Three Years of Driving Post-Stroke

It was three years ago yesterday when I registered a used car I had bought, a 2004 Toyota Corolla.  For the prior 12 months I didn’t own a car, I just had my trusty 49cc Honda Metropolitan scooter. But after my stroke I could no longer ride the scooter or a bike.

I felt bad about buying a car, I enjoyed not having the expense.

In the last three years I’ve driven just under 17,000 miles. About 4,500 of that was three trips to Oklahoma and two to Chicago leaving 12,500 for local driving. Many people drive this much, or more, in a single year. Granted, I don’t have to drive to a job everyday like most folks do.

But it has only been the last 10-11 months that I’ve managed to cut down my miles driven in half — by using public transit. Most of the time my car collects dust sitting in the basement garage at my building. I’d sell the car but it does come in handy at times. Insurance is the single biggest auto expense for me, the car is paid for and it gets decent fuel economy.

Thankfully Progressive Insurance introduced a program they call Snapshot.

With Snapshot, Progressive’s usage-based insurance program, you could turn your good driving into huge savings—of up to 30 percent—on your car insurance.

For the next 30 days, you’ll keep track of your good driving habits with the Snapshot device. You can log in to your Progressive policy anytime to see your projected Snapshot DiscountSM.

On day 31, your initial Snapshot savings—which can be anywhere from 0 to 30 percent— kicks in. After six months, you’ll send back the device, we’ll finalize your driving snapshot, and you can keep saving for as long as you’re insured by Progressive.

You can only save money with Snapshot—your rate won’t go up—but if at any point, you decide the program isn’t right for you, just call us and then send back your device.

Here is the annoying Flo to explain:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggWY7OPag0s

I’m nearing the end of my initial 30 days. I have to say I like seeing the reports, although I have more hard braking than I thought I would. I’ll report back after my initial savings and at the end of six months.

– Steve Patterson

Really!?! with Steve and Steve

Really Marlene Davis? You had no idea the developer wants to raze the existing 1960s flying saucer building? Really?

Really, you told me on the phone Wednesday nobody has mentioned demolition to you? Really!?!

Really, you introduce a board bill last week with the sentence “Demolition of the existing building in the Area is necessary and desirable to allow for redevelopment of the Area in accordance with the Plan” and then email me saying “the bill I presented today was for tax abatement”? Really!?!

Really, haven’t you heard of this thing called the internet?  You didn’t know people can easily fact check and compare notes? Really!?!

Wow! Really!?!

My apologies to Seth  & Amy.

Further reading:

• Del Taco to Close Tomorrow; But Board Bill May Actually Save Building
• Aldermen advance blighting, and tax abatement, of Del Taco
  
• That Googie on Grand and the fabric of a city

– Steve Patterson

Two Great Years of Citygarden

It was two years ago today that Citygarden opened in downtown St. Louis. The two-block sculpture garden leaves a positive impression on all who visit.

The space has won numerous awards and graced the pages of many publications.  The critics all seem to love Citygarden!

And the critics that really matter, the kids, love the space just like us adults do.

I love Citygarden, but it’s not perfect.  Yesterday I filed an ADA grievance with the city’s Office on the Disabled against the City of St. Louis for accepting the curb ramp at 10th & Chestnut.  It doesn’t even come close to meeting ADA design guidelines — it should have been replaced by the general contractor by now.  I also don’t like 9th Street being closed to vehicles but that will take more work to convince the powers that be that we can’t keep effing with our street grid.

– Steve Patterson

Few Readers Favor Banning Food Trucks

Less than 10% of readers felt food trucks should be banned to help favor brick & mortar restaurants:

Q: St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights just passed an ordinance regulating itinerant food vendors, including trucks; thoughts?

1. Do food trucks even go out to Maryland Heights? 28 [24.78%]
2. The trucks and other “itinerant” vendors should be allowed to operate anywhere 26 [23.01%]
3. A uniform policy is needed for the region. 22 [19.47%]
4. With 90+ municipalities in St. Louis County different regulations will be a headache for vendors 16 [14.16%]
5. The trucks and other “itinerant” vendors should be banned to help brick & mortar restaurants 11 [9.73%]
6. unsure/no opinion 5 [4.42%]
7. Other answer… 5 [4.42%]

The “other” answers were:

1. The more the better – but should park legally
2. Screw Maryland Heights.
3. I think you guys should worry more about crime than MH.
4. there are a couple of independent ice cream vendors other than that not
5. I don’t mind the food trucks that are based in the city but won’t go t

Officials act like restaurants are the only ones making capital investments and paying taxes. Food trucks, and carts, are not cheap and the work is hard. Additionally they add life to a street which attracts more people.  More people means brick & mortar restaurants and retail stores will have more customers. Thoughts on the results?

– Steve Patterson

Stastny: Grand Center Needs to be a Community, not a District

Last week I attended the Grand Center Master Plan Public Forum held at Powell Hall. Rather than email in my feedback I thought I’d post it here and email the committee a link to this post.

Background

Here are a few paragraphs from a recent press release to introduce you to the topic:

Top executives of Grand Center’s major institutions have taken a significant next step in the district’s redevelopment process by launching an initiative to create a master plan for the Grand Center District. The plan will address such areas as recommendations regarding land use, zoning possibilities and design guidelines.

At the request of Grand Center Inc. and several key executives of district institutions, Mayor Francis G. Slay has asked 30 institutional, business and community leaders to serve on a Planning Committee to create a common vision for the next phase of development in Grand Center. To achieve that goal, a Steering Committee made up of 14 members of the Planning Committee agreed to engage Donald Stastny, the Portland, Ore.-based, award-winning architect and urban designer, to lead the creation of an overall vision and implementation plan.

The goal of the initiative is to develop a long-range vision for the Grand Center District that is commonly created, enabling a shared ownership. The plan will be based on the input of the cultural institutions, community organizations, businesses, residents and patrons who visit the district as well as interested citizens throughout the region.

Stastny is not new to St. Louis. Last year, he and his team led the process that resulted in the selection of lead designer Michael Van Valkenburg and museum planner and architect Scott Newman to create a new master plan for the Gateway Arch grounds. Visit www.stastnybrun.com for more information about the firm.

The planning process is expected to wrap up over the summer with a presentation of the final master plan in the fall.

Selected Institutions/Venues

• Fox Theater
• Saint Louis University
• Jazz St. Louis
• St. Louis Symphony
• Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis
• Scottish Rite
• Moto Museum
• St. Louis Public Radio
• Nine Network of Public Media
• Grand Center Arts Academy
• Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri
• Cardinal Ritter College Prep
• The Black Repertory Company
• Third Baptist Church
• KDHX Community Media
• Craft Alliance
• The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts
• St. Louis VA Medical Center – John Cochran Division
• The Sheldon

Presentation

Donald Stastny began by contradicting the very people that hired him! He said Grand Center should be viewed as a community, not a district. Grand Center’s marketing of late has been all about making the area a district.  Stastny said his work is not to produce a master plan with a “pretty picture” but a framework for the community to evolve.  I agree with this approach, our long held notions of master plan is you build what the pretty pictures show, no matter how many years or decades later. Thinking instead, about desired outcomes and processes that allow an area to grow and evolve organically. Cities, including St. Louis, didn’t start with a pretty picture. They slowly evolved over time.

Stastny took several jabs at the amount of parking already in the area as well as local views on needing more parking, free especially. Hopefully he will be able to get institutions to share parking and to “connect the dots” by reducing the visual impact of the numerous large surface parking lots.

Stastny said the center point is Grand & Washington, showing a circle with a radius of 1/4 mile, the distance pedestrians are generally willing to walk. With that he said focusing attention to the public realm on Grand from Olive to Delmar and three east-west transects (Delmar, Washington & Delmar) made sense.

My bullet points

ok, here are my thoughts.

• Drop the name Grand Center, go back to Midtown.
• If you go a 1/4 mile from each of the individual institutions that someone may visit you get a much larger area (see map below). This is too large to do detailed streetscape drawings but typical street sections can be suggested that could be used for the entire area. Areas outside the planning area will never get any planning attention.
• Talk about the key elements needed to connect the dots so these can be applied to the larger area: wider sidewalks, building walls serving as walls to the outdoor room, etc. With that in place we can work to improve Grand north to Page and south to MetroLink on the new viaduct.
• Transit will be a key to reducing the massive parking lots. MetroLink at the south edge of my map (below) and four bus lines (#10, #70, #94, #97) serve the area. If the #70 and an east-west line became enhanced routes, with fewer stops & greater frequency, more people will use transit rather than drive their vehicles.
• Despite the neatly cut grass, walking along Grand through SLU is dull.  Sidewalks with no street trees to separate the pedestrian from passing vehicles and block after block of fencing that screams “keep out.”
• Breaking up the long blocks west of Grand makes sense but but eyes need to watch these pedestrian connector routes.
• Not crazy about using alleys for pedestrian circulation. The alley is a great asset for services such as the collection of recycling and trash.
• Also not crazy about having the ability to close Grand from Olive to Delmar too easily.  Doing so creates havoc for transit riders and motorists.

Okay readers, add your thoughts below so the committee and professionals from Stastny’s office can read them.

– Steve Patterson