I’m a Medium Now

No, I don’t channel spirits. A different type of medium…

One of the few benefits to having a stroke and spending 3 months in the hospital has been significant weight loss. In announcing my stroke the RFT called me “rotund.” Ouch, but true. They were being kind. I was fat, obese, etc. I had been increasing my exercise by walking downtown but nothing would really work.

Well, the stroke took care of that. I’ve lost roughly 75lbs since February 1st. I’m now at 210lbs, working to get under 200. Anything starting with a 1 rather than a 2 is fine by me.

Since coming home on April 30th I’ve continued to lose weight, from about 240 to my current 210. A lot of the weight I lost was muscle but most was pure fat. In the last two months as I work to rebuild muscle strength I had lost, my weight has remained unchanged. That is a good thing. As I build heavier muscle that means I’m continuing to lose fat.

I’ve had to replace my wardrobe entirely. Before I wore 2XL shirts, with a few 3XL as well. A year earlier my friend Lois came to my place and helped me get rid of all the clothes that didn’t fit me. I kept a few XL shirts promising that I’d wear them someday – we put those on the top shelf of the closet. Since I’ve now lost so much weight I had someone get those clothes down for me. Most of those that were too small are now too big!

Once again I called Lois to help me. This time we met for lunch (I had salad) and then we hit the thrift stores on Forest Park Blvd – Salvation Army, Goodwill & St Vincent De Paul. Last Saturday I ran into Lois on her way to another thrift store on Delmar at Grand. Between the four stores I managed to restock my wardrobe for winter for under $80.

I now wear a medium or large, depending upon the cut. In pants my waist size is now a few sizes less than my age – I’m 41. It feels good to wear these sizes again.

In that $80 I also got a new swimming suit. Yes, I know it is winter but I’m planning to take some aquatic classes at the Rehabilitation Institute of St Louis. The pool is shallow and they keep the water warm.

Was it worth it? NO! I’d not do it over again. However, the weight loss is certainly a nice benefit to such a difficult experience. In time I’ll be back on a scooter and more importantly I’ll be back on my bicycles (I’m down to two from a high of six). Maybe I’ll finally do the Katy Trail in 2010 or 2011?

I’ve actually felt good ever since I woke up in the hospital. Now that I’m getting functional use back in my left hand/arm, finishing up the semester at SLU, and back to work I have to say I’m feeling great!

Gateway Transportation Center Officially Open, Tours Today & Saturday

I just returned from the ribbon cutting of the long-awaited Gateway Transportation Center (aka the Multimodal Transportation Hub), the new home for Amtrak & Greyhound in St Louis. I’ll have a full review next week but I wanted to let you know that Greyhound and Amtrak are welcoming visitors to check out the new building as well as examples of the latest bus and trains today (11/21/08) until 4pm and tomorrow, Saturday 11/22 from 9am – 4pm.

The following is the press release:

St. Louis City Opens New $26.4 Million Multimodal Transportation Hub
(Gateway Transportation Center)

ST. LOUIS – The City of St. Louis is pleased to announce the official grand opening of the Gateway Transportation Center (GTC), the city’s new $26.4 million multimodal transportation hub. Mayor Francis G. Slay, Comptroller Darlene Green, representatives from Amtrak, Greyhound, MoDOT, Citizens for Modern Transit and other local officials dedicated the facility on Friday, November 21 at 10:45 a.m. The GTC is located at 430 S. 15th street in downtown St. Louis, one block south of the Scottrade Center. The event is open to the public. Directions are available at the Gateway Transportation Center web page, www.stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/comptroller/gtc.

In conjunction with the Transportation Center’s grand opening, the city, Amtrak and Greyhound also invite the public to enjoy equipment displays and tours from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. The displays will offer the public tours of new Amtrak state-of-the-art passenger rail equipment and Greyhound bus equipment. Also, Amtrak and Greyhound will offer the public a chance to win free travel vouchers to destinations in the continental U.S. City Treasurer Larry Williams has offered free parking on Saturday during the display hours at the Gateway Transportation Center lot and at the lot south of the Scottrade Center. Both of these lots are owned and operated by the City Treasurer.

For nearly twenty years, a multimodal station to connect Amtrak, Greyhound, MetroLink and MetroBus service has been an important concept in the overall design of St. Louis City’s transportation systems, but until recently, it was only a concept. When he was first elected Mayor in 2001, Francis Slay joined with other city officials to make the completion of this facility a top priority. This vision has now become reality, thanks to the cooperation of a variety of wonderful partners.

Today, the Gateway Transportation Center is the City’s state-of-the-art multimodal transportation hub operated by the City of St. Louis Comptroller’s Office, led by Comptroller Darlene Green. It is conveniently located in the heart of downtown St. Louis where Amtrak, Greyhound, MetroLink and MetroBus service converge. This new facility provides passengers with a clean, safe and friendly transportation center featuring 24-hour operations staff, security and food service.

Since the March 2006 groundbreaking, the City of St. Louis worked in partnership with Bi-State/Metro, the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, Amtrak, and Greyhound to complete the new Gateway Transportation Center. Construction was managed by the City’s Board of Public Service and built in three phases.

Jacobs Engineering and Kennedy Associates were the primary designers for this $26.4 million project. Development Programming Associates provided coordination and oversight. K & S Associates served as general contractor for the $14.2 million terminal and concourse linkage project. R.V. Wagner, Inc. was the general contractor for the $4.5 million track package. RQC Quality Constructors was the general contractor for the $2 million Bi-State/Metro bus facility. The total project cost also includes design and other pre-construction expenses. The MetroLink portion of the complex was previously constructed as part of the original MetroLink alignment.

Amtrak Service

At St. Louis, Amtrak offers five daily round trips to and from Chicago via Springfield and Bloomington-Normal, two daily round trips to and from Kansas City via Jefferson City, and one daily round trip to and from Arkansas and Texas, via Little Rock, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio. Amtrak passengers also have access to a daily shuttle connecting St. Louis with Carbondale, Illinois, and a daily train to and from New Orleans, via Memphis.

Most of the service to Chicago is sponsored by the Illinois Department of Transportation. Both Kansas City round trips are sponsored by the Missouri Department of Transportation, which recently announced plans to rename the service. More information about the “Name the Trains” contest will be available at the new St. Louis Gateway Station.

Amtrak has relocated its trains and ticketing from a building at 551 South 16th Street, which has served as an interim station since 2004. Designed as part of this project, that facility will be converted into an operations base for Amtrak train, engine and maintenance crews.

Greyhound Service

From the Gateway Transportation Center, Greyhound offers 35 daily scheduled trips to destinations across the United States, including Chicago, Memphis, Nashville, New York, Kansas City, Denver, Springfield and Los Angeles. Greyhound also provides Greyhound PackageXpress (GPX) shipping from the St. Louis Transportation Center location.

Greyhound has been serving the St. Louis area for nearly 80 years. Greyhound is the largest North American provider of intercity bus transportation, serving more than 2,300 destinations with more than 10,500 daily departures across the continent. The company also provides GPX, as well as charters and shore services. For fare and schedule information and to buy tickets call 1-800-231-2222 or visit the Greyhound’s website at www.greyhound.com.

MetroLink and MetroBus Service

The MetroLink Civic Center station (located immediately adjacent to the Gateway Transportation Center) offers daily arrivals and departures to destinations like Lambert Airport, Scott Air Force Base and Clayton. The MetroBus terminal (located just east of the GTC) offers daily routes to destinations throughout the St. Louis metro area. For a complete listing of all MetroLink and MetroBus routes, visit www.metrostlouis.org or call 314-231-2345 from Missouri or 618-271-2345 from Illinois.

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Turning I-64/Hwy 40 From Interstate to Boulevard from the River to Kingshighway

I-64 in the St Louis region is getting a makeover costing hundreds of millions of dollars. We are about to enter the second phase of reconstruction with the closing from Kingshighway to I-170 and the reopening from I-170 West to Ballas. I think we need to look at the section from Kingshighway to the Poplar Street Bridge (PSB).

Much of the Eastern stretch in the city is double decker with the lower section going Eastbound and the upper section going Westbound. This happens in two different places between the river and Kingshighway. Highways are a major barrier in older cities that were fully developed before the highway sliced through. Double decker highways are as much of a physical barrier and even more of a visual barrier than single level highways.

We need to reconnect our city and heal the scars created by highway construction. Lately I’ve focused this thought on the section of I-70 downtown between the PSB and the new proposed river bridge (see, Reconnecting St Louis to the Mississippi: Don’t Cover the Highway, 86 It from July). Removing that stretch of highway will enable downtown to reconnect with the river.

Similarly, Highway 40 creates a barrier between North & South. It runs along the south edge of downtown creating a barrier to further development.

My proposal is similar to that of Oklahoma City. There they are building a new stretch of I-40 just south of the current elevated roadway (I-40 Crosstown). They are sticking with interstate because if you are going East-West on I-40 you have few alternative options. The right-of-way for the old interstate will become a boulevard.

For St Louis I propose we use the parking/rail area to the South of the existing highway to create a new tree-lined boulevard/parkway.

The old right-of-way could once again become city street.

If you look at a map of the St Louis region you see that East-West through traffic on I-64 takes you to I-70. Those going West on I-64 with the plan to head Southwest on I-44 can use I-255 to loop around the core. Those traveling East-West on I-70 can use I-270 through the Northern part of the region. The more we can redirect traffic that is just passing through the better off we’ll be. This lets the existing corridors be about local traffic only. And boulevards/parkways like Forest Park Parkway can carry quite a bit of local traffic.

Of course with all the federal money going into the New I-64, my idea will never happen. In the middle of the 20th Century planners envisioned great expanses of highways. So I should be free to dream as big.

This stretch of I-64 with the elevated sections will not last forever. Over the last few years a lot of work has gone into maintenance and strengthening in case of earthquake. That will give the double decker elevated freeway a longer lifespan but eventually it will come down. It may take 50 years, but that stretch of road was not built to last indefinitely. I want to ensure that before we build something else in the railroad bed that we consider our future needs.

Fixing Mistakes at the Mansion House Complex

The year was 1965. The Arch was finally under construction so those 40 city blocks that had been vacant for two decades were finally going to be active (somewhat) again. So the city decides to raze more blocks of the CDB (Central Business District).

This time they take out the four city blocks bounded by the new I-70, Pine, 4th and Washington. The cross streets of Olive, Locust and St Charles are all consumed by the project — creating a giant “super block” where four pedestrian-friendly block existed for over a hundred years.

In place of the numerous buildings that used to exist on these four blocks was built three residential towers connected by a parking garage and fronted by some low-rise buildings along 4th. The South tower is a Crowne Plaza Hotel. The center tower, set further back from 4th, is the Mansion House apartments. The North tower is the Gentry’s Landing Apartments. Each has different owners and the land is owned separately from the buildings.

From the above image you can see how the highway & Mansion House create a double whammy to separate the city from the Arch grounds. Myself and others have suggested we do away with the highway once the new river bridge is built. But that is only half the problem, we’d still be left with super block projects like the Mansion House.

I like modern buildings. The forms can be appealing to my aesthetic, the minimal details contrast nicely with 19th Century neighbors. But, almost always the urban planning is horrible. What might be nice as a single building on a block with other buildings is stretched over four blocks.

Nothing will ever bring back what was lost 40 years ago. The thing we must now turn to is how to retrofit these projects so they are more friendly and conducive to the 21st century.

The following is a thought process about a design solution of overcome shortcomings of the Mansion House complex. It is not a fully vetted proposal with a rock solid pro-forma behind it. When this complex was built it used massive doses of Federal Urban Renewal money. Eminent domain was also used to take and assemble four blocks into one. So today the numbers on my suggestions may not add up. But I think the following needs to happen to invigorate this area and to reconnect the CBD to the Arch.

Pine, Olive, Locust & St. Charles streets all need to be cut through again. Amazingly this can be done without razing the three towers. You’d need to raze & rebuild the parking garage, however. By putting the streets back you can once again invite people to just walk down the block, which ever one they are on, and reach the Arch grounds.

So in my plan the three towers would all remain.

The center tower, above, is set back the farthest from 4th. New structures along 4th would be 2-3 stories in height. They would help restore the sense of an urban street. Locust would run immediately along the North side of the center tower. The lobby for this center tower would now be entered from Locust.

The parking garage arrangement is very odd. My thought is you tear away all the garage, leave the towers, and fill in the holes. In the block Between the North & center towers you could build a new garage to serve both of those towers.

Memorial drive, formerly 3rd street, would be greatly improved by having more connections to the CBD as well as no longer having the back of a long parking garage fronting it.

By breaking up these four blocks back into four blocks we’ll eliminate this massive barrier without having to rebuild everything.  The towers will have their own blocks.  Each would get a more friendly face along 4th to replace the auto drives they’ve had for the last 40+ years.  The Northernmost block at Washington might get a nice 5-8 story mixed use building.

As I said, this is a design thought process not a workable for-profit project.  Still, much of the Mansion House complex is vacant.  Such a major reconfiguration could help breath new life into the area.

To see all 101 pictures in this set click here.

South Side Fall Colors Scooter Ride Sunday 11/23

Fall is among my top four seasons of the year. You get to start layering, wearing interesting jackets, huddle under the covers, enjoy a warm bowl of oatmeal and take in the stunning colors of the Fall leaves – brilliant yellows, reds, and my favorite – oranges. We are a bit past the peak of the leaf viewing time of year but there are some trees out there with their leaves in full glory.

On Sunday (11/23/08) we are planning a scooter ride to celebrate the colors of the South Side. Nothing against the leaves on the North Side, we are just starting from South. Specifically, South Side Tower (aka South Side National Bank) at Grand & Gravois. The “we” is Circa Properties and the Lawrence Group, the project REALTOR and Architect/Developer, respectively.

Regular readers will note that I sold my Honda Metropolitan scooter six months ago as I couldn’t ride it following my stroke. I’m targeting Spring 2010 to be riding again. In the meantime I’m organizing a ride I can’t ride in.

This Sunday the ride starts at 3pm at the South Side Tower. We are asking all the riders to line up their scooters in front of the main building entry (little street between Gravois & Grand). Those who register for the ride will get a free pass, good for Sunday only, to the Moto Museum. The catch? You have to come up to the display on the 5th floor and see me to register and get your pass. My co-agent Leigh Maibes will lead the ride on her husband’s scooter. The ride will end up in Grand Center for a tour of the Moto Museum. The Museum is owned by Steve Smith of the Lawrence Group. I’ll meet the riders there and join you on the tour. Afterwards, those who are interested, we will walk next door and grab some dinner at Triumph Grill, also owned by Steve Smith. And to avoid any confusion, this is a different Steve Smith than the one that owns The Royale on Kingshighway. They  both like motorcycles, however.

Hopefully the weather will be nice.  Don’t put the scooter away for winter, just add another layer of clothing!