Reading: Gay and Lesbian St. Louis

A new book comes out in a month: Gay and Lesbian St. Louis by Steven Brawley will be part of Arcadia Publishing’s excellent Images of America series:

The Images of America series chronicles the history of small towns and downtowns across the country. Each title features more than 200 vintage images, capturing often forgotten bygone times and bringing to life the people, places, and events that defined a community. Local authors transform dusty albums and artifacts into meaningful walks down memory lane. Millions of vintage images become tiny time capsules, re-establishing memories of the formerly familiar, introducing generations to what once was, and reminding us all of what has been (and can be) in every corner of our nation. The popular series has expanded over time to preserve and celebrate additional worthy topics including local landmarks, architecture, ethnic groups, and more.

I have others from this series like Downtown St, Louis and Route 66 in St. Louis. The series has nearly 7,400 titles! With so many titles in the series they can get into subjects that don’t appeal to huge markets — instead focusing on niche subjects. Everyone interested in St. Louis history will find Gay and Lesbian St. Louis of interest.

The chapters are

1. Pioneers
2. Places
3. Milestones
4. Groups
5. Everyday Life

I think readers would be most interested in Chapter 2 — Places. I moved to St. Louis in August 1990, taking an apartment on Lindell in the Central West End — this started becoming the “gayborhood” in the 1960s.  A neighbor in my building was the owner of Heffelump’s — the gift shop even in the early 90s.

I’ve already spent hours looking through this book, I know I’ll spend many more. Author Steven Brawley, founder of the St. Louis LGBT History Project, is a personal friend. This book comes out on February 29th with a launch party at Left Bank Books.

— Steve Patterson

Reading: Downtown St. Louis by NiNi Harris with Forward by Charlie Brennan

St. Louis Author, historian, & tour guide NiNi Harris is out with another book — this time on Downtown St. Louis.

Here’s the official publisher description of Downtown St. Louis:

In this rich photographic history, author NiNi Harris follows the evolution of downtown St. Louis from colonial days when French traders and craftsmen planted maize on the prairies that stretched from Fourth Street west to Jefferson Avenue, to millennials and empty nesters living in castle-like warehouses converted into twentyfirst-century lofts. 

Downtown St. Louis recalls when Native Americans arrived by canoe to attend a grand council and when the sounds of Italian street vendors filled the air in the 1870s. It describes the street celebration that erupted at Eighth and Olive Streets at the news that the Japanese had surrendered, ending World War II. All the while, generations of St. Louisans were building and rebuilding a spectacular downtown with ornate Victorian architecture reflected in the sheer glass walls of International Style skyscrapers, lavish art deco civic buildings, and a train station modeled after a walled medieval city. Filled with myriad images—historical and contemporary—this book chronicles the building of the old riverfront, the Wainwright Building, Busch Stadium II, and the Gateway Arch, among other major moments.

The five chapters are organized as follows:

1. 1764-1816
2. 1817-1873
3. 1874-1916
4. 1917-1945
5. 1945-present

Previous posts about some of Harris’ other books:

• Unyielding Spirit, the history of the Polish people in St. Louis by NiNi Harris
• Holly Hills neighborhood the subject of new book, author signing event today
• Historic Photos of the Gateway Arch by NiNi Harris
• Reading: St. Louis Parks by NiNi Harris and Esley Hamilton

Eventually I’ll find time to go through the book to examine all the images & read all the information.

— Steve Patterson

Reading: Start-Up City: Inspiring Private & Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun by Gabe Klein

I just received what looks to be a great little book: Start-Up City: Inspiring Private & Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun by Gabe Klein with David Vega-Barachowitz, forward by Robin Chase.  It’s literally a little book — 6×6. But it has 256 pages beautifully filled with 95 color photos & illustrations.

With the advent of self-driving vehicles and other technological shifts upon us, Gabe Klein asks how we can close the gap between the energized, aggressive world of start-ups and the complex bureaucracies struggling to change beyond a geologic time scale. From his experience as a food-truck entrepreneur to a ZipCar executive and a city transportation commissioner, Klein’s career has focused on bridging the public-private divide, finding and celebrating shared goals, and forging better cities with more nimble, consumer-oriented bureaucracies.
In Start-Up City, Klein, with David Vega-Barachowitz, demonstrates how to affect big, directional change in cities—and how to do it fast. Klein’s objective is to inspire what he calls “public entrepreneurship,” a start-up-pace energy within the public sector, brought about by leveraging the immense resources at its disposal. Klein offers guidance for cutting through the morass, and a roadmap for getting real, meaningful projects done quickly and having fun while doing it.
This book is for anyone who wants to change the way we live in cities without waiting for the glacial pace of change in government.

From food truck to ZipCar to municipal bureaucrat with stints in Washington D.C. & Chicago — Gabe Klein has a wide range of experience to share.  The contents show you how the book is organized:

Preface
Introduction
Why Should You Care About Getting S*it Done in Cities?

Chapter 1. Lesson #1: Don’t Be Afraid to Screw Up and Learn
It is necessary to make mistakes. Just make them as quickly as possible, learn from them, and try not to repeat.

Chapter 2. Lesson #2: Manage S.M.A.R.T.
On managing others, empowering your team, and shamelessly promoting their accomplishments

Chapter 3. Lesson #3: Where there’s a will, there’s a way
On how to evaluate your budget quickly, assess and align your stakeholders, and build beautiful cities (in no time)

Chapter 4. Lesson #4: Sell Your City
On marketing your projects, communicating with the public, and celebrating the dastardly

Chapter 5. Lesson #5: Fund Creatively
On how to find funding where none seemingly exists, making the most of a slim budget, and getting creative with the basics

Chapter 6. Lesson #6: Bridge the Public-Private Divide
On forging a proactive bureaucracy, and making life better for everyone in the process

Chapter 7. Lesson #7: Prepare for Disruption
On the present and anticipated technological shifts and business models that are transforming urban life and challenging the status quo

Chapter 8. Lesson #8: Drive Change
Understanding the implications of autonomous, connected mobility, what it means for cities, and how government can make sure they are driving change, rather than reacting to it

Conclusion: The Big Picture and You

The book looks easy to read, will make good reference material. You can preview the book at Island Press, ordered from Left Bank Books here.

— Steve Patterson

Reading: End of Automobile Dependence: How Cities are Moving Beyond Car-Based Planning

I recently received a very interesting new book: End of Automobile Dependence: How Cities are Moving Beyond Car-Based Planning by Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy. It’s always nice to hear that at least other cities are changing their planning practices away from old car-based models.

When looking at books I start with the table of contents:

1. The Rise and Fall of Automobile Dependence
2. Urban Transportation Patterns and Trends in Global Cities
3. Emerging Cities and Automobile Dependence
4. The Theory of Urban Fabrics: Understanding the End of Automobile Dependence
5. Transportation Planning: Hindrance or Help?
6. Overcoming Barriers to the End of Automobile Dependence
7. The End of Automobile Dependence: A Troubling Prognosis?
8. Conclusion: Life after Automobile Dependence

And I look through the index to see covered topics.

From publisher Island Press:

Cities will continue to accommodate the automobile, but when cities are built around them, the quality of human and natural life declines. Current trends show great promise for future urban mobility systems that enable freedom and connection, but not dependence. We are experiencing the phenomenon of peak car use in many global cities at the same time that urban rail is thriving, central cities are revitalizing, and suburban sprawl is reversing. Walking and cycling are growing in many cities, along with ubiquitous bike sharing schemes, which have contributed to new investment and vitality in central cities including Melbourne, Seattle, Chicago, and New York.

We are thus in a new era that has come much faster than global transportation experts Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy had predicted: the end of automobile dependence. In The End of Automobile Dependence, Newman and Kenworthy look at how we can accelerate a planning approach to designing urban environments that can function reliably and conveniently on alternative modes, with a refined and more civilized automobile playing a very much reduced and manageable role in urban transportation. The authors examine the rise and fall of automobile dependence using updated data on 44 global cities to better understand how to facilitate and guide cities to the most productive and sustainable outcomes.

This is the final volume in a trilogy by Newman and Kenworthy on automobile dependence (Cities and Automobile Dependence in 1989 and Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence in 1999). Like all good trilogies this one shows the rise of an empire, in this case that of the automobile, the peak of its power, and the decline of that empire.

I look forward to checking out the references to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT).

— Steve Patterson

Reading: Parking Management for Smart Growth by Richard W. Willson

Parking management is a popular topic, I have numerous books on the subject. Now I have one more: Parking Management for Smart Growth by Richard W. Willson:

The average parking space requires approximately 300 square feet of asphalt. That’s the size of a studio apartment in New York or enough room to hold 10 bicycles. Space devoted to parking in growing urban and suburban areas is highly contested—not only from other uses from housing to parklets, but between drivers who feel entitled to easy access. Without parking management, parking is a free-for-all—a competitive sport—with arbitrary winners and losers. Historically drivers have been the overall winners in having free or low-cost parking, while an oversupply of parking has created a hostile environment for pedestrians.

In the last 50 years, parking management has grown from a minor aspect of local policy and regulation to a central position in the provision of transportation access. The higher densities, tight land supplies, mixed land uses, environmental and social concerns, and alternative transportation modes of Smart Growth demand a different approach—actively managed parking.

This book offers a set of tools and a method for strategic parking management so that communities can better use parking resources and avoid overbuilding parking. It explores new opportunities for making the most from every parking space in a sharing economy and taking advantage of new digital parking tools to increase user interaction and satisfaction. Examples are provided of successful approaches for parking management—from Pasadena to London. At its essence, the book provides a path forward for strategic parking management in a new era of tighter parking supplies.

To see the topics covered, here’s the contents:

1. Introduction: What is a Parking Space Worth?
   Parking as a Contested Space
   Problems of Unmanaged Parking
   Understanding Parking Behavior
   Strategic Parking Management
   Key Terms
   Map of the Book
2. Parking Management Techniques
   Origins of Parking Management
   Understanding and Organizing Parking Management Methods
   Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Parking Management
   Parking Management Gone Wrong
   Conclusion
3. Creating a Parking Management Strategy
   Planning and Strategy in Parking Management
   Parking Management Stakeholders
   Process for Developing a Parking Management Strategy
   Process Pays
4. Managing an Integrated Parking Supply (Rick Williams)
   Management Principles
   Organizational Structure: Administration and Management
   Defining the Role of On-Street Parking
   Relationship of On- and Off-Street Parking Assets
   Rate Setting Policy and Protocols
   Measuring Performance
   Identifying and Communicating the Integrated Parking System
   New Technologies
   Financial Analysis and Management
   Conclusion
5. Best Practice Strategies
   Best Practice: Individual Measures
   Best Practice: Integrated Strategies
   Global Perspective
   Case Study Conclusions
6. Implementing Strategic Parking Management
   Politics and Community Participation
   Technical Challenges
   Greening Parking Operations
   Parking Enforcement
   Conclusions on Implementation
7. Parking Management for Smart Growth
   A Paradigm Shift
   Why Not Rely on Pricing Alone?
   A Broader Vision for Strategic Parking Management
   It’s Time
   References
   Index

I’m looking forward to diving into some of these topics. The book came out last month, you can read an excerpt or order from Left Bank Books.

— Steve Patterson