City Equipment Blocks Sidewalk Near SLU Campus

Yesterday, while driving home from the doctor, I spotted this equipment sitting on the sidewalk along Olive at Compton (map link):

In the background is a corner of the Saint Louis University campus.  Behind me, to the East, is several restaurants that cater to SLU students. Between the two is equipment used in monitoring traffic counts.  Someone had to make the decision it was OK to place this device on the sidewalk, in the way of pedestrians.  Able bodied students can walk around but the more our pedestrian spaces are compromised the less likely we are to walk from place to place.

– Steve Patterson

Banning Front-Facing Garages in Urban Areas

Drive around suburbia and the garage seems more important than the front door.

But in more urban areas, such as the City of St. Louis, we have alleys.  While we park on the street the typical garage is off the alley at the rear of the parcel of land.  This lets the front of the house look like a house rather than a garage.

Often a good urban house is narrower than your typical suburban garage.  Each has their place.  Just keep the front garages out in suburbia.  I’m horrified every time I see a typical suburban house built in the city:

When no alley exists, as is the case in various parts of the city, you have no choice.  But the house above does have an alley:

It is among a group of homes just North of Cass & West of 14th Street.  It is bad enough that suburbia continues to spread out into farm fields but I must draw the line at having suburbia spreading back into the core.  I propose that in the city/region that on parcels where an alley is available that any garages/off-street parking must use the alley.  No curb cuts allowed.

If I wanted to live among garage doors I’d live out in sprawlville.  If that is what folks what then I suggest they shop out in that ugly ring of suburbia that surrounds the City of St. Louis.

– Steve

Avalon Cinema For Sale

The long-closed Avalon Cinema is finally for sale.  For years people have said the 1930s structure was an eyesore that should be razed.

Thankfully it has avoided the fate of so many other fine buildings.  The property at 4225 S. Kingshighway is listed at $1,000,000 by Bjaye Greer of Realty Exchange. The owner is finally convinced to sell:

Inside the pitch-black carcass of the Avalon Cinema, the windows are boarded up and the electricity has been shut off since it closed its doors on South Kingshighway Boulevard nine years ago. The faint sound of dripping water is audible, and junk lies strewn across the floors of the building — ruined reels of film, broken projector parts, a shopping cart and a filthy mattress.

Amid the squalor, the building’s owner, Greg Tsevis, navigates the darkened stairs and crawl spaces with the ease afforded by 30 years of familiarity, oblivious to the ruin around him.  (Riverfront Times July 2007)

The building includes land with 200 feet of frontage along South Kingshighway – a substantial length.

The West face of South Kingshighway at Chippewa (map link) is mostly intact.  The parking lot adjacent to the Avalon was there in a 1958 photograph.

I’d like to see a new building be built adjacent to the Avalon with street-level retail, offices and/or residential units and structured parking.  Basically it would be structured parking at the rear of the site with a thin face at the street.  I haven’t done a proforma to see how the numbers work out.  My focus is to create a nice wall of building fronts along the sidewalk line so that the area is more connected and friendly to pedestrians.

The garage on Delmar (left above), across from the Tivoli Theater, still looks like a garage with the open second floor.  But I’d take it on South Kingshighway next to the Avalon as a compromise to having occupied space at the front on the 2nd level.  A 3rd floor would be excellent and in keeping with nearby buildings.

The first step that needs to be taken is to develop a form-based zoning code for the area that would guide future development.   This would give developers an assurance that any adjacent development would also take on an urban form.

Further Reading

• Built St. Louis
• STL Rising

– Steve Patterson

Mr. Smith Goes to Leavenworth

Five years ago Jeff Smith came in second place out of 10 candidates in the Democratic primary for U.S. Congress.  He was a rising star.  So much so a documentary was made about that campaign for Congress.  The film, Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington, Anymore?, was released in 2006:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6x_I6Bm8gE

In 2006 Smith was elected to the Missouri State Senate in another crowded election.

But it turns out he had knowledge of  a campaign violation from the 2004 Congressional campaign .  He lied twice about his knowledge of the violation.  From his statement issued yesterday as he resigned his seat:

During my 2004 Congressional race, I became aware of an independent effort to produce two mailers to benefit my campaign. Federal campaign finance law prohibits specific coordination between a campaign and anyone preparing an independent expenditure.

When the independent operator requested funding, I authorized a close friend to raise money for the effort, and my press secretary provided public information about my opponent’s voting record. I withheld my knowledge of these facts during the Federal Election Commission’s 2004 investigation, misleading investigators and filing a false affidavit.  (Source)

The lie is often worse than the deed.  Just ask Martha Stewart.

Jeff Smith represented the 4th District in the Missouri Senate (green below):

I live in the 5th District, represented by Robin Wright-Jones who was elected in 2008, replacing Maida Coleman who had been term limited out of office.  So Jeff Smith was not my Senator.  Still, knowing him, I’m disappointed.

Will he go to Leavenworth?  Probably not, but it made for a good headline.  Smith will likely spend some time in a white collar prison.  We will know after he and others are sentenced on November 10, 2009.

The FBI press release has all the facts in a no-nonsense way you’d expect from the FBI.

– Steve Patterson

National Trust Opposes SLAPP Suit Against Two St. Louis Residents

A lawsuit against two downtown St. Louis residents has been ongoing now in excess of four years.  Recently (8/11/09) another St. Louis resident posted a question on the Facebook page of The National Trust for Historic Preservation:

Could you please ask your redevelopment corporation to drop the lawsuit against the two St. Louis citizens who filed suit to save the 1896 Century Building?

Nine days later (8/20/09) the National Trust for Historic Preservation posted the following response:

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is not a party to this litigation and has no control over it. Our subsidiary investment arm holds only a .01% stake in the project, and all authority to pursue litigation of this type lies in the limited partnership’s general partner alone. We have urged that party to reconsider their actions, but to date they have not heeded our request. We believe there are ways to learn from the Century Building controversy and advance the cause of historic preservation and community revitalization. This lawsuit is not the way to achieve those goals.

Agreed, this lawsuit is not about advancing anything other than instilling fear in the public so they won’t challenge the status quo, such as awarding a historic building to a connected developer without putting the building out for proposals.

The trial date is currently set for September 14, 2009.  The plaintiffs have asked for yet another delay.  Sorry good ole boys, no matter how long you delay your case won’t get any better.

– Steve Patterson