Holly Hills Neighborhood Seeking a St. Louis Bread Company at Loughborough Commons

It appears the neighborhood group in the Holly Hills area near Loughborough Commons is campaigning for a St. Louis Bread Company (aka Panera Bread to the rest of the country). I can’t blame them, the food is great and affordable. They have wi-fi too which is needed in the area. My investment club also happens to be a long-time shareholder of Panera (PNRA).

The following is an email sent out to neighbors:

Dear Neighbor,The Holly Hills Improvement Association Board has been working for the last year to suggest and attain the right type of businesses for the Loughborough Commons development that are a good fit for the neighborhood. I think we can all agree that Saint Louis Bread Company would be a welcome addition to the development. However, Panera Bread (who owns SLBC) is on the fence and we’ve been told directly by the Schnuck family that community support in favor this store locating at this development could possibly sway their decision.

Some of you might recall that this is the same scenerio that happened in St. Louis Hills several years ago. However, the neighborhood rallied in favor and they are currently enjoying coffee and sandwiches at their own Saint Louis Bread Company on Chippewea.

So, here is what we’ve been told to do…write letters…lots of them. They are asking us to bombard the office with support letters to convince them to locate in Loughborough Commons. I’ve put together a sample letter below that you can cut/paste, modify, or of course, you can create your own version. But the address and contact person are who you should keep consistent.

As with most things these days…time is of the essence. If we can get these letters sent by September 8th…that would be most ideal. I’m also interested in keeping track of the number of letters sent for the Schnuck Family. If emailing me to let me know you sent or will send a letter isn’t too inconvenient, I would appreciate that. Also, send this to all of your friends and neighbors and let’s see what we can do.

SEND LETTER TO:

Mr. Ronald M. Shaich
Chairman and CEO
Panera Bread
6710 Clayton Road
Richmond Heights, MO 63117

Dear Mr. Shaich,

I live in the Holly Hills neighborhood in South St. Louis City. Our neighborhood sits adjacent to the new Loughborough Commons currently under development. I am writing to you in support of building a Saint Louis Bread Company in that development. I pledge to frequent your restaurant and encourage my neighbors to do so as well. We are a community that prides itself on city living and supporting Saint Louis businesses, such as yours. We would be overjoyed to have you as our
neighbor.

Thank you,

Your name here
Your address

As you might guess, I love grassroots campaigns. Yes, I would agree with these residents that a St. Louis Bread Co. would be a very welcomed addition to the local restaurant scene and the fact it is a local firm makes it all the better. I have one slight caveat: I want to be able to walk to the Bread Co. from Loughborough or the Schnucks on a sidewalk.

Panera has proven they are very willing to locate in more urban storefront locations — I’ve seen them here and in other cities. They also have a standard suburban free-standing prototype complete with drive-thru. For a stand alone building with a drive-thru their prototype is really quite attractive and exudes a higher quality feel than most such “buildings.” But, it is what it is —- a small detached structure with a drive-thru window.

The Holly Hills residents are wise to take a pro-active stand on the types of uses in the development. Yet issues such as accessibility and bike parking often escapes most local organizations. They are all volunteer and can only do so much. Their main concern is often making sure such projects are not filled with check cashing places or rent to own furniture stores. Some organizations will have a planner or architect among the group that will also inject some physical design issues into the discussion.

I have to wonder if they are getting a Big Lots store at Loughborough Commons because the one on Broadway at Osceola now has a for lease sign on it. The leasing agent? Desco (the developer of LC). I personally like Big Lots as a concept — they have some really good items at excellent prices. The store on Broadway near me is looking a bit tired but some new ceiling tiles, paint and new flooring would do wonders for that building. But stores are seldom interested in such improvements to freshen an old store when they can move to a newer development. So, it appears that I may be staring at an empty Big Lots, the building itself a former grocery store.

The planning issues around pedestrian connections and bike parking remain the same regardless of the types of retailers and restaurants that open at Loughborough Commons.

– Steve

2006 Gateway Cup Comes to Downtown Loft District

I wanted to write a lot about the annual Gateway Cup bike races but I simply don’t have the time to do so. Here is the Reader’s Digest condensed version:

• Awesome event! Cyclists come from all over the midwest to compete in these races.
• Friday night is the kickoff around Lafayette Square, a very urban experience.
• In the past few years the Saturday event has been at a park in Kirkwood but this year it will be the loft district west of Tucker (14th to 20th). This will be a great venue with many photo opportunities. In the morning is the Tour de Judy charity bike ride along the riverfront with the first race starting at 2:30pm and the last race starting at 7pm.
• Sunday is on the Hill, a much different setting architecturally but a wonderful time.
• Monday is on the Loop.
• I’m not fond of the major sponsor, THF Realty, but I go anyway to support the racers.
• Bring cash for food, beverages and t-shirts. Sunscreen is also a good idea for the day events.

If you attend these one or all of these races, please be especially careful in attempting to cross the course as the racers are going quite fast. Most of the courses are closed except at a few designated spots. When the field of riders makes it by look for any stragglers before crossing — we don’t want to see anyone seriously injured.

Attendance is quite high at these events and streets are closed to hold them so plan on doing some walking. The Union Station station for MetroLink is the ideal exit for those attending the Friday evening races in Lafayette Square or the downtown races on Saturday afternoon (the Civic Center station would also work for the downtown races). For Monday’s race in the Loop you can use the Delmar station or if coming from the Shrewsbury direction take either the U-City/Big Bend or Skinker stations and head up to Delmar. Many spectators also cycle to the events.

Enjoy the weekend of bike racing!

– Steve

Oh the “Mayor’s” Sense of Irony

Mayor Slay’s website has an interesting post tonight:

Urban-esque Planning

There are two stories in today’s newspaper that should be read together.

The first is a report that the owners of Mid-Rivers Mall in St. Charles County, built in 1987 as a suburban mall, are planning a multi-million dollar 120,000 square foot addition to revive the tired property, including “a 70,000 square foot village with the feel of an urban shopping and dining experience.”

The second is a report that Spinnaker Real Estate Partners and Pyramid Cos. have closed on the purchase of St. Louis Centre, built in 1985 and pummeled for years by suburban malls, in order to transform the former urban shopping mall into a new mix of condominiums, shops, offices, and restaurants.

It might be less expensive – and less ironic — to direct St. Peters residents with an appetite for contemporary urban living to downtown St. Louis

Perhaps the mayor’s staff can spend a little less time making fun of St. Charles County’s recent attempts at urbanism and focus some of that energy on our own development patterns?

– Steve

The Confederate States of America & Our Cities

The film, C.S.A: The Confederate States of America, is a must see! From IMDB:

Set in an contemporary alternative world where the Confederate States of America managed to win the American Civil War, a British film documentary examines the history of this nation. Beginning with its conquest of the northern states, the film covers the history of this state where racial enslavement became triumphant and the nation carried sinister designs of conquest. Interspersed throughout are various TV commercials of products of a virulent racist nature as well as public service announcements promoting this tyranny. Only at the end do you learn that there is less wholly imagined material in the film than you might suspect.

The film is the work of writer & director Kevin WIllmott, a professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. It is a joint presentation of IFC Films and Spike Lee. IThe film assumes many white abolitionists and freed slaves would have escaped to Canada. ‘m not going to give away any of the specifics as you need to see the film yourself. Suffice to say, it got me thinking.

What if America still permitted/encouraged the immoral act of slavery? Our cities would certainly look different than today. As a society we still would have fallen in love with the car and we would have had a need for housing following WWII. But would the suburban boom have been what it was without demands for civil rights? With slaves to do house and yard work the typical 1950s house may not have been the same. I would imagine houses would have remained larger and that multiple generations would have stayed together more than in our reality. Literal industrial slave labor would have kept many manufacturing jobs in America — why export to foreign slave shops. Kathy Lee could have had American-slave made shirts. Retaining a manufacturing base would have meant slave housing around factories. Whites would not have fled cities as they did when having to do sane things like share a drinking fountain or a classroom. If you are white these cities might not sound so bad but consider the many technological and cultural accomplishments that would not have happened.

But the Union did defeat the Confederates and we ended up with institutionalized segregation rather than actual freedom. Northern whites wanted no more to do with blacks than did Southern whites for many decades up to and through the Civil Rights Movement (some could argue, convincingly, this is still the case). So what I want to know is where would our cities be today had white folks, say by a generation removed from the Civil War, not really cared much about race. Yes, a big stretch of the imagination and far from reality but go with me on this.

We would not have had any white flight in this case either as we’d already be fully integrated on a race basis. Economic segregation would still be an issue but I think it would be more balanced than today as we would not have had decades of discrimination in education and employment.

– Steve

SLU Public Policy Studies Bulletin Now Online

Yours truly is editing SLU’s Department of Public Policy Studies online bulletin for the Fall 2006 semester. As you might expect from me, I took the bulletin from a long weekly email format to a blog format. So now rather than simply a few email recipients receiving updates on happenings in the department it is open to the whole world. Granted, we are not going to displace CNN or frankly even my blog with postings like classroom assignments and such.

But others items may interest you. For example, an upcoming tidbit on the bulletin will be a presentation by two SLU professors on public housing policy in the US vs. The Netherlands. I also plan to post numerous student papers for you to download and read at your leisure.

Check it out at ppsbulletin.com

– Steve