Hodak’s Seeking to Close Part of Cushing Street

The Benton Park Neighborhood is being asked to support a plan by Hodak’s restaurant (map) to close part of Cushing St. so that the popular eatery can expand its increasing number of parking spaces.

Hodak’s is seeking to close Cushing St. from McNair Ave. to a small street known as Devolsey St. Hodak’s is already surrounded by way too much parking, especially since they (illegally) razed buildings to the east a few years ago for more parking. Yet, that is not good enough. They want more spaces and more control.

As it is Hodak’s parking remains vacant during most hours of the day with a large spike at dinner time. Do we really want to see streets closed and possibly more buildings razed simply for a dinner crowd? Not me.

Granted, Custing St. is not much of a street. Really, it is more of a glorified alley but it does serve a number of adjacent property owners along McNair & Victor as well as some real alleys connecting to the street. It is wide enough to provide access for emergency vehicles for various properties on both sides.

At this time I do not know what position, if any, that Alderwoman Phyllis Young has taken. If you have an opinion please be sure to share it with her and in the comments below.

The Benton Park Neighborhood Association meeting is tonight at The Epiphany United Church of Christ located at 2911 Mc Nair. The first hour, 6:30pm – 7:30pm, is a pot luck dinner and problem property meeting with the main meeting starting at 7:30pm.

[UPDATE 5/3 @ 9:20am – The closure of Cushing would only be “partial”, not going all the way to McNair. It still prevents through traffic.]

– Steve

Planning Commission to Take Up Forest Park to BJC Issue

The first thing I want let everyone know is the Planning Commission meeting will not be held in it’s usual location at 1015 Locust. This month, in anticipation of a large audience, it will be held in room 208 of City Hall.

Why the large audience?

Because the areas largest employer wants to use that fact to bully the city into giving up a good-sized chunk of park land.

I’ve heard all the arguments in favor of this deal:

Ok, why don’t we address each of the points.

True, most people have not associated this bit of land with Forest Park except those persons old enough to recall the old routing of Kingshighway. But, for most of us this has always been isolated. Except that, I’m not sure how you can consider a 9 acre park isolated. Nine acres is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, BJC is seeking another 3 acres South of Clayton Road for a total of 12 acres. To put that into perspective, that is about the same size as Hyde Park on the Northside. Or it is just under half the size of Lafayette Park. I think people would notice if we took away 12 acres from Lafayette Park.

But Forest Park, everyone says, is so massive and 12 acres is nothing relative to that. Yes, relative to Forest Park this 12 acres is meaningless. But, when you walk through the area, even though built on top of a parking garage, you see green grass, beautiful trees, tennis courts (although not well maintained by BJC as their current lease requires), racquet ball courts and a nice playground. I’ve seen them all used on multiple visits.

The access to this particular 12 acres is nice, a short walk or bike ride from adjacent neighborhoods. Yes, ducking under Kingshighway will get you into Forest Park but it doesn’t get you right to a playground, or a tennis court. For someone on foot taking their kids to the swing the distance becomes just too far. This park land is used due to its proximity to users and friendly size. If the park is not used to its full potential it is because BJC has failed to uphold its end of the 1973 deal by not maintaining the park and tennis courts as required. But don’t give me the line that nobody uses the park because it is not supported by facts.

The city does need revenue. During the whole Forest Park makeover for the last decade I’m not sure what the plan was for on-going maintenance? Maybe this was the plan all along? Get everyone to fall in love with all the new landscaping, water features and infrastructure that was built so they’d have to go along with the BJC deal. Others have made good points such as having the land appraised to see what the true market value is or making BJC pay for all of Forest Park’s maintenance, not just half.

It seems the city should be in a good position to negotiate. We’ve got land that BJC wants. Are they going to move if we don’t give in to their ransom demand? Doubtful. I think they need to be forced to tell us their plans for the future. What do they want to build here? I’d like to see a diagram of land use for BJC property to see how much is used for actual patients. I bet that would be quite small relative to the amount of land used to store cars in parking garages. Ever notice how all their garages, with several under construction now, are all above grade? An urban hospital complex in Chicago, Boston or even somewhere like Milwaukee could never afford to be so wasteful with land.

Most likely the city will give in and a series of pre-planned concessions will suddenly appear to make it look as though the city played hard ball. A building or buildings will rise faster than we all expected and in 20-30 years they will be back at the table asking for more. They will ask to close Clayton Road, cutting off easy access to Forest Park. Then they will ask to line the other side of Kingshighway with buildings, arguing nobody really uses the land adjacent to the busy road.

The Planning Commission meeting is Wednesday May 3, 2006 in a special location — room 208 of City Hall.

UPDATE 5/2/06 @ 2:45pm – The Planning Commission meeting starts at 5:30pm on 5/3/06. Also, check out CWE Greenspace for a neighborhood perspective.

– Steve

Tower Grove Heights & Gravois Park Residents Share Common Ground

Tonight’s Tower Grove Heights meeting included a few people from outside the neighborhood, three Gravois Park residents and myself. We came to the TGH meeting to discuss the proposed relocation of the McDonald’s on Grand. Jennifer Florida was not present but we did have a chance to speak with President of the Board of Aldermen, Jim Shrewsbury, before the meeting.

It seems that nearly everyone was already aware of the controversy. Most seemed willing to help the cause by contacting Jennifer Florida and Mayor Slay. News to them was that Grand from Utah to Meramec was blighted back in 1996. Concerned about the prospect of a future relocation of say the Taco Bell or KFC closer to Utah they understood the concerns of the Gravois Park residents.

Following the meeting it was discussed how it would be good for the various neighborhoods adjacent to Grand to begin discussing the future of the street, what everyone would like to see happen and, just as important, what they’d like to keep from happening. Look for future discussions among all those that have an interest in the future of Grand. It would be great if The Lawrence Group, architect/developer of the South Side National Bank property at Grand & Gravois, could assist in this community planning process.

Getting Dutchtown and Benton Park West to join Gravois Park and Tower Grove South in the dialog will go a long way to setting a vision for Grand.

– Steve

AIA Holds Design Charrette in St. Louis’ The Ville Neighborhood

Saturday’s design charrette in The Ville neighborhood was a tremendous success. The residents of the area are ready for change and, with a few exceptions, most understand the concepts of recreating a walkable neighborhood. The sheer number of residents participating in the all-day charrette organized by the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects was encouraging.

Fourth Ward Alderman O.L. Shelton called the event “historic” and I think he is right, it was a critical step in a long road to returning The Ville to its rightful place as a culturally rich and diverse neighborhood.

I was unable to attend the first few hours of the charrette so I arrived after the seven teams had made their initial goals and had begun working on solutions. I spent the afternoon walking around observing the teams. One team had discussed my prior post advocating for a modern streetcar down MLK and they asked me to talk with them for a bit.

I want to reiterate: the charrette was a huge success. However, I want to offer my own critical thoughts on the charrette as well as the the main street, Martin Luther King Drive. The intent of the critical look is not to take away from the excellent work done over the weekend but to make sure the thought process stays on track.

Here we go…
… Continue Reading

Massive Demolition List Makes Me Question Decade

Once again actions in this city lead me to wonder what decade we are in. This coming Monday the City’s Preservation Board will consider an application to demolish some 30 buildings in the Forest Park Southeast/The Grove neighborhood.

Michael Allen & Claire Nowak-Boyd from The Ecology of Absence have written a great piece on the subject as well as photographed all the buildings:

Forest West is the real estate arm of the Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation and acquired these buildings from negligent landlords like Jack Kraus. After a year of ownership and silence to the neighborhood about their intent, Forest West now emerges with a plan for demolition that would severely impact the neighborhood and may stunt efforts to rehabilitate its valuable historic buildings.

Rehab is going on in the area and many of these buildings look like good candidates for rehab. Are we in some weird 1950s world where massive demolition is thought to be a good thing for a city? Do I need to buy copies of Jane Jacob’s 1964 classic, The Death & Life of Great American Cities, for every alderman?

The alderman for the area is Joe Roddy. You will recall that he is willing to do what BJC’s lawyers want with respect to Forest Park because BJC is the largest employer in the city. So now comes Washington University asking for demo permits so I’m sure he just signed whatever letter of support they placed in front of him.

The Preservation Board meeting begins at 4pm on Monday April 24, 2006 at 1015 Locust, 12th Floor. If you come be sure to look for public notices from the LCRA and other board of the St. Louis Development Corporation.

– Steve