Open Letter to the new Downtown Partnership President Maggie Campbell

This post is to welcome Maggie Campbell to St. Louis.  Campbell started work yesterday as the new President and CEO of the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis.  The following is from a September 30th St. Louis Business Journal article:

Campbell has been president of the Arlington (Texas) Downtown Management Association since 2006.

She will succeed Jim Cloar on Nov. 2 and become the first woman to hold the post, according to Shuntaé Shields Ryan, a Partnership spokeswoman.

Cloar announced his retirement plans in February after eight years at the helm.

Prior to her current position, Campbell served as president and CEO of the Old Pasadena Management District in Pasadena, Calif., and as executive director of the Dallas West End Association, a nonprofit organization that represents 24 blocks in the downtown Dallas historic entertainment district.

So now that everyone knows who I’m talking about I’m going to address the balance to her:

I’ve been a downtown resident for two years now. Even before I moved downtown I saw the potential.  I remember going on tours of future lofts in the mid-1990s.  Those never materialized but many others did.  Over my 19 years in St. Louis I’ve seen far to many great buildings razed.  I’ve seen some bad ones razed, but we still have too many of those.

I wanted to bring you up to speed on a variety of issues, giving you a different perspective that you probably won’t hear from the suits.

Busch Stadium:

• Seems to work well in downtown.
• Fans hang out before and after the game.
• Openness of the stadium is nice.
• Not paid for yet so I don’t expect changes for a long time.
• Two parking garages left over from previous Busch Stadium are horrible at the sidewalk level.  Retrofit of street-level retail not feasible.  Both garages need to go.

Ballpark Village:

• Good potential, good location.
• Cordish/Cardinals should create form-based standards and parcel out the land so that it can be built in stages by various entities.

Edward Jones Dome:

• Horrible structure that divides downtown from the near North side of town.
• Keep the Rams in the St. Louis region, just not downtown and probably not in the City of St. Louis.
• We should not invest more in the dome to meet the 2015 lease requirements.

Taxi stand at America’s Center:

• We have taxi cabs parking and driving on the public sidewalk where we have visitors to our city.
• Solution: move taxi stand to curb lane of Washington Ave.

Street Vendors:

• St. Louis’ current law is highly restrictive — too few licenses are issued.
• The area where licenses are issued is too small.
• Vendors are a great & cheap way to add life to sidewalks.

Parking (Bicycles):

• A handful of blocks on Washington Ave have some poorly placed bike racks.
• The rest of downtown mostly lacks bike parking.

Parking (On-Street):

• Every block needs to be evaluated to see where additional spaces can be added.
• Disabled parking needs to be added at metered spaces throughout downtown.

Parking (Garages):

• We have an excess number of garages although the suits will tell you we need more.

Bottle District:

• Not really a district, just vacant land North of the dome.
• Needs to be connected to adjacent areas.

Streets & intersections:

• 3-4 years ago a study was prepared that indicated some of our one-way streets could return to two-way traffic.  I say make all two-way.
• Pedestrian signals downtown are lacking.
• We need to change the name of Convention Plaza back to Delmar.

Downtown guides:

• This may be happening already but get some of then off the bikes and on foot instead.  They are more approachable on foot.
• The ones on bikes please make sure they actually secure their helmets.
• Make sure all shirts and jackets no longer say “CID” on the back because most don’t know that means Community Improvement District.

Arch Connection:

• The suits want to put the highway into an expensive 3-block long tunnel.
• They call the tunnel a lid so it sounds less expensive than it will be.
• A group of citizens has proposed a 2 mile long boulevard to replace the highway from Cass Ave to the Poplar Street Bridge.
• Connecting 2 miles is better than 3 blocks.

St. Louis Centre/skywalks:

• The failed downtown indoor mall.
• Walkways over the sidewalks on all sides.

Union Station:

• Not well connected to surrounding blocks.
• Needs residential closer.

22nd Street Interchange:

• Left over from a planned highway that is officially dead.
• Paul McKee plans to develop the area.
• Needs the restoration of the street grid.
• Possibly abandon highway connection here and build new interchange at Jefferson Ave.

Valet Parking:

• A few years ago numerous restaurants had out of control valet service.
• City needs a good way to permit and manage the valets so they conduct their business in a limited zone, leaving the rest of the street for the public.

Gateway Mall:

• Very long history, most of it not so good.
• Downtown has too much open space and not enough urban space.  Leave the mall but build out other areas to reduce total open space.
• Citygarden is amazing.  But many more blocks are awaiting a transformation.
• 1st priority is to extend the wide “hall” along the North side of Market St.

I’m sure I’ll think of other things but this is a good starter list.  Readers will no doubt leave additional items in the comments.  Many will disagree with me as well.  This shows you that citizens care about downtown and that not everyone agrees.  When the suits tell you something be sure to ask citizens what they think.  Your members do not represent the typical resident or downtown user.

We’ve already met virtually but I look forward to meeting you in person.  Welcome to St. Louis.

– Steve Patterson

What is wrong with this sidewalk?

This sidewalk, heading South from Washington Ave. along the East side of 14th Street, has a number of issues.  Most notably it is too narrow.

On the positive side, the trees and parked cars make a nice buffer between the pedestrian and passing vehicles.  Since my stroke I’ve walked this sidewalk a few times and the half block you see here is harder to walk on than the previous two blocks to get to this point.  It slopes downhill slightly but that is not an issue.  The cross slope, however, makes this sidewalk very difficult to walk on.  The side to side slope is beyond allowable limits of the ADA.  To the eye you can see the slight slope.

The able-bodied would have no problem walking this sidewalk but for those of us with one leg that doesn’t work as well as the other find it a major challenge.

– Steve Patterson

Riding the #99 Downtown Circulator Bus

Last week I rode the fairly new #99 Downtown Circulator bus with Metro employee Courtney Sloger.  I had met Ms. Sloger a few weeks earlier as part of a panel with Dr. Todd Swanstrom of the University of Missouri St. Louis discussing transit for What’s Up Magazine.  Sloger doesn’t own a car and uses transit herself.  She is one of a couple of writers on Metro’s NextStop STL blog.

It was at this panel discussion I first heard of the #99 bus.  I was so excited I wrote a post about it last month that included the route map:

When I agreed to ride the #99 with her I planned to use the opportunity to use my wheelchair to try the lift for entry/exit.  The battery on my chair decided otherwise.  With the chair no longer taking a charge I would need to drive my car to a point along the route.  To simplify meeting Sloger I picked her up at Metro’s offices in Laclede’s Landing.  I drove to 10th & Washington Ave where there was plenty of on-street parking on 10th.  The time was around 4:30pm a week ago today. The bus stop was just around the corner on Washington Ave.

One of the amazing things about this route is the frequency of the buses, only 10 minutes.  So we caught the next Westbound bus.  I rode a bus in Seattle in March so I knew I could walk up the steps without issue.  The buses being used are shorter than most in their fleet.  This makes navigating downtown streets easier.  Many seats still remained empty.

We headed West on Washington and turned left onto Tucker.  Nobody got on or off along Tucker.  At Spruce we turned right to head to the Civic Center Station with many bus routes, MetroLink, Greyhound and Amtrak.  The #99 doesn’t board/unboard inside the bus section but along 14th street adjacent to the bus terminal.  If you are passing through this point on the #99 be sure to get a transfer ticket when you board.

Resuming the ride when went in the direction we had just come from except now we were going East on Washington Ave.  We turned right (South) on Broadway.  We took Broadway South past Busch Stadium until we turned left at Poplar and left again on 4th.  I didn’t set my timer but the entire round trip was much faster than I expected.

Along the way we talked about destinations nearby and how to market the route beyond the current ridership, mostly blue-collar transit dependent riders from my observation.  I suggested the buses need a special look.  While I preferred new low-floor buses Courtney Sloger thought a wrap works into the budget better.  Agreed, just something to make the bus stand out from the others.

Many cities have transit lines to help you navigate from destination to destination.  But just who are those more likely to take a ride on the #99?

Downtown residents and office workers seems an obvious answer.  Tourists and visitors here for conventions?  The wrap should include the words “downtown circulator” in big letters, I suggested.  And a graphic of the route.  Listing destinations reachable via the bus would help too.

When I visit a city I like to ride a bus or streetcar line to observe what is out there so I’ll know what to come back to on foot.  But the current #99 misses one of the best parts of downtown, the two blocks of Washington Ave between Tucker and 14th. Visitors should see this.  Granted if they exited at Tucker when the bus turn they’d be right there but I think going through it is better.  I’d like to see the route modified to go up & down 14th rather than Tucker (12th). The problem is 14th is often closed at Chestnut for special events at Soldier’s Memorial.  I guess on those days the bus could take Tucker.

For tourists they’d still need to know where they are going because destinations are not announced. Many places are close, but not obvious, such as Citygarden, Union Station, City Museum, and Culinaria.  Someone might get into town late on a Saturday.  After checking into their hotel on 4th they could take the #99 to grab a bite at a number of places such as the 12th Street Diner at Tucker & Washington Ave. While the diner is open 24 hours on the weekend, the bus line stops around midnight.  Check the schedule for hours & directions.

I suggested Metro get hotel concierges to ride the route at least once.  Downtown guides too.

As a helpful tool for downtown residents I suppose it depends upon where you live.  If you are in the Edison Warehouse at 14th & Spruce it is am easy way to get you closer to stores like Macy’s, Culinaria and others.  The steps into the bus, however, make bringing on purchases a challenge.  For those of us West of 16th the line doesn’t help much.  For people in the Pointe 400 apartments (old Pet building) on 4th Street it would be an excellent way to connect with restaurants and other destinations  that are a good walk from your place.

I invite each of you when you are downtown next to ride the #99.  See what you think.  I like the possibilities it offers for the future.  Certainly needs a special look.  Most definitely needs low-floor vehicles to eliminate the steps.But it is a step in the right direction.  Thanks Courtney Sloger for pushing me to ride the #99.

– Steve Patterson

Do People Still Care About Public Health?

It was a scene right out of a made-for-TV disaster film at the Creve Coeur Safety Fair held in mid-October on the campus of Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital. There were emergency services, helicopters buzzing overhead doing maneuvers, fire engines and fake rescues.

The real sense of urgency, however, was in the flu-shot lines just to the east of the accident re-enactors and general hoopla. There were a couple thousand people hurrying as fast as they could to stand in lines that wrapped around two large parking lots. Frantic drivers parked their cards anywhere they could and pushed children and elderly parents toward the line. Everyone wanted to get in place before the cops shut it down and turned people away. A four-hour event, the line was stopped a half hour after opening because the line already exceeded the supply of 2,000 flu vaccines.

Then we had time to wait. And wait. As the line finally crept forward and two hours slowly ticked by I couldn’t help but think that in case of a real emergency we’re in more trouble than we know. All around us there were stories of doctor’s offices that had no vaccine or pediatricians who had run out of the vaccine for infants. Rumors of cancelled flu shot clinics were verified. The next day Walgreens ran out of flu vaccine. And this was only for the seasonal flu vaccine, not the H1N1 vaccine.

So what happens if that tinge of panic becomes full scale, out-and-out panic? It doesn’t take much of an imagination to see all that anxiety transformed into something much worse.

I can’t speak for the state of public-health planning, but when a corporate citizen like BJC Healthcare distributes in excess of 30,000 free seasonal flu shots and they run out in the midst of a final mob scene, what does that say about the state of our public health? I say it means we’re failing.

While there were doubtless some freeloaders in the bunch, I’d guess many people were in the line because they were unemployed, uninsured, underinsured, very young, very old, or simply couldn’t afford the cost of immunizing their entire family. At $25 a shot, a family of six would have to invest $150 to protect themselves from just one of the serious flu threats this year. No word on how much the H1N1 vaccine will cost, but it if it’s the same, that’s $300 to inoculate a family in 2009.

The most effective public health measures are preventative. Wash your hands. Stay home if you’re sick. Don’t send sick kids to school. Get vaccinated against the evils we know. Yet how many of us who live in an interdependent way in urban or suburban environments take these precautions? We all know people who pride themselves on never taking a sick day or the fearful among us who refuse to get vaccinated. To quote Walt Kelly’s Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Urban life is intimately tied up with public health. We depend upon vaccinations, the county health departments that allocate them, and the generosity of corporate sponsors to fulfill the needs of those with substandard or no health insurance coverage. Our illogical and haphazard delivery of disease-prevention services undermines civic health.

So when I look at public investments in the community, I wonder why public health is never mentioned. We fund safety improvements to the MLK Bridge to the tune of $1.4 million to address 14 fatalities since 1998. And yet 84 people have already died in Missouri this fall (through Oct. 10) due to flu or complications of flu and 1,441 new cases of flu (seasonal and H1N1) were reported in Missouri during the week of Oct. 3-10.

I’m not saying the MLK Bridge project is frivolous, but perhaps the civic cost of not investing in disease prevention is more than short sighted, it’s a tragic loss of focus on what is most likely to protect the lives of ordinary Missourians.

While you mull on that, you might also consider that the majority of our local and regional flu pandemic planning is based on 2006 models for the avian flu. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to rethink public road investments and other “high priority” public-improvement projects and think more about public health and what will really make our communities safer and healthier.

Disclaimer: Yes, this writer belongs to the millions of the underinsured even though she pays significant amounts of money monthly to keep her healthcare coverage current. Individual health coverage often neglects simple preventative services like flu shots while maximizing out-of-pocket expenses. So, yes, I did need that free flu shot.

– Deborah Moulton

A Vintage Parking Garage

Downtown St. Louis has many parking garages, too many in fact.  Most are as bland as you’d expect a parking garage to be.

The curving exit ramp of the Macy’s garage at 6th & Pine (map link) is anything but bland.

One of the two Kiener Plaza garages are visible from the exit ramp of the Macy’s garage, above.

It is hard to sustain a vibrant downtown with so much real estate used for car storage.  We built garages to accommodate everyone coming downtown but in the process created a downtown less attractive to visitors.

I just hope nobody gets the idea to list one on the National Register of Historic Places.  Wait, the city likes to raze historic buildings so perhaps we should get all of them on the register.  That may be the only way to reduce their numbers.

– Steve Patterson