Phone Books Heading Right for Recycling/Landfill? (UPDATED)

It is nearly 2008, does anyone still use the phone book?

Last month I received two bags of new phone books at my old address. And so our big phone book doesn’t get lonely in the plastic bag it now has a little companion.

Then the other day a ton of new phone books were delivered to our loft building. They delivered, you guessed it, more phone books than we have units in the building. Many residents don’t even have a land line — most of us just use our cell.

This past weekend I was with a friend dropping off recycling in Soulard and a woman asked us if we knew where a phone book recycling place was — she had the new books in bag ready for recycling.

What a waste.

In my old place I have a stack of books from the last several years awaiting recycling. The phone book recycling spots, when you can find one, usually states they don’t take the current year. I see a lot of resources being expenses for something most of us don’t want. Like junk mail and the free newspaper, this is litter in my estimation. Litter that I’m now responsible to deal with. Next year this thing needs to be something people can request, not something forced upon us. Recycling locations here.

UPDATE 12/4/2007 @ 8:30am:

I admit it, I fell for it. The recycling link above is for Yellowbook — not AT&T’s Yellow Pages. How many companies get to use that same symbol of fingers thumbing through a book? The phone books being passed out now are from AT&T.

This past April you may recall the excitement about not losing the Yellow Pages HQ to another city, such as Atlanta. Yes, AT&T’s Yellow Pages division is based right here in St. Louis with 655 downtown jobs.

So, wanting to be correct about it, I decided to use yellowpages.com to find a recycling center to get rid of these just delivered books. You will love this, the city in which the division is based doesn’t have a recycling partner!!!

Amazing, you can’t recycle the phone book in the town where the phone book company is based!  I can think of one good place to dump all these phone books — the big open (and mostly wasted) plaza in front of AT&T’s main building downtown.  They dump these things in our yards all the time.  My condo association now has a big stack of these things that we will have to collectively pay to remove.

People will just pitch them, adding to our municipal disposal costs and filling up shrinking landfill space.  AT&T needs to understand that we don’t really care how much advertising they sold and what sort of promises they made to these advertisers.  Make deals with grocery stores to leave stacks in their lobby’s or some place where those who want a new phone book can pick one up.

Sooners Beat the Tigers, Why Do I Care?

Last night the Oklahoma Sooners defeated the #1 Missouri Tigers to win the Big 12 championship. Tied at 14 at halftime, the Sooners finished the game 38-17. Why do I care?

I didn’t care enough to get myself in front of a TV but despite having lived in Missouri for over 17 years now I still rooted for the Oklahoma Sooners. Is it that I am from Oklahoma City? Or that I am an OU alumni? That Mizzou is located in Columbia, not in St. Louis? Probably a combination of all these.

There is something about that place where we are from, no matter what the place. We might trash talk it ourselves but we don’t like it when an outsider does. We might move but still feel a connection.

When I am back in Oklahoma I drive around my old hang outs and recall fond memories. Then I note the complete lack of sidewalks on major roads and think that despite my bitching about St. Louis we are certainly better off than other places. My older brother (17 years older) and I are very much alike — we know we’ll never live in Oklahoma again. Our middle brother, however, after stints in the LA and Houston areas couldn’t wait to return to Oklahoma City. With nieces and a great-niece and great-nephew there I will forever have a connection.

But St. Louis is my home. Sure, I’ll root for Oklahoma over any other football team but in the end sports really don’t matter. At least not to me.

I like to think that St. Louis has had a bad first half and it is time for a new game plan. I want St. Louis to have the kind of second half that Oklahoma had last night.

Mall Owners Seek Tax Increase To Raze Portion of Vacant 4-Year Old Anchor Location

In the late 1990s Australian based Westfield Group got a dandy TIF (nearly $30 million) to rebuild West County Mall — claiming it was outdated and unable to compete with newer malls. The suburban community of Des Peres, with well heeled residents, agreed and blighted the old mall.

Reopening in September 2002 the expectations were high but a year later in September 2003 sales were under projections. From the Post-Dispatch of September 14, 2003:

…a year after reopening to much hype, West County Center is yet to prove whether it can prevail in a high-stakes battle for the affluent shoppers of west St. Louis County.

In its first year, West County Center has struggled to capture the sales expected of it, according to figures from the city of Des Peres.

Analysts and retailers say the 1.3 million-square-foot mall, the area’s third largest, has been hurt in the struggling economy and by stiff competition from established high-end malls, namely the St. Louis Galleria and Plaza Frontenac.

Sales for 2003 will be down about 26 percent from original projections, according to the city.

In 2006 Federated closed numerous Lord & Taylor locations, including the one at the Galleria and West County Center (Biz Journal). Earlier this year Westfield and Tennessee based CBL formed a partnership that included a number of area malls, including West County Center.

So now this new partnership wants to create a community improvement district. From today’s Post-Dispatch:

CBL Properties, the new owners of the shopping center, plan to demolish half the building to create a restaurant village with four to six dining establishments and a courtyard in the center. The upper half of the remaining building would be a large bookstore and the lower half would have small retail shops.

The improvement district would impose a 1 percent sales tax on stores in the mall, except for anchor stores Macy’s, Nordstrom and J.C. Penney. The sales tax is expected to generate $10 million to retire notes or bonds issued to finance the project.

A public hearing will be held Dec. 10 on the request for the district, the redevelopment plan and conditional use permits.

Wow, when will these folks ever stop? So I’m now supposed to pay an extra cent sales tax on purchases at the Apple Store so they can fund the latest re-working of the failed indoor mall concept? Meanwhile, purchases made at one of the three anchors would be a cent less than in smaller stores in the mall?  And what “community” is this district to improve?  Are we calling a privately owned mall a community now?  The owner of this mall is not destitute — let them borrow the money needed to rebuild as they see fit.

“Clowns” on Jury Award Metro Zip!

The Post-Dispatch is reporting this afternoon that the jury in Metro’s case against four contractors reached a decision — Metro gets nothing out of the $81 million it sought. The contractors counter-suit against Metro? They get not quite half of their requested $6 million — $2.56 million. Ouch, that has to hurt.

Larry Salci, the head of Metro, must be a tad upset. He is probably calling folks more than just clowns. Earlier this month he said of KTVI’s Elliot Davis, “He fits right into St. Louis, he’s a (expletive) clown.” Salci later apologized.

Will this impact voters in St. Louis County in February when they are asked to approve a half cent sales tax to keep Metro solvent as well as raise money to extend the light rail system? Has Salci’s job security changed?

UPDATE 11/30/07 @ 7pm — link to article from St. Louis Business Journal.

What To Do With the Vacant Municipal Courts Building?

The latest plan for the shuttered Municipal Courts building was to be a boutique hotel across the street from a renovated Kiel Opera house. However, two years ago today developer Don Breckenridge lost his battle with lung cancer, he was 73.

The Municipal Courts building was vacated when the federal courts moved to the new Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse.   This allowed our municipal courts and related offices to move into the former digs of the federal courts, at Tucker and Market — two blocks East.

Just across the former 13th Street (now a parking lot for city hall) the building is ideal for city offices.  Currently the city leases office space in at least two other buildings —- 1015 Locust and 15th and Olive.  Traffic court is in space over at 15th and Olive.   The St. Louis Development Corporation and various departments such as the Planning & Urban Design Agency operate on the top two floors of the building at 1015 Locust — about 7 blocks away.  Someone visiting city hall for a building permit might be told they need to talk to someone over at 1015 Locust, say relating to a historic district.  I think Cultural Resources keeps someone over at City Hall even though their offices are on the 11th floor of 1015 Locust.  Eventually you learn the lay of the land and where everyone is located but why not have complimentary departments closer together?

Above is the view of the Municipal Courts building from the Ray Leisure conference room on the 2nd floor of City Hall.  As you can see, it is close!  The parking lot below is the former 13th Street.

The very civic nature of the building, the proximity of it to the existing city hall, and the fact we have leased space spread out in other buildings are all reasons we need to seriously consider using this structure for city government.

Of course, we have no money for renovations.  I don’t even know the minimum it needs to reopen for such purposes, certainly less than what it would need as a posh boutique hotel.  I also don’t know how long our leases run on the other two buildings where we have space.  ADA entrances and security becomes an issue with such an old building, as in city hall.  The city hall entrance facing Market street is no longer open, only the East entrance facing Tucker and the south entrance facing the parking lot are open, with the exception of the ADA entrance into the basement.  Thus someone going from one building to the next has to take the long way.
While the steep pitched roof of city hall eliminates the option of a green roof the Municipal Courts building is ideal for such a green living roof.   A green roof often implies a larger renovation but not necessarily.

I like the notion of taking a look at all of our city departments and various agencies to see how best to use City Hall and the Municipal Courts building as complimentary facilities.  Could we, at minimal cost, use this building?