Reaching the St. Louis County Library

I was thinking of attending a meeting being held tonight (7pm-9pm) at the headquarters of the St. Louis County Library located at 1640 South Lindbergh Blvd. The meeting is a St. Louis Aerotropolis Forum sponsored by the Citizens Alliance for Missouri Patriots (a closed Facebook group) that I’m NOT a member of:

Alliance of Tea Party and Patriot Group leaders and organizers in the State of Missouri who wish to combine forces in working together for our state’s sovereignty, who adhere to and believe in our founding fathers’ constitutional principles, government fiscal responsibility, individual unalienable rights, and a free market system. CAMP does NOT represent any one political party, but only the People of Missouri.

Here is the description of the Facebook event:

Concerned about the China Hub issue to be brought before our state legislators in the upcoming special session? For those in the local St. Louis metro area or across the state, you are invited to join us in hearing our panel of speakers who will be discussing and debating this topic which will affect every citizen in Missouri.

Scheduled panelists are Audrey Spalding from Show Me Institute, and David Roland from Missouri Freedom Center.

We are currently awaiting confirmation on panel speakers from the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association who are working to bring the China Hub to St. Louis.

The forum will be held in the library auditorium starting at 7pm and ending promptly at 9pm.

Scheduled Host is Mr. Rodney White, retired businessman, local author and speaker.

Please invite your neighbors, family, and friends who are wanting to know more about this new government tax credit.

I’d like to hear this perspective,  I have three choices on how to get to the meeting:

1. Drive my car
2. Ask for a ride with someone else.
3. Take public transit

Let’s look at each option.

1) Drive my car

This is the option 99% of those attending will use. But I try to use my car as little as possible, plus I have a narrow window between 6pm-9pm when I can drive to get the best insurance discount. I’d have to leave the event early if I drove to be home by 9pm.  And yes, Progressive knows exactly when I drive  because of the device I voluntarily plugged into my diagnostic port. Google Maps says the drive is 12.6 miles long and would take 18 minutes if I use I-64 or 13.7-14.2 miles (& 29-33 minutes) if I use surface streets.

2) Ask for a ride with someone else

This is a good option, one I wish more people would use rather than driving themselves. I know only one person on the attending list, but I know Ed Martin online only and I’m not sure I want to ask him or be at his mercy.

3) Take public transit

Finally my favorite option! I have two choices to reach the library via transit. The option that gets me there closest to the start time takes the longest (59 minutes) and would involve using MetroLink and two buses. The other option takes 50-56 minutes depending upon when I leave.  This is twice as long as if I drove but from my view this is time I can read, check email, observe the city, etc.

Since I’ve never been there in my power chair before I need to investigate the route in detail. The option that includes only one bus is more appealing than having to transfer from one bus to another so I looked at taking the #58 bus from the Clayton MetroLink/MetroBus station.

Seems simple enough, “walking” 3/10th of a mile is no big deal in my chair.

But when I looked at the aerial image and the street view is when problems became clear.

On the left it's not clear a sidewalk exists.

The street view shows curbs on both sides of the driveway, which means no deal.  In looking back up at the aerial it seems the near side may have been fixed, but the far sides of the drive is unknown. This route is too uncertain.

The other option is to take the #58X Express Bus to Big Bend & Kirkwood Rd then transfer to the #48 northbound on Kirkwood/Lindbergh.

I’m pretty sure the stops are not as shown, but still the area has good sidewalks, ramps and crosswalks. I just need to figure out where to board the 48. Oh, just a bit to the north.

And here we see a common problem. A large pad is provided as well as a shelter but the pad isn’t connected to the sidewalk. Suburban sidewalks are often just for show, not actual use, so having the sidewalk actually connect to points pedestrians would actually use is just radical thinking I suppose.  My chair can deal with the grade change and grass but someone using a manual chair, walker or cane might have difficulty.

The great thing is the #48 stops right in front of the library. I should be good from this point, right? Wrong!

Where the bus stops there is no pedestrian route to the entrance. Perhaps a proper pedestrian access route exists somewhere in either direction?

No pedestrian route at the north vehicle drive

And no pedestrian route at the south vehicle drive

If I were to risk my life trying either vehicle drive I still have no clue where to find a ramp to reach and accessible entrance. Even the able-bodied would take a chance if they walked in one of the driveways. Walking to the library seems as American as apple pie, but not in St. Louis County apparently.

I checked out their accessibility page:

Buildings and Bookmobiles

What physical accommodations exist for persons with physical limitations?

• Handicapped-accessible parking
• Ramp entrances
• Power doors
• Elevators
• Accessible aisles and routes inside the buildings
• Accessible restrooms, water fountains, and public telephones
• Low service desks
• Specially-designed school bookmobile with wheelchair lift

No thought is given to pedestrians at all. My example is extreme in that I’m coming from a long distance. What about someone, like a senior or a child, in Kirkwood? What is the reverse route?  Public buildings like libraries should demonstrate to others what is expected. Oh, I guess it does, they don’t expect pedestrians. But people do use these bus routes and stops and every transit rider is a pedestrian on at least one end of their trip.

St. Louis County and municipalities continue to spend money on sidewalks and ADA ramps but they fail to connect the dots! These new & improved sidewalks are mere roadside decoration  to give the appearance of walkability & accessibility.

I contacted the St. Louis County Library on the 26th about their lack of a pedestrian access route and they are tagged on the tweet of this post.

- Steve Patterson

“Lingering Not Loitering” – Dan Burden

ABOVE: Dan Burden (right) leads a "walking audit" on Delmar just west of Union. Photo credit: Lou Tobian/AARP

“Lingering Not Loitering” was the phrase I heard most often from walkability expert Dan Burden when he visited St. Louis recently, his response to University City attempting to keep pedestrians moving (story). I agree, we need more pedestrians lingering on our sidewalks.  Thankfully University City official voted down this controversial bill yesterday (story).

So who is this expert?

He Takes Back the Streets for Walking

Burden, 58, puts bloated thoroughfares on what he calls a “road diet.” In cities as large as Las Vegas, Toronto and Seattle and hamlets as small as Sammamish, Wash., he has trimmed lanes and filled the space with bike routes or a grassy buffer between the asphalt and the sidewalk to ease walkers’ stress. Of course, motorists tend to react to Burden as they might to a jackknifed manure spreader directly in their path. “They say ,’We already have a traffic problem,’” says Burden, “‘and now you want to take lanes away?’”

That’s exactly what he wants to do. But Burden isn’t an autocrat. His preternatural calm — he was a National Geographic photographer before founding Walkable in 1996 — sets people at ease. He knows that slimmer roads are “leaner, safer and more efficient,” and that they take some of the stress off drivers too. “We tend not to like open, scary places, and we try to get through them quicker. Somehow the canopy effect of tree-lined streets slows traffic.” Burden can’t eliminate road rage. But for some drivers, riders and pedestrians across the country, he can create road repose. (Time Magazine)

Burden is now the Executive Director of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute.

ABOVE: 26th Ward alderman Frank Williamson (left) with Dan Burden (right) pointing out an issue to everyone.

I joined Burden and residents on the two walking audits conducted on Tuesday May 24th. The starting point for both was ConnectCare located at 5535 Delmar Blvd.  That morning we went north on Belt Ave, west on Cates Ave, south on the Ruth Porter Mall and east on Delmar back to ConnectCare.

ABOVE: St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay (center) joined for part of the morning walk. Here we are on Belt Ave across from Ivory Perry Park.

So what were his comments on the audits and the presentation the night before?

• Design standards dictate how roads are designed, but within the same standards you can get very different results. Most often we get roads that create poor pedestrian environments  – excessively wide lanes with the resulting fast traffic.  But the design standards also allow for roads that work well for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists alike.
• Lanes are often too wide – say 12ft rather than 10ft.
• Paint is cheap, a right stripe to separate the  outside lane from the parking lane is a cost effective way to slow traffic.
• Roads that have had diets often still move as many cars as before.
• “bulbs” at corners can help cut the distance pedestrians must walk to cross a road in half.
• On-street parking is good because it slows traffic.
• Buildings must watch over sidewalks so pedestrians feel safe.

Here is an excellent video featuring Dan Burden:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcx08S1l-CQ

It was a pleasure meeting him and his staff, it has inspired me to do more.

- Steve Patterson

Curb Ramps Still Missing in Key Locations 20 Years After the ADA

ABOVE: missing curb at Lafayette Ave & Tower Grove Ave made this intersection passable

Last week I was at Tower Grove Ave & McRee Ave for a ground breaking when I left in my power chair I had to head south a few blocks to Tower Grove Ave & Shaw to catch the bus.  At Tower Grove Ave & Lafayette Ave I encountered the above situation, no curb ramp into the sidewalk.

All the rest of the intersections had curb ramps, but all it takes is one missing to make an entire stretch impassible.  Thankfully a section of curb was missing, allowing me to pass by.  At Thurman Ave pieces of curb were also missing, allowing me to pass through there as well.

- Steve Patterson

Railings on ADA Ramps Aren’t Bike Racks

ABOVE: Bike locked to railing on ADA ramp at the Chase Park Plaza

I’m not upset with the owner of this bike, they had nowhere else to safely secure their vehicle.  It is the lack of bike parking at the Chase Park Plaza that upsets me.

Most likely a “dish drainer” bike rack is stuffed in a dark corner of the parking garage, completely out of sight to the transportation cyclist. I was able to get past this bike in my power chair, but I’ve encountered times where I had less room.  But the continuous railings are there for a reason, so someone can make their way along the ramp while always holding the railing.  Break the railing with a bike and suddenly you can present a major problem for someone that needs to hold the railing.

- Steve Patterson

Family Dollar Misses The Walkability Mark

The Family Dollar store at 6000 Natural Bridge was built in 2006.

ABOVE: Bus stop near the Family Dollar at 6000 Natural Bridge

I’ve stopped by twice in the last two weeks and both times I spotted customers who were pedestrians.  During the week there were more pedestrian customers than driving customers, the opposite was true yesterday.  Family Dollar caters to a lower income crowd, those who are often transit dependent. Yet, they don’t make it easy for their own customers who arrive on foot.

Family Dollar replaced the public sidewalk along Natural Bridge — 300 feet along the property line. That is a good start, but just 20 more feet of sidewalk would have enabled pedestrians to get from the public sidewalk to the private walk in front of the door without having to walk through grass or mud.

Pedestrians have so little value in St. Louis that a business with many pedestrian customers can just ignore how they come and go. St. Louis needs to mandate that new buildings be built with connections from public sidewalk to main entrance. Also, new occupancy of existing buildings should also require a pedestrian connection. If a public sidewalk exists, businesses should be required to connect to it. Period!

ABOVE: Google's Streetview camera caught pedestrians at the Family Dollar, click to view

Pedestrian connections should be a given in the city, especially when tax incentives are given for the development!

ABOVE: City records show taxes are only being paid on the value before the new building was built. Click to view larger image.

Ordinance 67014. sponsored by 22nd Ward Ald, Jeffrey Boyd, covers lots of strings for the redevelopment of the property but the basic need of walking from the public sidewalk to the front door of the business establishment just wasn’t important enough I guess.  The above tax info can be found at Geo St. Louis.

ABOVE: Mud and standing water separate the private walk from the public sidewalk just 20 feet away.

I have contacted Family Dollar to see about them connecting to the public sidewalk, hopefully they will be receptive.

- Steve Patterson

South Grand Will Be Much Improved

ABOVE: No curb ramp at end of crosswalk at Grand & Arsenal

Work on the new streetscape for South Grand has started.  The new design will address shortcomings of the current streetscape.  Very little of the new work is complete but what I’ve seen so far looks great.  Can’t wait to visit in my wheelchair, once finished, to do a full review.

- Steve Patterson

Disabled Get The Good Parking

A popular misconception is the disabled get primo parking.

ABOVE: Disabled parking at Quik Trip locations is the farthest parking from the building entry

Often we do, but other times the location of the wider space and ramp are far from the entrance.

- Steve Patterson

Another Reason Corner Curb Ramps Don’t Work Well

Pedestrians generally walk in a straight line, stepping over curbs as necessary to keep going in the same direction.

People pushing strollers, or using wheelchairs, have to go not in a straight line, but where the curb ramp is placed. Ideally ramps would be located where we could also continue in a straight line.

But most St. Louis intersections place curb ramps, not in the natural line of travel, but at the apex of the corner. On a standard intersection of two streets at a 90° angle the corner ramp does save money by requiring fewer ramps – four rather than eight.  The problem however, is the corner ramp has become the local default, even when it makes no sense to do so.

ABOVE: curb ramps at a downtown hotel drive direct you into the snow rather than a straight line

The example above is one where placing the curb ramps at the corners makes no sense at all. There is no opportunity to cross Washington Ave from either curb, the only direction to travel is straight ahead.  Most of the year it is just annoying that I’m forced nearly into the nearby vehicle lane.  When there is snow in the way I’m forced to go off the edge of the ramp and through some of the snow.

At other intersections I neatly got stuck because my line of travel was beyond the worn path of able bodied pedestrians.  The corner ramp is marginally acceptable when you have two crosswalks meeting at a single point.  The above ramps should have been constructed to permit a straight line of travel.  The cost would have been the same, maybe even less because a ramp is less complex in a straight curb as opposed to on a corner.

- Steve Patterson

Eastport Plaza Neither Walkable Nor Accessible

ABOVE: Aerial view of Eastport Plaza in Collinsville IL. Click image to view in Google Maps.

Sure, you can walk at Collinsville’s Eastport Plaza, but it isn’t easy.  I navigated the area in my wheelchair, but it wasn’t pleasant or even ADA-compliant.  Planned as a Metro East version of Westport Plaza in St. Louis County.

Based on my research, Eastport Plaza was platted in the early 1980s.  This is a decade before the ADA but walkable environments have been built for centuries.  This was an auto-centric development with token sidewalks.  The post is a follow up to my post from a week ago.

ABOVE: The main road in/out is Eastport Plaza Dr with sidewalk on one side only

The width of the roads are excessive for two lanes.  This, along with a lack of street trees, diminish the pedestrian experience.

Gateway Center, in the middle of Eastport Plaza, talks about the area:

“The only hospitality district in Collinsville accommodates events at Gateway Center with more than 900 hotel rooms in a variety of hotel properties, and 60 restaurants ranging from casual family dining to fine dining. Another 2,100 hotel rooms are conveniently located within a 20-minute driving radius of the convention center for overflow accommodations.
Most of Collinsville’s lodging is within walking distance of the convention center.”

Walking distance, but not walkable.

What I don’t yet know is: the developer, the engineer responsible, or the level of involvement from Collinsville.  I do know the area has boomed since Illinois changed it’s TIF law, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Monday, March 28, 1988:

“East St. Louis, Belleville and Collinsville are among cities whose tax increment finance (TIF) districts are criticized in a recent report by the Taxpayers Federation of Illinois. [The ] report shows illustrations of TIF districts under headings of ”The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.”

Collinsville’s TIF district is listed under ”The Ugly. ” The report says a 500-acre tract of mostly undeveloped land at the city’s northwest edge was hooked to its central business district by a strip one block wide and several miles long.

Mayor Brombolich said the federation’s labeling his city’s TIF district ugly because of its shape illustrates what happens when someone tries to generalize without adequate knowledge.  The city’s rapidly developing Eastport Plaza area was linked to its comparatively stagnant downtown area to obtain money to help revive the central business district, Brombolich said.

Collinsville’s TIF ordinance does not allow sale of bonds, but requires a pay-as-you-go policy, he added. ”We have not spent a penny of TIF money up to this date.”
About $100,000 has been accumulated through growth in sales and real estate taxes at Eastport, and three downtown projects are planned, he said.
They are new curbs and sidewalks around a block where Home Federal Savings & Loan Co. plans a new building, a sprinkling system and other improvements to allow the old Miners Theater to reopen its upper level, and re-paving of part of Clay and Church streets.”

ABOVE: An earth berm stands between the public sidewalk and a hotel sidewalk

By February 2007 the area was booming; from the Post-Dispatch:

“City leaders are overseeing development on more than half a million square feet of office and warehouse space on the city’s west side that is expected to create at least 1,000 jobs.
Fourteen businesses are opening in the area known as Eastport Plaza, which is mostly east of Interstate 255 and north of Interstate 55-70. The businesses include Floors Inc., a commercial and residential floor company, and Tetra Tech, an engineering firm. Officials expect more businesses to move there by the end of the year.”

The vast majority of those who come to Eastport Plaza do so in a private vehicle.  But the area is served by a Madison County bus (#15 Collinsville Shuttle), which was how I arrived on a recent visit.  No matter how someone arrives in the area I have an expectation that within the relatively small area that walking would be encouraged as an alternative to driving short distances.

ABOVE: Main sidewalk leads you east to highway 157

ABOVE: Sidewalk ends before crossing Hwy 157

These 300 acres were flat farm land before being developed.  The developer had a complete blank slate to work with but clearly making a walkable environment wasn’t a priority.  The sidewalk is just there to create a passing appearance of walkability.  Say what you will about New Urbanism but those principles would have created a far more satisfying environment.

- Steve Patterson

- Steve Patterson

Collinsville’s Gateway Conference Center & Adjacent Doubletree Hotel

Where do you look to plan an annual conference in the St. Louis region where you will have large & small meeting rooms plus hotel space for 2,000+ attendees.  If your budget is large you go to America’s Center in downtown St. Louis.  But if your budget isn’t so big you go to the Gateway Conference Center in Collinsville IL (aerial).

“Most of Collinsville’s lodging is within walking distance of the convention center.”

That seems very convenient!

The Gateway Convention Center is located adjacent to the Doubletree Collinsville/St. Louis and is an ideal partner for your larger meetings and tradeshows. Gateway Center offers 50,000 square feet of flexible, ground-level space that is sure to suit all your event needsThe convention center is surrounded by more than 40 restaurants and several visitor-friendly attractions. Lambert St. Louis International Airport is a short 30 minute drive away.

Together with Doubletree Collinsville/St. Louis, Gateway Center is “The Great Way to Gather” in the St. Louis MO metropolitan area for large events!

Wow, perfect! Convention center with adjacent hotel and others within walking distance.  Sounds perfect, right? Well almost…

ABOVE: Stairs over drainage ditch from Doubletree to Gateway Center (see in background)

If your conference has persons with mobility issues these stairs are a major obstacle. The problem is a flood control channel owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

ABOVE: Flood control ditch between the Doubletree (left) and Gateway Center (right)

The Doubletree is adjacent to the Gateway Center  and it has the small meeting rooms the other hotels in the area lack but the stairs are a major barrier when 100 or so of your attendees use mobility scooters, wheelchairs or just push baby strollers.

ABOVE: Stairs over drainage ditch from the Gateway Center to the Doubletree (see in background)

Part Two of this post will be published next week on the 29th.  That post will look at the walkability & accessibility of the Eastport Plaza area where Collinsville’s Gateway Center is located.  Pushing carts of convention materials from the main hotel to the center is also impossible.  The solution is a “switchback ramp” on each side of the levee. The Doubletree Hotel has new ownership and recently received a $12 million dollar makeover inside & out.

ABOVE: New concrete work around the Doubletree, but no connection to public sidewalk or ramp to Gateway Center

The hotel was built in 1982, construction on the Gateway Center started six years later. In 2007 the hotel, then a Holiday Inn, made the headlines.  This article from July 3, 2008 explains:

“The state auctioned off the hotel Thursday. St. Louis-based Lodging Hospitality Management, which owns 16 hotels in the St. Louis area, submitted the highest bid of six that were submitted, according to [Illinois State Treasurer Alexi] Giannoulias.

Giannoulias said in a statement that installing new owners will put an end to a 25-year “financial debacle.” Giannoulias said former owners B.C. Gitcho and Gary Fears received “an outrageously favorable $13.4 million state-backed loan” and quickly fell behind on payments enough that the outstanding principal and interest totaled $32.2 million.”

What I don’t yet know is when the steps and bridge were built over the flood control ditch.  Was the costs shared by the hotel and Collinsville? Did bonds for the Gateway Center finance the steps & bridge to the existing hotel?  I will keep digging.

In the meantime, next week I will post a look at the area where the Gateway Center is located, called Eastport Plaza.

- Steve Patterson