Readers Want Walkability and Long-Term Jobs at NorthSide Regeneration

Last week readers at least 135 readers took the poll, indicating what they’d like to see as priorities at Paul McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration project. Here are the results in the order the software listed, two answers tied for the the top spot.

Q: Paul McKee’s “Northside Regeneration” project is slowly moving foreword, pick your top 5 priorities from the following:

1. Good walkability 76 [11.33% – TIE]
2. Jobs for locals: long-term work at various pay levels 76 [11.33% – TIE]
3. Rail transit connected to downtown 64 [9.54%]
4. Urban form with adequate parking behind buildings 60 [8.94%]
5. Safety 59 [8.79%]
6. Mixed uses, incomes 52 [7.75%]
7. Good street grid with short blocks 48 [7.15%]
8. Architecture that IS historic looking 43 [6.41%]
9. Hoodlum-free zone 39 [5.81%]
10. Renovation of the Clemens Mansion 35 [5.22%]
11. Many builders/developers, not just a few 33 [4.92%]
12. Good bikeability 24 [3.58%]
13. Something…anything ASAP 21 [3.13%]
14. Jobs for locals: short-term construction work 17 [2.53%]
15. Architecture that is NOT historic looking 11 [1.64%]
16. Easy access to highways 8 [1.19%]
17. Plenty of free parking 3 [0.45%]
18. Suburban planning, big blocks and cul-de-sacs 2 [0.3%]

I agree with most of the items in the top 10, very glad to see “Good Walkability” tie with “Jobs for locals: long-term work at various pay levels” at the top, followed closely by rail transit to downtown and urban form. I do take exception with one item: architecture.

I was disappointed “Architecture that IS historic looking” got 43 votes, but “Architecture that is NOT historic looking” only got 11 votes. Buildings in 2014 trying to look like they’re from 1914 end up looking cheesy.  Other cities do a great job building new urban buildings that relate to the sidewalk and neighboring buildings without being faux historic. We need to drop the expectation that every new building be given a bit of red brick on the front and a fake mansard roof on top.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: Paul McKee’s “Northside Regeneration” Project is Slowly Moving Foreword, Pick Your Top 5 Priorities

Paul McKee’s “Northside Regeneration”  has been controversial since before it became public, it has faced court challenges and has experienced delays. Now, however, it seems to be ready to move forward.

The question for the poll this week is what qualities should be priorities of the project?  Please select your top from from the list provided in the poll in the right sidebar.

— Steve Patterson

Tucker Offramp Now Open, Adjacent Land More Valuable

Yesterday MoDOT and city officials cut a ribbon to open traffic from I-70 onto the new Tucker.

With the new offramp, and the opening of the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge in 2014, the adjacent land is suddenly prime real estate. Will it be developed like most highway offramp areas or will it be more urban/dense/walkable? I don’t have any illusions the city will make any such demands so my only hope is Paul McKee comes through with a plan the surprises his many critics.

— Steve Patterson

Plantings Along Tucker Add Interest

The project to replace the old Tucker Blvd, filling in the long-abandoned passenger rail tunnel, is nearing completion. Motorists and pedestrians can now travel between Washington Ave and Cass Ave., approximately 3/4 of a mile (map).  Tuesday night the boyfriend and I went for a walk up to Cass and back (I rolled, he walked).

I’d been up/down the new Tucker a few times before but this time I paid attention to the plantings located in bulb-outs at the ends of parking lanes, medians, tree lawn, etc.   Some of the bulb-outs are designed as a rain garden, set up to catch rainwater from the road and sidewalk.

I’m excited to see Tucker 100% complete with all the planting areas weeded. I’m also looking forward to seeing development occur along Tucker, especially at Cass.

Since this area lacks a form-based code, or anything else requiring new construction to recognize the existence of the new public sidewalks, I’m afraid it’ll end up being geared only to motorists, ignoring pedestrians completely.   Maybe Paul McKee will do the.. right thing and develop the area with pedestrians and motorists in mind…

— Steve Patterson

Potential Development Sites Along Proposed Streetcar Line, Part 3: 14th & Olive To North Florissant & St. Louis Ave.

In the first two parts of this series on development sites along a proposed streetcar route I looked at Olive from 15th-16th and Olive from 16th-18th. In both cases it was a small area and I looked a specific buildings and parcels of land. Heading to N. Florissant Ave. & St. Louis Ave. nearly everything is a development site.

Let’s start downtown and work our way north. At 14th & Olive you have the library on the NE corner and the library administration building & a charter high school on the NW corner. I think the library admin building has office space available for lease.

Before we go any further north it makes sense to look at the route on a map along with a development zone on each side of the line. Light rail has stations miles apart, whereas streetcars are more like buses by having more frequent stops along the route.

The area between the green lines is the immediate area that I estimate to be part of a special transportation district with slightly higher property taxes, pro-rated based on distance.  The red lines are a quarter mile distance, the usual distance a person is willing to walk.

Quite a bit of this area is in what will be one of the Northside Regeneration job centers.

With so much vacant land & buildings, this stretch of the proposed streetcar line has the greatest potential for redevelopment. It will also be a challenge initially to get projects funded. Once the line is open and Paul McKee builds one of his job centers near Tucker & Cass things will start to take off. Form-based codes requiring dense urban design will be key to getting the right kind of construction.

It’ll take at least a decade, if not two, for this to be built out.

— Steve Patterson

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