Downtown Retail Continues To Evolve

Tomorrow, December 13th, marks the one-year anniversary of the ribbon cuttings for Good Works Furniture and Flamingo Bowl (read post).  By May 2008, Good Works had already anounced they were closing (read post)!

I’m glad Flamingo is still around because I enjoy bowling.  In the hospital earlier this year they had me bowl using a Wii as therapy to work on standing.  I’ve got a bowling game on my iPhone, too.  But nothing beats the real thing.  I was left handed but I’ve practiced right handed darts, I need to try right handed bowling.

Earlier this week the well known CWE book retailer, Left Bank Books, opened a 2nd location at 10th & Locust.  A few months ago, Crepes In The City, formerly a weekend-only production inside The Washington Ave Post, opened their own location.  Change is inevitable.  Some places will close while others thrive and more give it a shot.

Downtown long ago ceased to be the retail center of the region.  The long shuttered St Louis Centre mall was a poor attempt to recapture that title.

As a downtown resident for over a year now I can tell you I’m generally pleased with the mix of retailers we have and as more buildings open up (now as rentals) we’ll continue to see retailers opening to serve the needs of immediate residents, locals, and visitors.

You Don’t Center Your Car on the Parking Meter

Parallel parking isn’t too difficult but you’d think it was based on how poorly some folks manage.

The Toyota Camry above was parked in such a way that the space for this meter looked like it was available. There was a car in front of this one too.  If I had a smart fortwo I could have fit in the space behind this car and the next.

“Don’t Go North of Delmar”

The year was 1990.  I was 23 and had just moved to St Louis from the Oklahoma area where I was born & raised.  The apartment manager on Lindell probably thought she was doing me a favor, instead she was doing the region a great disservice.  “Don’t go North of Delmar, ” she instructed.  The next day, out  of curiosity I went North of Delmar.  I didn’t get shot or even shot at.

That trip, and many since, reinforced my love of the city’s architecture and street layout.  I think it was on this first trip North of Delmar that I discovered Fountain Park, the police station on Page at Union (since razed) and so many wonderful streets long abandoned by whites out of fear of living in proximity to a black person.  Oh the horrors!

The apartment manager, I later learned, grew up near O’Fallon Park on the city’s North side in the late 30s-50s. North St Louis was no longer the place of her childhood.  In the first part of the 20th Century restrictive deed restrictions were placed on property to keep streets white.

The famous Supreme Court case Shelley v. Kraemer, originating in North St Louis,  in 1948 found that the restrictions were not unconstitutional but the using the courts to enforce them was. The began to open up previously all white areas to non-white persons.

Block by block over the next several decades white families began to sell, often in a panic induced by real estate agents engaged in “blockbusting.”  Panic selling reduced prices which meant more people would panic sell.  Falling prices also meant homes formerly unaffordable were now affordable to more people.  Had people not sold in a panic North St Louis might look very different today.

Delmar became known as a dividing line between the black North side and the white South side.

Of course there are whites North of Delmar and blacks South but you get the idea.  This “rule” gets passed on as young 23 year olds move to the city.  Well, they try to pass it on.  In 1991 I moved from Lindell to Old North St Louis — well North of Delmar.

Fast forward to the present.  Ald. Kacie Starr Triplett has introduced Board Bill 328 to honorarily rename  Delmar to Barack Obama Boulevard.  The street would still be Delmar — it would just have some additional signs added for the honorary designation.

I like the symbolism — Barack Obama being the one person in a generation that can bring white and black together.   He himself being the product of a white mom and black father.

Again, this is an honorary renaming only.  When Easton was renamed for Dr. Martin Luther King in the early 1970s they changed the legal name of the street.

So while I like the symbolism I wonder how effective, if at all, having this desigation will be toward breaking down the Delmar barrier.  Will people just start saying, “Don’t go North of Obama Boulevard?”

Out To Bid; $400K Monuments at Lambert Airport

Budgets are tight everywhere these days.  Seldom do municipalities have extra cash but at Lambert International Airport it seems they have money for two fancy forty foot monuments to alert I-70 drivers of the presence of the airport — like they could miss it.

According to the city’s Board of Public Service, these monuments will cost $416,233.00.  Bids were to have been opened on the 9th.  I heard talk of $500k+.

These are 40 feet in height and 13 feet across the top and lighted.

You’d think making the airport more user friendly would be a better way to spend $400,000 – $500,000.  At least the LED lighting is a low energy way of lighting them.

I’d say spending this money on solar panels or wind turbine to help offset energy use at the airport would be a good alternative.  I think drivers on I-70 know the airport is there.  Apparently they wanted a 3rd monument at I-70 & I-170 but that got dropped from the bidding documents.

I rather like the design but I question this as the best use of limited resources.

Meanwhile former Chief of Staff for the outgoing Missouri Governor Blunt, Ed Martin, wonders if Gov-elect Jay Nixon will “help the City sell Lambert Airport just like Democrat Mayor Daley is doing in Chicago? The sale will generate hundreds of millions for us to pay off our underfunded pensions, cut taxes, and hire cops.“  Yeah, we should be more like Chicago…

1920s ‘Modern Bungalows’ Plan Book Now Available

Last month I did a post about a copy of a vintage 1920s plan book that I had recently digitized.

I’ve now made it available in one of two formats: a free PDF download or as a bound soft cover book. Both are available from the self publishing site LuLu. The PDF is free but the printed & bound version is $9.99 plus shipping. I receive less than 50 cents per paid order.

To preview the book, download the free PDF or to order the bound version click here.

Keep in mind this is a scanned version of a 20+ year old photo copy.  Preview or download the PDF before ordering the bound copy if you think you might be disappointed.  The book is 152 pages.

I’ve treasured the information in this book for over 20 years.  If you enjoy bungalows I think you will like this book.