramp faces Jefferson more than Mills.

Even if I got to Stoddard St. I would have been stuck, I just noticed on Google Streetview that neither of the two crosswalks at the  signalized intersection have curb cuts on the east side of Jefferson.

If our road network was designed like our sidewalks, nobody could drive anywhere except a few select places. Pedestrian networks need to be as connected as the road they adjoin.

– Steve Patterson

Grouphug Was More Than Pictures

Yesterday I wrote about the idea of small projects to show our attachment to St. Louis. One such project happened  earlier this year, Grouphug:

We are asking you and your friends to scour the city for your favorite people, places, and objects—ones that define our city and/or help to explain why you love St. Louis—and HUG these subjects for the camera. Get a friend to snap a photograph of you with your arms wrapped around your favorite St. Louis building, business, monument, person, etc. On June 2, all participants and friends are invited to attend the GROUPHUG party to view pics, imbibe, listen to music and express your love for STL.

Cleveland-based Saving Cities will be filming portions of the event and conducting interviews to document grassroots efforts to “save” Rust Belt cities from the community up. Put forward your best photograph—and our city’s best face—for our guests from Cleveland. For more information, visit www.savingcities.com.

Here is the 15-minute slide show, I’m at 11:55:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9L0OLyIda8

A jury picked 10 finalists and those of us that attended the event on June 2nd voted, resulting in the top three (click to view larger image):

It was an outstanding project and the event was great. That night I saw a group of young folks embracing their city. Community was being built face-to-face. This didn’t exist 21 years ago when I loved to St. Louis as an idealistic 23 year old.What this group of 20 & 30 somethings will accomplish in the next 21 years is exciting to think about.

– Steve Patterson

Maybe The World Breaks On Purpose, So We Can Have Work To Do

Earlier this month I attended a couple of events with Peter Kageyama, author of For the Love of Cities. In his presentations he talked about attachment with where we live, quoted here from his website:

“A 2009 Gallup study that looked at the levels of emotional engagement people have with their communities, found that just 24% of people were “engaged” with their community. Gallup also found a significant relationship between how passionate and loyal people are to their communities and local economic growth. The most “attached” communities had the highest local GDP growth. Despite this, it feels as though our places and our leadership have forgotten how to connect with us emotionally and our cities have suffered because of it.”

Attachment, he explained, might be as simple as voting, going to a PTA meeting, etc. Forty percent were not attached, thirty-six percent were neutral, and only twenty-four percent attached. See the Gallup Soul of the Community website for the detailed reports.

“Over the past three years, the Soul of the Community study has found a positive correlation between community attachment and local GDP growth. Across the 26 Knight communities, those whose residents were more attached saw more local GDP growth. This is a key metric in assessing community success because local GDP growth not only measures a community’s economic success, but also its ability to grow and meet residents’ needs.” (p5 2010 report)

I asked  Peter Kageyama to say a few words to St. Louis:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onzX9eYYXv8

Good advice! In the presentations he mentioned a January 2011 report in Newsweek listing the top 10 dying cities.  Those listed were:

• 10. Grand Rapids, Michigan
• 9. Flint, Michigan
• 8. South Bend, Indiana
• 7. Detroit, Michigan
• 6. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• 5. Cleveland, Ohio
• 4. Rochester, New York
• 3. Hialeah, Florida
• 2. Vallejo, California
• 1. New Orleans, Louisiana

Newsweek wrote:

“Michigan dominates much of this list, with several cities experiencing significant declines in population as the state suffered high unemployment rates and above average foreclosures in recent years due mainly to the collapse of the auto industry.”

As you can imagine Grand Rapids wasn’t pleased.  But their response was not the typical stuffy political press release as if so often the case from municipalities. Check out this news report:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enq7Rogtus8

In short the city leaders listened to a 20-something controversial local artist, Rob Bliss. The result was the 9+ minute Grand Rapids LipDub:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI

This video has now been viewed more than 4 million times! The $40,000 production cost was raised through private donations and was a bargain given the positive PR it has generated for Grand Rapids. Thousands of residents participated. Newsweek said they didn’t do the study and they think better of Grand Rapids.

Another town Kageyama mentioned was Braddock PA, a 19th century suburb of Pittsburgh. It has lost 90% of it’s population from a peak of 20,879 in 1920.  They know they have issues, no rose colored glasses. They partnered with jeans maker Levi’s on the following:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YyvOGKu6ds

“People think their are no frontiers anymore, they can’t see how frontiers are all around us.”

“Maybe the world breaks on purpose, so we can have work to do.”

Powerful stuff! Thanks for the Regional Arts Commission (RAC) and STL-Style for bringing Peter Kageyama to St. Louis!

– Steve Patterson

Pedestrian Signal 8th & Washington Incorrectly Gives a Don’t Walk

For some reason the city’s pedestrian signal gives pedestrians a don’t walk as the traffic lights change at 8th & Washington. Sounds normal right?  When you consider the intersection you will see that pedestrians always  have the right of way.

Washington Ave is a two-way street running east-west (left-right, above). 8th is a one-way street southbound, away from the intersection. Obviously when pedestrians need to cross Washington Ave they need to wait for the walk signal when auto traffic is stopped. At that time, when auto traffic on Washington Ave has a red light at 8th Street, the pedestrians seeking to cross 8th are given a don’t walk signal. Why?

Is a car going to materialize in the intersection and have the right-of-way? No. In fact, there is no point at this intersection that pedestrians crossing 8th do not have the right of way. The walk symbol should be on 24/7. Cars terming left onto 8th do not get an arrow, they must yield to pedestrians. Cars turning right onto 8th must also yield to pedestrians.

Here is a boring one minute video of the change in pedestrian signals:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KkPD3mYD5E

Hopefully the city will change this mistake so pedestrians aren’t given a don’t walk signal.

– Steve Patterson

US Bank Garage Need Not Be Razed, Just Rethought

In May 2010 I  wrote that the US. Bank parking garage at 8th & Washington Ave should be replaced with something urban, with windows and doors. Since then I’ve spent more time looking at the design of the garage and I think it can be made less hideously oppressive through some relatively simple changes.

The upper levels of the garage could be screened with metal panels or even plant material. My biggest concern is the sidewalk level.

Horrible, but this appears to be just a storage area based on what I can tell from the inside of the garage. There is a vent extending to the roof in the NW corner of the garage so some sort of equipment may be located in the space.

The material at the sidewalk facing both Washington Ave and 8th are non-structural.  My thinking is the storage space become a small storefront space with glass walls facing each sidewalk. Outside add a few cafe tables & chairs plus an umbrella or two and the corner is humanized.

– Steve Patterson