Downtown Now! Looking A Bit Dated

Today my research took me to the Downtown Now! website. I’ve been there numerous times but this time I approached it with a more critical eye. Here is their welcome message:

So who are the public and private representatives that make up this organization? When you go to the “partners” page you get the list. Don’t look for any active residents or local small business owners. This is a top-down big business & government group — the least likely to actually revitalize downtown.

First we’ve got representatives from other civic boosting groups; Regional Commerce and Growth Association (RCGA), St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission (SLCVC), Downtown St. Louis Partnership and St. Louis 2004. I would have linked to St. Louis 2004 but it seems their website is no longer up and running. Businesses are Bank of America, SBC and the former May Company. The rest is comprised of elected or appointed officials from the City of St. Louis.

Prominent on their main page is a logo for Celebrate 2004 along with the text “What’s Happening in 2004?” Uh, last time I check it is October of 2005 and rapidly approaching 2006. Clicking on the link just gives me an access denied message. That isn’t going to do a good job revitalizing downtown.

But really the group is charged with developing an action plan:

So eight years have passed since Downtown Now! was created. But the Secretary of State’s website indicates the organization was created on November 1st of 1999, not 1997. Okay, so in a couple of weeks six years will have passed for this “five-to-seven year” mission. Are they in wrap-up mode? It doesn’t appear so. The organization is a “perpetual” non-profit per the state.

The “action plan” was adopted by the city in December of 1999 and thankfully much has happened since then. These last six years have been quite exciting to watch. Say you are a developer from another city and you hear about all the good things happening in St. Louis. You find Downtown Now!’s website and look through the action plan. As a six year old document you look for something more current. Then you see the “progress map” to show what has been done and what is under construction. This is certainly a great way to communicate where we are in completing the overall plan. One problem. The progress map hasn’t been updated since May 2001 — well over four years ago! Certainly downtown has progressed in the last four and a half years. Shouldn’t the revitalization organization communicate this progress?

The question that comes to mind for me is how many public-private non-profits do we need operating downtown? Consider this from the Downtown St. Louis Partnership website:

The Downtown St. Louis Partnership is a not-for-profit organization representing its members in pursuit of a healthy and vital downtown area. In that role, it also serves as the manager of the Community Improvement District that provides funding to implement services that make downtown clean, safe and inviting.

And before anyone says that the Downtown St. Louis Partnership is not a public-private organization just remember that the City of St. Louis, a public government, is a member.

A non-profit working to improve downtown is a good idea but I personally think it would be more effective coming from a more grass roots level. We certainly don’t need both the Downtown Now! and the Downtown St. Louis Partnership.

– Steve

JibJab’s Big Box Mart

I’m going to have to learn to check the JibJab site on a regular basis because their cartoons always seem to do a great job of getting right to the point. Such is the case with their latest titled Big Box Mart, an excellent commentary on Wal-Mart. Click here to view the video which runs just over 2 minutes.

– Steve

Four Flavors for the St. Louis Riverfront

Tuesday night St. Louisans got a first glimpse at four concepts for remaking the drab riverfront. It was a long meeting with much information to take in. My first plan was to run home and write a late night post. Instead, i decided to see if my initial reactions would still hold true after thinking about them for a couple of days. Most did.

The design team has posted a 7.9mb PDF version of Tuesday’s presentation. Throughout this post I will make references to page numbers in this doccument. Before getting into the specific proposals I want to discuss some background and basic assumptions of the design team. First is a prior post of mine from July – click here to read my earlier thoughts.

The National Park Service owns the Arch and grounds and is not open to changes. This leaves Lenore K. Sullivan Blvd at the base of the grounds and the cobblestone bank as areas open for redesign. The peaceful beauty of the Arch and its grounds is a big draw — roughly 4 million visitors per year. Yet the lack of anything either contemplative or dynamic on the actual riverfront means the area remains dead unless a special event is planned such as Fair St. Louis on the 4th of July weekend.

The four concepts are (p52):

… Continue Reading

New “Urban” Target An Improvement, Not Far Off The Mark

Less than a year after the old Target store was closed and razed the new store has opened with much anticipation. Today I visited the store to check it out.

I’ve posted twice before on the new Target. First was in April and the second was in July. You might want to read those to get caught up.

Before I go any further I should state a few things:

I think I’ve covered all the basis with the above statements. Yet as you might expect, I have some critical thoughts on the project. I offer these as something to keep in mind for future projects in an urban area. Yes, I got a bit of a thrill walking into a store that had been open less than 48 hours but it still just a retail store. Let’s get started.

… Continue Reading

Newman & Brunettin Closing Gallery Urbis Orbis, Returning to Chicago

I had a nice talk with Margie Newman today before she sent out this email:

Margie wanted to give me the exclusive on sharing this news to the greater St. Louis community so I am sharing it with all of you. I’m saddened this couple, that I consider to be good friends, are returning to Chicago. Of course I’m happy that Margie will have this great new position but I can’t help but feel a loss.

Margie & Alan could vision a reinvigorated St. Louis before many others. They moved to St. Louis and began to make things happen — quickly working to transform the local art scene. They were key players in the failed fight to save the Century Building. They were there for me when I ran for Alderman. As civic boosters I know of no better couple willing to roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done to bring about change. They fight for what they believe is right and sadly we have too few people like that.

Margie & Alan we’ll miss you in so many ways.

– Steve