Halliday St. Illegal Parking Pad Fiasco Ends, Portion of Street Likely Given Away

OK, so here is what you do if you buy a property to rehab that has no parking. First, you pave over any bit of yard that exists on a Saturday when you won’t get caught. One of two things will happen, you either get left alone and get to keep the parking or “compromise” and get the alderman to give you a portion of the publicly owned right-of-way for you to include with your property.

I first blogged about this in June of last year (post) and a fourth time in August 2007 (post w/links to other posts). Last month, after wearing down the neighboring residents, something finally happened. The pad, illegally placed in the front yard, began to be removed.

Now, this sounds wonderful. As we can see from the image below…

…the pavement is now gone from the front yard after a six month prolonged process. The developer had promised parking to his buyers and rather than face the music for such a commitment the city is going to come along and bail him out — by giving him part of the public street.

This quiet one-way street in the Tower Grove East neighborhood is about to get some angled parking for the condo residents. I personally have no objection to the switch to angled parking or even issuing them permits for their exclusive use of those spaces. My issue is with the city vacating a portion of the street so it can be given over to private residents. Late last year Ald. Conway confirmed with me that he was trying to get Todd Waelterman, Director of Streets, so sign off on the vacation. I have not received a response from Waelterman that this has indeed happened.

In a city public space, the collective street, sidewalk, etc…, should be valued highly. It is these public rights of way that service as connectors to all privately owned land. It is the use and arrangement of these spaces that define a street as part of a walkable community or simply as a suburban arterial road with no redeeming public value. Cities like St. Louis need to treasure our publicly owned land that we have in our streets and alleys.

Goodbye Dad

About 90 minutes into 2008 we got the call from the hospital, my Dad went into “code blue.” My Dad, 78, passed as my brother and I arrived. I got to Oklahoma City the afternoon of the 31st and was able to spend a couple of hours there in the hospital with him. He never recovered from surgery on the 12th of December and although his vital signs were up and down daily it was becoming clearer that he would not recover. I think he was waiting for me to arrive and say goodbye before he checked out.

While I had time to prepare myself for this natural ending I was not prepared to see my father, always a tough man, very thin with so many tubes and such. He was unable to open his eyes or speak. Perhaps he didn’t know I was even there? I talked anyway knowing his mind was stronger than his body. His time suffering in the hospital was over. They had tried to resuscitate him as he had not signed anything indicating otherwise. Even though, had they been able to keep him alive they’d have done additional damage in doing so.

Regular readers will recall that I started this blog on October 31st 2004 after my Dad had a massive heart attack on October 1st, 2004. He was hospitalized most of that month. We were fortunate that a CPR instructor had missed the highway exit he originally wanted so that he was there to see my Dad’s van cross three lanes of traffic on a side road as he had his heart attack. This stranger kept him alive until paramedics arrived. It was not his time.
Following my mom’s passing in late June 2006 (see post) my dad was eager to begin remodeling their home, the only home I’d ever known. My two older brothers had lived in other houses but not me. Nearly every room got painted, new flooring went down and my old bedroom became an office complete with a reused set of French doors my Dad had been saving for a few years for just that task.

My Dad was always a hard worker. He spent the bulk of his working life (50+ years) as a carpenter after starting off as a truck driver for a local produce distributor in Western Oklahoma. At the height of his carpentry career things took a quick turn for the worse. My oldest brother, not quite 17 when I was born, explains from a testimonial he wrote for the services:

Our lives changed dramatically on a Friday evening in July 1967 as we were returning from work when a car crossed the centerline and hit us head on. Dad’s leg was crushed so badly that the doctors were ready to amputate his leg or at least fuse his ankle from movement if the leg could be saved. Dad, determined and stubborn as ever told the doctors that he would hobble out of the hospital if they tried either option. His livelihood depended on use of his leg and he demanded that they fix it so he could walk and climb ladders. Dad was unable to return to carpentry work for almost a year, which left it to me to keep his business going. I tried to sell my car and even quit school to help out, but dad wouldn’t have any part of it. He would not let me jeopardize my future, even if times were hard. Dad worked at a lumberyard in a cast, returning to working long before he should have to support his family.

Here are a couple of images of the van after it has been towed the few blocks back to our house.

My brother had turned 17 the month prior and my Dad had just celebrated his 38th birthday. My brother hit is head on the windshield, giving him many cuts from the glass. I’m told that when my Mom got the call she grabbed my other brother, then 7, and me, less than five months old, and we headed in the Plymouth Valiant to the scene less than a half mile away. When my Mom saw my brother covered in blood she nearly passed out. The ambulance driver, Vondel Smith, grabbed me and my 7-year old brother from my mom. Smith was a funeral director but at that time in Oklahoma City they drove ambulances, a conflict of interest if you ask me. Once my oldest brother was cleaned up and bandaged he was OK (well, except for that high school photo with almost no hair — in the 1960s). My Dad, as the above indicated, was not doing too well. The rest of his life he visited a chiropractor.

Vondel Smith, the funeral director that held me during this time later built a new home at some point in the late 1970s. My Dad did the outside carpentry trim and I was there to help out. Services for both my parents were held at his funeral home, now run by his sons.

The red Valiant, parked next to the van in the above photo, was my Mom’s favorite car. I think it was a 1963 — it had been a dealer demonstrator model. About a year or so after the accident with the van my Dad was taking me somewhere. A driver ran a red light and plowed into the passenger side of the vehicle. So I was still in diapers at this time and interestingly enough in a car seat. Well, what qualified as a car seat in those days. The home builder my Dad worked for over many decades, Dean and his wife Virginia, had purchased this car seat for use with me. I was bundled to it but it simply sat on the front seat of the car. The impact of the other driver caused our car to spin, hitting another car and smashing out the rear window. After coming to a stop my Dad looked to his right to check on me and I wasn’t there — the car seat and me had landed in the back seat among all the broken glass. I was fine. Mom’s favorite car, however, was not. For many years later my Mom would tease my Dad about wrecking her car.

From my oldest brother again:

My dad was undoubtedly the most honest and ethical person I have ever known. Of the countless examples, I remember several occasions after I started working with Dad related to working on difficult jobs during inclement weather. Dad was performing this particular job on an hourly basis for his time and mine. We were working in absolutely miserable weather and while we were making progress on the job, it was much slower than normal. Even though working was extremely difficult under these conditions, Dad would not charge the man for all of the hours, because were not accomplishing what we could have in ideal conditions. My dad could not cheat someone if his life depended on it and I will always remember that trait in him.

Dad took such pride in doing things that others deemed too hard and could then make it look easy. I knew that he worked extra hard on many details and even though he was incredibly smart and capable; he loved it when things were hard, difficult, and complicated. He stood out from all others in this regard, in my estimation.

And he would do all sorts of projects. My other brother describes one incident on the way home after work one summer day:

We crossed 89th Street and my dad began honking at the car in front of us, which happened to be a black and white. He kept honking until he successfully pulled the police car over. When the officer got out to inquire as to the problem, my dad pointed out that the exhaust was dragging the ground, and that he would have him fixed up in a jiffy. While the law officer and this young boy stood wide eyed with our jaws hanging down, dad commenced to slide under the car, on the dirty shoulder, and use bailing wire to secure the tail pipe before instructing the officer to get it checked at the mechanic and then sending him on his way after the officer answered, “yes sir”.

Yes, my Dad stopped, and then repaired, a police car on the side of the road. He swapped engines in another van as well as in a Ford Fairmont Future that I had in high school. He built countless projects around the house as well, like the alligator bird feeder he carved out of a piece of old wood:

Dad’s great-grandson, my great-nephew, was running around the back yard after the services but always coming back to the alligator. Or was it a crocodile? The little one thinks it is a dinosaur. My oldest brother got this handiwork, where you put the bird feed in the mouth, for his backyard in Northern California. They named him Irwin after Steve Irwin.

Dad was always willing to drive up to St. Louis, with or without my Mom, to help me out with a project. His work exists in several properties in St. Louis in addition to the many in Oklahoma. After 40 years of having a very skilled carpenter around, I’m going to have to learn how to do some things for myself.

Every time my folks would visit me my Dad would joke about one of his favorite things about St. Louis — that the buildings were older than him. Born in 1929, in a small town in Texas, he had an older step-brother and over many years six younger siblings. They grew up in a very poor area of Western Oklahoma during the Depression and dust bowl days. Of the eight, he was the second to pass.

Being 17 years younger than my older brother meant we had very different parents. On one hand, the older two had broken them in a bit but on the other they got set in their ways. While I was never the good carpenter’s assistant my two older brothers were, I was the one that my Dad would talk to about projects he was working on. We’d sit and talk about what he was trying to do (such as a new lake cabin, an addition to a home, etc…) and I’d sketch out ideas. We disagreed as much as we agreed. Mom would
yell in from the other room, “Stop arguing in there.” Dad and I would respond, in unison, “We’re not arguing, we’re discussing.” We’d then resume bantering back and forth over whatever it was we had been debating. This routine became a running joke.

My Dad was not a religious person but he proved that you didn’t have to go to church to be a good person. He demonstrated, on a daily basis, that hard work and attention to detail was very important to doing a good and lasting job — regardless of the task. I hold this close today and try to follow his example. As you can imagine there are so many stories of a personal nature, not really appropriate to share here.

The day after the services my brothers and I were in the house. Two of us were flying out of town in a couple of days and we wanted to remove those items that held special memories for us. As we and other relatives poured through closets, cupboards and under-bed boxes we shared memories. Some of the stories told were the first time I had ever heard them, being so much younger. Old photos brought up good and bad times. Neighbors, some since day one, stopped by to share more memories.

In all of this I realized that not only did I lose my Dad but that now both parents have passed. I stopped at a good place to have a cry, the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.

While I still have numerous relatives in Oklahoma City my strong connection is now gone. Facing the fact that our family home will be cleared of all our possessions and that it will be sold, I suddenly realized that St. Louis is my home. Yes, I’ve lived here for nearly 18 years now but “home” was always back with Mom & Dad — in my old room with that dated furniture and so on.

I’m trying to simplify the “things” in my life but I did ship back a few boxes of items such as a few bowls my Mom had used my entire life. One, I recall, was the one she’d use to mix cake batter. I’d sit on the kitchen floor and clean out the bowl of every last bit of cake batter. Yeah, uncooked eggs and all. I rode my bicycle all over the place without a helmet too. I got one of my Dad’s old hammers as well as his well worn carpenter’s folding rule. Old report cards and class pictures are now something I need to scan and save. I like the pictures of me prior to getting my big 1980s glasses. Like when I was around age 5 (at right).

Goodbye Dad, goodbye Mom.  Thank you for the wonderful life lessons and all the memories.  Thank you to all of you reading for allowing me to take this time and space to stroll down memory lane.   – Steve

Highway 40 Closure, Much Ado About Nothin’

Economic life was going to come to a complete standstill in the St. Louis region if traffic was not allowed to continue through the reconstruction of highway 40.  That was the prediction of Frontenac Republican Scott Muschany and others at a meeting held on December 17, 2007 that was “organized” by retired traffic engineer Joe Passanise:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wewf3pJEAU4

…Make no mistake about it, beginning January 3rd MoDOT is going to unleash the worst economic damage that this community could ever suffer, one of the worst public health crisis… – Scott Muschany 12/17/07

Wow, “worst economic damage that this community could ever suffer.”   The closure came and with a few exceptions it has been a non-event.  People are adjusting their schedules, routes and modes.

Our region’s adaption to the closed interstate highway proves one thing — the highway is not necessary!  Muschany and his road building Republican buddies would probably like to have the project take much longer and cost hundreds of millions more.  The fact we are spending over $500 million for something the region doesn’t need is bad enough.

As I and others have said before, Highway 40 should not be rebuilt as the  “new I-64” but should be a proper urban boulevard with through lanes in the middle and more localized lanes on the outer edges.  These outside lines, separated by a line of trees from the center lanes, would have on-street parking and buildings fronting them.

Mass transit might take the form of a commuter rail line down the center but it also might take the form of more localized service to the local stores, or a combination of both.  Areas North and South of the corridor would be connected through a grid of streets making it easier to get across this long-standing divide.

Instead the traffic folks envision more traffic and more pavement to handle the volume.  Alternates are not considered as we worship the so-called freedom of the interstates.  True enough, getting to Chicago, Tulsa, Kansas City or many other places by car on county roads would be time consuming so I do see value in the highways to connect regions — it is what they do within regions that I have a problem with.

The citizens of the St. Louis region will adapt as they have been to the changes.  There will most certainly be accidents that cause delays and unfortunately lives will be lost.  Of course, lives are lost daily on crashes on our interstates.  And in a couple of years, once the highway is completely rebuilt, most people will drop their car pool or use of mass transit and return to their single occupancy vehicles.  Due to the improvements of the new highway others will join them and in short order we will be back to slow downs and at capacity travel on the new I-64.  When this happens, in 5 or 10 years, the engineers will be back at the drawing board working on the next version. The alternative is that fuel becomes so costly we a drop in use and the highway will seem overbuilt for demand.

One thing is certain, those that sought to keep the highway open didn’t have a clue.  Hopefully the folks in Frontenac will elect themselves a new state rep this coming November.

Crosswalk Leads Directly Into Curb & Light Standard, Missing Ramps

Getting around the city is a challenge for those using mobility devices (wheelchairs, mobility scooters), pushing strollers or pulling luggage. Sure, everywhere you look you do see ramps. So what is the problem, you ask?

Well, ramp placement plays a role in their ultimate usability and sadly placement has been given little thought throughout the city. Of course, it is worse out in the suburbs where sidewalks are a luxury.

Above is looking East across 18th Street at the signalized entry to Union Station (behind me) and across to another parking lot — I like how they managed to center the crosswalk lines with the curb on the other side — perfectly centered between two ramps! Pedestrians headed West from the new multi-modal center (Greyhound & Amtrak services) are directed up a new ramp which takes them out to the above intersection. Those heading South along 18th (toward Ameren/Lafayette Sq) must cross this crosswalk as the viaduct only has sidewalks on the West edge. Those coming and going from Union Station also cross this intersection.

Interesting, the ramp for the corner where I am standing aligns perfectly with the center of the painted stripes yet on the opposite side it runs into a curb and signal post. Brilliant!

When I took the above image a couple of weeks ago the signals here and at the new ramp just a few hundred feet to the South had been placed on yellow flash for 18th and red flash if you were leaving on of the parking lots. For pedestrians, this means no pedestrian signal to indicate when it is OK to attempt to cross the street.

And, as you might expect, the ramps on the other side are a mess of wrong slopes and cross angles. Controlling a wheelchair to keep from having the right ramp spill you out in the street would be a challenge. This situation should not be acceptable given that pedestrians from this new facility are headed this direction.

UPDATE 1/9/08 @ 9am – The new multi-modal center is expected to open in late April.

Book Review; How to Live Well Without Owning a Car

When I went car-free in the first half of 2007 I didn’t know exactly what I was getting myself into (see post). Sure, I had owned the scooter for a while but I still had my car for shopping trips and other errands. One of my first purchases after going car-free was the book by former St. Louisan, Chris Balish, titled How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save Money, Breath Easier and Get More Mileage out of Life.

Balish’s book is not a preachy save the planet from doom type of book. Instead, it is a personal finance book, showing the reader how to save thousands of dollars each year simply by not owning a car. Instead of focusing on the environmental impacts of cars he narrows in on the toll car ownership can take on personal finances and how it often dictates much about your lifestyle. Balish argues, convincingly, that you can get rid of the car and improve your standard of living. Having lived it now for six months, he is so right.

Balish acknowledges that car-free living is not for everyone. The outside salesperson or carpenter that hauls many heavy tools around, likely needs a car. For many others, however, Balish lays out all the issues he faced when going car-free while living in St. Louis and later in Los Angeles. Throughout the book are personal testimonies from people from North America that are also car-free.

He is quick to point out that car-free does not mean you will never rent or ride in a vehicle ever again. Car-free, to Balish, is about not owning a car. Car-lite applies to say the family that reduces their ownership of cars (from 3 to 2, from 2 to 1), basically owning less cars than you have licensed drivers.

The book is full of great tips to help you plan your new life without a car. Rather than having transportation at the ready as with a car, going car-free requires doing some planning ahead, changing buying patterns and potentially changing the location of where you live and/or work.

The notion of place, where you live or work, is where the book falls short. When Balish lived in St. Louis he lived in the Central West End which afforded him many opportunities to walk to local stores as well as access to bus and light rail mass transit. Had Balish lived in say O’Fallon (Missouri or Illinois, doesn’t really matter) he would have had a difficult time being car-free. Chapter 9, ‘Should You Move Closer to Work?’, suggests that moving to within 2-3 miles of work will “change your life.” Well, that heavily depends upon the context of where you work. Someone might live behind the Galleria and work at the Hanley Industrial Court only a few miles away but getting back and forth between the two was a challenge even before the reconstruction of highway 40.

This is not to say that suburbs are bad and the inner core city is good. For example, a person that works in say Webster Groves or Ferguson and works nearby could likely function quite well without a car. With all the basic services within walking distance to adjacent residential neighborhoods (which are connected via a good network of streets) a person could live well without owning a car.

When Balish does a 2nd edition I’d like to see him have a chapter on things to look for when deciding where to live. Does the area have good sidewalks and curb cuts (for pushing the baby stroller)? How far away is the nearest market (not necessarily a ‘supermarket’, just market)? In the book he does devote a good amount of ink to suggesting that you look for local churches, schools, dry cleaners and so on when going car free. If someone doesn’t live in such an environment, they need to know what to look for and what to avoid. He does suggest locating near a transit stop when possible.

Balish breaks the chapters up into four basic sections: 1) Why you’re better off not owning a car, 2) getting to work without a car, 3) non-work transportation and 4) living well without a car. It is within this framework that Balish basically covers all the issues that a person will face going car free — from basics to getting to and from work, to handling social functions to dating.

Again, the book isn’t remotely preachy except that car ownership costs more than we all think — often twice the price paid for a vehicle after 5 years of ownership. The $25,000 car will likely run you about fifty grand after five years. Balish does the math for you showing how if you invested that same money instead you could save money for a kid’s education, a down payment on a house or retirement.

Another area the book falls short is with respect to families. He, like me, is single and therefore says a family can be car-free but he doesn’t really offer tips on the best types of strollers or other items a car-free family might need. The volume of toys, diaper bags and other items being toted around in a car for junior now is amazing. Without the SUV to permit the relatively easy transport of such items, parents would need to think on a smaller scale of what items do they need for a particular outing.
However, Balish does suggest that families consider going from two cars to one — shifting schedules and making other changes to permit eliminating one of the cars. I know many couples in the St. Louis area that have only a single car.

To me this is a great resource of easy to understand concepts about taking taxis, using transit, bicycling short distances and so on. The car is a wonderful tool that has given Americans mobility for years. As expenses rise and many now go into debate for 60 months or more to finance a car this mobility has turned into a requirement. Getting rid of the car does allow you live well as Balish describes and it gives you a new sense of freedom that no car can match. Highly recommended for anyone looking to be car-free, car-lite or perhaps just head that direction.
Resources:

• $12.95, Order from Left Bank Books, Ten-Speed Press, or Amazon.
• Official website which includes free downloads of a couple of chapters and additional reviews.