Family Dollar Misses The Walkability Mark

The Family Dollar store at 6000 Natural Bridge was built in 2006.

I’ve stopped by twice in the last two weeks and both times I spotted customers who were pedestrians.  During the week there were more pedestrian customers than driving customers, the opposite was true yesterday.  Family Dollar caters to a lower income crowd, those who are often transit dependent. Yet, they don’t make it easy for their own customers who arrive on foot.

Family Dollar replaced the public sidewalk along Natural Bridge — 300 feet along the property line. That is a good start, but just 20 more feet of sidewalk would have enabled pedestrians to get from the public sidewalk to the private walk in front of the door without having to walk through grass or mud.

Pedestrians have so little value in St. Louis that a business with many pedestrian customers can just ignore how they come and go. St. Louis needs to mandate that new buildings be built with connections from public sidewalk to main entrance. Also, new occupancy of existing buildings should also require a pedestrian connection. If a public sidewalk exists, businesses should be required to connect to it. Period!

Pedestrian connections should be a given in the city, especially when tax incentives are given for the development!

Ordinance 67014. sponsored by 22nd Ward Ald, Jeffrey Boyd, covers lots of strings for the redevelopment of the property but the basic need of walking from the public sidewalk to the front door of the business establishment just wasn’t important enough I guess.  The above tax info can be found at Geo St. Louis.

I have contacted Family Dollar to see about them connecting to the public sidewalk, hopefully they will be receptive.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Did You Participate in Mardi Gras Festivities in Soulard?

As always, the weekly poll is located in the upper right corner of the blog.  The topic this week is the annual Mardi Gras celebration in Soulard.  Did you go?  Why or why not?

My last time was 2006, I was there for 12 hours!  Had a great time but I didn’t return because, for me, one day of drunken debauchery in my life was enough. But I want to know your thoughts on this popular annual event.

– Steve Patterson

Wall Repair Ongoing at Renaissance Suites

Wall repair is ongoing at the Renaissance Suites hotel at 9th & Washington Ave.

The exterior surface of the wall collapsed in June 2009 (pics of the damage here). Quite a long time!

– Steve Patterson

Downtown Trolley Important To This Downtown Resident

The (#99) Downtown Trolley has become, for me, an important part of downtown. Yesterday I had to go to the Millennium Hotel on 4th Street for an Affordable Housing Conference.  Sure, it is a regular bus with a unique exterior wrap but the frequency & route are why I use it regularly.

As a downtown (west) resident I could have “walked” since I have a power chair. But Google Maps says the distance is 1.4 miles via a direct route. That distance in the chair is no big deal, it has plenty of power for the round trip.

Just like physically walking that distance, it becomes exhausting dealing with the number of intersections to cross.

The Downtown Trolley has a limited fixed route that covers much of downtown, but not all. I had to go a few blocks from my loft to catch the trolley and another few to reach my final destination. Still, I was able to do about a mile of my journey on the trolley.

Studies show people are generally willing to walk about a quarter of a mile but anything beyond that those willing to walk drops off dramatically.Returning home at the end of the day it was a nice evening and I had stop to make so I skipped the trolley entirely.

– Steve Patterson

Shaming Owners of Rundown Properties

St. Louis could learn something from Webster.  No, not the suburb Webster Groves, Webster Mass:

WEBSTER, Mass. – The health board in a Massachusetts town has approved a plan to shame owners of rundown buildings into fixing and securing their properties.The plan approved Monday by the Webster board allows the town to place 4-by-8-foot signs on the sides of dilapidated buildings with the owner’s names, address and telephone number. (Mass. town approves plan to shame property owners)

St. Louis could just print lots of signs with the same info — no, not Paul McKee:

The LRA “receives title to all tax delinquent properties not sold at the Sheriff’s sale. Also receives title to properties through donations. The SLDC Real Estate Department maintains, markets, and sells these properties and performs land assemblage for future development.” Maintains?

– Steve Patterson