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What Washington Avenue is missing…

November 20, 2004 Featured 2 Comments

The emerging loft district along Washington Avenue, as well as the blocks between Olive & Washington between say 8th & Tucker, are becoming increasingly diverse. I don’t mean diversity of population but of activities. The more activity the more interest – a very “good thing” as Martha would say if she werenÂ’t in jailÂ…

The blocks West of Tucker received a major streetscape makeover in the last few years that included widening the sidewalks, new curbs, paving, lighting and signage. A few bike racks are sprinkled along the streets. It looks picture perfect but something is still missing – people.

To be fair, many of the loft buildings are just now finishing while others are just now starting. Once these buildings are full lots more residents will call the area home. In the age-old saying, which comes first the chicken or egg question, it is clear the residents come before much of the other amenities.

If we look to the Delmar Loop to the West we see wonderful activity after 5pm and on most weekends. I was there at lunch Friday and it wasnÂ’t that spectacular. Mid-morning and mid-afternoon on weekdays is even less exciting. I ended up back on the Loop for dinner with friends (@ Saleem’s) and the sidewalks were full of people. At night and on the weekends the loop is without question the most vibrant street in the region. A close second is Euclid at Maryland as well as Euclid @ McPherson.

The trick to getting more people to Washington Avenue has less to do with paving and more to do with diversity of uses. In the Loop I know I can get a quick slice of pizza for $3 or an impressive entrée at a nice restaurant for $20 – and everything in between. However, on Washington Avenue I am more limited to the high-end meal. But suppose I want that high-priced dinner but I want cash to have drinks before and after – where is the ATM machine? I wouldn’t know where to walk to get cash.

Besides a walk-up ATM or two, here is an imcomplete list of businesses I’d either like to see in the loft districts (in no particular order):
• Pizza by the slice joint
• Late night fast food places (not drive thru types either)
• Tattoo & body piercing studio(s)
• Newsstand & Bookstore
• Street vendors selling coffee & hot dogs (including veggie dogs)
• Florist
• Public bulletin boards
• Kitchen gadget store
• 24-hour coffee house
• Cell phone store
• Good diner serving breakfast
• Smoothie shop
• Produce stand
• Furniture stores where you can buy a futon or a $600 sofa.
• Small Branch US Post Office
• Greating cards, gag gifts
• Bike Shop
• Sporting Goods/Outdoor store
• Vespa retailer
• Apple Computer Store (even the new mini concept store would be OK)
• Urban Outfitters
• Ben & Jerry’s (or similar)

If you are Apple’s Steve Jobs please open an Apple store in the City of St. Louis. If you are considering opening a business think about the list above and give some serious thought to the loft districts downtown.

If you’ve got ideas for other needed businesses/services in the loft districts use the comments below to share.

 

Same rants, new format

November 20, 2004 Featured Comments Off on Same rants, new format

After years of sharing my views on urban planning with a few friends I started the ‘Urban Review St. Louis’ blog on October 31st. I wish I had done this years ago – it is so much fun.

I get to go off on my rants and nobody is there to tell me to be quiet. I’ve received lots of feedback from readers – all positive. I’ve gained many readers from both the Rehabber’s Club and through ArchCity Chronicle. A fellow REALTOR® in my office said he agrees with about 95% of my views – a sign that either he is really informed or perhaps I haven’t been edgy enough in my postings…

I want to thank Brian Marston for setting up the StlSyndicate site for bringing together St. Louis area blogs of interest. Some point next week he will have me added to the list.

I was going to move all my prior postings to this new format but that would take lots of time I just don’t have right now. But, they will stay where they are so you can go back and read those.

Click here to read my entries from October 31-November 19th.

Also note this new format allows for comments (happy Anjana?) so be sure to let me and the other readers what you think.

Cya,
Steve

 

City Hospital finally coming back to life

November 18, 2004 Featured Comments Off on City Hospital finally coming back to life
Work is progressing on the redevelopment of the long vacant City Hospital site. The only problem I have with the whole project (so far) is the name – The Georgian. Give me a break on the retro names already.

 

A display unit for the new condos is already open – I plan to visit soon. The website is quite complete. Contact your real estate agent to make an offer on a unit.

Michael Allen of the Ecology of Absence website and blog has been following the City Hospital complex for well over a decade. I’ve only gotten about halfway through all the information but what I’ve seen and read it is excellent and highly recommended. The essays and photos on the site are great.Click here to see Allen’s site on the City Hospital.

Steve

 

Separate but equal?

November 18, 2004 Featured Comments Off on Separate but equal?
A few days I ago I was driving around the area just North of downtown – looking for some development opportunities. But I found something very disturbing.

 

Millions of dollars are being invested along Washington Avenue but what are the chances this will spread to adjacent blocks? Generally part of the theory is once developers have finished with Washington Avenue they’ll look to other blocks to continue the downtown rebirth. Sometimes, however, development hits road blocks – figuratively and literally.

A literal road block is the gate shown below:

This view is taken at Delmar looking North on 16th street. “Vandals” have damaged the gate so the could squeeze through but anyone in a car or bicycle you are out of luck. As a pedestrian how could you not feel like a criminal for passing through this gate.

16th street is a public street that is closed to traffic between Delmar and Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd to the North. In the next block the street has been abandoned by the city and the land is now part of a private parking lot. Two more blocks to the North is the Carr Square Village – a public housing project which was rebuilt within the last 10 years. As a resident of Carr Square Village how could you not feel like you are not wanted on the other side of the gate?

Above and below are pictures looking south from the same intersection at Delmar & 16th. On the SW corner is the Social Security Administration and on the SE is the wonderful City Museum. In the background are the backs of new lofts along Washington Avenue.
A quick note – when I first moved to St. Louis in 1990 I lived in a high-rise on Lindell. I wasn’t here for more than a month before I was told not to go North of Delmar. Naturally, I went North of Delmar the next day. I loved North St. Louis so much I moved to Old North St. Louis – home to Crown Candy Kitchen.

So here we are in 2004 with millions being invested along Washington Avenue yet those folks living in Carr Square Village are forced to go to 14th street to the East to get to all the activity – and jobs. The street grid needs to be reopened so investment can flow to the North and potential employes can flow to the South.

This is simple stuff folks. You put up dividers that say “your type not welcome here” and you get resentment from those excluded boon of Washington Ave. You take down the barriers and the free market will drive the investment North as developers seek new properties to turn into fashionable condos. Tear down that gate Mayor Slay!

In the blocks between Delmar and Carr all the way from Tucker to Jefferson the street grid has really been fucked up over the years. Some really dreadful suburban office park projects have been built. However, some great old warehouses remain as does lots of vacant land. Thoughtful planning could bridge this gap and connect the long separated folks in the projects to the rest of the city. Eventually this rebirth can work its way North to Cass and fill-in the old Pruitt-Igoe site.

Maybe this is too optimistic a goal but I can guarantee you this – if the iron fencing and gate stays in place no developer from the South side of the fence is voluntarily going to work on the other side.

Steve

 

The suburbanization of a city restaurant: Giuseppe’s on Grand

November 12, 2004 Featured Comments Off on The suburbanization of a city restaurant: Giuseppe’s on Grand
Businesses must have signage as part of their marketing. Suburban businesses are often set back so far from the road they must erect huge signs to gain the attention of drivers passing at speeds often in excess of 35mph. These signs are also meant to compete with all the other signs along the roadway as all those businesses are in the auto-dominated hell. So what happens when a suburban business owner buys a well-known restaurant in an urban area?

 

You get an owner that tears down a neighboring building for a parking lot – complete with bright white vinyl fencing. Never mind that the restaurant has operated for decades without the new parking lot.This week new signage went up on the front of the building – see below.

For at least the last 10 years that I have lived in the area Giuseppe’s has simply had their name on the elegant black awnings.
But now the signage, although not huge by suburban standards, overpowers the facade of the building.
Giuseppe’s new owner Forest Miller also owns Royal Orleans in South County. In February 2004 Mr. Miller testified at a hearing before the St. Louis Board of Adjustment regarding a building a few blocks east of his restaurant known as the Virginia Mansion. He was speaking in support of giving the applicant a zoning variance to permit a 7-unit apartment building on a site zoned for single or two family buildings and located between two single family houses. He had this to say about the area:“The area in which these folks are asking you to give them a variance for is not in my judgment, a historic district. It is not Lafayette Square, it is not a Lindell Avenue, is is not Holly Hills.” 

Those of us at the hearing were stunned to hear a local business owner speak of our neighborhood in such a manner. True, we are not Lafayette Square, Lindell or Holly Hills. But we certainly are not Mr. Miller’s very suburban Crestwood. Dutchtown is in the process of achieving designation as a local historic district. When someone doesn’t view an area as historic and lives in the ‘burbs what might they do to properties they own in the city? In the same hearing he had this to say about proposed plans for Giuseppe’s”

“When we were remodeling the front of our business, we had a grandiose plan that was totally different from the structure of the building. It had gables on it, it had direct lines, I was going to put arches in it and the building people in the city said, ‘We don’t want to do that to the storefronts, we want storefronts to look like storefronts, here’s what you can do, here’s what you can’t do.’ You know what, they were right.”

I don’t have access to any drawings to show you how they proposed to alter this great building but thankfully the city stepped in and said no. The best I can do is suggest you take a look at the other restaurant, Royal Orleans, to see what they have their. I was going to drive the nearly 6 miles from my house to get a picture but then I figured it wasn’t worth the time and gas. Besides, their web site has a great picture of Royal Orleans - click here to see. Pretty huh? You almost thought it was in the French Quarter didn’t you?

One sign isn’t that big a deal in the big scheme of things. But, over time it adds up. The suburbs are pretty much an aesthetic wasteland. We don’t need folks bringing that kind of ugliness to our city.

Steve

 

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