Watch Out For the Aldermanic Motorcade

Thumbing through this week’s RFT I read the brief story titled A Cherry on Top: VIP motorcades are no big deal — they’re just illegal. The story talks about events between an Anheuser-Busch party and the Mayor’s Mardi Gras Ball at City Hall on February 24th. Among the guests of the A-B party were several aldermen:

So was Dave Drebes, editor and publisher of the local political tabloid Arch City Chronicle. Drebes, who also writes a weekly column for the St. Louis Business Journal, referenced the soirée in the March 3 Business Journal. Noting that pomp reigns as power wanes among city lawmakers, Drebes described “whizzing through stoplights” with three (unnamed) aldermen in a motorcade from the hotel to city hall as sirens and flashing red lights attached to the caravan’s lead car helped clear a path through traffic.

Gregali, Florida and Kirner say the February 24 motorcade was orchestrated and led by the private security firm Special Services Inc. The aldermen and Drebes followed in Gregali’s Mercury minivan, with Gregali behind the wheel. The aldermen say they don’t know who else was in the procession.

Nice. Our aldermen are so special they are part of a caravan of people going a short distance in such a hurry that can’t wait for the traffic signals. If the signals are such an issue perhaps they should work a little harder to get the signals timed correctly.

What I find great about this topic was Drebes’ editorial in the St. Louis Business Journal where the subject first came up. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Drebes be so frank about local politicians:

It was three levels lower than stupid. A handful of aldermen were receiving an escort from the Grand Renaissance over to City Hall, a total distance of probably seven blocks. The siren and flashing lights were shaving a half-minute or so off the commute.

Perhaps in a world of diminishing power, such tiny perks as breezing through downtown once in a while is an acceptable pay-off for the looming proposition of irrelevance.

Power shifts, even when the actual structure of government hasn’t. Aldermen used to really be something in the city of St. Louis, but today they’re are small potatoes and getting smaller. At this rate, they’ll be nuggets soon.

Dave Drebes offers a lot more commentary on the diminishing power of aldermen in the full article. It is a must read, hitting home points about the role of aldermen is basically to answer citizen complaints about stop signs and dumpsters or hand out shrinking Federal Block Grant funds. Good job Dave!!!

Florida, Kirner and Gregali are certainly in the top 5 of my list of aldermen that need to be replaced. Not at all surprising they were among the group being wined and dined by A-B and then part of an illegal motorcade. Gregali is up for re-election in March 2007 but we are stuck with Florida and Kirner until 2009. Well, 2009 unless the recall Florida talk over Drive-ThruGate or her unbalanced campaign finance reports moves up the date.

In the meantime watch out for the aldermanic motorcade.

– Steve

Urban Review on Busch Stadium III & Ballpark Village

The new Busch Stadium, the third to wear the name, hosts the Cardinal’s season opener today. Some didn’t want to the the 1966 stadium raze, others didn’t care as long as this private business funded their own facilities the way most businesses have to. I’m not going to get into those debates. I am however, going to look at the design of the stadium and what I’m already seeing emerge on the old site where the Ballpark Village, a mixed use development, is to be constructed.

Gate 3 as seen here from Spruce is probably the most urban approach to the stadium. The entry arch aligns nicely with the street grid. This view is clean and uncluttered, the exact opposite of the East view from Spruce.

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Banners Have Gone Too Far

All over the city, especially downtown, you see banners for new condos and lofts. Long vacant buildings have massive colorful banners announcing the project and where to find more sales information. These are a great visual way to communicate that something is happening in these buildings. Visitors to our city can quickly see St. Louis is rockin. The banners, thankfully, are just temporary until the building is finished.

What about when the banner is not promoting a project but is purely advertising?

This weekend I spotted these colorful banners on the Market Street side of Mike Shannon’s new location. At first I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and had to loop back around to make sure I was seeing this correct. Yes, there in big letters was advertising for AT&T and Cingular Wireless. How tragic.

I’m not a fan of sterile streets. I like activity, color, lights and such. I’m also more inclined toward advertising for the business located in the building rather than a building owner selling their wall for advertising. I’m not a fan of vinyl banners.

A century ago we saw large sides of buildings painted with advertising, sometimes for the business in that building and sometimes not. Today those old signs are regarded as charming and actually helpful in identifying historical information. While I’m not advocating Mike Shannon’s paint advertising for AT&T on their building I do see a difference. The painting was semi-permanent and a testament to how long the business was expected to be around. Vinyl banners look cheap because they are cheap. The look temporary because they are. But how temporary?

Will Mike Shannon’s keep this banner up until AT&T changes their name again? Maybe until they find someone else that wants to sponsor their North wall? Are vinyl banners to become a common sight on buildings all over the city? I certainly hope not!

I scanned the City’s Comprehensive Sign Control Regulations but it wasn’t readily clear to me if the banner at Mike Shannon’s is in violation or not. Mike Shannon’s did an outstanding job on the renovation of the building with its large windows and attractive patio. Pity they felt it necessary to ruin the look as they have.

– Steve

Removing Highways to Restructure the St. Louis Region

Rather than spend hundreds of millions on rebuilding highway 40 (I-64 to the rest of the map reading world) we should just tear it out completely. Don’t look so confused, I’m totally serious. This is not a belated April fools joke.

Our highways in the middle of urban areas are relics to the cheap gas economy that is quickly coming to an end. In addition to removing highway 40, we should remove all the highways within our I-270/I-255 Loop: I-55, I-70, I-44, and I-170

I’ve not gone crazy nor have I been smoking anything.

And before you scroll down to the comments section to explain all the conventional wisdom reasons why this won’t work I ask that you hear me out first. I know we cannot just remove the highways and leave the balance of our political entities, zoning and other systems in place and expect this to make a lick of sense. Therefore, I have some basic assumptions & qualifications that would need to accompany the removal of any or all highways in our main urbanized area of the region. The likelihood of this coming together in our lifetime is slim but as the economy changes we will need to change and adapt to remain competitive with other regions.

Keep in mind that 60 years ago men took maps and drew lines where we’d wipe out entire neighborhoods for highways and housing projects. In hindsight, huge mistakes were made that disrupted lives and cost millions. Today we are still dealing with the aftermath of these poor decisions. So I’m taking a map and looking at ways we can undo damage previously done without inflicting new damage.
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Downtown Partnership Ditches Old Website

Downtown St. Louis has a fresh new website. The look is fresh & hip and it includes a directory of businesses. It still lacks any RSS feeds for updates but you can sign up to receive updates via email. Click here to see the new site.

Meanwhile Downtown Now!’s site is still behind the times with the “What’s Happening in 2004?” link to nowhere.

– Steve