An Open Letter to 20th Ward Residents [Updated]

The 20th Ward is diverse in so many respects, including race. Besides punishing Ald. Craig Schmid, the last redistricting was intended to create a black south side ward yet no black person has filed for the seat. Some say this is a sign blacks are content with representation from Schmid, a claim I can neither substantiate or refute.

What is without question, the aldermanic contest between incumbent Ald. Craig Schmid and Cherokee St. resident Galen Gondolfi has illustrated a major rift among the ward’s residents. Schmid has failed over the years to bring into the fold the more progressive residents. If Gondolfi wins, I think he will have issues bringing in the more conservative based of Schmid. In other words, I see the rift continuing regardless of who wins the race today.

Schmid represents the the “broken window” theory whereby you address all the small issues such as trash and broken windows which will then lead to less crime. This is a very valid approach to addressing problems but it falls short on the revitalization side. Conversely, it is a challenge to revitalze an area without employing some of the broken window strategy.

Many have tried to dismiss Gondolfi as only caring about his own personal interest of selling one of his buildings to Steve Smith, helping him get a liquor license along the way. I believe Gondolfi is approaching this from a broader perspective — what do we do with the many corner storefront properties throughout the 20th ward (and city) that are vacant or underutilized. Furthermore, what is the long-term future for commercial corridors such as Cherokee Street.

Regardless of who wins the election today, the issue of revitalizing the city’s commercial districts is a critical issue all over the city. Numerous wards have similar bans on new liquor licenses, the 20th is not alone in this issue. The conflict between long-term residents and newbies will only increase as we attract new people to our neighborhoods. Collectively we must find a way to work together.

My personal belief is we need to think less about boundaries — ward or neighborhood — and focus on commercial districts serving adjacent residents. We need to embrace diversity in terms of old & new buildings, large houses next to small flats, the staid next to the eclectic. You know, a real city. This will require all of us to look at the city through the eyes of others for whom we may not always agree. Our divisive perspectives are not serving ourselves or our city.

Again, regardless of who wins the race in the 20th (or the other races for that matter), we have considerable work to do. We need leadership to build concensus around the future of the city.

UPDATE 3/6/07 – 8:45pm

The five precints are in and Schmid has won another four years in office with 376 votes (55.46%)  to Gondolfi’s 301 votes (44.40%).  Given the ward’s 5,403 registered voters this is clearly not a mandate for either candidate.  Schmid’s challenge now will be to bridge the divide in the ward.

Portion of Delor Bridge Collapses onto I-55

Tonight, just two blocks from my house, a portion the Delor St. bridge collapsed onto I-55 below. The massive section of concrete, the sidewalk and railing, fell to the highway below, blocking all four northbound lanes. A single car seems to have run into the concrete, luckily not ending up under the concrete.

The image above is looking east from the intersection of Minnesota & Delor (google map). You can see the section of concrete completely blocking the lanes as well as the car. I returned north to be able to get under the highway at Broadway so that I could get to the other side.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_cYo25iMR4[/youtube]

As you can see from the above video, a section of the sidewalk & railing along the north side of the bridge gave way.

So we are preparing to spend the next few years and half a billion dollars rebuilding I-64 (hwy 40) all the while the Mayor is calling for a billion dollar bridge across the Mississippi River. And yet, it seems, we can’t maintain the infrastructure we already have. Even our mass transit system, MetroLink, has deferred maintenance issues. True, this might be a freak accident but this is one of our oldest stretches of highway with questionable bridge structures.

Last week I received a questionnaire from MoDot asking if I, as an area resident, use the pedestrian bridge located a block north at Itaska. Obviously they are looking at this section of highway for a future round of upgrades. At this point we have so many miles of roads & bridges that the upgrading never ends. Sadly, the number of miles per capita continues to increase meaning each of us is responsible for funding more and more infrastructure.

City Owns Land For Proposed City Hospital Square Retail Project

Recently sprawl apologists have defended the proposed City Hospital Square (aka Georgian Square) as a property rights issue — the developers should have the right to build what they want on their land (see prior post). I, however, contend the community has the right to set the bar for what gets constructed where through tools such as Land Use & Zoning policies. These tools, like eminent domain, are valuable to municipalities to maintain the health, safetey and welfare of a community.

But what about when it is the community itself that owns the vacant land in question? Yes folks, with the exception of a few parcels, the City of St. Louis through the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) and the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) own the land in question for Phase 1 of the project. Some of the land on the southern edge is owned by the State of Missouri. A few small parcels are owned by individuals in St. Louis and out of state — none in the names of the principals of the developers.
So how is it that we already have an announced project on predominently publicly owned land? Given that agendas for these various boards are only posted in the lobby of 1015 Locust it is entirely possible I missed the announcements of the Request for Proposal (RFP) seeking developers for this land. I suppose it is also possible that I missed the meeting(s) in which the city selected Guilded Age and their associates. But maybe, just maybe, it is possible that a few key steps were omitted in order to give this a “done deal” appearance so that owners of the adjacent blocks would simply roll over and accept the city’s offer to buy their homes from them.

This is the city, through various boards and Ald. Phyllis Young, actively participating in the deliberate demolition and threat of eminent domain without public input. Public input should have been solicited early on as the city began acquiring property across from the long-vacant city hospital. Instead it appears we have an end-run around the public in order to plop down an auto-centric suburban model between two very dense neighborhoods.

Why not have an open RFP to see if a more urban-minded developer would come to the table to bring a decent mixed-use project to the site that works with the existing residential to the East? What about a design charette to get the community interested in the future of the site? Maybe a competition where local architecture & planning professionals (and students) might form teams to develop concepts for how to creatively use the site to enable Lafayette Ave to reconnect the Lafayette Square and Soulard neighborhoods?

I will be making a formal request to see if indeed a RFP was issued and Guilded Age selected as the designated developer for this site.

Old School Pals: Democrat Alderman Fred Wessels Backs Republican Fred Heitert in Re-Election

Local Democrat, Ald Fred Wessels of the 13th Ward, has given $500 of his campaign funds to the campaign of Republican Fred Heitert who is seeking retain the 12th Ward seat he was first elected to in the year in which the following events happened:

• YMCA sued the hot new group, The Village People, over their hit song YMCA.
• Patty Hearst is released from prison after he sentence is commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
• Margaret Thatcher becomes the new Prime Minister for England.
• Iran hostage crisis begins.
• Heath Ledger, a star in Brokeback Mountain, born on April 4th.
• Deaths of stars such as Emmett Kelley (b. 1898), Mary Pickford (B. 1892), John Wayne (b. 1907), & Vivian Vance (b. 1909)
• TV Series such as The Facts of Life, The Dukes of Hazzard, Benson and This Old House all premier this year. Other series such as What’s Happening!!, Welcome Back, Kotter; Good Times and Wonder Woman cease production.
• The top grossing film was Every Which Way But Lose.
• The Sugar Hill Gang introduced the commercial world to rap with “Rapper’s Delight” (video on YouTube, history on Wiki). Currently known as old school rap.
• A first class stamp was a mere $0.15.

You can check out the 1979 Wikipedia for more interesting facts. TV Land is also a good way to catch up on the pop culture from the period for those of you not yet born when Heitert was first elected to office. But I’m getting off subject…

Since when do local Democrats give money to Republicans or vice versa? How would you feel as a donor to a Democrat to have that candidate turn around and give some of that money to a Republican? If we are going to continue to have partisan voting in this city this should be an outrage. To verify the contribution from Wessels see Heitert’s 8 Days Before Primary Report (PDF, p2).

I’m sure Wessels and Heitert are old friends by now considering Wessels has been in office since April 1985 — the year I graduated high school. Yep, well over 20 years of hanging out together at the good ole boy social club known as the St. louis Board of Aldermen.

Since I turn 40 tomorrow I’m going to use this post as a stroll down memory lane. From the year 1985:

• Ronald Reagan was sworn into his second term as President. I didn’t say good memories, just memories. Although at this point we had not had a President Bush (H.W. or Dubya).
• ‘We Are the World’ recorded to help famine relief in Africa
• Nelson Mandela is still imprisoned.
• Commodore launches the Amiga personal computer.
• VH-1 debuts
• First class stamp cost $0.20.
• Coke tries a new formula billed as the “New Coke”
• Rock Hudson dies of AIDS.
• The film The Color Purple premiers.
• Tina Turner wins award after award for song & album, “What’s Love Got To Do With It”
• Wham!’s “Careless Whisper” tops charts. Our very cool high school english teacher uses song in class lesson, writes part of the lyrics on blackboard, “I’m never gonna dance again, guilty feet have got no rhythm”

The sad thing is with this city we can’t just hop into a Delorean and change events, we simply can’t go Back to the Future.

Join Me for My Last Day of My Thirties

Next week I turn the big 4-0.  Since I have class on my actual birthday I thought I’d celebrate the night before, my last night in my 30s.  So, everyone is invited to join me for happy hour on Tuesday (2/27/07) from 5pm-7pm at The Royale on South Kingshighway.  Steve Smith has some good specials on drinks and I’m sure he’d be pleased if you ordered an appetizer or stayed for dinner (gotta watch that food to alchohol ratio you know).

We can chat about local issues, you can tell me I am too radical or perhaps not radical enough.  The point is to come out and have a good time so that I forget about entering my 40s.