Commentary on MetroLink in West End Word

This week’s edition of the West End Word includes an editorial from me on the one year anniversary of the MetroLink light rail extension to Shrewsbury. See ‘One Year On, MetroLink Fails to Impress.‘

Site Back Online

Earlier today you may have noticed that UrbanReviewSTL.com was not available.  My hosting company had a major outage which left many without websites or email.  All seems to be fixed now.

Walk-ins Welcome, Well Not Literally

As part of my monthly ‘appreciate the city day’ I visited a friend out in the older ring suburb of Richmond Heights. I’m working on a highly detailed post about the reconstruction of I-64 (aka highway 40) but in the meantime I wanted to share just one bit of what I saw yesterday. It is these little trips out to the burbs that help me remember that no matter how bad things are in the city they are usually worse in suburban areas.

So walking along Clayton Road between Hanley and Brentwood I spotted the above sign, “Walk Ins Welcome.” I immediately smiled when I saw the sign…

Despite all the cute architectural elements of this building, meant to evoke images of home, is as auto-centric as everything else. Sure, walk ins are welcome but only from the parking lot — they don’t provide a sidewalk to the front door from the public sidewalk. Oh the irony that someone had to walk through the grass to put out the welcome sign.

While I appreciate the care this facility offers I am continually amazed that the simple notion of providing a means for someone to walk to a facility is omitted. Conveniently they placed their phone number on the board so I pulled out my cell phone and called. The nice receptionist was a bit taken aback when I asked how I was supposed to walk in without a sidewalk. She said, “Are you in the parking lot?” “No” I replied, “I’m on the public sidewalk.” “Oh, I see you now.” I left a message for their director but I’ve not heard back.

So they are certainly not going to let those in their care, especially those with memory issues, out for an afternoon walk along a busy street. However, family and friends of those in the facility might live nearby and it would be convenient for someone to walk or bike over.

When planning new facilities we should make sure walk ins truly are welcomed.

Valet Companies Continue to Disregard City Rules

In the blocks of Washington Ave east of Tucker we cannot have on-street parking for local businesses from 4pm to 6pm as this is our evening rush period. We don’t really have a rush of traffic for two hours so much as we have a half hour when everyone leaves their parking garages at the same time and the signal timing on the lights doesn’t help with traffic flow. So keeping two lanes open seems to be the solution at this time. Well, except for Copia.

Yesterday afternoon, at 5:40pm, the valets had taken the right rush hour lane for their own personal use. They are granted a very generous valet zone which begins at 6pm but that is simply not good enough for them.  Despite being repeatedly told that cones and signs are now allowed in the public right of way, they continue to use these items which can be a danger to cyclists.

Again we are talking 5:40pm on a Monday evening.  We don’t exactly see a long line of cars to be valet parked this early and on a Monday. 

A few weeks earlier they were marking off additional parking meters as no parking valet area — beyond the assigned valet zone.  When I was taking pictures they approached me with permits from both the city streets department and the city Treasurer’s office (that handles meters) and said it was allowed.  It seems the Treasurer’s office is willing to issue permits that grant a business the right to take the meter despite what the Street Department says about a valet permit and only so much space.  It would appear that our political fragmentation in our region has little to do with the city not being part of the county but even within the city limits having too many entities all saying they have jurisdiction.  So who is it really that has the power to authorize valets to operate in the city? 

Meter parking is free downtown after 7pm weekdays and on weekends.  Are we now going to have valets getting permits from the Treasurer to take those free spaces in addition to what the Street Dept has already granted? 

New Signs for Gym Loom Over Sidewalk in St. Louis’ Loft District; Downtown Talk on Homeless

New businesses, such as gyms, are welcomed additions to loft districts such as the vibrant area in the 1300 block of Washington Ave in downtown St. Louis. We’ve seen some really great new signs of late at places such as Windows on Washington, The Dubliner, The Gelateria, Red and so on. St. Louis’ sign ordinance is about as modern as our 1947 zoning code so pretty much anything except uniform letters on the ends of boring awnings requires a variance. I’m quite pleased the city has worked with so many local businesses to allow the interesting variety of quality new signs.

But when it comes to the new signs at The Fitness Factory I am just scratching my head to think how anyone thought this was a good idea:

From the above angle you can’t even see the interesting sign for Flannery’s neighborhood pub to the west of the Fitness Factory.

To make matters worse, these are a matching pair!

From the opposite view, in front of Flannery’s, you can see the sign’s relationship to the buildings and sidewalk.

While the vinyl makes them look temporary (and cheap) the securing hardware makes them look more permanent. If I lived in the 2nd floor loft next door I’d be more than a tad upset about having my view up the street blocked to such an extent.

I’m going to see if Ald. Kacie Triplett (D-6th), shown at right, can take a look at these in person before her Downtown Talk on the homeless which starts at 7pm Monday August 13, 2007 at the beautiful St. Louis Central Library.

UPDATE 8/14/07 @ 7:30am:

The banners/signs for Fitness Factory are gone as one of the comments below indicates.  This was not due to my argument against them but the storm that passed through town in the hours before I posted this.

Last night’s talk was very good.  We didn’t really accomplish a whole lot other than have a pretty open and frank discussion about the needs of the homeless vs the quality of life for residents — but that is a huge step forward.  Hats off to Ald. Triplett for handling such a controversial topic so well.