The Boulevard Piled Snow on Sidewalk, Blocking ADA Ramp (UPDATED)

Yesterday I decided to use a gift card I had for Crate & Barrel. We’d had warmer weather and rain to help clear away the snow. Unfortunately I encountered a problem as I approached The Boulevard.

The Boulevard is owned by developer Pace Properties. Here’s how they market the development:

In the heart of St. Louis is a lifestyle destination unlike any other. The Boulevard – Saint Louis is a vibrant village with a unique blend of upscale retail, fine dining, and luxury residences. Home to retailers and restaurants such as Soft Surroundings, Loft, Crate & Barrel, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Maggiano’s Little Italy, The Boulevard is the premier lifestyle development in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Take a stroll down the shops of Main Street and sit back and relax on the patio of our restaurants. (The Boulevard)

“Vibrant village” huh? Right…. I shouldn’t be surprised since their “visit us” page gives driving directions, no mention of public transit.

As I was checking out at Crate & Barrel the clerk asked me how may day was going, I said “Great, but I had a hard time getting here.” I showed her the first picture above. She was shocked so she called the store manager over. I showed the manager the same picture and she said she’d talk to Pace Properties.

Pace Properties wants to develop the SE corner of Forest Park & Vandeventer, they’re calling it Midtown Station.  Pace is the broker for IKEA’s proposed St. Louis store and they’re connected to the ADA-challenged Fields Foods development.  I’m not impressed with Pace Properties.

UPDATE: Response from Pace Properties received 1/14/14 @ 2:45pm:

Steve:

As property manager of The Boulevard Saint Louis, I am sorry to hear about your recent experience. Pace Properties takes accessibility issues very seriously. For example, at the Brentwood Square Shopping Center we recently did a large, and costly, project overlaying the parking lot and replacing the handicap ramps in front of each store to ensure that we had ADA compliant paths. Unfortunately, the mound of snow that restricted your path adjacent to The Boulevard was pushed there by the county when they were clearing Galleria Parkway. We do not have any surfaces in that vicinity that would necessitate snow clearing due to the covered garage – with the exception of the small entrance/exit to the garage and the sidewalk. I have spoken with our snow removal vendor and they have been instructed to clear future obstructions from the ADA accessible ramp.

Thanks for contacting us regarding this issue. We appreciate visitor feedback and hope that we can make your next visit a more enjoyable experience.

Thanks,

Joshua

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— Steve Patterson

Detectable Warning Overkill

Late last month I posted about a blatant ADA violation at Fields Foods, which remains at this time. At the grand opening I noticed one thing they got right that most get wrong: detachable warnings.

They got it right by not including detachable warnings? Yes, too often their use is misunderstood by architects & civil engineers:

Detectable warning surfaces consist of small truncated domes built in or applied to a walking surface that are detectable underfoot. On pedestrian access routes, detectable warning surfaces indicate the boundary between a pedestrian route and a vehicular route where there is a flush rather than a curbed connection for pedestrians who are blind or have low vision. The proposed guidelines require detectable warning surfaces to be installed on newly constructed and altered curb ramps and blended transitions at pedestrian street crossings. (Access Board)

The “at pedestrian street crossings” part is what’s often overlooked, resulting in detectable warnings being used far too often. Here’s two recent examples:

You’re probably thinking, “So what?” These are used by the visually impaired to locate street crossings. They feel the truncated domes through their shoes to know the direction to walk to cross the street. The last two examples above are overkill.

Clearly there’s lots of confusion out there:

Q: Regarding detectable warnings, you use the word “street.” What about parking lots? And are drive islands [that separate driveways in parking garages or other parking lot structures] considered streets? I’ve also used them when trash enclosures are behind the sidewalk, at drive-thru lanes, and in parking lots where there’s a row of handicap parking spaces with zero-inch curbs. I place them at all places where you could get hit by a car.

A: There’s a reason for stating “street,” and that is to prevent overuse. Detectable warnings are for actual street crossings, with the small exception of commercial driveways with traffic control devices. (Public Works magazine)

These truncated domes aren’t cheap, or free to install. Developers are paying extra to create confusing environments for the visually impaired. Developers, architects, engineers, plan reviewers, etc. need to pay attention to this issue.  Ideally they’d have an ADA/pedestrian expert on their design team to avoid these mistakes.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: How Should Missouri Treat Marijuana?

The poll this week is an exact duplicate of a poll from last April, I want to see if there are any changes as a result of legal recreational marijuana in Colorado as of January 1st.

The results of the poll in April were:

1. Fully legalize 71 [53.38%]
2. Legalize for medical / decriminalize for recreational use 32 [24.06%]
3. Keep it illegal 21 [15.79%]
4. Legalize for medical use only 6 [4.51%]
5. Unsure/no opinion 3 [2.26%]

We’ll see if the current results differ from last year, the poll is in the right sidebar. Mayor Slay’s campaign website currently has a 10-question “mini-poll” on marijuana.

I’ll share more thoughts with the results on Wednesday the 22nd.

— Steve Patterson 

Remembering A Fall Day In Wine Country

Being stuck inside for days is making me a bit stir crazy. We drove to Culinaria on Tuesday, but riding in a car from one parking garage to another isn’t the same has being outside. When this happens I go back and look at look at photos at warmer times.

In late October my boyfriend and I rented a car and did a one day tour of the area around Augusta MO.  Come  along…

It was a long and exhausting day, a great memory to help me cope with being stuck at home. This was a perfect day trip for the fall colors but it’ll be nice this spring & summer.

— Steve Patterson

Controversial Weather

How about this weather? The cold air was something! The why is controversial though; some argue climate change may have contributed to the bitter cold, while others think the cold air disproves global warming:

Arctic warming is altering the heat balance between the North Pole and the equator, which is what drives the strong current of upper level winds in the northern hemisphere commonly known as the jet stream. Some studies show that if that balance is altered then some types of extreme weather events become more likely to occur. (climatecentral.org)

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) took to the Senate floor Monday to describe the idea of human-induced climate change as “almost laughable,” citing this week’s cold snap and the recent stranding of a Russian research ship in the Antarctic ice. Inhofe has plowed this ground before: After snow buried D.C. in early 2010, his family built an igloo near the Capitol with a sign reading, “Al Gore’s new home.” (politico)

I think it’s sad when a US Senator proudly displays his ignorance.

No scientist argues that long-term global warming means that we won’t still experience winter, even bitterly cold winters like this year’s has become. The changes to the climate that scientists who are concerned about global warming point out are exactly that: long-term. Individual weather events don’t mean that the trend isn’t taking place.

(It’s also important to point out that the United States makes up less than 2 percent of the Earth’s surface. So even when we see heavy snow events and blasts of Arctic air like this week’s, there are many parts of the world experiencing record heat, such as Australia.) (weather.com)

Some local land will be part of a study on Climate Change:

In November, the plot, at the university’s Tyson Research Center, situated between Lone Elk and West Tyson county parks near Eureka, was named a Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory.

It is now part of a network of 52 other forest plots scattered around the world being used to study climate change and biodiversity. (stltoday)

What are your thoughts?

— Steve Patterson