Now Accepting Nominations for “Worst Shopping Center in St. Louis City”

I think it is time I begin handing out some “awards” in St. Louis to recognize the efforts of those architects, engineers, planners, developers, bureaucrats and politicians making St. Louis such a special place to live. I want you to help in the nomination and selection process.

First up, shopping centers. This is not the voting process yet but simply gathering the list of places to be listed and ranked. I thought about some nomination criteria and I think we need to exclude a couple of types. First, I would exclude single use places such as the Target on Hampton and the Schnuck’s on Grand & Gravois — I’m thinking it is better to look only at those projects which include multiple tenants. We could, in the future, look at single-use commercial development. The other exclusion I’m thinking is those that are older than say 15 years. I’ve listed some excluded places below but if you feel strongly about including one by all means indicate why below in the comments.

Other criteria would include a project with private drives and parking — making it a center. The question becomes, do we include a project such as the building at Grand & Arsenal with the Kinko’s and Breadco? It certainly meets all my criterial for a shopping center. Perhaps the criteria needs to be only those places with parking in front? Those more urban projects could be included in a list for best shopping center although at this time that is a really short list!

Here is the eight I’ve compiled so far, in alphabetical order. If you all come up with 2 more we can have a top-ten list:

• Gravois Plaza; Gravois west of Grand
• Lindell Marketplace, Lindell @ Sarah (divided by Sarah but built at the same time so we’ll treat as one)
• Loughborough Commons; Loughborough between I-55 and Grand
• MLK Plaza; MLK & Page at Grand
• Roberts Plaza; between Page & MLK at Euclid (behind former Sears)
• Schnuck’s City Plaza; Union & Natural Bridge
• Southtown Centre; Chippewa & Kingshighway
• St. Louis Marketplace; Manchester Road

Excluded for reasons of age, impending replacement etc:

• Chariton Plaza; S. Broadway between Meramec & Osceola
• Hampton Village
• St. Louis Centre, downtown
• Christy Plaza, Kingshighway @ Delor (Office Depot, Burlington Coat, etc…)
• Other?

Once everyone has had a say in the nomination process I will gather photos on the projects on the list (I have them already for most I’ve listed above). I will then do a post listing all the projects with links to the photos of each. I’m still debating if I should give them my own ranking at that time or let you all vote and then determine my ranking afterwards — please share your thoughts below on how you’d like to see this happen.

A natural follow up to this would be the worst shopping center in St. Louis County. That, however, will take far more work as the number of bad sprawl-based centers is quite long. Think about the entire region and it boggles the mind — Jefferson County and St. Charles County have some real loser projects as do the counties in Illinois. Makes you wonder who will get more awards — THF or DESCO? I was also thinking if we could come up with multiple categories — “Worst Shopping Center with a Big Box Grocery,” or “Worst Shopping Center Since Rollin Stanley Came to St. Louis,” or focus on a particular aspect such as “Worst Pedestrian Access by a Shopping Center.” Get creative with possible categories! Another could be, “Least convincing excuse for mediocrity by a developer or alderman.”

If you have any suggestions on what the “Worst of Development” award should look like give me some ideas on that as well. I could actually have a physical award made and then track down the developer and present it to them on camera — Michael Moore style. Also, I’m thinking each month we go through this process of selecting a “worst of” in a category and actually having an awards function where I rent a hall and give a slide presentation on the worst development in St. Louis. Think of it as a rebalancing compared to all the self congratulating awards given out in political and development circles.

“Stick A Yellow Ribbon Up Your SUV”

I typically don’t get into national/global politics but a friend sent me a link to a great video talking about those damn yellow ribbons on SUVs. Some lyrics from the video, to the music of Tie A Yellow Ribbon:

I’m sitting here in Iraq
And I wish my head had eyeballs in the back
It’s a bummer that my hummer isn’t armored to a T
Show me your support
You spent a dollar ninety-three

Click here to watch the video. Sales of their materials actually go into a fund to help provide body armor.

Voter Registration Deadline: Wednesday October 11, 2006

The voter registration deadline for the November election is just over a week away — Wednesday October 11, 2006.

For more information on registering visit your location election board:

• City of St. Louis
• St. Louis County, MO
• St. Charles County, MO
• Jefferson County, MO
• Franklin County, MO

For those in Illinois your deadline for registration might be different, contact your county election board to verify:

• Madison County, IL
• St. Clair County, IL
• Monroe County, IL (email County Clerk Dennis M. Knoblich)

I will be in Chicago on election day so I’ve already requested my absentee ballot. You can visit the above sites for more information on voting via an absentee ballot. The next election is Tuesday, November 7, 2006.

SLU Profs To Give Presentation on the “Crisis of Modern Public Housing.”

Two Professors from Saint Louis University, Joseph Heathcott and Todd Swanstrom, will be presenting what promises to be a very interesting topic:

The Crisis of Modernist Public Housing: Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis and Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam

Pruitt-Igoe, of course, is the failed housing project on the near north side that was imploded in 1972, less than 20 years after completion. The architect, Minoru Yamasaki, also designed the World Trade Center destroyed on September 11, 2001. The Pruitt-Igoe site has been vacant for nearly 35 years.

This will be contrasted with Amsterdam’s Bijilmermeer project which Heathcott and Swanstrom visited this summer while researching abroad. Both projects had seemingly similar origins yet vastly different outcomes. Heathcott and Swanstrom should be able to shed some light as to the reasons why.

This presentation will be held on Thursday, November 2, 2006 at 4:30pm at the SLU Cook School of Business in Room 236 (Building #7 on campus map, caddy corner from The Coronado) and is sponsored by the St. Louis Metropolitan Research Exchange (STLMRE) and the SLU Department of Public Policy Studies. The event is free and open to the public with a reception to follow!

Meet Pat Herod, Candidate for License Collector, Today

Patrick Herod, a candidate for the office of License Collector, is hosting at an open house meet & greet in the backyard of his home in the lovely Holly Hills neighborhood this evening from 5:30pm to 7:30pm tonight, Friday September 29, 2006. More information, including address, can be found on the official flyer.

Although they will accept financial contributions, this even is not billed as a fundraiser. This is simply a chance for you to meet the candidate and find out what he is all about. I’ve met with him in person twice now and I can tell you the man is fascinating. This is a no-risk, no-obligation event.

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In the interest of full disclosure, I will be serving as a very minor consultant on the campaign and have helped set up a campaign site which will soon become more active as Pat and his volunteers begin posting information (yes, he has volunteers in the plural). In case you are wondering, this post is not a paid message from the campaign (none of my posts are paid messages from anyone).