St. Louis Urban Sustainability Bike Tour 2005

August 13th 2005, 9:00 am until 1:00pm or 2:00pm
Free and open to anyone with a bicycle.

See innovative projects in the city addressing the ecological and social sustainability of food, housing, transportation, and recreation.

Meet others interested in sustainability in the city.

Get some excercise and explore the city.

About the stops:

We will see the use of natural building materials (earthen plaster and straw bale construction) for both new construction and gut rehab, as well as visit a 1/2 acre farm that supplies 13 households and local foodbanks with fresh local organic produce. The tour begins at a community center which provides free bicycles and bike repair classes to local children and ends at a greenway along the north riverfront which serves as a wildlife and recreation area as well as serving other ecological functions.

About the ride:

The ride itself will be a non-athletic, non-competetive ride of less than 15 miles. There will be four stops and a break for a snack / lunch. The tour begins at 9:00am at the Community Arts and Media Project (CAMP), located at the corner of Cherokee and Minnesota streets in South City (map it). The final stop will be at the Mary Meachum underground railway crossing along the Confluence Greenway Riverfront Trail. We will return to CAMP along the trail and pass through downtown near several MetroLink stops.

Other information:

Please bring a snack or light lunch and plenty of water. Parking near CAMP is limited, so if you intend to drive to the first stop, please consider spreading out along Cherokee St. There will be a bike mechanic accompanying us on the ride.

For more information:
andyandy at riseup.net
or (314) 776-1721

St. Louis Needs Greater Density To Be Competitive

Everywhere I go I hear the phrase, “We need to reduce density.” Reducing density is thought to solve problems. However, most of our urban ills come as a result of lack of density.

Throughout the entire world it is density of population that sustains a city. Without a minimum number of people in a given area things such as mass transit and the corner store cannot be economically feasible. St. Louis is not exempt from logic that applies the world over.

Some of the arguments I’ve heard for the reduce density theory are:

1) People don’t like to live on top of each other. By tearing down every other house it will open things up more. People will be more willing to live in the city then.

2) Fewer owners is better. Converting a four-family to two townhouses will give you only two owners compared to four if converted to condos.

3) Converting a four-family building into two townhouses will reduce density and make areas more attractive to home owners.

4) Problem areas have too many people. We need to thin out the area to solve issues of crime.

The real issue in St. Louis is a lack of density, not too much. In some of the so-called bad areas where density is often cited as a problem the real culprit is overcrowding. Density is a greater number of living units in a given area while overcrowding is too many people in a given unit. It doesn’t matter if the unit is a 500 sq. ft. efficiency or a 2,000 sq. ft. townhouse.

Some of the world’s celebrated cities have substantially greater density than St. Louis — Paris, London, Tokyo, and Amsterdam just to name a few. In North America cities like New York, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver all have higher densities than St. Louis. It takes density to support local retail stores (mom & pop, big box and everything in between). It also takes density to support mass transit and to shift from a gutted auto-dominated city to a pedestrian & bicycle friendly city.

We must embrace density.

– Steve

Don’t Top Off Your Tank

I just witnessed a woman obsessively clicking a gas pump trying to get every last drop in her massive Lincoln Town Car. As if driving that tank around isn’t bad enough, her 6-10 clicks to try to top off the tank are bad for the environment.

The EPA says this of topping off:

In addition to not topping off your tank, you should avoid filling up in the afternoon. From the U.S. Department of Transportation:

Resources:
> EPA
> St. Louis Regional Clean Air Partnership
> U.S. Department of Transportation

Of course, alternatives exist. Walking, bicycling, taking mass transit or ride sharing are all options to help our air quality.

– Steve

Better OFF: Flipping The Switch on Technology by Eric Brende

Eric and Mary Brende spent 18 months living without electricity in a community that considers most Amish excessive. “Better OFF: Flipping the Switch on Technology” is an account of their lessons as Eric Brende, a highly educated man, attempted to learn more about the relationships between man and machine. Does technology improve our lives? Do labor-saving devices actually reduce work or just create more work to pay for them?

Through their journey they encountered many challenges and new experiences. Brende’s writing has you right there sowing the seeds, weeding the pumpkin patch and giving birth to their first child in their home without electricity. It is exciting reading. I finished the book in less than 24 hours, something I rarely do.

So what does the story of a couple in Amish country have to do with urbanity in St. Louis? A lot more than you might think. Living in a long established and compact urban environment leaves farm land for farming — not Wal-Marts. Residents of our older ethnic neighborhoods tend to form bonds and help each other out in some of the same ways described in Brende’s book. Reduced dependance on a car can allow someone to live better on less income than many that make more money but spent it all on transportation just to make more money. But the connection is even closer — the Brende’s call St. Louis home!
… Continue Reading

Tour de France: A Study in Urbanity

The Tour de France is thrilling to watch. Stunning bikes, top athletes, and photo finishes. Lance Armstrong, the only man to win the tour six times, is a huge draw. With this years tour his last many are watching to see if he will make it seven.

But I have a theory about why so many American’s enjoy watching the TDF — the scenery. The French countryside, towns and villages are so beautiful to see. And so different than America. Watch as the race goes from the country to the towns. Where are the tract houses? Where is the Wal-Mart sucking life away from the town center? Where is the mall? They don’t exist. Instead you go from the fields to town. The line is quite clear.

The view from the helicopters gives you a great overview of the towns and their relationships to the countryside. From the motorcycles filming the riders you can a feeling of the streets and the importance buildings are upon creating an enclosure to the street. America’s small towns and villages certainly don’t have the age or buildings of France but at one time they had their own charm.

American towns were compact, walkable and had a clear separation with the surrounding farm fields. Not so today where even our smallest rural towns suffer from sprawl. Suburban style subdivisions and strip centers are more offensive next to a rural town than they are in a big metropolis.

I love the countryside and charming towns and villages. Sadly so few are left outside of Amish areas. For now that leaves the TDF on OLN.

– Steve