Readers Supportive of Park Bond Debt

ABOVE: The Fox Park pavilion faces Shenandoah Ave

Last week more than half the readers that voted in the poll support the city taking on debt to fix our many parks:

Q: Do you support St. Louis selling bonds to fund park improvements?

1. Yes, investing in our park infrastructure will help the city prosper! 52 [54.17%]
2. No, the debt will be a burden on city revenues 21 [21.88%]
3. Possibly 12 [12.5%]
4. unsure/no opinion 6 [6.25%]
5. Other: 5 [5.21%]

The other answers were:

1. If we need bonds, then do a bond issue. Tax revenues are for ongoing revenue.
2. like better parks. don’t like debt. hm?
3. why not sell bonds to improve failed school district?
4. No. there are at least a half dozen more pressing needs than park maintenance
5. I support the bonds but agree with JZ71 – funding needs to be more distributed.

Time will tell if this was a good decision. Improved parks may make city neighborhoods more appealing, attracting residents, businesses and jobs. Increased revenues cover the debt. On the other hand service cuts might be needed in the future to deal with the debt payments. The original post had some spirited comments.

- Steve Patterson

Parks and recreation in St. Louis

Image from the archives of Lou & Georgia Buckowitz

Neighborhood parks were very important to St. Louis’ long-time planner (1916-1950), Harland Bartholomew.  From the Parks & Recreation section of the 1947 City Plan:

Large parks are very useful but they supply only one part of the city’s recreation requirements. There is a surprising deficiency in neighborhood parks, playfields, and playgrounds. It is always difficult to provide ample park and recreation areas after development has taken place but that is not justification for neglect of an extremely important public facility. If stability and improved environment in the various residential areas of St. Louis is to be assured, it is imperative that adequate local recreational areas be acquired.

Each of the 82 residential neighborhoods in the city should have a neighborhood park, and playground. Each should have a large playfield in reasonably close proximity. These requirements are in addition to such overall facilities as large parks and parkways. (continue reading)

While I have disagreed with Bartholomew’s thinking numerous times (multiple airports to fly around the region!?!) I wonder how the idea of places for kids to play applies in 2010?  Playground design is different.  The playgrounds of 1947 and earlier would be deemed too unsafe by today’s standards. Few parents today would even let their children out of sight anyway.

Mt. Pleasant Park looking North. Image from the archives of Lou & Georgia Buckowitz

From what I’ve seen kids seem to enjoy new playground equipment. The water features at Citygarden were a big hit last year.  Thoughts anyone?  What works? What doesn’t?

Thanks to Matt Rankin for the donation of archives from his late grandparents, Lou & Georgia Buckowitz.

– Steve Patterson

Accessing the Lucas Park dog run

When downtown residents began planning a downtown dog run a couple of years ago it was known then that at least one potential member/user from an adjacent building uses a wheelchair.

November 11, 2009

So I was surprised when I heard last month the newly constructed dog run in Lucas Park had accessibility issues.  The newly constructed sidewalk (above) ramps up to the gate.  Like any door that you pull toward you there is a need for at least 18″ on the handle side of the gate to permit entry.

You can see they had only a few inches to the side.  The paved area ends as well making wheelchair access a real challenge.

November 29, 2009

A few weeks later that previous entry sidewalk was ripped up and a proper sidewalk was in place. Because of grade changes this will allow access from the lower center section and the higher outside section.  Access inside is now possible.

A small part of the interior has also been paved to permit wheelchair access.  I’m continually baffled at both small and big projects that don’t take into considerations the needs of their users.  I would have caught this mistake on paper but a year ago I got pushed out of the planning committee because I wanted an open chain of communications (Yahoo or Google Group).  I had plenty of other items consuming my time so I didn’t fight to stay where I wasn’t wanted (but clearly needed).

– Steve Patterson

Work Progressing in Lucas Park

Lucas Park, in downtown St. Louis, was used for years only by the homeless in the region.  Map to Lucas Park.  A year ago local residents began cleaning up and using the park.  The homeless are still there, just joined by loft dwellers.

In the last year an improvement plan was developed and funding obtained.  Work on the improvements has begun.

One of the main issues I have with the park is the sidewalk along 14th Street on the West edge of the park.  It is too narrow and too close to the street.  Parents didn’t like the proximity of the playground to the street.  A row of bald cypress trees were removed and a retaining wall installed — this will permit the installation of a more generous sidewalk to be placed away from the curb while also creating a barrier to keep kids out of the street.

bThe playground used to be surrounded by rotting railroad ties.  Now the retaining wall material defines the playground area.

Over on the North section of the park a new dog run is being built to replace the makeshift one on the East end of the park (former Children’s Center fenced playground).

- Steve Patterson

Lucas Park in 2009

Last Fall many of us downtown began working on cleaning up Lucas Park. Through the winter the work continued in the form of planning improvements to be accomplished this year.

The city has already removed four unhealthy trees from the park.  Replacements are planned.  Sixth ward Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett has submitted a request for the upcoming budget for improvements.  But much work will still be done through sweat equity.

To facilitate getting the word out about meetings and work days I’ve created Lucas Park Announcements, a Google Groups announcement list. Anyone can join the list but only a few can send out notices so the number of emails will be minimal.  If you’d like to stay informed about upcoming work days, meetings or other events related to Lucas Park visit groups.google.com/group/lucasparkannounce.  There you can sign up to receive emails or subscribe to the group’s RSS feed.

As I’m still having some server issues when commenting the comments are closed on this post until the issues are fully resolved.

Lucas Park Design Charrette Tonight, 11/17/2008; 6pm

At 6pm tonight (11/17/08) citizens will gather for a ‘design charrette‘ focusing on downtown’s Lucas Park.

Above: Volunteers on 9/13/08 work to beautify the park.

In short, a charrette is an intensified design process. Teams will assemble and draw & write out what they want for Lucas Park.

The current park was created 100 years ago. It once featured elaborate plantings and had few trees. It was symmetrical in both directions. The two North-South walkways and entrances align with the rear doorways of the library to the South across Locust St. Each of these walkways has a circle at its center. A drinking fountain exists at the East circle.

I’m rather fond of the original design. I say original but that is not quite accurate. The city was deeded this block in 1857. The city bought the block where the library is now located. From 1859-1883 the two blocks contained a large park. Locust St did not go through from 13th to 14th. That would be the true original park.

That park was wiped out in 1883 for the St Louis Exhibition and Music Hall. That hall was razed in 1907 current main Library, which opened in 1912. Locust St was cut through at this time. At some point during the 5 years it took to raze the old structure and build the library, the current design for Lucas Park was realized.

So, I like the 1907-1912 design of the park. In fact, it is in very good condition. On my team tonight I will advocate more a restoration/renovation than a completely new design. But I’d like to see a team or two come up with a fresh approach. We need as many different concepts as possible.  We will have a drawing (view PDF) of the existing conditions as a starting point.

The park needs to be a reflection of today. That would include a pleasant outdoor place for people to sit and enjoy the park. That includes those that are homeless. However, while I don’t object to a homeless person enjoying the park I do object to bags of belongings surrounding trees. We need to find a way for the homeless to have a place to safely store their belongings as they search for employment, housing and treatment for any addictions or mental issues.

The Eastern end of the park was fenced off and used by a nearby daycare center for a playground. That center moved West near Jefferson last year. A prior charrette was done 5-6 years ago. At that time the children’s center was still using the playground so the thought was to mirror the design and fence the Western end for a dog park. The center, with the fountain, would have remained open to all.

But Larry Rice objected and the project stalled.

Today the neighborhood is very different than it was just six years ago. We have more residents, more dogs, and more children. The city says we have fewer homeless.

As with anything we need to strike a balance: residents, homeless, kids, dogs. Not one of these should be given so much priority in the park that it tips to being only for that one user group. The park can and must be shared by and for all.

So we’ll see what everyone comes up with tonight. We will be at Crepes in the City at 500 N. 14th (just North of the park). They are closed on Mondays so we are just using their space for the evening. The doors open at 5:30pm and we begin precisely at 6pm. I’ve got a short presentation of the history, recent conditions as well as images from other small urban parks to start the creative juices. We’ll give the teams instructions and set them to work from roughly 6:25 to 8:20pm. At 8:20pm each of the teams will present their park concept to the other teams. We will finished by 9pm.

Following the charrette we will begin incorporating the ideas from everyone into a master plan for the park, enabling us to seek public and/or private funding. The charrette is open to all who wish to participate.
Design professionals are encouraged to participate (and to bring markers & trace).

Halloween in Lucas Park

Today we continued our presence in Lucas Park by holding an afternoon Halloween Party for neighborhood kids.

Above: I got into the spirit by having a jack-o-lantern painted on my head.

Above: Dr Pat Clark applies her surgical skills to a pumpkin.

Above: We set up the activities on the East end of Lucas Park, around the drinking fountain.

Above: Games included the Wicked Witch ring toss, pumpkin bowling and the eyeball bounce.

Above: 5th Ward Alderwoman April Ford-Griffin (right in red) talks with two downtown residents.

Above: after the fun & games we took the kids trick or treating in the 1300 block of Washington Ave. Others in our group had pre-arranged to have people at 5-6 places with candy for the kids.

Everyone had a great time, by the end of the event in the park we had quite a few kids, maybe 10. One of the kids was homeless, at age 5. He was with a friend of his mom’s, the mom was at work. The three of them had spent the last few nights on the street sleeping under a loading dock. They had spent a few nights at Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelical Center but he tossed them because the women wouldn’t do his 90-day program. They consider Rice’s program to be “slave labor.” One woman has a job while the other is doing classes as St Patrick’s Center to get her GED. They consider Rice’s program to be “slave labor.” Their landlord had raised the rent and they could no longer afford it. They have some leads on more affordable places. In the meantime the three of them were out in the cold.

We shared their story with Alderwoman April Ford-Griffin. She gave us her cell number and asked that the mom call her and she would help her get into a family shelter. As we went trick or treating the friend of the mom stayed in Lucas Park but she sent a homeless young man to keep an eye on the young one. After we all got back from trick or treating the mom arrived from her day at work. Andy Martello of the shut down NLEC petition gave the women the Alderwoman’s phone number. I gave them my card and told them to call me if they needed a ride to a shelter.

About a half an hour later my phone rang, I was at home by now. They had talked with Griffin and they needed a ride to a shelter just north of Downtown. I got in my car and drove to a nearby building where they had slept under the dock. Within 20 minutes of them calling me they were safe inside the shelter.

When I got back home I started to cry. The little 5 year-old was so sweet and innocent. The mom and the other woman were nice and trying to do their best, they’d been out of their apartment since October 9th.

As I picked them up I saw Maureen Brown again. She asked why I wasn’t helping her. I said I’d be happy to give her a ride somewhere. I think I was crying in part because I had gotten to know Maureen over the last few weeks but she was still on the street. So I called a women’s shelter to see if they could take her. They said they were full but they might be able to let her sleep on a sofa for one night but they wanted to talk to her first.

So back down to the car I went. I got lucky and found Maureen near the same loading dock where I had seen her about an hour earlier. She got into my car and I called the shelter. She turned down the sofa but they suggested she call back Monday to see if they have any openings. She doesn’t have a cell phone so I’m going to go find her on Monday so she can use my phone to talk to them. She is out there in the cold. I did notice a couple of homeless men in the same spot — they are likely her protectors.

I’ll be able to sleep better tonight knowing I helped two women and a child get a safe place to sleep and that I will hopefully get Maureen into a shelter as well this coming week. This morning I had noticed belongings under this particular loading dock. It was weird putting a face to a space. A 5 year-olds face.

We had fun in the park today. We made more connections with homeless persons. I found more people among the homeless population that think NLEC needs to go. Needs do exist and NLEC is not meeting those needs.

Above: one of several piles of belongings around Lucas Park

One of the top needs is a place to store personal belongings and clothing. We have more homeless than we have spaces for stuff. The stuff goes into the shelters at night but the next morning the person & their stuff are back on the street (or in the park). I don’t mind seeing homeless persons in the park but piles of stuff just show how poor a job we are doing at providing good services for the homeless. How can we expect this person(s) to get a job? They can’t carry all this to a job interview.

Happy Halloween!

UPDATE 10/26/08 @8AM   – I removed information on the shelter where I took the two women and child.

Lucas Park Cleanup Inspires Similar Effort for Amberg Park

The recent efforts of downtown residents to tidy up Lucas Park has inspired at least one group in the city to tackle issues in their own neighborhood park. Amberg Park, located on Gustine South of Chippewa, will see a group effort on October 18, 2008. One of the organizers acknowledges the recent efforts in Lucas Park as inspiring their own project.

Technically Amberg Park is listed by the city as being in the Duchtown neighborhood. Dutchtown is its own neighborhood among the 79 listed by the city. You also have the Dutchtown South Community Corp (a CDC) which encompass not only Duchtown but also the neighborhoods of Gravois Park, Marine Villa and Mt Pleasant. Duchtown, the neighborhood, is geographically so large that residents have for years sliced it up into smaller, more manageable neighborhood units; Dutchtown North, Resurrection, & Trinity. Interestingly the Dutchtown Community Corp is located not in the Dutchtown neighborhood but on the corner of the Mt Pleasant neighborhood. You also have the Downtown Dutchtown Business Association.

So back to Amberg Park. It is in that part of Dutchtown listed as in the Resurrection neighborhood on the Dutchtown website. But efforts are also underway to give this area an identity. A site for the ‘Dutchtown Amberg Neighborhood Association’ has been created as has an Amberg Park Cleanup blog.

Rick Bonash over at STL Rising picked up on the new association based on a comment left here on UrbanReviewSTL. Bonash also linked to a recent Suburban Journal article by Jim Merkel on the new group that is forming. An undertone in the article is about the long-time residents and more recent arrivals. I know from my own personal experience, if you were not born & raised in the neighborhood or haven’t lived there since Eisenhower was President you are a newcomer. This attitude is really unfortunate because a lot of people may have ideas and want to contribute but are discouraged from doing so.

Some in an old guard praised the leadership of the group. But they have their concerns about youthful enthusiasm of the organization led by Chris Wintrode, 24, a St. Louis University law and masters in health administration student. They said the group isn’t really new, but the continuation of an organization that long met at the former Resurrection Church, 3880 Meramec St.

Kirner also said the group is the continuation of the old Resurrection Neighborhood Support organization that long met at resurrection as part of the church and community umbrella organization Churches United for Community Concerns. Pat Sullivan, 75, a lifelong neighborhood resident who has led the organization, said that Chris Wintrode and others essentially came in and took over meetings.

I see, by saying it is a continuation of an old organization that diminishes the new effort. Kirner is Dorothy Kirner who defeated me for 25th Ward Alderman in March 2005, she was an incumbent. Her term expires in April 2009.

Personally I’m glad to see a new crop of residents take some action to actually do something, anything.
I’ll be stopping by Amberg Park after 10am on the 18th to see how the cleanup project is going.

Coming Together In Lucas Park

We skipped last weekend in Lucas Park but resumed work earlier today. This time we worked a reduced shift from 10am to noon-ish. In the past Andy Martello set up a BBQ to smoke meats & grill corn. We’d have a few of the local homeless because they knew that was the only way to get any of the food.

This weekend we skipped the food. We still had several homeless persons helping us in the park. I think we’ve earned their trust. That first day some were upset by our presence in their park. Over the last month they’ve seen we are not going to push them out. It has become our park.

Farrell Chatwell (left) & Andy Martello continue their conversation from the other night at the Tap Room. Turns out they are both Star Trek geeks....uh, fans

Above: Maureen Brown (in yellow) shows off her vivid artwork to some resident volunteers.

Maureen had recorded a testimonial for Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center. A few weeks ago she said she had not been paid for the work they gave her to do. Today she says she finally got paid but the additional work she was promised has not materialized. She does not feel safe on the street alone.

Over the last month barriers have been broken. Us loft dwellers that have been working in the park see the homeless in a new light. We’ve gotten to know many. They’ve gotten to know us. Fears of the other are diminished. We are all now acting different toward the other.

I didn’t get a picture of him but a man named Ernie also helped quite a bit today. Again no food was being cooked or offered. Ernie, Maureen & Farrell all helped because they wanted to help. Pride of place.

A month ago the park looked like this:

Lucas Park on the morning of 9/13/08

And a similar view this afternoon:

Lucas Park on 10/11/2008. I donated a large quantity of the hardy ground cover Liriope (aka Lilyturf).

Homeless still use the park, I don’t expect that to change. But more and more residents are using the park
as well. We are mingling and getting to know each other. The experience has been nothing but positive for me and for many others.

On the 25th we’ve got a little Halloween event planned from 3-5pm in the park. We’ll have fun & games for the little ones. I think we are planning a costume contest for kids, adults & dogs.

With the bulk of the cleanup done we move into the next phase with a design charrette on Monday November 17th from 6pm-9pm. We need Architects – especially Landscape Architects to participate. An Arborist or two would be nice as well. Residents & the homeless will be represented.

For years now Lucas Park has been the meant homeless to many in our region. Now Lucas Park is becoming a place where we can all come together, talk and figure out our common bonds rather than our differences. We’ll never erase homelessness but we do our best to work for solutions to get the homeless off the street and into transitional housing as quickly as possible.

I realize everyday how lucky I am to still be living following my February stroke and 14+ hours spent on my cold concrete floor until my friend Marcia found me. I’m determined to make a difference for others.

Work In Lucas Park Continues on Saturday 10/11/08

For a month now volunteers have been addressing long deferred park maintenance in Lucas Park. The City is stepping up and helping — workers have been getting the irrigation system functional again and each time we work they haul off the debris. The wooden benches have been painted, sidewalks swept, trees manicured and so on. St Patrick’s Center sent over the Clean Team to power wash the stone benches and concrete sidewalks.  The park is more pleasant for all users.  This Saturday (10/11/08) we will be back in the park from 10am to noon.

The now tidy Lucas Park.

We will be planting a low-maintenance ground cover called Liriope (wiki) in a few areas to help control erosion so the sidewalks stay mud-free. The plants are donated by yours truly. Regular work such as sweeping the sidewalks will also be done as the cypress trees quickly clutter the sidewalks with organic debris.

We will skip the 18th and resume on the 25th. On the 25th we will be having a little party in the park geared toward the little one — face painting, games, story telling, pumpkin carving, etc. 3pm-5pm on the 25th. That day we’ll have sweeping to do again before we start on decorating the park for Halloween. Stop by with the youngster(s).

Skipping ahead to November we have our design charrette on Monday the 17th from 6pm to 9pm. Architects, especially Landscape Architects are encouraged to participate to help flesh out ideas from residents & users of the park. The location will be the adjacent Crepes In the City restaurant which opened earlier today. They are located at 500 N. 14th at St Charles St. Those who live near the park should mark this on your calendar — this is your chance to have input in what you want from your neighborhood park. From the ideas generated a master plan will be formulated.