Green? Yes. Accessible? No.

Green building is all the rage these days.  That is a good thing, but I wished walkability was given the same importance.  Walking, after all, is one of the most green & healthy things we can do.

So last year when the old Sym’s clothing store in the St. Louis suburb of Brentwood was converted into an Office Depot & Westlake Ace Hardware I was hopeful that pedestrian access would make it into the renovation plans.  I periodically scooted by and saw the nifty bioswales being carved out of the existing parking lot but no accessible route connecting the public sidewalk to the accessible entrance of the two stores..

The parking lot was completely redone so there was plenty of opportunity to do the greenest thing of all — welcome pedestrians.

I love the green bioswales which catch and use water runoff.

But when we’ve got major reconstruction of both building and site and no priority is given to connect to the existing public sidewalk we have a problem.  When “green” ignores pedestrians, we have a problem.  When developers and large retailers are able to ignore the basic right of accessibility we have a problem.

You might be saying to yourself, “npobody walks that stretch of Manchester Rd.”  First, not true.  Some do walk here.  But given the lack of consideration for the pedestrian it is no wonder too few walk.  This property is surrounded by residential properties and is only a mile from the Maplewood MetroLink light rail station to the East.

Which comes first the pedestrian or the sidewalk?

I’m on Google Streetview

If you love Google maps then you probably love streetview — the ability to see what an actual street looks like.

Friends of mine, planning students from St. Louis living in New Orleans, recently blogged about spotting me on my former Honda Metropolitan scooter in a streetview at Washington & Grand (link).

Thankfully I wasn’t over the stop line!  Thank you to Matt Mourning and Michael Powers!  I’ll be back on a scooter by Spring 2010.

Sales Tax Rates Will Vary

The rate of 7.25% seems stuck in my head as reasonable.  But recent receipts in the city show a rate of 8.241% on non-food purchases.  Yikes!  Last month I brought stuff at the Ikea store in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook which had a rate of 8.5%.  Food purchases have a rate of 5.1409%.  I forget how that came to be — I think it was the elimination (or reduction) of the state portion?  Most of my purchases during the last year have been food and books for school.  But boy those 1/8th of a cent tax increases add up.

We tax ourselves in order to provide services.  These can be everything from public schools to police/fire/ems to public libraries, transit, street lighting, parks and on and on.  Taxes come in many forms depending upon the jurisdiction where you live.

A decade ago I had my luggage stolen from my car the day I was traveling to Seattle.  I arrived in Seattle with the clothes on my back and a magazine purchased in the Minneapolis airport.  The next morning we were driving from Seattle to visit Portland, OR.  Oregon has no sales tax so as I bought clothes (& luggage) to replace those that were stolen the savings added up.  That $24.99 shirt was just $24.99.  That same shirt bought today in St. Louis would cost another $2.50.

As a tourist enjoying tax-free purchases I likely paid more for some items because other taxes, such as property taxes, are often reflected in the final price of the goods & services.The renter doesn’t escape property taxes — part of the rental rate is there to cover those taxes.  The issue of evaluating tax levels from city to city within the same region and state is complicated enough but comparing region to region gets even more complex.  I’m sure somewhere out there I could find a study to show what a family might pay in various taxes in the St. Louis region vs. Dallas vs. San Diego and so on.

Sales taxes just happen to be one we see regularly.  We have the option to order online and potentially avoid paying sales taxes (although not necessarily).  If our online purchases exceed I believe $2,000 annually in Missouri we are supposed to pay use tax on those purchases.  My online purchases never come close to approaching that amount.

But then we go back to figuring in services relative to taxes paid.  Some places have lower tax rates but they also have a reduced level of services.  Thus it comes back to the question if you are pleased with the level of services provided by your government based on your total annual tax bill?  As consumers cut back on spending and shift more purchases away from retailers in their communities to online stores local & state government budgets are going to feel the pinch.  With less money that means less services.

Share your views below on taxes.

Flashing Lights Outside Walgreen’s

Last night, as I was at the light at Chippewa & Hampton (map) I noticed annoying flashing lights on both street facades at the Walgreen’s.  I had noticed these before but this time they really struck me.  I presume the purpose is to get folks to look toward the flashing light and thus toward the security cameras.

Ghetto.

Or just plain tacky.  The big parking lots for the Walgreen’s stores are bad enough.  Plus the fact they are on every corner it seems.  Still these flashing lights, of all things, are more than I cam stand.

Richmond Heights Redevelopment Area Back To Square One

The St. Louis suburb of Richmond Heights was back in the news this week:

The Richmond Heights City Council voted unanimously Monday night to seek new redevelopment proposals for the Hadley Township area.

The developer previously selected for this area, Michelson Commercial Realty and Development, missed the January deadline to give Hadley Township homeowners notices to close, as required in its redevelopment agreement with the city.  (Source: St. Louis Business Journal)

Not good news for the residents who were expecting buyouts.  Another casualty of our current economic situation.

Was this inevitable?

With big developments come big risk.  These massive redevelopment projects are harder and harder to finance.  Good.  I never liked the selected proposal anyway.  More boring big box crap that we have too much of already.

We need to learn how to revamp aging areas without assembling ever larger parcels of land.  We need to learn how to look at major streets like Hanley and envision how, over time, the individual parcels along the street would be developed.  Land-use regulations (aka zoning) can be used to set in place the regulatory framework to see a vision realized naturally over time.

The slow process of remaking areas parcel by parcel requires great vision & patience — qualities lacking in our local elected officials in the City of St. Louis as well as suburban municipalities like Richmond Heights.

Now once again seeking redevelopment proposals this farce continues to drag on.  I attended meetings in January 2006 where proposals were last submitted.  Over three years ago!  People have moved.  The once stable area is no longer.

Richmond Heights officials do have vision.  They want the Hadley Township area to resemble the adjacent sprawl wasteland in Maplewood.  They see future tax revenues over current residents.  Very shortsighted.

The state of Missouri took over our failing city school system.  Maybe the state should take over the region and consolidate hundreds of seperate small units of government into one whole.  That might put the brakes on the destruction of areas in the sales tax chase game.

Click here for my post on Hadley Township from October 2008 — which includes links to posts dating back to January 2006 as well as other resources.