One Year Anniversary of the Downtown Trolley

Tomorrow marks one year since the debut of the #99 Downtown Trolley, replacing the former #99 Downtown Circulator. I’ve ridden the trolley many times in the last year and ridership has steadily increased.  Even though the wrap is over an otherwise conventional bus, it and other aspects do the trick.

The wrap, signs, and posted route map give tourists comfort. I often see tourists looking at the map posted at stops.  I ask if they need help, which occasionally they do. Big crowds often get on/off at City Museum.

The one flaw with the trolley is it doesn’t run on Sunday. Visitors here for a weekend or perhaps arriving early for a convention don’t have the trolley to help them get around downtown to spend money. In cold, rainy, or hot & humid weather the trolley is a critical part of the downtown transportation system.

The trolley is also important to locals. Most MetroBus lines entering downtown stop at the Civic Center MetroBud Transfer Center, adjacent to the MetroLink station, at 14th & Spruce. Workers trying to get to work on Sunday must now walk rather than use the trolley the rest of the way.

Metro, the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis and the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission need to find a way to also operate the trolley on Sundays.

– Steve Patterson

Happy July 4th, Steve Patterson on KDHX 88.1FM Tonight at 8:30pm (CST)

Happy 235th Birthday America! Tonight I will be DJ Wilson’s guest on KDHX 88.1FM at 8:30pm CST.  For those of you who don’t live in the St. Louis region, you can listen online here.  The show will be available later as a podcast.

– Steve Patterson

Two Great Years of Citygarden

It was two years ago today that Citygarden opened in downtown St. Louis. The two-block sculpture garden leaves a positive impression on all who visit.

The space has won numerous awards and graced the pages of many publications.  The critics all seem to love Citygarden!

And the critics that really matter, the kids, love the space just like us adults do.

I love Citygarden, but it’s not perfect.  Yesterday I filed an ADA grievance with the city’s Office on the Disabled against the City of St. Louis for accepting the curb ramp at 10th & Chestnut.  It doesn’t even come close to meeting ADA design guidelines — it should have been replaced by the general contractor by now.  I also don’t like 9th Street being closed to vehicles but that will take more work to convince the powers that be that we can’t keep effing with our street grid.

– Steve Patterson

It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A

In celebration of the annual St. Louis PrideFest this weekend I thought it would be interesting to talk about the connection between gays and the revitalization of rundown urban neighborhoods.

In watching Before Stonewall again recently one point stood out to me: gay men would open bars in run down neighborhoods because the buildings or rent was cheap and the level of scrutiny was potentially less than in other areas.

This is the story of one such place, a collection of businesses on 20th Street across from Union Station:

The area around Union Station was as run down as they come:

As railroad passenger services declined in the 1950s and 1960s, the massive station became obsolete and too expensive to maintain for its original purpose. With the takeover of national rail passenger service by Amtrak in 1971, passenger train service to St. Louis was reduced to only three trains a day. Amtrak stopped using Union Station on October 31, 1978; the six trains daily did not justify such a large facility. (Wikipedia)

Of course Union Station was famous for being in Escape from New York, helping solve problems for the film’s producers on where to film:

[Associate Producer] Bernardi suggested East St. Louis, Illinois, because it was filled with old buildings “that exist in New York now, and [that] have that seedy run-down quality” that the team was looking for. East St. Louis, sitting across the Mississippi River from the more prosperous St. Louis, Missouri, had entire neighborhoods burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire. Hill said in an interview, “block after block was burnt-out rubble. In some places there was absolutely nothing, so that you could see three and four blocks away.” As well, Alves found an old bridge to double for the “69th St. Bridge”. The filmmaker purchased the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge for one dollar from the government and then gave it back to them for a dollar, “so that they wouldn’t have any liability,” Hill remembers. Locations across the river in St. Louis, Missouri were also used, including Union Station and the Fox Theater, both of which have since been renovated. (Wikipedia)

Union Station was, of course, reopened as a festival marketplace in 1985.  On 20th Street just across the street to the west stood a former YMCA building built in 1907. In the 1970s it contained the places shown on the above ad from 1976.

Today the building continues to serve travelers with a Drury Inn and Lombardo’s Trattoria.  Remember, “It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.” Learn more at www.stlouisgayhistory.com

– Steve Patterson

Carl Milles’ Meeting of the Waters in Aloe Plaza

The Swedish-born sculptor Carl Milles was born on this day in 1875.  Milles, as you probably know, designed the beautiful sculptural fountain “Meeting of the Waters” in Aloe Plaza, located across Market St. from Union Station.

“Aloe Plaza was named in honor of Louis P. Aloe, who died in 1929. He served as President of the Board of Alderman from 1916 to 1923 and led the movement for passage of the [1923] bond issue” that funded many St. Louis projects. But Aloe never met Milles:

Edith Aloe, Louis P. Aloe’s widow, became acquainted with the work of the Swedish sculptor, Carl Milles, at an exhibition of modern art held by the St. Louis League of Women Voters in 1930. The idea of commissioning Milles to build a fountain in Aloe Plaza grew out of her enthusiasm for his work.

But the country was in the middle of the Depression so her idea was put on hold until January 1936 when Mrs. Aloe gave a dinner in her home for the sculptor,Carl Milles, and members of the St. Louis Art Commission. She officially presented her check for $12,500.

The City signed a contract with Milles in 1936. Milles designed and cast the bronze statues for the fountain in his studio at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook, Michigan. The fountain was completed in November 1939, but remained veiled until its dedication on May 11, 1940 before a crowd of 3,000 persons.

The fountain, originally named “The Wedding of the Rivers,” depicts the union of the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers, represented by the two central figures. Accompanying the two main figures and forming a wedding procession are 17 water spirits, symbolic of the smaller streams that empty into the two major rivers.

An uproar arose over the nudity of the male figure, reprenting the Mississippi River and the female figure, the Missouri River. In deference to the criticism, the name of the fountain was changed to ,”The Meeting of the Waters.” (source)

Oh yes the horrors of a nude male sculpture, we can’t use the word marriage when nudity is involved. Perhaps we should rename the fountain as Milles originally intended? Perhaps for the 75th anniversary in 2015?

Here is more info on Louis P. Aloe:

Louis P. Aloe was the president of the highly successful business created by his father, A. S. Aloe & Company, which manufactured and sold optical, surgical, and photographic equipment. Elected to the highest city office achieved by a Jew in St. Louis, Louis was president of the Board of Aldermen from 1916 to 1923. In 1917 he became acting mayor during Henry Kiel’s illness and was widely acclaimed for his leadership during that critical period and in the effort to pass the 1923 bond issue. He suffered a severe stroke in 1926, a year after his defeat for the office of mayor, and died in 1929. His son-in-law, Howard F. Baer, took over leadership of A. S. Aloe at Louis’s death. The fountain was finished in November 1939, but the dedication was delayed until the spring, when some three thousand people gathered to witness the unveiling.Lighting and landscaping were added to the area in 1954. During the renovation of Union Station in the mid-1980s, Aloe Plaza and Milles Fountain, just across the street, also underwent some refurbishing. (source)

Howard Baer built a new headquarters for A. S. Aloe & Company just two blocks north of Aloe Plaza. Sadly that building was razed in 1996.  For pictures and more information see Built St. Louis here. Without a doubt, this fountain, created by Carl Milles, is the finest in St. Louis.

– Steve Patterson