St. Louis PrideFest Downtown June 29-30

Today and tomorrow the annual PrideFest celebration will take place in downtown St. Louis. For many years the parade was on South Grand, ending in Tower Grove Park. Before that the parade was on Euclid, ending in Forest Park.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the gay rights movement and why we celebrate in June:

In the early hours of June 28, 1969, a group of gay customers at a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village called the Stonewall Inn, who had grown angry at the harassment by police, took a stand and a riot broke out. As word spread throughout the city about the demonstration, the customers of the inn were soon joined by other gay men and women who started throwing objects at the policemen, shouting “gay power.”

Police reinforcements arrived and beat the crowd away, but the next night, the crowd returned, even larger than the night before, with numbers reaching over 1000. For hours, protesters rioted outside the Stonewall Inn until the police sent a riot-control squad to disperse the crowd. For days following, demonstrations of varying intensity took place throughout the city.

In the wake of the riots, intense discussions about civil rights were held among New York’s LGBT people, which led to the formation of various advocacy groups such as the short-lived Gay Liberation Front, which was the first group to use the word “gay” in its name, and a city-wide newspaper called Gay. On the 1st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the first gay pride parades in U.S. history took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and near the Stonewall Inn in New York.

The Stonewall riots inspired LGBT people throughout the country to organize in support of gay rights, and within two years after the riots, gay rights groups had been started in nearly every major city in the United States. (civilrights.org)

In 1987, just 3 years before moving to St. Louis, I drove a vehicle in Oklahoma City’s inaugural Gay Pride Parade. I was just 20 and we didn’t know what to expect. Turnout was good and nobody got beat up.

Over my years in St. Louis I’ve attended our St. Louis parade on Euclid and on South Grand, participating a few times. As a downtown resident of 5+ years I’m glad to see the event relocate to downtown.

Some in the LGBT community, including many friends, aren’t happy about the move downtown.  They’re having a picnic this morning at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market followed by a block party at Hartford @ Grand. I’ll stop by if I can but I know I’ll be able to travel a few blocks to for the main event, here’s some basics from the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis:

PrideFest 2013 is happening this Saturday, June 29 and Sunday, June 30 at Soldiers’ Memorial.

On Sunday, the Pride 5K begins at 7 am, followed by the Pride Parade at 11 am. The Pride Parade will begin at Market and 8th Street, and will travel west to 18th Street for full disbandment. All street closures will be contained to Sunday.

Parade Closures

Market closed from Broadway to 18th Street, starting at 6 am

7th Street closed from Walnut to Chestnut, starting at 6 am

8th Street closed from Chestnut to Walnut, starting at 6 am

**All side streets leading into Market from Chestnut on the North and from Clark and/or Walnut on the South will be closed, starting at 6 am**

The exact closure times of some streets will be contingent on police direction that morning. Streets are scheduled to reopen by 3 pm Sunday.

5K Closures

The Pride 5k will do a continuous loop around Soldiers’ Memorial, starting at Pine & 15th Street; to Pine & Tucker; to Tucker & Market; to Market & 17th Street; back to Pine to complete the loop.

Pine closed from Tucker to 18th, 6 – 8:30 am

**Additional closures for the 5k will be side streets leading into Pine from Olive, between Tucker and 17th Street**

Tucker will be closed starting at 6 am from Olive to Clark and will reopen after the 5K contingent upon crowd size and police discretion.

The boyfriend and I will be at the parade Sunday, this will be his first.

— Steve Patterson

Diner To Reopen Soon At Tucker & Washington

It has been a couple of years since the 12th Street Diner closed, in the same location will be a place called King Louie’s — no connection to the former King Louie’s on Chouteau:

The new King Louie’s will be a citified homage to the old, with “griddle” burgers, shakes–and (we hope) their signature potato “planks”–but also a full bar featuring local beers. An open-grill will allow Chef Rook some of the creativity and flexibility found in modern diners, like the ability to cook steaks, chops, and gourmet “Royal” burgers made from prime beef cuts. We’ve been told the legendary Chef Dave’s Gumbo (the one we’ve called the best in town) will indeed have a place on the menu. (St. Louis Magazine)

A “citified homage”? I like how that sounds!

The main entrance faces Washington Ave. but the new sidewalk cafe will be a very nice addition to downtown, making this intersection interesting.

What remains to be seen is how the cafe will be done.

• Open seating?
• Short fence with limited entrance points?
• Regular height tables or tall tables that wheelchair users can’t use?
• Will a clear path be maintained?
• Awning or umbrellas?

The same family operates the Empire Deli & Pizza in the former B&T Pizza space to the east. I’ve been pleased so far.

— 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

Readers Mixed on How to Reduce Auto Congestion in Forest Park

A few of you have expressed that you feel the weekly poll results here are predictable. Maybe you’re more perceptive than me because I couldn’t have predicted the outcome of the poll last week.

Here are the final results:

Q: How should we address auto congestion in Forest Park? (Pick up to 3)

1. Run the existing Forest Park Trolley more frequently 44 [21.57%]
2. Build a trolley/streetcar circulator system within the park 35 [17.16%]
3. Change nothing, fine as is 32 [15.69%]
4. Whatever you do don’t allow overhead wires within the park 23 [11.27%]
5. Ban cars in the park at peak times only 17 [8.33%]
6. Charge a toll per car to drive into the park anytime 15 [7.35%]
7. Charge a toll per car to drive into the park at peak times only 11 [5.39%]
8. Ban cars in the park at all times 10 [4.9%]
9. Build an elevated monorail circulator in the park 9 [4.41%]
10. Build an electric bus circulator system within the park 7 [3.43%]
11. Unsure 1 [0.49%]

I’m not sure how I’d feel about tracks and/or overhead wires in Forest Park, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like a monorail. I included that option as a joke, but 9 voted for it.

Thankfully banning cars all the time got less than 5% of the vote. Comments on the original post showed a variety of viewpoints. I think it is fair to say no consensus was reached, the top three answers above are pretty dissimilar.

The Zoo and the Art Museum are the two biggest generators of autos, besides special events like the Ballon Glow.  The Zoo will be moving most parking across I-64 and using a gondola to get people into an expanded zoo. The Art Museum opens a new wing this coming weekend with a below-grade parking garage:

The design organically links the East Building to the Cass Gilbert. A new grand staircase provides a seamless transition to the lower-level galleries, where a concourse leads to a new café, a gift shop, auditorium and the new 300-space parking garage. (West End Word)

Both of these efforts will help. I think we need a year or two of both changes and evaluate then. In the meantime I’d like to see the Forest Park Trolley become more BRT (bus rapid transit) like with actual stations, longer hours, notification of the next trolley bus, etc. Hybrid buses would be nice to reduce pollution.

— Steve Patterson

Central Library After Hours Book Return For Motorists, Not Pedestrians

Our library system is wonderful, I feel fortunate to live just two blocks from the magnificent Central Library, which recently had a $70 million dollar renovation. Returning a few items the other day when the library wasn’t open I realized the renovation included a new return box.

There I am on the sidewalk in my wheelchair looking for the slot to slide the items in.

I had previously assumed the ramp you see behind the library return box was for passenger loading/unloading, but perhaps it is so pedestrians could easily get into the street to return books & videos.

Most other libraries in St. Louis have easily accessed return boxes, not requiring competing with moving traffic. Here are a few examples:

Does someone at the St. Louis Public Library think everyone downtown drives everywhere? Returning books a few blocks away means getting in the car? Another day I asked a librarian at the circulation desk who confirmed they only have the one return box.

It appears the new book return is accessed from below so librarians don’t need to go out with a cart to retrieve items, a wise choice given the volume at Central. Not providing a way for pedestrians to return items without having to enter the street is yet another example how everyone involved either 1) drives and didn’t consider the pedestrian viewpoint or 2) deliberately made a decision to make returns a challenge for pedestrians.

Neither is good.

— Steve Patterson