Greater Dutchtown 3rd Annual Showcase of Homes, Sunday April 29, 2007

The Greater Dutchtown area (Dutchtown, Gravois Park, Marine Ville and Mt. Pleasant neighborhoods) will be hosting their 3rd Annual Showcase of Homes this coming Sunday from 1pm-4pm.

The tour of homes for sale is, as  you might expect, free to the public.  Many homes will be open in all price ranges and in a variety of areas.  If you haven’t been to Dutchtown in a while now is a good time to check it out.  Visit the Dutchtown South office at 4204 Virginia (map) on Sunday for the list of open houses.
I will have my listing at 3459 Itaska open from 1pm to 4pm.   Here are a few images of the single family home, recently rehabbed, now priced at $99,900:

Delor Ave Bridge Reopened Six Weeks After Collapse of Railing

It was six weeks ago, on March 1st, that a portion of the sidewalk and guardrail of the Delor Ave bridge over I-55 crashed down onto the roadway, blocking all four lanes of northbound traffic (see post). This past afternoon the barricades were removed and the bridge was reopened to traffic (vehicular and pedestrian).

The light gray portion of railing above is new to replace that which had collapsed. Thankfully nobody was seriously injured when the concrete fell to the interstate below.

From above you can see the new concrete sidewalk and railing. I’m glad the bridge is reopened as this is my direct route from my home to my office. I’ll drive or scooter across the bridge but you won’t catch me walking on that sidewalk!

The remainder of the bridge has small bits of new concrete in places as well as indicators where new steel was set to secure the balance of the sidewalk and railing. Apparently this design allowed water to get into the construction and rust steel that could not be inspected. A large number of other bridges along I-55 and some along I-44 use the same design. All are to be retrofitted to ensure the same does not happen again.

As I indicated last month, I am concerned about the amount of infrastructure we as taxpayers have to pay for. While existing infrastructure rusts we continue to build more and more, often on the outer edges of region. When we do focus on existing infrastructure, it is costly replacement projects such as the “New I-64“.

New Orleans Group Fighting Big Box Development like Loughborough Commons

Citizens in New Orleans are fighting to retain that city’s character as generic suburban developers seek to bring “cookie-cutter” projects to their city. By way of example, the website Think New Orleans used an image of just such a project — Loughborough Commons. Yes, St. Louis is providing yet another example of what others are trying to avoid — even in the wake of a major natural disaster.

Click here to see the full post.

I suppose we should be thanking Ald. Matt Villa for helping bring this mostly tree-less “project” to St. Louis. A project that doesn’t connect to numerous adjacent streets and still doesn’t welcome pedestrians. We are now at over seven months since the Schnuck’s grocery store opened and still no federally mandated ADA-compliant accessible route is in place. Seven months! Even a simple accessible route between the Schnuck’s and Lowe’s store is not in place, again a violation of federal civil rights law. Clearly the developers have little regard for the civil rights of those not in cars.

More power to the good folks in New Orleans fighting to keep St. Louis-style big box development out of their urban city.

My Listing in the 8th Annual Big Big Tour

This years marks the 8th annual “Big Big Tour” of for sale homes in the City of St. Louis. As with past years, the events includes a wide variety of properties for sale. From their website:

St. Louis’ ONLY city-wide house tour returns soon for its eighth year! This popular and FREE extreme open house and Homebuyer’s Fair will be held Sunday, March 25, from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. (Homebuyer’s Fair starts at 12:00, properties open at 1:00) beginning at Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman at Kingshighway in the Central West End.

This year, over 200 “for sale” properties priced from $30,000 to well over $600,000 will be available to tour in neighborhoods in all corners of the city.

Be sure to check out the Big Big Tour this Sunday afternoon!

And while you are out and about, stop by and see my latest listing — a former shotgun house reconfigured into modern living space.

I think this home may change your perceptions about what a shotgun house can look like. The owner of this house (which is not me, btw) relocated the kitchen from the back to the second room. This creates a public space in the front two rooms with a private bedroom area at the back. At just over 900sf, this is larger than some new lofts.

And the new kitchen is stunning! Many of you may recognize the cabinets as being from Ikea, they are very effective providing lots of storage. But the point of this post is not to sell you the house but to show a new way to think about the shotgun house of which St. Louis has thousands of examples.

The living room, dining area and kitchen all feel spacious and the relationship to each other is quite nice.

Originally this house was actually a 4-room shotgun. The area you see above was a tiny kitchen. By removing the wall between the old kitchen and the closet sized bedroom the home feels so much more open.

A bed now fits nicely in the back room with plenty of room for a home office and dressing area.

The bathroom is entirely new and completely reconfigured from the original bathroom.

Many people have claimed these homes are “obsolete” as a means of justifying razing them. However, given the massive quantity of houses like this that we have I think it makes more sense to reconfigure the interior spaces to work for modern life.

Come by Sunday afternoon between 1pm and 4pm to check it out for yourself, the address is 3459 Itaska (map). For more information review the official listing; #719782 ($109,900).

Please Feed The Reg Parking Meters

Back in November 2006 I brought you a review of the two types of electronic parking meters being tested on South Grand – Pay-N-Display and Pay-Per-Space. At the end of February 2007, the study came to an end and regular meters returned.

I’ve not heard anything from the Treasurer’s Office on the outcome of the study. I still personally prefer the Pay-N-Display as it allows more cars in a given space depending upon the size of the car and the parking skill of the driver.

Overall, based on my own experience, the test went well. However, on several occassions I attempted to use the credit/debit function and it was not working. Lacking any change I simply left my car unpaid and managed to avoid tickets. However, had the machines accepted dollar bills I would have gladly paid.  The lack of bill acceptance was a big drawback in my view.

Did you use the test meters?  What was your experience?