Why Great Streets?

The life of any great city occurs on the street. Streets are the most public of domains, where we engage in an assortment of activities. Jane Jacobs, in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, said, Cities need “a most intricate and close-grained diversity of uses that give each other mutual support, both economically and socially.” On great commercial and mixed-use blocks, this happens. These streets, when woven through neighborhoods and districts, provide an armature for social interaction and economic growth. They also represent the character, history and culture of the community, making them, quite possibly, iconic.

Great streets are the bonds of great communities. They house civic institutions where we meet to discuss current affairs and make plans for our future and the future of our children. Great streets contain businesses where we obtain goods and services we need and want. Often these are the businesses of our friends and neighbors. Broadly speaking, the stores, shops and offices here are the base of the local economy or, in some instances, were until big-box stores killed their existence. Despite trying times, great streets always seem to rebound.

For those not fortunate enough to live on or near these streets, we still tend to like visiting them. Whether to rehash memories of “the old neighborhood” or to help imagine what our lives had been with a great main street in walking distance from our homes, they have great appeal. We also have an affinity for these places, because they are where we have by-chance interaction with friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and future friends or spouses. Regardless, it seems there is something remarkable about great streets and that is why the City of St. Louis is making efforts to strengthen them and make them more prevalent.

In order to study and develop great streets in St. Louis, we have to learn from already existing great streets. The best way to determine where they are and why they are great is to hear from those who use and visit them. For this reason Great Streets of STL asks you to come voice your thoughts at: GreatStreetsofSTL.com.

– Bryan Zundel

Broadway Art-A-Fair Saturday in Marine Villa Neighborhood

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Tomorrow (8/7/2010) the Marine Villa Neighborhood is hosting an art event called Art-A-Fair.  You may not know where Marine Villa is located but you probably know the old firehouse pictured above.   That firehouse is in Marine Villa and is the site of the 10am-4pm event. The address is 3678 S. Broadway.

– Steve Patterson

Improving The Walk From Transit To Mall

Recently I went to the St. Louis Galleria, two days in a row.  Both days I took MetroLink light rail to arrive, the mall is only a short distance from the station.

But the short distance seems long because of the physical design of the space along Galleria Parkway.  The sidewalk needs to be 2-3 times as wide to handle the steady flow of people coming and going.  I snapped the above in one of the moments between an arriving train full of shoppers.

The solution I propose is for the property owner on the right to create a 2-story structure with street-level storefronts facing a new tree-lined sidewalk.   Add on-street parking to serve the storefronts and to narrow the excessive width of the roadway. The new structure would create a better feel on the now-isolated sidewalk.

Later this month I will look specifically at access to the Galleria.

– Steve Patterson

Readers OK With Kiel Opera House Becoming Peabody Opera House

Last week, the readers that voted in the poll showed their support for the Peabody name displacing the Kiel name on the old opera house.

Q: Kiel Auditorium is now the Scottrade Center on the south and the Peabody Opera House on the north. Your thoughts on renaming this building?

1. The money to make the project happen is more important than retaining an old name: 92 [57.14%]
2. Henry Kiel was mayor, it is disrespectful to rename the building: 17 [10.56%]
3. The original name was Municipal Auditorium, the Kiel name was added later and was around long enough: 14 [8.7%]
4. Other answer… 12 [7.45%]
5. Renaming is fine, just not a coal company: 11 [6.83%]
6. Unsure/ no opinion: 10 [6.21%]
7. Mayor Henry Kiel has been dead nearly 70 years, he won’t know: 5 [3.11%]

The “Other” responses were:

1. Kiel is what it was when I lived there and knew it. Kiel it ought stay.
2. Maybe people will mistake it for the famous Peabody Conservatory of Music!
3. seriously? who cares!
4. This is money Peabody isn’t using on anti-environmental advertising.
5. Naming civic spaces after corporate sponsors is icky.
6. Sell the name to the highest bidder
7. How about Bosley? He has done more for this town than any Mayor in STL history.
8. I’m not opposed to renaming most buildings, but it should be for better rea
9. Doesn’t matter; people will still call it the Kiel Opera House.
10. The Kiel name is still preserved
11. Changing the name every 5 years destroys “history” or at least a tradi
12. As I-64 is still Hwy 40, Peabody will always be Kiel in the minds of STLers

I’m of the belief that we shouldn’t rename structures after the fact.

– Steve Patterson

Maintaining Infrastructure in Sparsely Populated Areas

At 61.9 square miles of land area, St. Louis is a relatively small city.  But many parts of this area are sparsely populated and sidewalks are few.  The above sidewalk at North Florissant Ave at North Market St. was passable, I saw worse between here and the new sidewalks on two blocks of North 14th (Warren to St. Louis Ave.)

Which comes first? New residents or new sidewalks? The residents aren’t going to arrive until conditions improve and conditions won’t improve until there is more residents to help justify the capital expenditure on the infrastructure.

A future light rail line has been studied for North Florissant so improvements to the entire right of way would presumably come with that investment.  Population, it is expected, would follow.   A hundred years ago develop happened along new transit lines lines.  More recently, development happened along investment in highways. So I’d say the new sidewalks need to come first.  Of course, buildings and population aren’t going to just appear because some new sidewalks have been installed in a few places.  Someone has to put together a vision for how, in this case, this corridor, might look.

Maintenance, clearly, just isn’t done.  And really, minimal maintenance is probably just a waste of money.  So much is needed here to populate the area.

– Steve Patterson