Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center Opens Renewable Energy Center in 25th Ward

For nearly a year now the old Held Florist & Greenhouse in the 47xx block of Tennessee Ave has been getting a make over. Broken greenhouse glass fixed, a good cleaning, paint and such. A woman named Susan Jansen had purchased the property in late 2006 and everyone was finally glad to see things happening. In July, the property was sold to the New Life Evangelistic Center operated by Rev. Larry Rice. NLEC is most well known as the controversial homeless shelter located on Locust between 14th & 15th.

On Saturday the 25th Rice held a grand opening for his new Missouri Renewable Energy Center located at the property. But, by this time his holdings had expanded. If you recall from June, the 1894 frame farm house was being threatened with demolition but the Preservation Board put the kibosh on that (see prior post). On August 7th the NLEC, represented by Larry Rice, purchased the old Held home and the adjacent land. The brick 2-family with the green roof in the background above was formerly my home which I sold in January 2006 (can you say good timing?) to an owner occupant.

I’m still not sure what to make of all this but I do know that a number of people have contacted me expressing their concern about his presence in the neighborhood. When I told one concerned person about the change of ownership, their reaction was simply, “Oh shit!”

Environmental Planning Class Debates Gas Taxes and Other Issues

Tuesday evening was my first class of my second year of grad school. For those just tuning in, I am working on a masters degree in Urban Planning & Real Estate Development (UPRED for short) at Saint Louis University. The class, officially known as Environmental Planning and Risk Analysis, is going to be interesting. The instructor, Dr. Sarah Coffin, indicated we will all be nudged out of our comfort zones during the class. And yes, she is skilled at pushing me out of my comfort zone (in a good way).

Initial conversations got into issues throughout the world such as pollution in China, foresting in the NW, water quality in the great lakes, invasive plants in Georgia and so on. It was also brought closer to home as a couple of our assignments will focus on local environmental planning issues. Our first assignments will be readings from Aldo Leopold. Our first paper will require looking at a local environmental issue from either the perspective of Leopold, or from an opposing view.

I should clarify for readers, my fellow classmates and Dr. Coffin that, in any posts I do related to class, I will not identify personalities or classmates in these posts. In-class discussions should remain free dialog. Still, I think the subject matter and the diverse viewpoints are good for debate here. And of course, anything I’m posting here will certainly be a simplification of what was reviewed in two and a half hours in class. If you want more detail you’ll simply have to enroll! OK, with that cleared up we can move on.

Our discussion of local issues turned to air pollution and causes. This led to the car and one solution of raising gas taxes to curb use. Talk was then about what price would we actually see a shift in habits due to price. Another point was that higher fuel prices will impact those driving longer distances to reach their jobs — people living in places like Chesterfield and St. Charles County don’t have the alternate transit choices as those closer to the core. This brought us to public choice theory — that people chose to live there. However, that is where much of our jobs are located so perhaps that is the best place to live. Furthermore, not everyone wants to live in a downtown loft (or they can’t all afford said loft). Then it was suggested that not everyone can live downtown or in the city — we have a region of over 2 million people so some will live outside the urban core in suburban-ish areas. The point was made that suburban areas like Chesterfield, Creve Coeur and Dardenne Prairie are all working on town centers as evidence that even those that enjoy suburban living, and schools, do want a more urban environment than what they have but want it in their context, not in the older core. We quickly moved to road projects such as the Page Ave Extension and the rebuilding of highway forty were to accommodate those from the west trying to get downtown. It was countered that this was not the only reason 40 was being rebuilt. Bringing it home was the point that higher gas taxes would most impact the working poor that, due to lack of public transit to many places, are forced to drive to newer suburban areas for employment. Suffice to say, in under 10 minutes, we didn’t resolve the debate about gas taxes but we covered a lot of ground.

Toward the end of the semester our topics will evolve into more complex papers and eventually into each of us teaching a portion of the class on our topic.

Patterson a Panelist at National Rail~Volution Conference in Miami, MO-APA Conference in St. Louis

I’m very pleased to announce that I will serve on a panel discussion at the upcoming Rail~Volution conference in Miami FL. The panel on media tools will be on November 1st. I attended the annual conference for the first time last year and I was amazed at the quality & quantity of information.

Keynote speakers for the upcoming conference are, from the website:

Henry Cisneros, Chairman, American City Vista and City View
Henry Cisneros has an illustrious career that combines executive management in a variety of businesses, local and national government leadership positions, and numerous prestigious civic positions. He is the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a four-term mayor of San Antonio. In these positions Cisneros has unprecedented success in revitalizing urban areas and providing housing for urban families in all income ranges. His current ventures, American City Vista and City View, focus on building significant numbers of reasonably priced homes in the central neighborhoods of major metropolitan areas. Cisneros has been awarded more than 20 honorary doctorates from leading universities across the nation.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer, 3rd District, Oregon
Congressman Earl Blumenauer, founder of Rail~Volution, has focused most of his 34 years in public service on transportation and livable communities. He served as a state-, county-, and city-elected official in Oregon before being elected to Congress in 1996. In the U.S. House of Representatives, Blumenauer promotes livable communities, the environment, sustainable development and economic opportunity at the federal level. He currently serves on the Ways and Means Committee, the Budget Committee and the Select Committee on Global Warming and the Environment.

James S. Simpson, Administrator, Federal Transit Adminstration, Washington, DC
Mr. James S. Simpson was sworn in as the Federal Transit Administrator on August 10, 2006. Jim began his career in transportation over 30 years ago as a tractor-trailer driver for a local moving company while attending St. John’s University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Managerial Science and Economics. He eventually bought the moving company and developed it into an international transportation business. Jim has been an airplane pilot for almost twenty years and flies both jet and multi-engine prop aircraft. He has a special interest in aviation and transportation safety.

William W. Millar, President, American Public Transportation Association, Washington, D.C.
William W. Millar is president of one of North America’s foremost organizations dedicated to the advancement of public transit. Millar became chief executive officer of APTA after 24 years in transit operations and is credited with re-energizing the national organization. Millar will bring us up to date on transit projects and will share his perspective on the future of public transit.

James F. Murley, Director, Catanese Center for Environmental and Urban Solutions, Florida Atlantic University, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Jim Murley is the leader of an organization whose mission is to: “work with policy makers and the public in their pursuit of options for managing growth while preserving natural systems, promoting a strong economy and planning livable communities.” He served as secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs under former governor Lawton Chiles and helped draft and gain passage of Florida’s landmark Growth Management Act. Murley also is a former leader of 1000 Friends of Florida and will provide great insight into the history and vision of our host region.

Rep Blumenauer gave a great presentation last year and I had a chance to talk briefly with him about St. Louis:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gidCOjS82mU [/youtube]

You can also read my post as a summary on the conference here. Additional posts can be found in the archives. Yesterday I had a conference call with the other panelists and the moderator, a very diverse group including transit advocates, industry consultants, a transit agency representative and the federal DOT. I will give you more details prior to the conference.

Although I have visited Florida numerous times as a kid (my older brother lived in Jacksonville while in the Navy) I have never been to Miami. I hope to do some quality blogging from the conference as well as some sight seeing and taking advantage of some of the mobile workshops on the conference schedule. Last year the host group from Miami had an excellent promotional video with the music from Will Smith’s Miami.

Following the short trip to Miami I will be back in St. Louis in time for the Missouri state conference of the American Planning Association, held this year in downtown St. Louis (more details) November 7-9. This panel will be called “Daylighting Planning Decisions” — more details to follow.

9th Street Converted to 2-Way, 8th to be Closed During Tower Construction

On Friday the 24th those not on Jim Cloar’s email list discovered that 9th street — long a one-way northbound street — had suddenly and seemingly without notice been changed to two-way traffic where it was once one-way: from Olive north to Washington Ave. Downtown Partnership’s Cloar explains in his update to members on August 17, 2007:

As noted previously, 8th Street is scheduled to be closed curb to curb from Locust to St. Charles, possibly beginning as early as next Monday. The east- side sidewalk, next to US Bank, will remain open. The closure is necessitated by the impending start of construction on the Roberts Tower.

Also note that 9th Street will soon be converted to two-way from Olive north to Washington (it is already two-way extending north of Washington). This will help relieve traffic concerns prompted by the 8th Street closure and will serve as a test for future possible conversion of other one-way streets to two-way.

I’m a bit torn on this one. I don’t see why it is necessary to close 8th entirely for construction but I am glad to see 9th as two-way. I also don’t see why such information is limited to those on the member roles of the partnership. Did Ald. Young alert her constituents? Did the city and/or partnership place a public notice in something like the Washington Ave Greensheet? What about some signs indicating a change would take place? At least when Locust was changed from one-way to two-way they put up some extra signs for a few weeks afterwards to remind those that are not yet used to the change. The city did recently issue a press release about a temporary closing of the Compton Viaduct (read) but did not do the same for this.

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What Local Control Gets Us In St. Louis

Yeah, Rep. Rodney Hubbard saved the day by requiring local control over any development receiving a huge state tax credit (at least in the version passed by the state house). So, if passed by the Senate and signed by Gov Blunt then Paul McKee will have to make political contributions to aldermanic campaigns, not just those of the Mayor and President of the Board of Aldermen. With contribution limits back in place it really shouldn’t cost him much. For all 28 aldermen that is less than ten grand. Pocket change.

And for anyone that thinks that magically the development we’ll get will magically be better due to local control think again. Here are a few reminders of local control in St. Louis:

New sidewalks between residential areas and mass transit lacking street trees.

Massive parking lots but no ADA access route. … Continue Reading