A Look at St. Louis’ MLK Drive, Part 3 of 5

This post is part three of a five part series. Part three looks at MLK Drive from Jefferson Ave to Grand Ave.

• Part One — Introduction.
• Part Two — MLK from Tucker to Jefferson Ave.

“Melvin’s Permanent Village” isn’t so permanent afterall. Debris from the roof collapse is pushing at the front gates that used to cover the store windows. This is just west of Jefferson.

This stretch of MLK from Jefferson to Grand has few buildings left. Many that remain are in poor condition but a few are quite outstanding. The main thing you notice in this section of MLK is the new sidewalks, curb bulb outs and street lighting as shown above. Last year I said it was good to have the improvements, adding:

I think it is important to send a message of hope to current residents & business owners as well as those that are prospective residents and/or business owners. My fear is that sidewalks and street lamps is a little too late.

I then went on to advocate a streetcar line as the needed push on MLK. I still believe it will take a major force such as that to fully revitalize this street but we will save that discussion for another day. In the last year I have spent more time on MLK than I have in my prior 15 years living in St. Louis. I’ve also spent a lot of the last year learning about and reporting on poorly planned pedestrian access.

Sadly, in this one mile stretch of MLK where we’ve spend a good sum of money (I don’t have exact figures so I am not going to speculate), only at one point are the sidewalks and ramps designed for actually crossing MLK. This is worth repeating — in an entire mile only one place exists where it is suggested via the sidewalks that you can cross MLK.

This is it, the one spot where the sidewalks and accessible ramps are actually pointed across MLK and aligned with each other. Of course, an able bodied person can easily cross the street anywhere along this mile stretch but we don’t spend this kind of money only for those that are able bodied. Others using wheelchairs and mobility scooters need to be able to get around as well. Maybe they are trying to get to church?

Above is looking from Glasgow Ave across MLK at a popular church (it got much busier on my return trip past this location about an hour later). As you can see, coming from the North the sidewalk continues along MLK both east (and west). However, someone wanting to cross MLK to reach this church is not afforded the basics of a sidewalk. Again, someone who is able bodied can easily walk across but someone using the assistance of a wheelchair must get through the standing water and then attempt to locate a break in the curb on the opposite side or have someone assist them in getting over the curb and through the grass.

Such lack of consideration for how people might actually get from place to place on a sidewalk shows the lack of common sense with respect to planning as as well as oversight and review prior to construction. Former Ald. Mike McMillan, now the city’s license collector, has touted this streetscape among his accomplishments. I presume he has never actually walked it himself.

A little further west, at N. Garrison we see a similar situation. Here we are looking east along MLK (the street to the right) with Gamble St off to the left (although not through at this point). The sidewalk for MLK heads over toward Gamble but the actual ramp is pointing out to the still too wide crossing. Again, despite this being a significant crossing point, no walks are provided across MLK.

The senior housing that was being built last year near Compton & MLK is now complete and open. It does a nice job of respecting the street pattern in the area as well as giving a nice massing to a largely vacant area. The building has good sidewalk connections to the entrances.

Across MLK from the senior housing, rubble is all that remains of the former Blumeyer housing projects at the intersection of MLK and Page. Ironically, the new housing that is being built in the area is quite pedestrian friendly but as we’ve seen, the sidewalks to the east are not so friendly. The development happening to the west is not pedestrian friendly either.

In the triangle formed by MLK, Page and Grand are these fine old warehouses and a gas station (behind these buildings). It would be nice to see these renovated into retail & housing but I’m afraid a lack of vision and leadership in this area will lead to their demolition for something suburban.

And finally we arrive at North Grand where work is underway for a brand new suburban Walgreen’s store. A very urban (and stunning) building facing Grand was razed for what will be a generic and short term building that only drains money from the neighborhood. See my prior post on this subject.

My Flickr photoset on this section of MLK contains a total of 41 images, click here to see them all.  Click here to continue to part four of this series.

A Look at St. Louis’ MLK Drive, Part 2 of 5

This post is part two of a five part series. Part two looks at MLK Drive from Tucker to Jefferson Ave. Click here to read part one.

Along Tucker (12th) we see ugly bright yellow “Jersey” barriers placed along the outside lane. I’m standing at the start of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive which is to the left, heading westbound. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is located on the right with literal acres of surface parking on the left.

Above is 16th Street as seen from Delmar, the next block up is MLK. Two years ago this was gated off forcing pedestrians traversing the area to seek alternate routes or as they had done when I posted on it back on November 18, 2004 pry the bars enough to allow a person to squeeze through. I’m glad to see it opened once again to traffic.

Former Franklin School, above, bounded by MLK on the north, 18th on the east, Delmar on the south and 19th on the west is getting rebuilt into affordable housing units for the active adult (55+). Thankfully I am still too young to qualify although I’m just a short 15 years away.

Near 22nd Street along MLK is a vacant city block, at least partially owned by Butler Re-Development. Part of an earlier city-backed development scheme for the area, many current owners have been sitting on these vacant parcels for years with little to no pressure from City Hall to bring the land back into productive use. Substantial amounts of land in this area are vacant. The city helped many of these owners acquire the land, maybe it is time to step in and demand they finally do something? Mayor Slay is a proponent of selective use of eminent domain, if this doesn’t qualify I don’t know what does.

A few additional photos from MLK between Tucker & Jefferson can be seen on Flickr. To continue to part three of this series click here.

A Look at St. Louis’ MLK Drive, Part 1 of 5

Tomorrow is our national holiday to honor the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was assisinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee. I took the photo, at right, of the Lorainne Motel where he was killed when I visited Memphis in March last year.

For the past two years I have done posts looking at the St. Louis street which bears his name, this year will be no different. However, I have broken the street into four sections and each will receive a full post with numerous pictures and commentary (these will be posted indiviually as done).

Although I’ve never read any of Dr. King’s books I, like most Americans, have heard bits and pieces from his various speeches including the famous “I have a Dream” speech given the day before he was killed. I reviewed a number of quotes from Dr. King, all brilliant and insightful, and pulled these as having particular meaning to me personally and what I strive for in my life and work:

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Each quote gives me reason to pause and think about my own life and why I continue to fight the fights that I do. As I am labeled a radical or zealot I know I am on the right path. Dr. King’s words give me strength to keep up the battle for a better St. Louis.

If Dr. King were with us today no doubt our cities would be different — better — places to live. Without question, white flight to the suburbs would have continued but the black flight that followed may not have happened, or not to the same degree as it did. I do not believe we’d see the black on black violence that we have in many cities, including St. Louis. This is, of course, pure speculation on my part. We will never know what the world would have been like had Dr. King not been killed that April day nearly 40 years ago. The best we can do is think how he would have guided society toward peace and brotherhood and work toward such a vision.

The posts that follow this one will examine the current state of St. Louis’ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. First, some background:

• Most of the street we now call MLK Drive was known as Easton Ave and a small part of Franklin Ave. (East of Jefferson).
• Easton Ave & Franklin Ave were named for Dr. King in 1972, four years after his assasination in 1968.
• In 1948 the US Supreme Court ruled on a St. Louis case, Shelley vs. Kramer, that racially restrictive covenants prohibiting non-whites from owning property in certain areas could not be enforced by the government. That case involved a house on Labadie Ave just 10 blocks north of then Easton Ave near Kingshighway. And yes, it was the “Kramer’s” that were seeking to keep the Shelley’s off their street, long before Michael Richards portrayed character Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld.
• The historically black neighborhood, The Ville, borders MLK and is just blocks to the east of the area where the Shelley vs. Kramer case was attempting to keep out blacks. Following the 1948 ruling, black families could search for housing throughout the city. And leave they did, the Ville’s population dropped by nearly 40% between 1950 and 1970. For perspective, the city’s overall population drop in the same period was roughly 28% so we can see the Ville experienced a much higher rate of outflux. To be fair, restrictive actions meant to contain blacks in the Ville and a few other small areas meant the Ville was likely far more overcrowded than many other parts of the city. Still, the city lost 237,527 residents during this two decade period so the writing was on the wall for urban commercial streets like MLK Drive.
• Partly in response to the loss of population, the streetcar line that once traversed the length of then Easton ran its final time on July 28, 1963 — nearly 44 years ago! It was replaced the following day with bus service.

It is my personal belief that our current political establishment is not well prepared to deal with the magnitude of rebuilding that St. Louis needs to take on over the next 40 years. As our black population has become an increasing percentage of the shrinking population we’ve seen a rise in black leadership, a good thing. However, I believe many of these to have simply accepted the factional ward-based political machine politics that St. Louis has had for over 100 years. I do not believe that black representatives are looking our for their constituents any better than a white politician. Their retention of power has trumped the interests of rebuilding strong and vibrant neighborhoods out of fear they will be replaced. For St. Louis to once again prosper we must get beyond this type of political system to one where we all focus on repopulating our neighborhoods.

As you will see in the following four posts, St. Louis’ MLK Drive is not worthy of the man it is intended to honor. We should be ashamed of the condition we’ve let this once vibrant street get to. We must also hold up higher standards for how we invest in the future of the street. Dr. King deserves better.

Selected prior posts relating to MLK Drive:

• January 17, 2005 (Let Us Turn Our Thoughts Today to Martin Luther King)
• January 17, 2006 (A critical look at MLK Drive)
• February 2, 2006 (Metropolis Walk in the Ville)
• April 24, 2006 (AIA Holds Charrette in the Ville)
• September 26, 2006 (St. Louis’ Neighborhood Boundaries need to be Examined)
• September 27, 2006 (A fine building on MLK Razed)
• October 13, 2006 (McMillan rezoning for Walgreens)

Click here to continue to part two of five.

Taxi Cabs Block Sidewalk at Convention Center, Exit Via Crosswalk

Today I was walking up and down Washington Avenue this morning checking out the parking situation and ran across another of those problems that I’d seen myself, and been reminded of by a reader, but never got around to documenting: Taxi cabs blocking the sidewalkl in front of our convention center.

Above is the Westbound view along Washington Avenue at 8th street. Other convention center entrances I’ve seen often have street vendors selling hot dogs and bottled water but not in St. Louis, we have cars!

Here is the same area seen from the opposite perspective, note the yellow taxi in the direct path of pedestrians. The wide area to the left is a circle driveway for dropping off people at the convention center, not a place we should expect pedestrians to be walking.

The taxis wait here as part of a designated taxi stand until called over by an attendant at the Renaissance Grand hotel show above, right. How do they get there? Yes, they exit via the pedestrian crossing shown above. Don’t believe me? Watch the video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRusfBYJ-_8[/youtube]

This is how visitors to our city are treated. No place to buy a snack or newspaper, US Bank’s ugly parking garage immediately across the street, taxi’s running you down in the crosswalk. And yet we wonder why this section of Washington Ave is not more lively.

The solution is rather simple actually. Set up the taxi stand on Washington Ave between 7th and 8th, moving the existing bus stop to the West of 8th but still in front of the convention center. Also allow parking on the opposite side of Washington next to the Renaissance Grand Hotel. A few spaces could be short-term spaces (15-30 minutes) for those running into Starbucks or Kinkos). The rest would serve the general area. At the end of that block An American Place restaurant could have 60ft or so for valet. Back at 7th and Washington I’d set up a single short-term space immediately adjacet to the visitor’s center.

As you might expect, I will be bringing this matter to the attention of the St. Louis Metropolitan Taxicab Commission, the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, the Downtown St. Louis Partnership, 7th Ward Alderman Phyllis Young and the Slay administration.

Update 1/12/07 – 12:15pm — for those that don’t know, I’m a big country music fan.  This situation and the one from last week with city employees parking on the sidewalk along 14th (see post) reminds me of the recent hit song by Jason Aldean, “Hicktown”:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4_hCdNwvO0[/youtube]

Welcome to St. Louis, a hicktown on the Mississippi.

Valet Zones Established on Washington Avenue

Finally! My first mention of valet parking was on December 6, 2005. Today, just over a year later, the problem was basically solved — the city’s Street Department installed signs marking valets zones in the 1100 and 1200 blocks of Washington Ave.

The West end of Lucas Park Grille’s valet zone (in the 1200 block) is basically at the end of their restaurant, as it should be.  [Update 1/12/07 10:45am – I measured their space from sign to sign this morning and it is a reasonable 88ft.]

The real confusing thing here has nothing to do with valet parking — from the signs to my back is no parking as this is both a bus stop and the intersection with 13th Street (although part does not have through traffic) yet a parking meter is attached to the post (mostly hidden in this view). So the signs say no parking from the sign back yet a parking meter exists as though it would be OK.  [Update 1/12/07 10:45am – I missed this last night but saw it this morning and a commenter also pointed it out — some of the meters in this area are located at the back of the spaces rather than the front.  That is the case here — the meter is for the space where the BMW is parked above.]

This sign is the opposite end of the Lucas Park Grille valet zone. Again, they’ve got the full space in front of their restaurant for people to drop off and pick up their cars. The remainder of the spaces they had been taking, roughly 7-10 are now available for the general public.

Moving to the East we get to the 1100 block of Washington Ave where Copia has been taking the entire block for a year. I took this picture during the no-parking on street time of 4pm-6pm, another subject I will get to later in this post. I returned later after 6pm and the valet company had covered this meter with one of their no-parking covers and saying the space where I am standing to take this picture was also for valet. As you can see, the restaurant is up ahead and they have the zone up to the white car in the background. The sign is clearly pointing that direction but I didn’t bother arguing with him. There will be an education and adjustment period and I have faith in the new acting Director of Streets to do what it takes keep the streets in order.

[Update 1/12/07 @ 10:45am — I went down there this morning and did some measuring.  From the sign shown below at the east end of their zone to the sign shown above it is a huge 129ft — too long.  Plus they were thinking they got the space that the sign is attached to — that total length is 151ft.  In reality they should have one less space for a total of 106ft, still a reasonable length in my view. ] 

This image is the eastern end of the Copia valet zone. Again, they have a reasonable amount of space to conduct their business while everyone else has public parking to be shared. This small change will have a significant impact on the visual appearance of the street, including the perception of how happening the street is. No longer will we see big dead zones due to valets co-opting all the available spaces. Good common sense has prevailed.

I want to thank Ald. Lyda Krewson (D-28th Ward) for her many hours of working on this issue. I know it has been hours because she and I have literally spent hours talking and emailing over this subject for a good six months or more. Plus I gather she has had numerous conversations with valet company owners, other aldermen and so on. In the past I’ve said 8 years was plenty for an alderman, that after that many years they nothing else to give and it was time to move on. Well, I think I was wrong — despite the 9 years Ald. Krewson has been on the Board of Aldermen it is clear to me now Ald. Krewson has plenty of drive to tackle issues and can be open to suggestions and alternate views. Click here to send an email to Ald. Krewson thanking her for taking the time to pursue this issue.
Also deserving attention is the new acting Director of Streets, Todd Waeltermann. Having just started the job in December he has rolled up his sleeves and got down to work with Ald. Krewson on this issue. Like Krewson, he has gotten very involved and applied some very sensible common sense to the issue. I also hear the folks in the Slay administration were very supportive so thank you Room 200!

The other people that deserve credit are the many of you that sent emails and made phone calls regarding this issue. I have a big mouth but I think it took the efforts of more voices to get things rolling. Citizens standing up on an issue can be heard, persistence will eventually pay off. Of course the work is not complete. The city apparently had about 16 valet permits/areas so it will take some time for the zones to be established throughout the city to the other 14. The good thing is once that is done the companies that supposedly operate reguarly without a permit will become far more obvious. Short-term permits (1 or 2 days) will still be issued without any signs being installed.

So despite being quite pleased with the action taken today I want to point out a few issues that need to be looked at in the near future. The main one is the obnoxious 4pm-6pm no parking rule on Washington Ave from Tucker East. It really only applies to two blocks (1000 & 1100) because the remainder of the blocks to the river are no-parking 24/7. As I said a year ago, I think we should allow parking along Washington all the way to the river — with the possible exception of the spaces immediately in front of American’s Center. Those spaces, in front of the convention center, should be reserved for cabs.

The concern, of course, is how do we allow for workers to quickly flee the city at 5pm. By allowing parking on-street in the morning & evening rush it will take them a bit longer. Well, I say time the lights better along Washington so some is not having to stop at every signal. Also, encourage East-West traffic to use the much wider Cole Ave to the North of the convention center. We’ve literally invested millions of dollars in Washington Ave and visitors coming and going between the convention center and the hotel across the street currently get the impression the street is dead. All they can see from 8th street is an empty street with little to no activity. The only real activity they see are four lanes of traffic going by but not stopping.

Back in the 1000 and 1100 blocks of Washington Ave I am concerned the lack of on-street parking between 5pm and 6pm is negatively affecting the happy hour business at Kitchen K, Dubliner and even Copia. I’d like to see the city do a test of allowing on-street parking from at least 9th street to Tucker throughout the day at it is to the West. At the same time push back the start time for Copia’s valet to 5pm or 5:30pm from 6pm so they can capture that after work crowd. To make this work it would be good to perhaps put up some signs on Tucker and other places where traffic is originating to direct them to alternate routes such as Cole along with reworking the timing on the traffic lights. Tonight I go to bed feeling better about St. Louis. I leave you with a well known quote:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

– Margaret Mead