Nineteen year ago I started this blog as a distraction from my father’s heart attack and slow recovery. It was late 2004 and social media & video streaming apps didn’t exist yet — or at least not widely available to the general public. Blogs were the newest means of …
The new NGA West campus , Jefferson & Cass, has been under construction for a few years now. Next NGA West is a large-scale construction project that will build a new facility for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in St. Louis, Missouri.This $1.7B project is managed by the U.S. Army …
Book publisher Island Press always impresses me with thoughtful new books written by people working to solve current problems — the subjects are important ones for urbanists and policy makers to be familiar and actively discussing. These four books are presented in the order I received them. ‘Justice and …
This post is about two indirectly related topics: the new Siteman Cancer Center building under construction on the Washington University School of Medicine/BJC campus and an update on my stage 4 kidney cancer. Let’s deal with the latter first. You may have noticed I’ve not posted in three months, …
Light can be an effective tool to draw a crowd. Projection of 3D light would amaze a huge crowd. Just such an idea from Vilnius, Lithuania (aerial map), would be perfect in St. Louis:
We’ve all seen “Not in Service” displayed on local transit buses. Local PBS station KETC went to Metro’s garage on DeBaliviere at Delmar (aerial image) to show us what happens to the buses when they return to the garage:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG3eTDai-vU
Keeping transit on the street and rails is certainly a lot of work. For voters in St. Louis County, please keep this in mind as you go to the polls on April 6, 2010. Without funding the region’s mass transit will say “not in service” 24/7.
Tuesday’s post was about removing a mile section of interstate highway (currently marked as I-70) after the new Mississippi River Bridge opens in 2014. The main objection many people have is the loss of a primary North-South route if the depressed lanes are removed. For the benefit of own of town readers let me explain the depressing depressed lanes:
Memorial Drive, depressed lanes in channel to the right of railing
Just North of the above the highway comes up to create an above grade barrier. We have the opportunity to connect what remains of the downtown street grid to the East until it hits either the Arch grounds or, North of Washington Ave, the grid of Laclede’s Landing. East-West traffic following I-70 will cross the Mississippi River North of the Arch rather than the South currently. An example is driving from Louisville, KY to Kansas City, MO:
Default: I-64 W and I-70 W 507 mi 7 hours 50 mins
As you can see from the current map drivers do an extra little jog to the South to cross on the Poplar Street Bridge. The new span will correct this so their route is more direct. Drivers going from Memphis, TN to Kansas City, MO can go via I-70 through downtown:
532 mi – about 8 hours 13 mins Via I-44 E/I-55 N
But the route through downtown is not the best route for through drivers. The suggested route on Google Maps takes motorists around the edge of the metro area:
517 mi – about 8 hours 2 mins Via I-55 N
This route is shorter in both distance and time. Through traffic will be handled via the new bridge and existing alternate routes. This leaves local traffic as primary users of the existing North-South route separating downtown from the Arch, Mississippi River and Laclede’s Landing. More than those passing through, locals know alternate routes to take to avoid the depressed lanes downtown.
I looked at two scenarios: 1) driving from I-55 & Bates (map) to Lambert Airport and 2) from Lemay Ferry & Reavis Barracks Rd (map) to Lambert Airport.
Scenario #1: 55 & Bates to airport:
I-70 through downtown: 20.2 miles, 21 minutes (30 in traffic)
44/Maplewood/I-170: 23.3 miles, 30 min (40 in traffic)
55/Truman/Market/Jefferson/70: 20.3Â mi, about 31 mins
River des Peres to I-170: 20.6 mi, about 34 mins
Scenerio #2: Lemay Ferry & Revis to airport:
I-55 N and I-70 W: 25.3 mi, 26 mins (35 mins in traffic)
I-55 S to 270 N to I-70: 27.1 mi, 32 mins (40 mins in traffic)
As we saw with two years of construction on I-64, motorists are resilient. Between a more friendly grade-level Memorial Drive, 4th, Broadway, Jefferson and a rebuilt Tucker (North of Washington) we will have numerous North-South routes to handle our local traffic.
Last week I posted about an effort to eliminate local earnings taxes (The question of earnings taxes). The discussion in the comments was deep, diverse and divided. This post introduced the reader’s poll for the week. First the results and then I’ll share my thoughts.
Q: Should Missouri take away the authority of St. Louis to collect individual earnings taxes?
No, too critical to the St. Louis’ budget to eliminate 94 [42%]
Yes, phase out over a 10 year period 39 [17%]
Yes, where there is a will there is a way 27 [12%]
Yes, new taxes would make up the difference 18 [ 8%]
No, just keep the earnings taxes in Missouri 14 [6%]
Yes, St. Louis should cut city services to deal with loss of revenue 10 [4%]
Unsure 8 [4%]
Other answer… 8 [4%]
Yes, if they give us back control of our police dept. 5 [2%]
The “other” answers given were:
With specific authority for the replacement revenue source(s).
phase in a $100 K cap.
Stop giving tax abatement to $800K houses on the Hill
No. In fact, expand it to cover all of Missouri!
Phase out over a three year period
Jane Jacobs prefers cities tax themselves, not divert the money to rural places.
implement an earnings tax in St. Louis County
find alternative funding source first
In my 19 years in St. Louis the 1% never once bothered me. But as the poll and comments show, the views on the issue are wide-ranging. These different views are the significance of the topic. More than half the 223 respondents favored a change.
Slay said he’s opposed to any statewide ballot proposals that would do away with the 1 percent tax, even with a 10-year phaseout period, unless the matter is left up to voters in the city of St. Louis.“If it allowed the voters of the city to decide the matter, and if voters subsequently decided they wanted to replace the tax with something else, and if it gave us a decade to come up with a solution, I would support it,” Slay wrote in a lengthy entry today on his blog.
He also made clear that he opposes one tax alternative — a land tax — that has been floated by wealthy financier Rex Sinquefield, who is behind the various initiative-petition options that have been approved for circulation by the secretary of state’s office. The aim of Sinquefield and his allies is to collect enough signatures to get at least one of the proposals on this year’s November ballot. [St. Louis Beacon, Slay says regional changes necessary before city earnings tax could be ditched]
Eliminating the city’s right to collect the tax without any other changes would certainly be a recipe for disaster. Revenue, city services, population and jobs, would decline. But doing nothing continues to set the City of St. Louis apart from the rest of the region. So what do we do?
As I see it we have several courses of action:
Change nothing, keep everything as is.
Begin phasing out the earnings tax and deal with the consequences (other taxes, reduced services)
Or restructure the City of St. Louis top to bottom
#1 above is the likely route favored by St. Louis natives as it doesn’t involve change. The anti-tax types would go for #2. My preference is #3. a complete restructure.
What does a restructure look like? In my view we’d look at every policy, procedure, and position in every aspect of city government. We’d toss out everything and start anew. We might bring in some of the old but only after exploring all choices and determining the old way is the best way based on current conditions. Given this approach, we might emerge with an earnings tax. It might be be reduced for non-residents. It might be expanded throughout much of the region (huge task). We need to get rid of the city’s excess baggage.
Why such a radical restructuring? As we can see from the nearly 20 audits conducted by Missouri Auditor after a petition by the Green Party, all sections of government have oversight issues:
I don’t for a minute believe then men that governed the city 50-60 years ago made decisions that we should be expected to keep around long after they have passed. Ongoing evaluation and change to adjust to new circumstances is logical. We don’t do that, unfortunately. Instead various interests pick away one issue at a time.
The word “Mayor” is etched in stone above the door to room 200 in City Hall so I’d keep the office of mayor, besides every city has a mayor. I don’t recall if Board of Aldermen or other offices are also etched in stone. Even if they are, we are still be free to change how our government is structured, including the names of elective offices.
So no, I don’t want to pluck out one tax and call it a day. I want to get a fresh start for the 21st century.
I-64 it didn’t always slice through the edge of downtown St. Louis. Well, I-64 did but the original Highway 40 did not. Motorists heading Eastbound on Highway 40 ended up on Market Street.
I-64 & Market St today.
The highway just became Market Street. No off ramp. The highway didn’t end, the pavement just continued and you were on a city street. I had long suspected this based on the excessive width of Market Street but when looking at a 1958 aerial photograph of St. Louis. To see the image go to historicaerials.com: Enter 3200 Market in 63103 as the address, pan to the left and select 1958 from the available aerials.
Why does this matter?
Myself and others have advocated removing a mile of highway between downtown and the Mississippi River after the new river bridge opens in 2014. I-70 will be routed across the new bridge leaving a stretch of the existing highway from Cass to the Poplar St Bridge unmarked. The end point of I-44 is going to be extended so the mile stretch has a number. Highway officials know that without an assigned number it is hard to justify keeping the road. We have argued in favor of a grade-level boulevard to connect the mile stretch.
The point here is that a highway becoming a street is not unheard of in St. Louis. It is not uncommon elsewhere either. I’ve been to Vancouver twice, both times by car from Seattle. My first visit I was as a passenger, the second time I was driving. Motorists leaving Seattle take I-5 to the Canadian border. Once past customs you are on their 99. Looks much the same except for speed limits and distances in metric. As you approach the city you cross a river and the highway feeds into Oak Street (streetview).  Just like that.
Back in St. Louis, between 1958 and 1971 the stretch of Highway 40 (I-64) was built between Compton and the Poplar Street Bridge. The PSB opened in 1967 so that is likely when Highway 40 ceased being dumped into Market Street. We can do this again for the mile stretch downtown. We must do this to reconnect our city to the river.
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The Livability Index scores neighborhoods and communities across the U.S. for the services and amenities that impact your life the most
Built St. Louis
historic architecture of St. Louis, Missouri – mourning the losses, celebrating the survivors.
Geo St. Louis
a guide to geospatial data about the City of St. Louis
