TOD Sites Abound in St. Louis

Transit Oriented Development, TOD, is a big topic in planning circles. The basic concept is to concentrate development activity around transit such as a subway or light rail station. A good mixed-use project with retail, office and residential can keep a station busy and transit cost-effective. A developer too can maintain/increase profits while building a bigger project.

To date I don’t think we’ve done the best job maximizing the existing MetroLink light rail stations. We are starting to see some work near stations in Illinois but the density is still relatively low. Granted, many of our stations were built in existing areas, some of which are quite urban. For example, downtown was already full and as lofts fill up former offices and warehouses we can be sure rail transit access had something to do with that.

We do have several areas of our light rail system that could benefit from increased development. The first comes to mind is 8th and Spruce, just west of the new Busch Stadium. Here the Metrolink line curves to change from east-west orientation under the highway to north-south under 8th. A new corner building with MetroLink running in the basement could prove popular. With the stadium station in place just across Spruce access would be a cinch. Don’t look for any underground parking with the train in the middle of the footprint but we must get to the point where not every place has dedicated parking. Besides, that is part of the point of transit. In this new building I’d have street-level retail/restuarant space facing both Spruce and 8th, a couple of floors of office space and then residential. Maybe it is at most 6-8 stories high. Still, that would do a wonderful job of urbanizing a prominent corner as well as adding density to a transit stop that doesn’t see much activity outside of game day. This new construction and users could compliment the renovation work in the adjacent Couples Station area.

A similar opportunity exists just to the west, between 14th and 18th along Clark St. Between the Civic Center Station (14th) and the Union Station Station (18th) is development nirvana (see map). At the immediate corner of 14th & Clark we’ve got a nice grove of trees leading to the station platforms. I could see a new building design just to the west, facing Clark, that leaves this corner plaza intact. However, I’d get out the chainsaw for the right building(s) on the corner at 14th. The problem here is the big curve is closer to street grade than I’d like and lowering it might be too costly. But, from what was once 15th to 16th you’ve got a clean shot over the tracks. Same for 16th to 18th.

Concentrating more residences near 18th and Clark would create more daily users for Union Station (so it is not entirely dependent upon tourist traffic). Offering downtown residential units without included garage space might also offer affordability to those that want a car-free lifestyle but cannot currently afford to live near a MetroLink station. Of course, garage space could be built on the main and a few upper levels with retail along the street-face and office & residential over the parking. A mix of housing in numerous price ranges might be the best solution.

While I’d have no opposition to a mid or high-rise tower I don’t think it is necessary either, at least not from a design perspective. Clark and the adjacent numbered streets would have had 3-6 story buildings originally. This creates a nice friendly scale along the sidewalk for pedestrians. Even is part of the structures did get taller a shorter height at the sidewalk would still be best.

The cost-effectiveness of construction over a functioning transit line is the big problem with this plan. The cost of the required concrete tunnel may necessitate more floors just to help break even. The concept is certainly worth detailed analysis.

As Metro (Bi-State) most likely owns the right-of-way used for MetroLink a developer would need their blessing. This would involve a lease or sale of the development rights over the right-of-way. This money could help ease the currently strapped transit agency while providing new users for the system.

Moving west out of downtown I think a new stop at Jefferson Ave is needed. The replacement bridge over the tracks is currently being planned so adding a transit stop during construction would be a simple affair, relative to retrofitting to an old bridge. The site to the east of Jefferson facing Scott (and the UPS facility) is ideal for concentrated development around a transit stop (map). With a new interchange at I-64 and 22nd Street it might actually be possible to connect Scott Ave with 21st or 20th street making it possible for those living at this new area to walk to Union Station. All this is adjacent to the proposed Chouteau Greenway. I’ve already covered the TOD possibilities at Grand in a prior post.

I think our developers do a good job converting existing buildings but when it comes to new construction I think they tend to seek out large tracts. The idea of building on smaller parcels just hasn’t quite sunk in yet. This land near these transit stops is not serving anyone at the moment but if developed could help Metro, the new occupants, adjacent retailers and restauranteurs and the City of St. Louis.

– Steve

Mass Transit: St. Louis vs. Toronto

Using mass transit in Toronto is vastly different than attempting to get around via transit in St. Louis. While Toronto has bus service, it is primarily limited to areas outside the older inner city.

Toronto has multiple layers to their mass transit strategy: streetcars, bus, heavy rail subway and light rail. It is this layering that gives visitors and residents numerous choices on how to get from A to B without a car. Before I get into the differences in the systems I want to give a bit of background. Toronto was one of the few cities in North America to retain their streetcar system when it was fashionable to rip them up in the middle of the 20th Century. However, the Toronto Transit Commission had intended to abandon the streetcars by 1980. Second, they built a subway in 1955 — a time when no other North American city was doing so. These two decisions 50 years ago are proving invaluable today. Conversely, St. Louis and nearly every American city chose the opposite — remove the streetcars and not implement any sort of high capacity rail system until the end of the 20th Century. We are lucky, some cities are still in the planning stages of their first line.

At right is the view from the downtown hotel where I stayed in Toronto as the #505 Streetcar heads east on Dundas. Headways, or frequency, on this line and others seemed to be in the 5-10 minute range. As you can see the streetcar is not the vintage sort you might see along San Francisco’s Embarcadero, New Orleans’ St. Charles Ave or downtown Memphis. No, these are “modern” streetcars with up to date suspensions, braking and excellent acceleration (service began in 1979, see history). I’ve ridden the vintage lines in the above cities and while they are charming they are indeed slow regardless of traffic. In fact, all three (SF, New Orleans and Memphis) operate largely in dedicated lanes and they are still slow. That is simply due to the vintage technology. But, the modern streetcars are fast, able to jolt passengers if the operator takes off too suddenly. A vintage streetcar can never make that claim.

Toronto operates many streetcar lines, primarily in the east-west direction. They have two subway lines, the original 1955 line coming north out of Union Station following Yonge St. (pronounced Young) and an east-west subway further out along Bloor-Danforth. It is in the east along the Danforth section of the subway where you reach the end and switch to a section of light rail, which I will discuss later.

If you look at Toronto’s downtown transit map you’ll see how the system is laid out. The yellow & green lines are subway systems, the 500-series are streetcars and other lines are bus routes with the yellow numbers with dashed lines representing express bus service. Toronto’s streetcars and bus lines form an efficient grid of north-south and east-west routes. Streetcars intersect with subway stops to make transfers easy.

If you compare Toronto’s much larger downtown area map with St. Louis’ map differences become apparent. The St. Louis map is a clusterf*ck of lines all trying to squeeze in to a tight area in the central business district. The theory being the bus has to get the rider to their office door or they won’t use the system. Still, I can’t help but wonder if a clear grid of north-south and east-west bus routes would not be more straightforward and easy for visitors and casual riders to understand?

Toronto’s streetcars are designed to hold 46 seated passengers and a maximum of 132 if pushed. They have some articulated streetcars that double that capacity. On most routes it appears they run the single vehicles and increase the frequency to handle the demand. Some have said here in the past that a streetcar is simply a glorified bus with more costly upfront capital costs. The real measure comes down to ridership and the Toronto streetcar system is not a nostalgic vintage line like we see in other cities to attract tourists. Regular Toronto citizens use the streetcar to get where they are going. We should be so lucky to have half their ridership on our bus routes.

Density plays a factor in transit, of course. Toronto is far more dense than St. Louis is currently although their lines run out to largely single family “streetcar” neighborhoods. Funding is the other big factor. Up until the late 1990s the Toronto region was divided among multiple municipalities but for efficiency sake (and probably other reasons) they amalgamated themselves into one large municipal government. Still, the Toronto Transit Commission remained a separate entity as it has for decades. I’m sure they’ve had funding issues before but it appears they’ve managed to create a very usable regional transportation system that serves suburban dwellers with bus and subway/light rail while offering those in town an efficient streetcar system. Neither view was compromised for the sake of the other.

While nearly all the Toronto streetcars operate in what is commonly called “mixed traffic”, with the streetcar sharing a lane with auto traffic, a few lines have dedicated lanes. At left is the #510 Spadina north-south line running through the heart of China town. It operates in the center with traffic being one-way in opposite directions on each side. Nothing except traffic prevents a pedestrian from crossing over the tracks anywhere along the line but cars are limited to only certain intersections to cross. It should be noted this is a really wide street — probably at least ninety feet from outside curb to outside curb. We have very few such streets in the City of St. Louis.

Again, most of the streetcars in Toronto run in mixed traffic situations and all must follow the traffic signals. They are not employing any sort of GPS technology to give the streetcars preference when it comes to traffic signals, something that is often done with new in-street systems be they bus rapid transit, streetcars (vintage or modern) or light rail. Still, their signals were always timed nearly perfect. Streets with mixed traffic streetcars may have four total lanes plus on-street parking or be quite narrow with barely room for on-street parking and two traffic lanes.

The streetcars always run in the middle of the street which has a number of pros and cons. On the plus side the streetcar is not switching from inside to outside lanes so drivers and cyclists know what to expect as they drive alongside. The streetcar also does not get stuck behind someone trying to parallel park except on those really narrow streets. The cons are getting to the streetcar. In most places you wait at the curb until the streetcar arrives and then you walk out to meet it. In cases where you are crossing a traffic lane the traffic is required to stop behind the line of the streetcar while the doors are open. And amazingly enough, they do (including cyclists). The big issue is accessibility, or more precisely the lack of it. If you are in a wheelchair you’ll need to call a different service to get you around town. Even those with mobility issues may have difficulty walking out to the street and then up multiple steps.

The tracks did not seem to present major issues to the thousands of cyclists I saw. Granted, few were riding the real narrow tire road bikes. Most opted for a mountain bike or hybrid with tires more suited for in-town traffic. With the lines all being in the center lanes that means cyclists really need to worry most about the track at intersections. I witnessed a man pushing a woman in a wheelchair at a crosswalk and the tracks were presenting challenges, I’m not sure how a wheelchair bound person would manage on their own. This happened to be a situation where two lines crossed and you had the lines plus all the curved tracks as well so I think just crossing regular tracks might not be too objectionable.

Two things I like about streetcars over buses are the tracks and the overhead wires. I’m not sure which is better though. The overhead wires create this beautiful tapestry of lines and voids. In Seattle and a few other cities they have electric trolley buses. These look pretty much like conventional buses that we have in St. Louis but operate from overhead electric lines (see wiki). I’ve seen the Seattle bus operator come from the suburbs where they run on diesel or CNG and as they approach the city they stop, get out, and connect to the overhead wires. This small thing, overhead power, sends a couple of messages to the public. First, we care about the environment so we are not going to spew fumes in an urban area. Second, we’ve made a capital investment in this route so we are not going anywhere soon. And last this is an advanced technology over a standard bus — something that can help attract transit choice riders. St. Louis needs to give serious consideration to switching to this type of system for bus routes in the city and older suburbs.

To many people the overhead wires are visual clutter. They want streets free of wires, lines, advertising and ultimately — people. The overhead lines in Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and Memphis do not detract from those cities in the least. All are well integrated into poles for streetlamps and are a good fit. This is quite different than a mess of wires power lines, phone & cable running along a single side of many of our older ring suburban streets.

Toronto’s subway two subway lines are heavy rail rather than light rail. That is, they are trains. The platform lengths and trains are very long like you’d see in NYC, Boston or Philly. In hindsight we should have opted for longer platforms/vehicles for our MetroLink but at the time nobody knew if it would get used as well as it has been.

The platforms all include a “designated waiting area” or DWA. This area features additional lighting as well as an emergency call button. I never felt unsafe but there were times I was so tired from walking that I took advantage of the bench while waiting for a train to arrive. The sheer number of people they can move is impressive and they frequency is high.

The Toronto Transit Commission is in the process of making their stations accessible to those in wheelchairs, something not considered when most were built. They are also replacing their trains with all new trains starting in 2009.

I took the Yonge subway out to nearly the end of the line, the North York station. At that station was a reasonably typical shopping mall with one big exception — a massive chain grocery store at the subway level (one below the sidewalk level). The Loblaws store was the centerpiece of the mall as you enter from the street. From the subway line you can walk virtually into the grocery store. As the North York area seemed most like a suburban office area (think Clayton but if located as far away as Chesterfield). Still, I can see people getting their groceries just before getting on the subway to return to their homes or after arriving back from where ever they had been. Very smart.

This brings us up to their light rail system. This is located in the far eastern area of the region at the end of the Danforth subway line. When you arrive at this subway station you leave the system and go up a level to the street where it serves as a bus terminal. Head up another level, and swiping your transit pass again, you get to the light rail platform. For those that live on the end of the light rail line they must do this switch everyday even though the lines are on the same trajectory. Why? Politics. In the 70s and 80s light rail was all the rage and the Ontario government was getting into the business of building transit vehicles. What better way to show off what you can do then to built a system in your own capital city? Extending the existing heavy rail trains at grade or even elevated would have made much more sense than creating a short section of light rail but we all know how short-sided political interests can outweigh wise planning.

Transit rides (streetcar, bus, subway, light rail) are all $2.75 CAN with transfers from one type to another. I opted for the weekly transit pass and I saw many on the streetcars with monthly passes. In short I think the grid-like routes offers Toronto citizens & tourists a great transit system with multiple choices. St. Louis’ system is not quickly understood and our long bus headways make most bus routes only for those who are transit dependent. Additional photos of Toronto’s system on Flickr.

We need to do a rethink because we can and should do better.

– Steve

No Parking 4pm-6pm or When Valets are Present.

Washington Avenue has seen a big transformation in just the last couple of years but the work to be done is far from over. Just as Gaslight Square burnt itself out in the late 60s, we run the risk of turning back the clock on progress if we are not careful.

In 2005 I began quest to get parking on Washington Ave. Partly because of my complaining (and that of others) the city relented and allowed parking on two blocks between 10th and 12th (aka Tucker). The exception was an hour in the morning and afternoon for the rush hour. When the first set of signs went up they indicated no parking from 7:30am to 8:30am and from 4:30pm to 5:30pm. What they didn’t say was Monday through Friday!

That last error has been corrected, the new signs indicate Monday-Friday for the morning and afternoon rush. But the new signs also indicate the “rush” has grown from an hour each to two hours each. Now no parking is allowed from 7am to 9am and from 4pm to 6pm. The city is getting aggressive about violators as well, they were towing cars on Friday afternoon. They wanted to keep traffic heading toward the closed Eads Bridge moving. Yes, the Eads Bridge was closed on Friday for a special event. So they towed cars to keep traffic moving to a bridge that was closed. Smart.

The times I’ve stood near 4th and Washington and watched the afternoon rush, such that it is, I’ve noticed few cars taking the Eads. About half during my observations have gone North toward I-70 or the King Bridge. For those taking the King to Illinois or I-70 westbound they should be directed from Washington Avenue to Cole street just to the north. It is much wider and has virtually no traffic.

Much of the afternoon “rush” on Washington is headed eastbound for the highway or Illinois, mostly coming from northbound Tucker, 11th or 8th. Signs directing these drivers to Cole, only a few blocks north, would be simple and effective. The intersection of Cole, Broadway, I-70 and the King Bridge is also much better set up to handle the volume of traffic than the intersection of Washington & I-70.

St. Louis Police are having about as much luck controlling the valet companies as they are the people parking on the street during the rush period. I recently saw a downtown officer removing the valet cones from the street in front of Copia during the rush.

What we risk is having block after block of little besides valet parking. Thankfully Pablo at Kitchen K hasn’t given into the valet madness. I think it is a good thing for people to park and walk. But, for those that can’t or won’t walk then reasonable valet service is OK. But, they continue to grab all the vacant spaces they can and then hold them for their own patrons.

The valet manager at Lucas Park Grille, owned at least in part by the McGowan’s, indicated their off-street parking lot is at 14th & Locust. He went on to indicate that is not the best area for client’s cars and too far for them to get back to 13th & Washington. Another time I talked with the same valet as they had coned off half the 1200 block of Washington across the street from Lucas Park Grille. It was a Monday night and the 6+ spaces they had reserved were empty yet folks were looking to park to patronize other businesses. That night he moved the cones off the street at my request.

Jim Suelmann, the city’s Director of Streets, has indicated to me the permits they issue are only for the pick-up and drop-off of customer’s cars. Yet, his department has issued permits for hundreds of feet and both sides of streets — surly they must realize these valet companies are holding spaces for primo cars.

Over on Olive near Compton at the former firehouse club (I forget the latest name) I’ve seen the valets place the cones in the bike lane on numerous occasions. Yes, in the middle of the bike lanes!!!!

Valets should be allotted 2-3 parking spaces for customers to bring in their cars or to pick them up. That is it. In Clayton you get two spaces per business. Period. Anymore is at the expense of other customers and other businesses. Eventually that will take its toll as Washington Avenue transforms into a valet-only street, taking the potential of street life with it.

On Washington east of Tucker a couple of things need to happen. First, they need to re-time the signals so you can actually get more than a block before hitting the next red light. Timing of lights was supposed to happen this year but I’ve not heard anything about this actually taking place. All evidence is that it has not happened. Next, drop the rush hour BS. We have no real rush hour, much less two hours. We certainly don’t need to restrict westbound traffic in the PM. Get the through traffic off Washington and onto Cole.

The next thing that needs to happen is extending the on-street parking from 10th down two more blocks to 8th. The block between 9th and 10th should be a no-brainer. On the south side you’ve got ballroom section of the convention hotel, almost always dead as hotel guests take an underground tunnel to get to the ballroom. But, in the corner of this building is the lovely furniture store called Niche. I’m sure they’d welcome parking for their clients. On the north side of the block is the Lammert building at 911 Washington. This building houses a number of offices as well as the retail bookstore of the American Institute of Architects. Next door at 901 Washington is the Banker’s Lofts by Pyramid. This building has a large first-floor commercial space that would benefit from convenient on-street parking.

In the block between 9th and 8th the situation is a bit different. With the drives for the convention center I don’t really envision parking on the north side of the street, although that might be a good place for the taxi stand. On the south side of the street the high-end restaurant, Kinko’s and Starbuck’s in the convention hotel could all benefit from on-street parking. A couple of 15 minute max spaces near the Starbuck’s would be great when I get a craving for a vanilla bean frappuccino.

So what would additional on-street parking along Washington Ave accomplish besides making life easier for about 25 motorists? Well, it would certainly give the impression of activity, something missing from these two blocks. As people exit the convention center heading back to their hotel they will be more likely to wonder westbound on Washington to see what is happening. Even if they go straight to their hotel, they will look down the street full of parked cars and leave St. Louis with a greater impression about the level of activity in the area. For those walking along the sidewalk the parked cars will created a comforting buffer between traffic and themselves. Consider this, with parking allowed on Washington west of 10th, except for the noted “rush” periods, what can be the argument for extending this two more blocks? Do 10th & 9th add lots of traffic to Washington? Not really.

Throughout downtown we are also missing numerous other opportunities for on-street parking that would have zero impact on traffic or bus stops, yet provide needed parking right at the door of local businesses. On 11th just before Washington are two potential spaces. On Convention Plaza between 9th and Tucker a good 30+ spaces. On Olive at between 11th and 10th at least 4-5 spaces. On 11th between Pine & Olive another 3-4 spaces could be had. In areas of high demand it would be wise for the city to do an evaluation of where on-street parking currently exists and where it could possibly be located (Hartford next to Commerce Bank comes to mind). As Larry Williams’ Treasurers office controls parking in the city it should fall to him to get this done. But he has been around for many years and it hasn’t happened under his direction.

We’ve spent too much money on streetscaping Washington Avenue to screw it up now with lack of on-street parking and excessive space handed over to valets.

– Steve

Steffen’s Plate Too Full?

In April the St. Louis Business Journal ran a cover story on John Steffen’s Pyramid Companies titled, $609 million in projects on John Steffen’s plate:

City of St. Louis officials say Steffen’s done everything he’s promised downtown. The city unquestionably has the most at stake with Steffen’s plans. The mostly vacant St. Louis Centre is a dark spot in the midst of downtown’s booming development activity. But Deputy Mayor of Development Barb Geisman said the city is confident about Pyramid’s ability to redevelop the mall for retail and residential use. The city set aside $8 million in federal New Markets Tax Credits for the redevelopment of St. Louis Centre. Steffen has also requested $34.3 million in tax increment financing from the city of St. Louis for St. Louis Centre and $8.75 million for the redevelopment of the Jefferson Arms building at 415 N. Tucker.

But it seems the TIF financing for St. Louis Centre (to be renamed 600 Washington) and the Jefferson Arms may have run into a bit of a delay. I received, anonymously through the mail, copies of letters sent from Ivy Neyland-Pinkston, the City’s Deputy Comptroller for Finance & Development, to John Steffen indicating a “reminder” of payments due for “administrative expenses” on both projects. The amounts, per the letters, were “due 10 days prior to the Public Hearing which was held on May 10, 2006.” The 600 Washington project has an initial installment of $51,450 while the Jefferson Arms installment is $13,125.

Both letters are dated June 20, 2006 and indicate the second installments are due for the same amounts on each project prior to the signing of the TIF Redevelopment Agreements. So on the surface this may mean very little, just a slight delay until the full financing package is pulled together. It may also mean the closing on both will be delayed.

Today I spoke with Ivy Pinkston of the Comptroller’s office who declined to speak to the “press”, directing me to instead to press liaison John Farrell. Farrell confirmed the Comptrollers office did send out the letters on June 20th but, due to the holiday, was unable to confirm if the balance has been brought current. He further indicated these letters are fairly routine.

This does raise a few questions: Is it normal to approve TIF financing for a project when the fees are not paid in advance as required? Also, does the city hold their ground and not sign the agreements until the fees are paid or are they lax on that as well. Try getting a building permit without first paying the fee.

At the very least we know part of the reason why construction has not yet begun on St. Louis Centre. But the bigger issue might be whether or not Pyramid is overextended. The city does have a lot riding on Steffen’s projects.

[UPDATE 7/1/06 @ 4:15pm – I received a call at the end of the business day yesterday from John Farrell of the Comptroller’s office to answer another of my questions — the city does collect the fees before signing the final agreements. That is good to know!]

– Steve

A Few Downtown Observations

The Unitarian Universalist Church is having a big convention downtown. I’ve talked to a number of conventioneers over the last week with questions like, “Where are you from?” and “Are you enjoying your visit to St. Louis?”

I chatted with a couple of women the other day in City Grocers. They were asking one of the store staff if the place was open on Sunday because, “everything is closed on Sunday.” They had arrived a week ago and couldn’t find anything open. After the clerk said City Grocers was open daily I mentioned the crepes at Washington Ave. Post.

I’m not sure the hotel concierges really know what to recommend. Brian McGowan’s Washington Avenue Greensheet does a better job directing many people to places than the high dollar glossy advertising in hotel lobbies. Wayfinding — signs to direct visitors — is the next crucial step downtown. We are getting visitors from our region and beyond but we need to make sure they know where to go. It might be obvious to those of us that spend time downtown but to an outsider they don’t always know where to find the grocery store or some gelato for desert.

City Grocers was packed earlier today with conventioneers. I’ve always been a bit skeptical about the benefits of the millions spent on convention buildings & hotels but I’m sure City Grocers welcomed the traffic. Still, such conventions are not the norm. Too many cities have convention facilities and their are too few conventions to keep them all hopping year round.

A couple of weeks ago I was having a late lunch (3pm) at 10th Street Italian and I began talking to a couple sitting next to me. They were asking about a drug store. I gave them directions to the 4th floor Walgreen’s as well as City Grocers. We ended up talking for nearly an hour. They were from Atlanta and had only been to St. Louis once before, 15 years ago. In their late 50s they had lots of stories to tell about life in Atlanta. They are an interracial couple that have been married since before the days of Tom & Helen Willis but they say it has never been much of an issue even in the deep south. They are involved in city life there so we talked urbanity and such. Their impressions of St. Louis were positive (I’ll have to email them for final impressions following their trip).

A big music fest was held on Washington Avenue yesterday. I didn’t know about it until today. Not that I would have gone, I tend to avoid big events. On the 17th another big block party was held. Lots of pretty glossy literature was handed out prior but it failed to mention one thing — the event date. Yes, big event with expensive marketing and no date! It also rained that day. I think we need to reconsider such events.

I’m not saying we should not have a big even now and then but it seems like it is feast or famine. I’d love for the folks running the show (Downtown Partnership and/or the businesses) to hire some local street performers, just not all at once. Each weekend have something going on. A mime, a juggler, a violinist, a dummer (steel drums are awesome), a guy doing balloon figures, etc… Make it so whenever someone is downtown in the evening something interesting is going on. It doesn’t require a billboard, glossy literature, blocking the street, bringing in portable johns or other such issues. Maybe a saxophonist one night with a bluegrass trio another. Mix it up and spread it out. I think they all blow their entire marketing budget on a few events. By having different folks on different days and at different times it will look more spontaneous.

The drumming circles that form in the Delmar Loop are excellent. This is something that can’t really be planned. It just happens. But, you can create the atmosphere where such performances are seen as welcomed. Having outdoor places where people can play games such as Chess, Go or Pente would be nice as well.

Of course, as a friend said to me this morning as we were enjoying our crepes al fresco on Washington Ave., you’d need these performers to play near the valet stands. Customers for places like Copia and Lucas Park Grille don’t seem too willing to participate in city life by say, parking their own car and walking a block or two. I also love good performers that entertain. I once watched a couple of guys in Vancouver keep a huge audience laughing as they did magic tricks which included audience participation. Last year in NYC I saw some young men dancing and telling jokes in Washington Square, the crowd loved it.

This city has some talented folks and most probably don’t need a large stage and sound system to do their thing. For $20,000 a year or so the Partnership could get people to perform 2-3 nights a week for a few hours for the entire year. I heard the budget on the no-date event was $40,000.

The Valet companies are still being abusive, holding public parking spaces for their paying customers. I think this will change quickly when other businesses open up in remaining storefronts. I doubt Joe Edwards will tolerate Copia consuming the entire southern half of Washington between 11th and Tucker.

The city needs to step in with some leadership and create some rules to govern just how much space is needed for a single business to operate valet — the dropping off and picking up of cars. At no point should valet companies, collecting a fee or being paid by a business, be allowed to park customer’s cars in public parking spaces.

Downtown has come a long way in the last five years but it will be the next five that will likely amaze everyone. We’ve yet to see the true impact of all the new residents and local business. Downtown is only at the early stage in the recovery process. It can still go wrong but even with some mistakes just the numbers of people will make it better and better each passing year.

Last December we saw a draft CBD traffic study but things have been silent since. The plan for 2006 was to change out controllers so the city could computerize the timing and manipulation of signals from a single location. This could help in facilitating special events as well as making it easier to facilitate rush hour traffic. But, six months later I’ve not seen any real changes to the setup or even heard a word about it. Hey Barb, what is going on?

I just had to share the above so I could move on with my Sunday. What are your thoughts on the above topics or do you have your own downtown observations?

– Steve