New Downtown Rain Garden Reduces Sidewalk Width Too Much

Here is an addition to downtown you may have missed, here was the press release:

ST. LOUIS, November 10, 2010 – The Downtown Community Improvement District (CID) has installed its first demonstration Rain Garden at the corner of 11th and Pines Streets. One of the CID’s goals for this project was to catalyze a trend toward more sustainable streetscapes in the city. The 11th Street pilot project employs a new segmental wall and curb system, called Freno, that offers a cost-effective, modular method of building an urban rain garden.

This rain garden was designed to capture rain water from the gutter and adjacent parking lot, prior to reaching the sewer system. This sustainable landscape does not require watering and gives back to the environment by specifically designated plants and soil mix that filter out 80-90% of the pollutants from car fluid and road treatment chemicals.

Rain gardens have been designated in the downtown St. Louis streetscape plan and they are gaining popularity in downtowns across the nation and abroad. With this in mind, the need for sustainable landscapes in downtown is becoming more and more important.

The materials and labor that went into the construction of this rain garden has been 100% donated by the City of St. Louis Department of Streets, HOK, Midwest Products, St. Louis Composting, Forrest Keeling Nursery, and the Downtown CID.

This Downtown Next priority is brought to you by the Downtown CID – dedicated to a cleaner, safer, more vibrant and greener Downtown. Downtown St. Louis is a regional leader in sustainable practices.

I like rain gardens, they do a great job of reducing water runoff.

But I also like sidewalk space and this new rain garden consumes way too much of the width of the sidewalk.  Eliminating a driveway into the adjacent parking lot is a very good thing but with the reduced width of the sidewalk I’m concerned about cars parking too far forward.

Ideally there would be fencing to prevent cars from parking so their front ends don’t further squeeze the sidewalk space.  Simple wheel stops in the parking lot would solve the problem on the cheap.  The rain gardens on 9th & Market (Citygarden) extend out from the curb line into what is normally the parking lane.  Here, on 11th, parking is not permitted next to the rain garden so the street width is excessive for the two travel lanes.  The curb to curb for the roadway is too wide but the sidewalk width was cut in half. Typical.

The problem of trash will be ongoing.  Good intentions, poor execution.

– Steve Patterson

Single Stream Recycling Here For Some

In July the Board of Aldermen passed ordinance 68698.  From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Saturday July 3, 2010:

” A new city trash fee passed the Board of Aldermen on Friday and was signed into law by Mayor Francis Slay. It will cost most homeowners $11 a month, or $132 per year, and includes new, single-stream recycling bins – for cardboard, plastic, glass and more – for the first time.”

City residents haven’t had specific fees for trash collection before so suddenly paying $11 per unit came as a shock but the promise of city-wide single stream recycling made the fee easier to tolerate.  The fee would be added onto the existing water bill.  For those with multi-family buildings the fee can add up quickly.

The water bill is invoiced in arrears, after you’ve had water service. Residents now have their bills with the trash fee for July-October.  But only three (8, 15, 28) of our 28 wards have the promised recycling bins in their alleys.  Nine wards (1,2,3,4, 18, 20, 22, 26, 27) won’t get recycling bins in the alley.  These wards, per their aldermen, will get collection points only — groupings of recycling bins.  Waelterman as quoted in the same P-D article:

“Dumpster-style recycling bins will probably begin arriving in city alleys this fall. The city is bidding out contracts on the bins now. Bins will be citywide by year’s end. A few neighborhoods – if requested by the ward’s alderman, or neighbors – will not get them.”

So the news that not all wards would get convenient recycling bins in their alley is not new.  The reason is money — these aldermen didn’t want to spend the funds necessary to buy the bins.

Those who use roll-out containers for trash will get blue roll outs, but it will be the end of March 2011 before the entire city has recycling.  So some will have paid for 9 months ($99) of recycling before getting recycling.

To address growing unrest the city held a press conference last week.

The press conference was held in the mayor’s office at city hall.   Here is the press conference with Mayor Slay, President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed and Director of Streets Todd Waelterman:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tulJpEQ0sd4

The following is the Q&A:

My condo association pays for private trash & recycling collection so the $11/month fee doesn’t impact me.  But I’m guessing many of you are now paying this fee but the corresponding service won’t arrive until next year.  Please share your thoughts on the fee and the process in the comments below.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Who Will Be Elected St. Louis Mayor In 2013?

Now that we are past the midterm elections it is time to think of St. Louis Spring 2011 elections. But first I’m thinking about the race for mayor in 2013.

The first & second mayors of St. Louis are the only two that have served more than three terms, but those first two don’t really count:

“Under the original city charter, the mayor was elected to a one-year term. The mayor served a two-year term after the adoption of a new city charter in 1859.  The mayor’s office was extended to its present four-year term after passage of the Charter and Scheme in 1876 which separated the City of St. Louis from St. Louis County. The mayor is not term limited.” (Wikipedia)

Francis Slay is our 45th mayor and at the end of his current term he will be only the fourth mayor to have served three (3) four-year terms. Slay may decide to seek an unprecedented fourth term in office but I’m guessing he won’t. Our last 3-term mayor, Vincent C. Schoemehl (1981-1993), did not seek a fourth term.

So I thought since we are just over two years away from the next mayoral election that it would be interesting to see who you think would be the person elected in 2013. Not who you necessarily want, but who you think will be elected to the office.

Will Slay become the first four-year four term mayor?  Perhaps a current holder of another city-wide office? A current alderman? Bill Haas?  Don’t like my answers, make up your own. The poll is in the upper right for for a week, final results will be posted Wednesday November 24, 2010.

– Steve Patterson

Sidewalks Are Constantly Abused

Many see the public sidewalk as wasted space where they can do as they please.  Presumably that is the case of this for lease sign I spotted early yesterday morning. Hopefully the St. Louis Streets Dept didn’t grant them a permit to place this sign on the sidewalk.  Yes, the sidewalk is still passable but such things greatly reduce the pedestrian experience.  We do need more pedestrians in the city but we need to stop giving people reasons not to walk.

– Steve Patterson

Downtown Trolley Popular With Visitors

The #99 Downtown Trolley is proving popular with visitors to St. Louis.

I have no numbers, only my frequent observations of the ridership.  Locals are riding as well.

The wrap on the bus, the well marked route and the $2 all day fee seem to be doing the trick to get visitors to explore more of downtown.  The region benefits as well as others also take MetroLink to other parts of our area.

– Steve Patterson