What defines “Indy” media in St. Louis?

St. Louis has an abundance of publications beyond our sole daily paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Other print media includes:, The Vital VOICE, The Riverfront Times, The Healthy Planet, Sauce, and others that focus on targeted areas such as The West End Word, the Webster-Kirkwood Times, The Pulse (Brentwood/Mid-County) and the Arch City Chronicle.

But which of any of these are independent media? The Post-Dispatch and Suburban Journals are now owned by Lee Enterprises, a publicly traded corporation, so clearly they are not so indy. The Riverfront Times was founded by local boy Ray Hartmann but is now owned by a Village Voice Media based in Arizona. A number of the above list are owned by single individuals — Pam Schneider owns the Vital VOICE, Jeff Fister owns The West End Word and JB Lester owns The Healthy Planet. These, in my view, all constitute independent media as no outside interests have an ownership stake — they are self supporting. Or perhaps they are now too mainstream to still be considered “indy?”

Which brings me to The Arch City Chronicle. While the publication started out small and truly independent its need to take on investors has, in my mind, called into question its “indy” status. This is not necessarily a bad thing, I get much information from non-independent media outlets. But publisher Dave Drebes and editor Lucas Hudson continue to cling to the labels “indy” and “alternative” for their publication. However, the ACC has some investors that help fund the paper — we don’t know who they are, what percentage they own or what kind of money we are talking about. Sorry guys, but independent you are not. I don’t care how many times you repeat it, the virtue of having secret private investors removes all chances of being independent in my eyes.

I’ve been critical of other print media in the past including St. Louis Magazine, the Suburban Journals and the Arch City Chronicle. The reactions, however, were quite different. The editor of St. Louis magazine emailed me after tearing apart an article they wrote, thanking me for the critical feedback. In doing the same with the ACC you’d think I dangled a baby over a balcony or something the way people reacted.

The lack of knowledge around the funders brings up my suspicious side — yes, a conspiracy theory (someone was bound to say it so I thought I might as well be the first). It is my belief the ACC has turned into a quasi front group for the local political establishment, seeking a hip venue for dispensing the status quo to the non-blue hair set. My proof? None. If I had any real proof you’d seen it in full glory here. What leads me to this, beyond the curiosity about the identity of the investors, are postings swayed toward a single candidate or the close association with political insiders like Lou Hamilton. I just don’t see the Post-Dispatch using images by Hamilton unless part of a press kit given to everyone.

The Arch City Chronicle has many virtues and many great individuals responsible for the final edition, but “indy” is just not something I can accept.

Rail-Volution 2006: A Summary of My Experience Pt1

The 2006 Rail-Volution conference was exciting but exhausting. I did the math, I spent 23 hours in sessions between Sunday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon. The conference was quite intense.

The Conference:

This years conference was the 12th annual and it boosted over 1,000 attendees from something like 7 countries. St. Louis’ Citizens for Modern Transit (CMT) was among the sponsoring organizations of the conference and director Tom Shrout was a presenter. Other from St. Louis included a board member from CMT, a staff person from the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) and Clayton’s Director of Public Works, Paul L. Wojciechowski (Paul is both an engineer and a certified Planner). As a side note, we had a discussion about scooter parking in Clayton which I think we will get some attention along with more bicycle parking.

The 2007 Rail-Volution conference will be held in Miami next November. I’m not much of a beach person but the wealth of information from this conference makes it worth the effort. Although, I spent most of my time in really ugly conference rooms so I don’t know that it matters where the conference is held.

Streetcars:

Streetcars were the big thing at the conference with a number of sessions on them. Seems municipalities around the country are realizing their light rail systems are great for moving large quantities of people across the region (say far suburbs to downtown) but that they do very little to spur quality urban development along their routes. The streetcar, however, can step in to fill in the gaps. Systems across the country are doing just that.

Streetcar advocates are the first to say they are slower than light rail, but that speed is not the point. These systems are often less than 5 miles in total length. The streetcars function as a development tool first, transportation second. Pro-streetcar developers from Portland say they never would have taken the risks they did in the Pearl District based on a bus line that could have easily gone away. Thanks in part to the streetcar, this former warehouse area has gone from zoning of 15 dwelling units per acre (dua) to over 125 dua. Reduced parking requirements thanks to the transit has lowered development costs. The streetcar connects to downtown Portland where residents can then take bus or light rail to other parts of the region for work or shopping. So in addition to prompting billions in development, the remainder of the transit system has also shown increased ridership.

Both Portland and Kenosha WI placed the streetcar in vacant areas with zero ridership! The transit choice combined with new zoning has created outstanding development opportunities which is why the private property owners in Portland were willing to contribute to the capital and operational costs of their system. In Kenosha, the city owned all the land in question and were able to plan for its development.

I believe taking a streetcar from the Union Station MetroLink stop through the western edge of downtown and up to the Pruitt-Igoe site, vacant for over 30 years now, would help create a new neighborhood where one once existed prior to failed urban renewal policies. If done right, it could be dense and vibrant. Similar efforts could be used to bring development near other MetroLink stops such as the new Manchester Rd. stop in Maplewood (an old inner-ring suburb), the St. Charles Rock Road stop with the link extending through Wellston in the county to the city along MLK. Run the line for 2-3 miles and extend toward downtown over the next 5-10 years.

To all the critics that say streetcars are just for tourists and it is just a nostalgia thing are ignoring the facts — streetcars have a proven track record of spurring private development at high returns on the capital investment. The same cannot be said of the light rail systems costing 4-6 times as much per mile as streetcars. The regional light rail system approach was fine when started in the 1970s and 80s when people were still fleeing to the suburbs — the rail was used to get them back downtown. Well, things are different today with families comprising a smaller and smaller percentage of U.S. households and more singles and empty nesters moving back toward walkable communities. Regions that don’t embrace streetcars will stagnate while those that connect people on the micro level will prosper.

Take the current planning on the North & South routes for St. Louis. The assumption is light rail in the street. But, to keep speeds up the service will only stop roughly every mile. Should one happen to live relatively close to an infrequent stop and seek to get downtown quickly that is great. But what if you live between two stops — a half mile walk either way. And then your destination is a mile from your house, between the next two stops. In this case the costly light rail system that speeds right by you does nothing to help you get a mile down the road. You see, light rail is not intended to serve local needs — its greatest strength is moving people long distances such as downtown to the airport. Strong pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods are not built around light rail or bus service — they are built around streetcars.

All this is not to say we should not build any more light rail in the region, indeed we should. I think we can push more into North County from the current alignment near the airport — going up I-170 perhaps. Similarly, we can get to South County from the terminus of the newest alignment at Shrewsbury. The employment center of Westport can be served by connecting into the current system near Page or by a line coming north from Clayton along I-170. The reality is St. Louis city doesn’t have the tax base to “go it alone” on transit so we need county voters to help foot the bill. I’m fine with the county getting more costly and more longer to build light rail while the city would get less expensive but more development friendly streetcar lines.

In the various sessions at the conference focus was paid to funding streetcar systems. Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon spoke before the election on Tuesday about the intent behind the various funding programs. Preceding him at the podium were James Simpson, newly appointed Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration and his boss Mary E. Peters, Bush’s new U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Both promised improvements to the approval process for transit projects going through the Federal “New Starts” and “Small Starts” programs. Lobbying groups such as the New Starts Working Group are seeking improvements in the funding of projects not solely based on the speed at which systems move people but on the impact they will have on communities. Following the elections on Tuesday the mood was quite upbeat with many communities passing efforts to fund new transit projects. Pro-transit Congressman Earl Blumenauer will become the chair of the house committee on transportation. He will be pushing for changes at the FTA to look at criteria other than transit time reduction so that streetcars have a chance of getting some federal funding. One group gave away 200 copies of their new and highly detailed new book: Street Smart: Streetcars and Cities in the 21st Century.

Among the issues raised by streetcar advocates is the federal process for funding approval. Besides taking years too long, something Administrator Simpson recognized as costing projects millions in delays, they favor Bus Rapid Transit or Light Rail. The focus is on a reduction in travel time — commuter time. But, studies show commuting accounts for only 16% of household trips with the bulk of our trips being shorter runs to get groceries, do shopping, drop off the kids, or run errands. FTA guidelines currently look narrowly at reducing them time to get from A to B in a car which often leads to costly transit systems of little use for the bulk of our daily household trips. “Trips not counted” was an often heard phrase at the conference because the federal formulas simply do not account for the ‘trips not taken’ because of those living in compact urban environments thanks to streetcars — the trips taken on foot. The computer models for transit ridership also seem to not understand streetcars and often project ridership 30% or more below what actually ends up being the case. Getting the feds to accept more accurate modeling that accounts for many trips now being taken by foot or shorter trips taken by the streetcar is work that must still be done.

Further Reading/Resources:
• APTA: American Public Transit Association (director William Millar is a great speaker, very direct).
• Center for Transportation Excellent
• Reconnecting America (publisher of the Street Smart streetcar book).

Zoning

During many of the sessions I attended you wouldn’t know it that I was attending a rail transit conference. Much of the discussion was on zoning matters. The zoning discussions focused on areas I mention frequently: urban form and density. One session was entirely on form-based codes.

One speaker from Denver talked about their new Main Street Zoning overlay. This new zoning code is being used in the Colfax area of Denver with great success. Denver recognized their zoning, much like St. Louis’, made the urban buildings we love illegal “non-conforming” and the auto-centric buildings we attempt to tolerate quite permissible. The new zoning overlay can be optionally adopted by property owners, and most have. This allows them to, when they are ready, to build a more urban form without having to jump through many layers of political hoops with elected officials holding out their hands asking for “donations.” By reducing parking requirements developers can get more on a parcel of land. By making parking optional, this reduces costs and makes places more affordable.

Throughout all the sessions it was stressed that transit alone would not do the trick to revitalizing communities. The key was modern zoning that helps create density and high-quality pedestrian environments.

TOD/TDD/TND

Speakers from the mothership, Portland, talked about their streetcar project and how it came about. Speakers included folks from the city, the originally reluctant transit agency, and from the developer community. Together they forged a relationship that is mutually beneficial. They pointed out the high-density urban neighborhood that The Pearl District has become benefits even those that don’t use the streetcar — by having a walkable environment many are finding they can do many trips by foot. This brought up the benefits of walking, something many of us (me especially) need to do more of. They continued to street that the funding going into the streetcar was not just about moving people from point to point, the overall affect was much deeper. As housing costs near transit is often very costly Portland officials made 30% affordable housing part of the deal as well as mandating a percentage of rental and for sale units be under 700sf.

Speakers from Seattle talked about their new streetcar system that will open in 2007 as part of the South Lake Union re-development area. This area until the last year or two was basically low density warehouses between downtown Seattle and Lake Union. It had almost no residents and very little justification for increased bus service. But, with the streetcar and a good transit oriented development plan this overlooked area in Seattle is bustling with new high-density development — before the streetcar takes in its first paying customer!

I’ll have more in a future post on additional sessions from the conference, including a panel session on the future of cities — looking at changing demographics in our urbanized regions.

The 6th Ward Race Just Got More Interesting

The Arch City Chronicle is reporting that Christian Saller is tossing his hat into the ring to become the next alderman for the 6th Ward. Kacie Starr Triplett and Patrick Cacchione have already made their intentions clear. Cacchione is having a kick-off party tonight.

Presumably all will run as Democrats with the primary on March 6, 2007. With filing not even open yet one has to wonder if we will see anyone else decide to join the race on the Democratic side. Also, there is no better time than an open seat for a Republican, Libertarian, Green or Independent to take a stab at the office. With a 3-way race on the Democratic ballot there is a good chance that many voters will not see their candidate win — might they be picked up in the April General Election or will they be loyal to the Democratic party?

While representing the residents of the 6th Ward the new alderman must still make decisions which are hopefully in the best interests of the city as a whole. My concerns, of course, are urban issues — zoning, planning, development patterns, transportation, affordable housing and so on. It will be interesting to see if any of these three will go on record with respect to actual issues or if they will play the local party machine game of speaking only about constituent service.

At the moment, Saller appears to be the least political and the one with the most experience when it comes to issues around development. It will be interesting to see how each of them characterizes themselves relative to the other two.

I want to congratulate all three of these individuals for stepping up and declaring themselves candidates for office. Hopefully the process will be productive with various ideas and issues being discussed both within the ward and throughout the city. I’d like to think a spirited 3-way race will get more voters involved in the community.

As you can see from the map, the ward is in many neighborhoods from downtown to Tower Grove East. The issues on Washington Avenue (valet parking) are quite different those in some of the neighborhoods (vacant properties, violence). Race may also become an issue — not divisive necessarily — just a factor as residents vote. The 6th Ward in 2000 was roughly 40% white and 57% black. However, the ward boundaries have chanced since the census and is more white these days. Will Cacchione & Saller split the white vote giving Triplett the win by garnering most of the black vote? I’d like to think voters will vote for the best person in which race should not be a consideration and hopefully we will see some voters selecting someone of a different race than their own.

Now all we need are additional candidates in the other even numbered wards…

Waiting to Endorse Candidates

For what it is worth, I do plan to endorse candidates in the upcoming municipal elections in the City of St. Louis. While people are already lining up behind this person or that person I want to share my thoughts on endorsements.

First, I will not be supporting anyone that is unopposed. It is just downright silly to see people endorse someone that has no challenger. That simply means your endorsement is worthless.

Second, I will not be supporting anyone until after campaign finance reports due on January 25th, 2007 are filed and I’ve had a chance to review them. I want to know, before I recommend a candidate, where their money is coming from — who is behind their candidacy. This is especially important this election since the campaign finance limits are getting tossed aside as of January 1st. Again, we won’t really know who is funding these races until late January and for me that makes a difference.

In municipal elections I could care less about political party — Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian or Independent. The Democrat’s National Platform doesn’t appear to speak to issues of say transportation or smart growth. The Missouri Democrats don’t have any platform at all, at least none that I could find. And the St. Louis City Democrats barely have a website, much less a coherent platform relevant to local issues. Where do local Democrats stand on smart growth, regional cooperation (consolidation?), transportation funding, and affordable housing? We are all expected to blindly vote for Democrats without any expectation of a vision. Oh sure, they say catchy phrases like they will, “improve the quality of our neighborhoods” but what does that mean? How specifically will they accomplish this task? Are they doing to work with others in the region to limit the affects of sprawl on the city and inner-ring suburbs? Maybe they are going to adopt new zoning? It is hard to say you are going to improve something until you cite that which needs improving — what is it in the neighborhoods that could be changed so as to create a higher quality environment?

Basically the Democratic stronghold on St. Louis politics has left them complacent on local issues. The group, currently led by Brian Wahby, focuses on state and national elections, local elections being an assumed. They’ve never had a reason to elaborate on a vision or strategies for lifting St. Louis out of decades of population decline. Through countless administrations the solution has been one mega “silver bullet” project after another — mostly downtown. This same flawed logic continues today with the idea that is what is good for downtown is good for the rest of the city. This has some truth in it but it can only go so far.

Until the Democrats, as a local party, demonstrate they collectively can agree on a vision and course of action I will certainly not give a blanket endorsement to voting for Democrats. Sadly, the Republicans are no better in this area and are virtually non-existant in this town. The Greens and Libertarians actually have some good ideas but they tend to focus all their energy (and limited resources) on running candidates for Mayor or Governor. I’d like to see one or both of these parties put together a competent candidacy for the open 6th Ward aldermanic seat.

Now that I think about all the flaws in local politics, come February I may not endorse a single person.

Patterson on KDHX Tonight

I will be a guest on KDHX’s Collateral Damage show this evening from 7pm to 7:30pm (CST). Collateral Damage is hosted by D.J. Wilson and Fred Hessel and is immediately followed by The Wire with Amanda Doyle and Thomas Crone. Both programs can be streamed live or downloaded as a podcast.