Future White Pages Delivery By Request Only

AT&T was recently granted permission by Missouri’s Public Service Commission to cease automatic delivery of the residential white pages:

AT&T customers in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas still will receive paper copies of the yellow business pages, which also will include business white pages and government listings. But to get a residential phone book, customers will need to call a toll-free number and ask for one. The directories will be mailed for free.

AT&T said the move is intended to save money and paper as more people look up phone numbers on the Internet and rely solely on cell phones not listed in directories.

AT&T is Missouri’s largest local phone service provider with about 1 million access lines. It had printed 543,000 residential phone books for the Kansas City and St. Louis areas, said company spokesman Kerry Hibbs.

The PSC decision comes just in time for AT&T to cut back on its paper order for residential phone books that were due out in December for Kansas City and in January for St. Louis, Hibbs said.

Fewer than 2 percent of customers asked for the paper phone books during similar pilot projects last year in Atlanta and Austin, Texas, he said. (source: AP via Business Week)

Business white pages will be a part of future yellow pages.  AT&T makes money selling ads in the Yellow Pages but the white pages were just a big loss of cash and a huge waste of paper. Those not on the internet are likely the only ones still interested in having a white pages.

Now if we can only cease delivery of the  yellow pages.

– Steve Patterson

Quick Look at Kansas City’s Power & Light District

While returning to St. Louis from Kansas last week I asked my friend, Seattle Architect Rich Kenney, to exit the highway so we could do a quick spin through Kansas City’s Power & Light District.

Offering over a half million square feet, The Kansas City Power & Light District is the mid-west’s premier entertainment epicenter. With more than 45 unique and captivating retail outlets, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues, the District offers something for everyone. Located in the heart of downtown, this vibrant, new eight-block neighborhood links the Convention Center to the Sprint Arena and is bringing the beat back to Kansas City.

World-class attractions include the Midland Theatre by AMC, The Mainstreet Theatre, and the KC Live! Entertainment District.

As we didn’t even get out of the car this post is simply an introduction.  I need to return and spend some real time there to get a better understanding of the development.

My interest in P&L is two-fold.  First it is a major multi-block development in a major city, reason enough.  The developer, Cordish, is the selected developer to build St. Louis’ Ballpark Village.

The purple area is the Sprint Arena and the blue is the Power & Light District.  The central business district is just to the North.

Kansas City’s downtown is like many  – surrounded by highways.  St. Louis had an additional highway planned that would have cut off downtown from the city to the West & North. Thankfully it never got built.

The official map for P&L, above, shows the many small businesses as well as the extensive parking.  The did a good job concealing the parking structures from view.

Above is a view looking East on 14th between Main & Walnut.  One of the four valet zones seemed totally unnecessary on a Thursday afternoon.  But then again, on-street parking is rare.

A block East we get a better view of the Sprint Center at Grand.  Here on one side of 14th is one of the rare spots with on-street parking.  The store on the left is a grocery store.

Going East on 12th the transition into the P&L is thankfully subtle.  Thus the district connects nicely with the adjacent blocks to the West.  This is likely due to the desire to attract conventioneers from the convention center.

One of the criticisms I had heard was visible from the car as we stopped at a light — the brick sidewalks are already getting uneven.  The edge of the man hole cover, above, is a trip hazard.  The person that creates brick sidewalks is the person that has never rode a wheelchair on them.

The buildings are mostly new and nicely varied.  Different colors of brick are used as well as metal.  The detailing gives a contempory look & feel to the area — much better than a fake retro look.  The interior of one block is a 21+ area only.

Again, I need to return and experience P&L on different days of the week and at different times to get a full understanding.  I hear it is so successful that other formerly popular areas are now short on customers.

– Steve Patterson

Why Does the Board of Aldermen Need a Summer Vacation?

On Friday, July 10th, the Board of Alderman held their last meeting before their summer recess. They’ll reconvene for their next general meeting in a little over two months, on September 18th. In the days before air conditioning, I could see where such a break might serve a real purpose. But given the challenges the city continues to face, I’m not quite sure what purpose a two-month break serves today, in the 21st century. Most every other city or local government unit that I’m aware of continues their regular meeting schedule year-round. And it’s not like our aldermen are having to trek over to Jefferson City and be away from their families for weeks or months, they’re only going downtown! Yeah, I know it’s how things have been done for decades, and change doesn’t happen quickly around here, but I was wondering if I’m the only one that views this as not-so-quaint. Or, are we just better off keeping our legislators away from legislating?

Apparently, one big challenge is that the BoA chambers are not air-conditioned.  I know, I know, putting in air conditioning would be politically problematic – it would probably cost $100,000 and the aldermen would be getting something “special” during trying economic times.  But we may be being penny wise and pound foolish.  We’re maintaining a part-time legislature, and if they’re able to accomplish what they need to in 10 months, then maybe it’s a non-issue.  But much like buying our Police air-conditioned patrol cars, I’d expect that more would be accomplished if the BoA were able to meet 12 months a year.  If nothing else, there’d be fewer excuses for the glacial pace most board bills follow . . .

– Jim Zavist

The Most Important Single Project For St. Louis Is…

Readers have started leaving comments about this week’s poll on unrelated posts. So here is a poll-specific post.  The question is simple: Which of the following do you think is the most important future project for St. Louis?

• Improved Arch connection
• Riverfront
• Gateway Mall
• St. Louis Centre transformation, removal of skywalks
• Ballpark Village
• Kiel Opera House
• Tucker bridge
• Mississippi River bridge
• Chouteau’s Landing
• Chouteau’s Pond
• Bottle District
• None of the above
• Unsure

I didn’t include Paul McKee’s NorthSide project because I view that as more an overall framework to guide numerous projects.  The poll is in the right sidebar until Sunday 8/2/09.

– Steve Patterson

Kansas Town Retains Pedestrian Mall, Concrete Awnings

St. Louis will soon see the North 14th Street Pedestrian Mall go away.  It will become, simply, North 14th Street as it was prior to March 1977. Cities all over the country have gone through similar projects to undo what was largely a failed experiment conducted by planners.  Often these car-free pedestrian zones quickly became pedestrian-free zones.

In 2007 I learned of Atchison Kansas from Bonnie Johnson, assistant professor in urban planning at the University of Kansas, in nearby Lawrence Kansas.  Unfortunately I was unable to visit Atchison KS on that trip.  So what is so compelling about a town of 10,000 people on the bank of the Missouri river?  Their downtown pedestrian mall.

Last week I finally made it to Atchison Kansas to see it for myself.  I knew in 2007 they were preparing to update the pedestrian mall.  Not remove it, but update it.   This town embraces their failed pedestrian mall.  The update is now complete.

The pedestrian mall is 3 blocks of Commercial Street just West of the Missouri Mississippi River (view in Google maps):

The mall has it’s origin in disaster:

Atchison became known as “the city that refused to die” after rebuilding from two flash floods that swept through the downtown in 1958. The devastation of the floods hastened the replacement of many of the oldest commercial buildings and led to the construction of the pedestrian mall that today is the heart of the downtown district.  (source)

But worse than cutting off traffic in front of the storefronts are the concrete canopies running along both sides of the mall:

The above picture was from before the current remake.  They had the perfect opportunity to reopen the street to traffic and more importantly to remove these horrible structures.  Instead they got new sidewalks and benches:

The grass is green and the trees are mature.  The hard surfacing underfoot is no longer dated looking.  But those ghastly concrete canopies remain:

In decades past planners tried to create a uniform look for commercial areas — much like the new open-air suburban malls would have.  But as you can see the former bank building, center above, is ruined by the canopy passing in front of it.  Big surprise, it is vacant.

Many of the storefronts are vacant or at least appear vacant. It is hard to tell because they all have entrances off the rear alley behind the buildings.  One active business had a sign on their mall entrance directing people to the alley entry.

So customers arrive and park in one of the parking lots behind the buildings (above) and then enter the rear-facing entrance (below).  Brilliant plan!

Above is the same alley in another block.  On the left the trucks are parked in “front” of an auto parts store with another parking lot on the right.  The Commercial Street entrances are secondary to the rear alley entrances.  They had the chance to undo this mistake but instead they put in new sidewalks and street furnishings.

The cross streets have always continued through so if you are walking the mall you encounter traffic just as you would if you were walking along a normal street with traffic and on-street parking.

The blandness of the uniform canopies and signage is the opposite of what makes for a vibrant street — varied awnings, storefronts and signage.

Atchison City Manager Kelly DeMeritt:

DeMeritt looks forward to the renovation of Atchison’s open-air, pedestrian mall built in the 1960s. “The mall will give a huge economic boom to our retail district,” she says. “It will be the last piece of the puzzle that really will finish the downtown.”  (source)

Economic boost?  Finished?  Translation: another 40+ years of unrealized potential which is a pity because Atchison is a cute town.  DeMeritt is younger than the mall.

Just up the hill to the North of downtown is a great old neighborhood.

Small town commercial districts can be quite charming.  They can also get screwed up to the point they no longer funtion as they should.  But rather than admitting a prior decision was a mistake, they throw good money after bad.

As a general rule I prefer spaces that have pedestrians, cars, bikes, scooters, and transit all balanced and mixed.  Spaces with large numbers of pedestrians but none of the others are rare but pleasant when they do occur. But car-free spaces without pedestrians are boring.  Spaces dominated by the car to the point that pedestrians & cyclists are absent are horrible.

– Steve Patterson