Traffic patterns get implanted in our DNA. Visitors to Forest Park take Hampton Avenue. So much so that on weekends, when the weather is nice, cars get backed up a mile away on the exit ramps of I-44, trying to get to northbound Hampton and up to the park.
So Monday, when MoDOT closes the Hampton Bridge over Interstate 64, STL drivers are going to be forced to change their driving habits...again. They'll need to find new ways to get to Forest Park without their customary Hampton Avenue access. Gloom and doom on the horizon? Or another Highway 40 closure non-event?
In St. Louis, we're getting experienced at dealing with major changes to our established traffic patterns. So far, we've handled them well. Impacts have been less than the dire predictions. People are discovering alternate routes. They're finding the street grid.
Dogtown and the Tamm Street/Turtle Park overpass stand adjacent to the Hampton bridge. Will Dogtown be flooded with lost drivers searching for a new way to enter Forest Park?
Or will drivers divert into a thousand alternate routes, from all sides of the park, and will St. Louis absorb another lifestyle change with grace and little disruption? Maybe drivers will discover that by making a few additional turns along the way, they will shorten their wait in traffic by a half hour or more?
Look for drivers to use Clayton Road, Laclede Station, Vandeventer, Kingsighway and Forest Park Parkway as alternates to Hampton Avenue. STL Rising prediction: We will fare far better than most people expect.
Friday, September 19, 2008
STL Rising: To Do List - Point of View Restaurant
Walking to the 8th and Pine Metro station, you might pass a little sign mounted on the corner of the Laclede Gas Building inviting you to a restaurant way up on the building's 30th floor. It's called "Point of View" and serves up spectacular 360 degree views of downtown and beyond.
Don't know anything about the food. Didn't even know the place existed till yesterday. But loving the opportunity to soak in long views of STL, a visit to this place gets added to the to-do list.
Little bird says it's a production of Patty Long, operator of the 9th Street Abbey.
Hours: T-F 11-2 PM. Telephone 421-5941.
Don't know anything about the food. Didn't even know the place existed till yesterday. But loving the opportunity to soak in long views of STL, a visit to this place gets added to the to-do list.
Little bird says it's a production of Patty Long, operator of the 9th Street Abbey.
Hours: T-F 11-2 PM. Telephone 421-5941.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Fortune Told?
Monday night we ate at the "Steak and Rice" Chinese restaurant in Kirkwood, corner of Kirkwood Road and Big Bend. STL Rising recommended. It's one of the few places where they serve A-B products with a chilled pilsner glass.
At the end of the meal, the server delivered the customary round of fortune cookies and the bill. My cookie had a somewhat ominous message: "Your luck is about to change". Never paying much mind to fortunes, I didn't think a whole lot of it.
Today, walking outside for some fresh air, I jingled the change in my pocket. One of the coins had a different feel. I pulled it out, and sure enough, it was different. It felt cleaner. It was a silver dime from 1964, the last year they minted silver dimes.
It's been at least ten years since I've found a silver dime in circulation. According to some websites, silver dimes run about 1 per thousand in circulation, but I doubt that number.
Silver dimes have a distinct color and feel. They're not as shiny as the copper/nickel clad issue, and they don't have that greasy feel nickel coins do. Most people quickly recognize them and nab them out of circulation. They're almost impossible to find any more. Mine came out of this morning's change drawer at the 6th and Olive Starbuck's.
At today's prices, the melt value of a silver dime is $.84. From a collector's standpoint, it's worth between $1 and $8, depending on condition. Finding a silver dime in your loose change a change in luck, or, as a commenter puts it, "luck in change"? Either way, I'll take it.
At the end of the meal, the server delivered the customary round of fortune cookies and the bill. My cookie had a somewhat ominous message: "Your luck is about to change". Never paying much mind to fortunes, I didn't think a whole lot of it.
Today, walking outside for some fresh air, I jingled the change in my pocket. One of the coins had a different feel. I pulled it out, and sure enough, it was different. It felt cleaner. It was a silver dime from 1964, the last year they minted silver dimes.
It's been at least ten years since I've found a silver dime in circulation. According to some websites, silver dimes run about 1 per thousand in circulation, but I doubt that number.
Silver dimes have a distinct color and feel. They're not as shiny as the copper/nickel clad issue, and they don't have that greasy feel nickel coins do. Most people quickly recognize them and nab them out of circulation. They're almost impossible to find any more. Mine came out of this morning's change drawer at the 6th and Olive Starbuck's.
At today's prices, the melt value of a silver dime is $.84. From a collector's standpoint, it's worth between $1 and $8, depending on condition. Finding a silver dime in your loose change a change in luck, or, as a commenter puts it, "luck in change"? Either way, I'll take it.
A New Memorial Drive for 1/3 the Cost of Lid or Less?
In the middle of a bad economy with federal earmarks on the chopping block, it's not a good time to be talking about how to finance significant public infrastructure projects. Nonetheless, let's be positive that our economy will improve in the months or quarters to come, and that we will move forward on regional infrastructure priorities.
Part of the task of promoting any development plan is to make the case based on financial feasibility. Beautiful drawings without a financing strategy are not worth much. It will be critical for supporters of any plan to improve access to the Arch and riverfront to figure out how to pay for it.
However, we have some information to work with. We know the cost of the Highway 64 rebuild is $420,000,000 in construction and $535,000,000 total. It's eleven miles, with 25 bridges, including rebuilding the 170 interchange.
The projected cost of the Lid over the depressed lanes is about $80-90 million in construction, plus another $20 million to endow a maintainance fund. Total cost in the $100-120 million range.
However, there's another cost to the Lid option. Keeping the depressed lanes open involves the long term maintenance of the viaduct/channel. We know the difficulty and expense of these situations - just consider the Gravois and Chippewa viaducts in South City. They are the source of regular "Towntalk" complaints.
As viaducts age, their maintenance gets more expensive. Would the Lid rebuild the walls of the depressed lanes? Based on information available to date, long term maintenance of the depressed lanes appears to be outside the scope of the Lid budget.
Second, the elevated lanes of I-70 past Laclede's Landing are due for seismic retrofitting. These are also high cost efforts. Building a new Memorial Drive could save both depressed lane maintenance costs as well as seismic retrofitting of the elevated sectios of I-70.
At less than one tenth the cost of Highway 64 expansion, the new Memorial Drive could come in under $40,000,000, or about a 1/3 the Lid option.
From a fiscal perspective, is the new Memorial Drive a potential less is more opportunity?
Part of the task of promoting any development plan is to make the case based on financial feasibility. Beautiful drawings without a financing strategy are not worth much. It will be critical for supporters of any plan to improve access to the Arch and riverfront to figure out how to pay for it.
However, we have some information to work with. We know the cost of the Highway 64 rebuild is $420,000,000 in construction and $535,000,000 total. It's eleven miles, with 25 bridges, including rebuilding the 170 interchange.
The projected cost of the Lid over the depressed lanes is about $80-90 million in construction, plus another $20 million to endow a maintainance fund. Total cost in the $100-120 million range.
However, there's another cost to the Lid option. Keeping the depressed lanes open involves the long term maintenance of the viaduct/channel. We know the difficulty and expense of these situations - just consider the Gravois and Chippewa viaducts in South City. They are the source of regular "Towntalk" complaints.
As viaducts age, their maintenance gets more expensive. Would the Lid rebuild the walls of the depressed lanes? Based on information available to date, long term maintenance of the depressed lanes appears to be outside the scope of the Lid budget.
Second, the elevated lanes of I-70 past Laclede's Landing are due for seismic retrofitting. These are also high cost efforts. Building a new Memorial Drive could save both depressed lane maintenance costs as well as seismic retrofitting of the elevated sectios of I-70.
At less than one tenth the cost of Highway 64 expansion, the new Memorial Drive could come in under $40,000,000, or about a 1/3 the Lid option.
From a fiscal perspective, is the new Memorial Drive a potential less is more opportunity?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Tower Tours?
The father of our former neighbor is a retired steeplejack. Steeplejacks are the most specialized of carpenters - they are the ones who climb skinny ladders and scaffolding to build and repair the tall steeples on old city churches. So when he'd come over to our neighbors house to do odd jobs and basic maintenance, it was easy sailing for him compared to his year's working alone at the top of a tall, narrow steeple. The views he had of our neighborhoods was something seen by few.
Thinking of those heights made me wonder if any of the churches around town offer tours of their bell towers? Some of them are so narrow they are only accessible by a ladder. However, others look big enough to have staircases to the top.
Climbing to the top of a church bell tower would afford wonderful views of the surrounding neighborhood and church grounds. If churches could arrange one or two days a month where they'd open the tower for guided tours, it would be a good way to promote the churches, the neighborhoods, and the architecture of the city.
A nominal fee benefitting the church could be charged, with volunteers from the church serving as docents for the tower visits. I'd pay $5-$10 to have a chance to visit these unique spaces. Call it urban exploring with an invitation. Anyone know if such tours are available? I'll call Our Lady of Sorrows on South Kingshighway later today to see if their Italinate tower (shown above) is ever open to the public. Check the comments later for an update...
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
STL Rising - Fashion Report
As the war in Iraq entered its third and fourth years, downtown STL started to see more and more office workers dressing in styles reminiscent of the 1960s. Floral print dresses, halter tops, and other hippie-inspired styles were becoming popular again. Personally, I like this form of self-expression, and I like the way it reminded me of my teen years.
This morning, I spied a rather startling shift in downtown business attire. A man standing at the corner of 6th and Olive was wearing what can best be described as a zoot suit. Bold navy blue, his jacket, broad-shouldered, cut square and nearly down to the knees, served notice with crisp, white pin stripes. The dude, with a cigarette in his fingers, made a bold fashion statement.
Changing fashions often signal trends in society. Zoot suits reappearing on the street corners of downtown St. Louis? Any predictions about what this might mean for the next year or two?
This morning, I spied a rather startling shift in downtown business attire. A man standing at the corner of 6th and Olive was wearing what can best be described as a zoot suit. Bold navy blue, his jacket, broad-shouldered, cut square and nearly down to the knees, served notice with crisp, white pin stripes. The dude, with a cigarette in his fingers, made a bold fashion statement.
Changing fashions often signal trends in society. Zoot suits reappearing on the street corners of downtown St. Louis? Any predictions about what this might mean for the next year or two?
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Advance Word?
The NPS first draft report on the new management plan for the Arch was due out a month or so after the public meetings held at the end of June/first of July. It's been two months, so we should be seeing something any day. Any advance word on the findings?
Lots of people testified about the idea of rebuilding Memorial Drive as a proper connection between downtown, the Arch grounds, and the riverfront. It will be interesting to see how the idea is presented in the draft report.
Driving the route early this morning made me wonder about who would be against such a remaking of the area. Putting big rigs on a new Memorial Drive might be the biggest downside to the idea.
Or would it be an overblown concern? There is heavy truck traffic travelling on S. Broadway through Soulard, especially semis serving the brewery. Soulard survives pretty well.
Lots of people testified about the idea of rebuilding Memorial Drive as a proper connection between downtown, the Arch grounds, and the riverfront. It will be interesting to see how the idea is presented in the draft report.
Driving the route early this morning made me wonder about who would be against such a remaking of the area. Putting big rigs on a new Memorial Drive might be the biggest downside to the idea.
Or would it be an overblown concern? There is heavy truck traffic travelling on S. Broadway through Soulard, especially semis serving the brewery. Soulard survives pretty well.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
STL Rising - Good Eats!
One of the reasons St. Louis was chosen as a settlement was the great abundance of natural resources here. Our location on two major rivers, fertile area farmlands and forests put St. Louis right at the heart of the American breadbasket.
This time of year, look for locals to be harvesting nuts from trees in Tower Grove Park. Last night on KDHX, I heard a brief portion of Amanda Doyle's interview of someone discussing urban farming as a profession. I wonder how the urban farmers deal with the buried debris under the surface of so many vacant city lots?
Then yesterday, on a sidewalk in our neighborhood, a hawk had a rabbit trapped in its talons. Its wings had its prey completely surrounded. It was a wierd site, but something I'm surprised we don't see more often given the thousands of rabbits, squirrels, and mice which run around all over the city.
This time of year, look for locals to be harvesting nuts from trees in Tower Grove Park. Last night on KDHX, I heard a brief portion of Amanda Doyle's interview of someone discussing urban farming as a profession. I wonder how the urban farmers deal with the buried debris under the surface of so many vacant city lots?
Then yesterday, on a sidewalk in our neighborhood, a hawk had a rabbit trapped in its talons. Its wings had its prey completely surrounded. It was a wierd site, but something I'm surprised we don't see more often given the thousands of rabbits, squirrels, and mice which run around all over the city.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
A More European Downtown?
In Europe, there are jumbotrons in public areas for watching sporting events. Large crowds gather to watch games.
In St. Louis, we're scheduled to get a giant big screen as a part of the plaza across from the Old Post Office.
If the plaza were complete and the TV operational today, would they broadcast tonight's Mizzou/Illinois game?
In St. Louis, we're scheduled to get a giant big screen as a part of the plaza across from the Old Post Office.
If the plaza were complete and the TV operational today, would they broadcast tonight's Mizzou/Illinois game?
Thursday, August 28, 2008
STL Rising - Farm Report
The wet spring and summer gave farmers fits for early season planting. Predictions were that we'd see a low crop yield this year, adding to economic woes.
But the spring dried up enough for farmers to get a later start on corn planting, and the 2008 corn crop is looking like a record yield. Things may not be so rosy for the soy bean farmers.
An aquaintance of mine is a farmer in Southern Illinois. I asked him yesterday how things were looking for this year. He farms corn and soy beans.
He described the soy crop as "lots of bushy plants" but "few pods" and for the pods they have there are "few beans". So this doesn't sound like a weather problem. It sounds like a bee problem.
There is concern among scientists that the US is experiencing a serious reduction in the number of pollenating bees. In this busy world of presidential election cycles, global warming, war in the middle east, and a weak economy, maybe we should be thinking more about our friends, the tiny honey bee?
But the spring dried up enough for farmers to get a later start on corn planting, and the 2008 corn crop is looking like a record yield. Things may not be so rosy for the soy bean farmers.
An aquaintance of mine is a farmer in Southern Illinois. I asked him yesterday how things were looking for this year. He farms corn and soy beans.
He described the soy crop as "lots of bushy plants" but "few pods" and for the pods they have there are "few beans". So this doesn't sound like a weather problem. It sounds like a bee problem.
There is concern among scientists that the US is experiencing a serious reduction in the number of pollenating bees. In this busy world of presidential election cycles, global warming, war in the middle east, and a weak economy, maybe we should be thinking more about our friends, the tiny honey bee?
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Fountains part of a New Memorial Drive?
Grand entrances to cities often have important, civic features, like fountains. We've talked about creating a new Memorial Drive entrance to downtown as a way to fix the seam between the Arch/riverfront and the rest of downtown. Imagine if part of the design included roundabouts at key intersections, with beautiful fountains like the ones in Forest Park?
Thinking back to the comparison between a new Memorial Drive and Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, what is one of the main features people see when they arrive in downtown Chicago? It's that massive fountain in the park next to Lakeshore Drive.
The NPS is due to release its initial report on the update to the management plan for the Arch. It will be interesting to see how the Memorial Drive/depressed lanes/lid/better access issue is presented.
Thinking back to the comparison between a new Memorial Drive and Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, what is one of the main features people see when they arrive in downtown Chicago? It's that massive fountain in the park next to Lakeshore Drive.
The NPS is due to release its initial report on the update to the management plan for the Arch. It will be interesting to see how the Memorial Drive/depressed lanes/lid/better access issue is presented.
Opening to Little Fanfare
In case you missed it, it appears the multimodal transportation hub has finally opened in downtown St. Louis.
Signs for Greyhound and Amtrak went up on the superstructure yesterday, and for the past few days, more and more people have been seen inside the scaly looking, multi-color windowed building. I'm not an architecture critic. Suffice it to say to me the building looks cool, and it's in the perfect location.
The people inside looked like they're waiting for a train or bus connection, so let's hope the new hub is open for business. If you're interested in seeing the place, do a Metrolink layover at the Civic Center station, walk up the 20 or so foot grade and check it out.
Since it's home to Greyhound, does this mean the old Greyhound station at Cass and 12th on the near northside is closing? The old station, once a grand bank building, has potential for other use. Maybe we'll see it restored for an interesting future serving downtown and the near northside residents?
Signs for Greyhound and Amtrak went up on the superstructure yesterday, and for the past few days, more and more people have been seen inside the scaly looking, multi-color windowed building. I'm not an architecture critic. Suffice it to say to me the building looks cool, and it's in the perfect location.
The people inside looked like they're waiting for a train or bus connection, so let's hope the new hub is open for business. If you're interested in seeing the place, do a Metrolink layover at the Civic Center station, walk up the 20 or so foot grade and check it out.
Since it's home to Greyhound, does this mean the old Greyhound station at Cass and 12th on the near northside is closing? The old station, once a grand bank building, has potential for other use. Maybe we'll see it restored for an interesting future serving downtown and the near northside residents?
Sunday, August 24, 2008
One Good Thing about STL Urblogs?
Blog posts are interesting, but my favorite part is the reading the comments section. It's interesting to read the debate, and anonymous comments are cool.
Anonymous comments do annoy some people. I heard about some folks on the east coast getting so angry over anonymous comments at a political blog, they were thinking of suing to eliminate the ability to post anonymously. That's crazy! The next thing they'll try to do is get rid of "Town Talk." Reading the Journal would never be the same!
Anyhow, lately, I've noticed an increasing number of West Countians posting their comments about city life from places like Chesterfield and Des Peres. They weigh in over our architecture and redevelopment activities. They share the passion for the city and the neighborhoods.
They describe their situations as remaining only temporarily out in the suburbs and planning imminent moves to the City. Could it be that all the civic energy and sense of community they read about at blogs like Urban Review and EcoAbsence is drawing them in?
Is the opposite happening? Are there any blogs drawing people to the suburbs? The closest I can think of is the Mayor of Affton site, but we Southsiders sort of claim Affton. Sorry. Anything else?
Anonymous comments do annoy some people. I heard about some folks on the east coast getting so angry over anonymous comments at a political blog, they were thinking of suing to eliminate the ability to post anonymously. That's crazy! The next thing they'll try to do is get rid of "Town Talk." Reading the Journal would never be the same!
Anyhow, lately, I've noticed an increasing number of West Countians posting their comments about city life from places like Chesterfield and Des Peres. They weigh in over our architecture and redevelopment activities. They share the passion for the city and the neighborhoods.
They describe their situations as remaining only temporarily out in the suburbs and planning imminent moves to the City. Could it be that all the civic energy and sense of community they read about at blogs like Urban Review and EcoAbsence is drawing them in?
Is the opposite happening? Are there any blogs drawing people to the suburbs? The closest I can think of is the Mayor of Affton site, but we Southsiders sort of claim Affton. Sorry. Anything else?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Market Forces Hard At Work
Over at Kingshighway and Highway 40, hotel developer Drury is proposing a major new installation at the new Kingshighway and 40 interchange. The plan calls for two hotel towers, and would take out some existing buildings in the Forest Park Southeast National Register Historic District.
Drury presented his plan to neighborhood residents earlier this week. Some voices are concerned about the loss of historic buildings, while others are raising questions about traffic and other impacts of the project.
On the one hand, many will be thrilled to see major commercial development coming to the city. Others will oppose changes to the neighborhood. This promises to be an interesting development effort.
Drury started out the right way, presenting his plans to neighborhood residents first.
Drury presented his plan to neighborhood residents earlier this week. Some voices are concerned about the loss of historic buildings, while others are raising questions about traffic and other impacts of the project.
On the one hand, many will be thrilled to see major commercial development coming to the city. Others will oppose changes to the neighborhood. This promises to be an interesting development effort.
Drury started out the right way, presenting his plans to neighborhood residents first.
This can't be serious?
A couple of days ago, I wrote a post entitled "Classmates.com". Today there's a comment from classmates.com, thanking me for sharing the story.
Whoever posted it must have read the post, because they mentioned specific parts of the story from the post.
You don't think classmates.com crawls the web looking for such posts, just to give thumbs up replies in the comments sections, do you? That'd be way too wierd.
More likley some prankster local is just having a little fun with us hack posters. That's my bet.
Whoever posted it must have read the post, because they mentioned specific parts of the story from the post.
You don't think classmates.com crawls the web looking for such posts, just to give thumbs up replies in the comments sections, do you? That'd be way too wierd.
More likley some prankster local is just having a little fun with us hack posters. That's my bet.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Multiplier Effect
There's a mock German expression that goes something like this, "Ve get ztoo soon alt, und ztoo late schmart". The older I get, the more true that saying rings.
This morning something else occured to me - the way there's a huge multiplier effect leading up to the results of daily life. Little is left to chance. Much more is the result of a lot of either good or bad choices adding up to major life outcomes.
Little mistakes add up to big problems. And doing the little things right adds up to big wins. A perfect microcosm of this we see on little league baseball fields.
A bloop hit lands over the shortstop's head. Instead of retrieving the ball and throwing it back to the pitcher, the shortstop tries to throw behind the runner for an out. Except the ball gets away from the first baseman and the runner advances to second. Then the first baseman, trying to throw out the runner, throws the ball into the outfield, and the runner scores.
One little mistake leads to another, and another, until, before you have time to think, the game is lost.
The opposite also holds true. Doing little things right leads to long term wins. I teach music lessons and see the results of consistent, manageable sized chucks of practicing. When a student practices just a few minutes a day, by the time the next lesson rolls around, there is improvement. And the student builds confidence.
Instead of playing a video game or watching TV, the student does 15 or 20 minutes of practice. They progress toward their goal of becoming a proficient musician. 20 minutes of TV watching or music practice? It's a choice. It's a small choice, but it's a choice. And the cumulative effect of all those small choices leads to a big win - success as a musician.
Consistently pull a few weeds in your yard each week or prune a tree or a bush, and over time, you have a beautiful yard. Not spend those extra 20 or 30 minutes a few times a month, and soon you'll have one of the worst yards on your block.
It's all about practice, not immediate results. It's about the road you're on and where it's taking you. The thing is, we choose a road without knowing where it's headed, and in making that choice, we shape our own future.
This morning something else occured to me - the way there's a huge multiplier effect leading up to the results of daily life. Little is left to chance. Much more is the result of a lot of either good or bad choices adding up to major life outcomes.
Little mistakes add up to big problems. And doing the little things right adds up to big wins. A perfect microcosm of this we see on little league baseball fields.
A bloop hit lands over the shortstop's head. Instead of retrieving the ball and throwing it back to the pitcher, the shortstop tries to throw behind the runner for an out. Except the ball gets away from the first baseman and the runner advances to second. Then the first baseman, trying to throw out the runner, throws the ball into the outfield, and the runner scores.
One little mistake leads to another, and another, until, before you have time to think, the game is lost.
The opposite also holds true. Doing little things right leads to long term wins. I teach music lessons and see the results of consistent, manageable sized chucks of practicing. When a student practices just a few minutes a day, by the time the next lesson rolls around, there is improvement. And the student builds confidence.
Instead of playing a video game or watching TV, the student does 15 or 20 minutes of practice. They progress toward their goal of becoming a proficient musician. 20 minutes of TV watching or music practice? It's a choice. It's a small choice, but it's a choice. And the cumulative effect of all those small choices leads to a big win - success as a musician.
Consistently pull a few weeds in your yard each week or prune a tree or a bush, and over time, you have a beautiful yard. Not spend those extra 20 or 30 minutes a few times a month, and soon you'll have one of the worst yards on your block.
It's all about practice, not immediate results. It's about the road you're on and where it's taking you. The thing is, we choose a road without knowing where it's headed, and in making that choice, we shape our own future.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Classmates.com
A voice from the past, way back in the 7th grade, located me through my sister on classmates.com. We haven't corresponded in what, 40 years? Something like that. He moved to LA the summer before 8th grade, and we never heard from him again. He attended our 15 year high school reunion, and I attended the 20th, so we missed each other then.
We were close friends back in those days, so it was nice to hear from him. He was very curious how people from California could wind up in St. Louis. Here's what I told him...
A little more of the back story…
We’ve lived in St. Louis a total of almost 20 years. We moved here in 86, moved back to California in 89, and then in early 93 we moved back here for good to raise our son in the Midwest. He’s fifteen now. We like it here a lot.
It’s a totally different culture than what we grew up with in Northern California. I like being in the middle of the country. There’s lots of cool places within a day’s drive or less. Memphis, Kansas City, Chicago, Nashville, New Orleans, Memphis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and others. 2/3 of the US population lives within a day’s drive of St. Louis.
I like having four seasons and rain in the summer time. It’s very green here. Housing is affordable and the economy is fairly stable. Things are bad all over, but historically, St. Louis doesn’t have the major up and down swings like other places do. We’re more slow growth than boom bust.
We don’t have an ocean or big mountains, but we’re close enough to the gulf coast, east coast and Florida, that a lot of people take driving vacations to those places.
St. Louis is all built out of brick. The architecture is impressive. We have lots of neighborhoods dating to the mid-1800s. All this brick in old neighborhoods with big trees is pretty neat to be around.
Plus baseball. St. Louis is a great baseball town, and its fun being part of that.
Don’t get the impression that St. Louis doesn’t have its problems. It does. There was fifty years of white flight emptying out neighborhoods. There can be brutally hot humid days in summer and bitter cold days in winter. Freezing rain sucks, but dry snow is cool.
Holidays are a big deal. You wouldn’t believe the neighborhood decorations at Halloween and Christmas. We get hundreds of kids trick or treating on Halloween. And most of them tell a joke or do some skit to get the candy. It’s part of a tradition dating back decades.
Watch the Judy Garland movie, “Meet Me In St. Louis”. There’s a lot of that style of living even now in St. Louis. As in the film, things here flow very much with the change of the seasons.
The only reunion I attended was the 20 year – and that was over ten years ago!
Good luck on starting the new job. Keep in touch.
So there it is. Seed planted!
We were close friends back in those days, so it was nice to hear from him. He was very curious how people from California could wind up in St. Louis. Here's what I told him...
A little more of the back story…
We’ve lived in St. Louis a total of almost 20 years. We moved here in 86, moved back to California in 89, and then in early 93 we moved back here for good to raise our son in the Midwest. He’s fifteen now. We like it here a lot.
It’s a totally different culture than what we grew up with in Northern California. I like being in the middle of the country. There’s lots of cool places within a day’s drive or less. Memphis, Kansas City, Chicago, Nashville, New Orleans, Memphis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and others. 2/3 of the US population lives within a day’s drive of St. Louis.
I like having four seasons and rain in the summer time. It’s very green here. Housing is affordable and the economy is fairly stable. Things are bad all over, but historically, St. Louis doesn’t have the major up and down swings like other places do. We’re more slow growth than boom bust.
We don’t have an ocean or big mountains, but we’re close enough to the gulf coast, east coast and Florida, that a lot of people take driving vacations to those places.
St. Louis is all built out of brick. The architecture is impressive. We have lots of neighborhoods dating to the mid-1800s. All this brick in old neighborhoods with big trees is pretty neat to be around.
Plus baseball. St. Louis is a great baseball town, and its fun being part of that.
Don’t get the impression that St. Louis doesn’t have its problems. It does. There was fifty years of white flight emptying out neighborhoods. There can be brutally hot humid days in summer and bitter cold days in winter. Freezing rain sucks, but dry snow is cool.
Holidays are a big deal. You wouldn’t believe the neighborhood decorations at Halloween and Christmas. We get hundreds of kids trick or treating on Halloween. And most of them tell a joke or do some skit to get the candy. It’s part of a tradition dating back decades.
Watch the Judy Garland movie, “Meet Me In St. Louis”. There’s a lot of that style of living even now in St. Louis. As in the film, things here flow very much with the change of the seasons.
The only reunion I attended was the 20 year – and that was over ten years ago!
Good luck on starting the new job. Keep in touch.
So there it is. Seed planted!
Friday, August 15, 2008
City in the City
Is St. Louis on the verge of seeing a new urbanist, major redevelopment effort on the near northside?
As has been well documented on the blogs, private site assemblage efforts, coupled with a vast amount of city-owned properties, creates the possibility of major planned redevelopment near the abandoned Pruitt-Igoe site.
With energy and transportation costs rising, St. Louis has the unique opportunity to rebuild a part of its original city with 21st century green building technologies coupled with cutting edge urban design.
Strategic historic preservation as part of a pedestrian scaled, new neighborhood is possible. Given all the private investment underway, a new development is on the horizon. What would make it appealing to you?
As has been well documented on the blogs, private site assemblage efforts, coupled with a vast amount of city-owned properties, creates the possibility of major planned redevelopment near the abandoned Pruitt-Igoe site.
With energy and transportation costs rising, St. Louis has the unique opportunity to rebuild a part of its original city with 21st century green building technologies coupled with cutting edge urban design.
Strategic historic preservation as part of a pedestrian scaled, new neighborhood is possible. Given all the private investment underway, a new development is on the horizon. What would make it appealing to you?
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Lots to do, how to choose?
The blogs provide a lot of information about civic affairs in St. Louis. There's arts blogs, socializing blogs, redevelopment blogs, just about everything.
Blogs give information about places, people, and things. They offer us an opportunity to dialogue on issues. If you're part of the redevelopment effort of St. Louis, there's plenty of discussion there.
Posting, reading and commenting on blogs is a start. Once you're done with that, what is there to do?
Blogs give information about places, people, and things. They offer us an opportunity to dialogue on issues. If you're part of the redevelopment effort of St. Louis, there's plenty of discussion there.
Posting, reading and commenting on blogs is a start. Once you're done with that, what is there to do?
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
STL Rising - Consumer Advisories
In a brief departure from our usual STL issues discussion, STL Rising has two consumer advisories for today's readers.
AVID micropchip service for pets is a safeguard measure aimed at reconnecting lost pets with their owners. If your pet gets lost and is taken to a shelter, the shelter scans the pet to search for a microchip embedded under your pet's skin.
If found, the chip reveals a code, which is tied to a database. The database connects the code to the owner. The shelter contacts the owner, and voila, you get your pet back. Great system, right? Yes. But there's one hitch.
Last night I phoned the AVID company after learning there were some mistakes made in the original data entering of our dog's ownership information. I'm on the phone with the nice lady entering info on her computer. We added my wife's name as a second contact person for recovery purposes; we added my cell phone number, my office number, and my wife's cell phone number. That's all well and good.
About five years ago, we moved to a new house three blocks away from our old house. So we have a new address. I wanted to update the database with our new address. To change our address, the AVID representative wanted our credit card number and a $6.00 charge for this service. And if I didn't like the policy, I was free to discuss it with her supervisor.
In the amount of time she took explaining the charge to enter a change in address, she could have updated her record. Add a person, add multiple phone numbers, all that, no charge. But to update an address on an existing, prepaid account (this service costs around $30 at the outset), they want a $6.00 fee. I suppose I could understand this charge if there was a change in ownership of the pet, but for the same owner?
AVID's mission is to connect lost pets with their owners, but they'll charge you to update your address in their database. Is that great service, or what? Which leads us to our second consumer advisory...closing time of the 6th street branch office of the US Post Office...
Yesterday I left the office about 5:45 PM. I missed the last scheduled pickup at the mailbox in our building lobby, but I remembered that the 6th street branch was open til 7:00, so I walked over there.
The mailbox in front of the post office had a final pickup at 5:00 p.m., so I walked inside. The clerk behind the counter, the person sitting behind the hand-written, taped-on sign which read something like "approach the counter only when called upon" (nice touch), says to me, "You might as well put that in the box outside".
"But that one already had it's last pickup."
"That's right, and if you give it to me, it won't go out till tomorrow either".
Huh? What is the point of keeping a post office open if you can't get your mail out in today's mail?
AVID micropchip service for pets is a safeguard measure aimed at reconnecting lost pets with their owners. If your pet gets lost and is taken to a shelter, the shelter scans the pet to search for a microchip embedded under your pet's skin.
If found, the chip reveals a code, which is tied to a database. The database connects the code to the owner. The shelter contacts the owner, and voila, you get your pet back. Great system, right? Yes. But there's one hitch.
Last night I phoned the AVID company after learning there were some mistakes made in the original data entering of our dog's ownership information. I'm on the phone with the nice lady entering info on her computer. We added my wife's name as a second contact person for recovery purposes; we added my cell phone number, my office number, and my wife's cell phone number. That's all well and good.
About five years ago, we moved to a new house three blocks away from our old house. So we have a new address. I wanted to update the database with our new address. To change our address, the AVID representative wanted our credit card number and a $6.00 charge for this service. And if I didn't like the policy, I was free to discuss it with her supervisor.
In the amount of time she took explaining the charge to enter a change in address, she could have updated her record. Add a person, add multiple phone numbers, all that, no charge. But to update an address on an existing, prepaid account (this service costs around $30 at the outset), they want a $6.00 fee. I suppose I could understand this charge if there was a change in ownership of the pet, but for the same owner?
AVID's mission is to connect lost pets with their owners, but they'll charge you to update your address in their database. Is that great service, or what? Which leads us to our second consumer advisory...closing time of the 6th street branch office of the US Post Office...
Yesterday I left the office about 5:45 PM. I missed the last scheduled pickup at the mailbox in our building lobby, but I remembered that the 6th street branch was open til 7:00, so I walked over there.
The mailbox in front of the post office had a final pickup at 5:00 p.m., so I walked inside. The clerk behind the counter, the person sitting behind the hand-written, taped-on sign which read something like "approach the counter only when called upon" (nice touch), says to me, "You might as well put that in the box outside".
"But that one already had it's last pickup."
"That's right, and if you give it to me, it won't go out till tomorrow either".
Huh? What is the point of keeping a post office open if you can't get your mail out in today's mail?
Monday, August 11, 2008
Breakaway Union
St. Louis is described as a city of neighborhoods, and it is. It's like a bunch of little villages all pushed together. Each has its own flavor and personality. The neighborhood feel of our city is one of it's greatest assets. However, maybe all of the neighborhood distinctions aren't necessary? Maybe it's time to consolidate some neighborhoods? We talk about "addition by subtraction" (a topic for a future post), but maybe we should also consider how combining neighborhoods might make them stronger?
Down in South City, a quiet area, the Southampton neighborhood (that's one word with one "h"), is gaining positive attention in the media. Neighbors have branded the area with a hip new name, "SoHa", and it's catching on. The area is walkable, with narrow streets, and is filled with well maintained, charming brick bungalos. While home prices have increased, affordable housing options are still available.
Among the amenities of the area are its many mixed use buildings found on corner lots and concentrated along Macklind Avenue. Macklind is the "downtown" of SoHa. EcoUrban, a new running store, the Macklind Avenue Deli, a variety of neighborhood bars, churches, real estate offices, doctor's offices, hair salons, day care centers, and nice restaurants are all there. It's like it's own small town, and it's very pedestrian scaled. The more establishments that open on Macklind, the more walkable the area becomes. Soha has good momentum.
So much so that maybe it's neighborhood organizations should combine? The distinction is so minimal, many people don't even know it exists. But according to official records, the area is actually made up of two neighborhoods - Southampton and Princeton Heights. The difference between them is misunderstood and the boundaries change depending on who you talk to.
The city considers the boundary between the neighborhoods as Eichelberger, but the neighborhood organizations put it a few blocks south at Milentz...or is it Rhodes...Ask a neighbor, and many would have no idea what you're talking about. Some would tell you they live in St. Louis Hills, or give you their parish name.
Some of the restauants and businesses in the area don't even think of themselves as part of Southampton or Princeton Heights, but rather, Soha. And why not, that's a buzz they want to be part of. A combined Southampton/Princeton Heights, aptly renamed Soha, would have double the population of each individual neighborhood. The combined organizations would carry double the weight down at City Hall.
Major streets would be the boundary: Hampton/Chippewa/Kingshighway/Gravois. Board members of existing neighborhood organizations could form one new consolidated board. Fewer meetings would be necessary, and the area's fundraising base would be significantly increased. The combined groups would have double the membership.
St. Louisans are notorious for resisting change, and not without reason. For many, change has translated to decline. But change can also be something positive. For Soha, things are changing, and the changes are for the good.
New "Soha" could set an example for the region in terms of partnerhsip, collaboration, merger, and streamlined government. Soha is hip, and getting stronger. If city residents think mergers in the region make sense, shouldn't we start out in our own backyard?
Down in South City, a quiet area, the Southampton neighborhood (that's one word with one "h"), is gaining positive attention in the media. Neighbors have branded the area with a hip new name, "SoHa", and it's catching on. The area is walkable, with narrow streets, and is filled with well maintained, charming brick bungalos. While home prices have increased, affordable housing options are still available.
Among the amenities of the area are its many mixed use buildings found on corner lots and concentrated along Macklind Avenue. Macklind is the "downtown" of SoHa. EcoUrban, a new running store, the Macklind Avenue Deli, a variety of neighborhood bars, churches, real estate offices, doctor's offices, hair salons, day care centers, and nice restaurants are all there. It's like it's own small town, and it's very pedestrian scaled. The more establishments that open on Macklind, the more walkable the area becomes. Soha has good momentum.
So much so that maybe it's neighborhood organizations should combine? The distinction is so minimal, many people don't even know it exists. But according to official records, the area is actually made up of two neighborhoods - Southampton and Princeton Heights. The difference between them is misunderstood and the boundaries change depending on who you talk to.
The city considers the boundary between the neighborhoods as Eichelberger, but the neighborhood organizations put it a few blocks south at Milentz...or is it Rhodes...Ask a neighbor, and many would have no idea what you're talking about. Some would tell you they live in St. Louis Hills, or give you their parish name.
Some of the restauants and businesses in the area don't even think of themselves as part of Southampton or Princeton Heights, but rather, Soha. And why not, that's a buzz they want to be part of. A combined Southampton/Princeton Heights, aptly renamed Soha, would have double the population of each individual neighborhood. The combined organizations would carry double the weight down at City Hall.
Major streets would be the boundary: Hampton/Chippewa/Kingshighway/Gravois. Board members of existing neighborhood organizations could form one new consolidated board. Fewer meetings would be necessary, and the area's fundraising base would be significantly increased. The combined groups would have double the membership.
St. Louisans are notorious for resisting change, and not without reason. For many, change has translated to decline. But change can also be something positive. For Soha, things are changing, and the changes are for the good.
New "Soha" could set an example for the region in terms of partnerhsip, collaboration, merger, and streamlined government. Soha is hip, and getting stronger. If city residents think mergers in the region make sense, shouldn't we start out in our own backyard?
Saturday, August 09, 2008
"Carlo's": Now Open Saturdays!
Back in the early nineties, you could buy empty loft buildings on Washington Avenue for $.50 to $1.00 per square foot (that's a 10-story building for about $100,000). The streets were mostly empty.
The place was safe enough, there just weren't too many of us down here. Most of the people living downtown were elderly, low income or both. The streets rolled up at 5 o'clock, and on weekends, outside of baseball games, downtown St. Louis was pretty much a ghost town. Not any more!
City Museum arrived. ArtLoft opened. The state historic tax credit drove hundreds of millions in investment, and, wow, have things changed. Pedestrian traffic is way up. Well over ten thousand people of various races, ages, and incomes call downtown home. Shopping, dining, and lodging options abound. Downtown St. Louis is once again a competitive destination choice.
A few years ago, a sidewalk hot dog vendor named Carlo, opened a stand at 6th and Olive. He gets lines of people for lunch during the week. But now, downtown has picked up so much, he's expanded his hours to Saturdays! Downtown St. Louis with enough pedestrian traffic to support sidewalk vendors on a Saturday. Can you believe it?
Some never would. Some still don't. The naysayers will continue to knock the city based on the eanings tax or the public schools, but there's no denying it: downtown St. Louis is back. A downslide of about fifty years is finally over, and now, in only about ten years*, we've turned the thing around. The Roberts Tower is under construction. Ballpark Village is under construction. Plans are in the works to make the Arch an integral part of downtown.
For years, you could say that all roads led away from downtown. Finally, the tide has turned. Those roads run in both directions, and people are coming back.
* Debatable. I believe the turnaround really started in the mid-60s, by big downtown redevelopment projects including the Arch, Busch Stadium 1, and large corporations building office towers under long term redevelopment agreements.
Those projects kept downtown relevant through the thin years of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Had they not been built, we might have never maintained the civic energy to reach the positive results we are seeing now.
The place was safe enough, there just weren't too many of us down here. Most of the people living downtown were elderly, low income or both. The streets rolled up at 5 o'clock, and on weekends, outside of baseball games, downtown St. Louis was pretty much a ghost town. Not any more!
City Museum arrived. ArtLoft opened. The state historic tax credit drove hundreds of millions in investment, and, wow, have things changed. Pedestrian traffic is way up. Well over ten thousand people of various races, ages, and incomes call downtown home. Shopping, dining, and lodging options abound. Downtown St. Louis is once again a competitive destination choice.
A few years ago, a sidewalk hot dog vendor named Carlo, opened a stand at 6th and Olive. He gets lines of people for lunch during the week. But now, downtown has picked up so much, he's expanded his hours to Saturdays! Downtown St. Louis with enough pedestrian traffic to support sidewalk vendors on a Saturday. Can you believe it?
Some never would. Some still don't. The naysayers will continue to knock the city based on the eanings tax or the public schools, but there's no denying it: downtown St. Louis is back. A downslide of about fifty years is finally over, and now, in only about ten years*, we've turned the thing around. The Roberts Tower is under construction. Ballpark Village is under construction. Plans are in the works to make the Arch an integral part of downtown.
For years, you could say that all roads led away from downtown. Finally, the tide has turned. Those roads run in both directions, and people are coming back.
* Debatable. I believe the turnaround really started in the mid-60s, by big downtown redevelopment projects including the Arch, Busch Stadium 1, and large corporations building office towers under long term redevelopment agreements.
Those projects kept downtown relevant through the thin years of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Had they not been built, we might have never maintained the civic energy to reach the positive results we are seeing now.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
It's St. Louis - Everybody Wants a Piece of Us!
A couple of Saturdays ago, I spent an hour at Wilmore Park interviewing park users about the idea of building a new, varsity level baseball field in some passive open space at the park. The only people against the idea were two older women from South County using the park to walk their dogs.
The recent trouble in the police department raises the perennial question of local control. Since the Civil War, the governor of the state appoints the Board of Police Commissioners for the St. Louis police department. We don't control our own police department!
Back in the 1930s, when the riverfront area was blighted and decaying, a grand plan led to the creation of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and the Arch - and cessation of local control over the St. Louis riverfront to an agency of the federal government - the National Park Service. We don't control the entry to our own downtown!
And way back in 1927, Lambert Field was sold to the City of St. Louis, becoming the first municipally owned airport in the United States. Ever since, St. Louis County has wanted to have say over the city-owned asset. Some would try to take away our airport!
They say St. Louisans have an inferiority complex. Is it any wonder?
The recent trouble in the police department raises the perennial question of local control. Since the Civil War, the governor of the state appoints the Board of Police Commissioners for the St. Louis police department. We don't control our own police department!
Back in the 1930s, when the riverfront area was blighted and decaying, a grand plan led to the creation of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and the Arch - and cessation of local control over the St. Louis riverfront to an agency of the federal government - the National Park Service. We don't control the entry to our own downtown!
And way back in 1927, Lambert Field was sold to the City of St. Louis, becoming the first municipally owned airport in the United States. Ever since, St. Louis County has wanted to have say over the city-owned asset. Some would try to take away our airport!
They say St. Louisans have an inferiority complex. Is it any wonder?
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Arch Super on KMOX - Gives Nod to "Lid" Idea
Tom Bradley, new Superintendant for the Gateway Arch, appeared this morning on KMOX to discuss the ongoing planning process for the future of the Arch.
In reply to a question about improving access and building the lid, Bradley acknowledged access was a major concern, and expressed support for the proposed lid and new pedestrian bridges across Memorial Drive.
There was no mention of rebuilding Memorial Drive or abandoning the depressed lanes/I-70 in front of the Arch and the Old Court House.
Bradley went on to say the planning effort will continue for quite some time, and that it will be an open, public process.
Bradley stated that hundreds of people participated in the two planning sessions held at Forest Park and the Old Court House, and that the NPS received over 2,000 comments. The comments are being reviewed now. He did not say when a first draft report would be available.
In reply to a question about improving access and building the lid, Bradley acknowledged access was a major concern, and expressed support for the proposed lid and new pedestrian bridges across Memorial Drive.
There was no mention of rebuilding Memorial Drive or abandoning the depressed lanes/I-70 in front of the Arch and the Old Court House.
Bradley went on to say the planning effort will continue for quite some time, and that it will be an open, public process.
Bradley stated that hundreds of people participated in the two planning sessions held at Forest Park and the Old Court House, and that the NPS received over 2,000 comments. The comments are being reviewed now. He did not say when a first draft report would be available.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Thousands Drive Past Daily
Running some errands, I made a trip out Watson Road to Crestwood this morning to Guitar Center. I arrived 15 minutes before the store opened, so it gave me a little time to explore.
Hundreds of times I've driven past the historic
Sappington Cemetery in Crestwood, but never stopped. Today I had the chance to visit the historic setting. It's located on the north side of Watson Road, just east of Guitar Center.
It reminded me of colonial cemeteries from New England. If you want to take a neat tour in our own backyard, this place is worth a visit. The cemetery dates to 1811 and is the final resting place of many veterans from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War and WW1.
John Sappington, Revolutionary War veteran, is buried in the far back corner. Sadly, his grave marker lies in pieces on the ground. Even though it's one of the oldest graves there, you can still read the tombstone fragments to tell it's his.
Someone more knowledgeable of such things please weigh in on this...is it appropriate to restore the pieces of an old grave marker and stand it back up? Or are these centuries old relics considered to fragile for repair?
With such a fine historic landmark right in our midst, it doesn't seem right that one of the most significant memorials lies in pieces. Maybe there are plans for its repair? It's broken cleanly into about 4 or 5 medium sized pieces of stone.
On the bright side, most of the historic grave markers at the cemetery are aging beautifully.
Hundreds of times I've driven past the historic
Sappington Cemetery in Crestwood, but never stopped. Today I had the chance to visit the historic setting. It's located on the north side of Watson Road, just east of Guitar Center.
It reminded me of colonial cemeteries from New England. If you want to take a neat tour in our own backyard, this place is worth a visit. The cemetery dates to 1811 and is the final resting place of many veterans from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War and WW1.
John Sappington, Revolutionary War veteran, is buried in the far back corner. Sadly, his grave marker lies in pieces on the ground. Even though it's one of the oldest graves there, you can still read the tombstone fragments to tell it's his.
Someone more knowledgeable of such things please weigh in on this...is it appropriate to restore the pieces of an old grave marker and stand it back up? Or are these centuries old relics considered to fragile for repair?
With such a fine historic landmark right in our midst, it doesn't seem right that one of the most significant memorials lies in pieces. Maybe there are plans for its repair? It's broken cleanly into about 4 or 5 medium sized pieces of stone.
On the bright side, most of the historic grave markers at the cemetery are aging beautifully.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Really?
I just came across a new book which is being promoted with the following statement:
"Once a thriving metropolis on the banks of the Mississippi, St. Louis, Missouri, is now a ghostly landscape of vacant houses, boarded up storefronts, and abandoned factories".
Excuse me? Man, I've been through a good chunk of this city, and I have to say, that is one gross and inaccurate exaggeration. And I am the first to acknowledge, yes, there are rough blocks and places we have in definite need of help. I can take you there.
While you won't find this volume prominently displayed on a coffee table at the home office of STL Rising, nonetheless, I am looking forward to seeing a copy of it and even meeting the author. Better still, I'd like to give him a tour. Maybe he's coming this way on a book tour?
"Once a thriving metropolis on the banks of the Mississippi, St. Louis, Missouri, is now a ghostly landscape of vacant houses, boarded up storefronts, and abandoned factories".
Excuse me? Man, I've been through a good chunk of this city, and I have to say, that is one gross and inaccurate exaggeration. And I am the first to acknowledge, yes, there are rough blocks and places we have in definite need of help. I can take you there.
While you won't find this volume prominently displayed on a coffee table at the home office of STL Rising, nonetheless, I am looking forward to seeing a copy of it and even meeting the author. Better still, I'd like to give him a tour. Maybe he's coming this way on a book tour?
Old St. Louis Rising
When redevelopment efforts take you into older parts of the city, we connect with the people who first lived in our neighborhoods.
A hundred twenty years ago, most of the city did not have sewer lines. Instead, many of the homes had a "privy" in the back yard. As property owners upgraded their properties with indoor plumbing and sewer connections, the old privies were abandoned. The sites of those old privies now are a treasure trove for searchers of St. Louis history.
Entering long vacant buildings or doing excavation work in the older parts of town can turn up many interesting lost items from the past. Old bottles, machine parts, photographs, maps and pottery shards are often found.
Holding a small bottle of "Dr. Pritchard's Medical Elixir" in your hands, uncovered through the redevelopment of an old city site, brings us back to 19th century St. Louis. It makes you wonder what life was like for families back in those days, before homes had indoor running water and city streets were dirt roads travelled by horse drawn carriages.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Where "Earth First" Meets Southern Comfort
Louisville is working to become the midwest's intersection of arts, music, and activism. At least at the annual Forecastle Festival. Ever heard of it?
St. Louis is a sister city. Check out the list of links and sponsors. It's an interesting mix.
St. Louis is a sister city. Check out the list of links and sponsors. It's an interesting mix.
Weeding - Not Reading!
Growing up in Northern California, every summer we had to hack down the tinder dry grasses growing on the back hill of my parent's yard. It was miserable, hot work. It was one of the things I really hated doing. It seemed like whenever I wanted to play ball with friends or just hang out, my dad would have a list of chores for me to do. It never ended. Maybe now I'm turning into my old man? Our son probably thinks so...
Yesterday there was a comment raising concerns over the possible removal of some mature trees as part of plan to build a new South City baseball field in Wilmore Park. Now, growing trees in St. Louis is not a problem. I should know. The picture above is a shot of our back yard. This year, as part of our regular yard work, we had to pull out over 100 volunteer baby trees. They sprout like crazy. St. Louis is like living in a rainforest, especially this year. We have to fight back mother nature from taking over the yard.
So it's the waning days of summer and teenagers nowadays want to do the same stuff they've always wanted to do - have fun and sleep in. No problem there. But mother nature is relentless in her efforts to take over our yard. So with teen son now taller than me, I'm thinking it's fair for him to pitch in a little more on house work.
On top of the occasional house work demands, he's got a summer reading list for high school. He's required to read and report on between one and three books. Read and weed. That's what he's supposed to be doing. Besides everything on his to do list, which includes band pratices, hanging out with his friends, sleeping in, and whatever else comes up.
Being a teen, he needs pocket money for date nights, snow cones, etc, so I made him a little business proposal: weed this section of yard, and I'll pay you $20. Finish half, and you get $10, etc. But it's got to be done by Friday. So last night I asked him, "Have you started weeding yet?"
"Yeah, I finished one chapter".
"Not reading, weeding!"
"Uh, no." He hadn't. Not really a big surprise.
The good thing is, weeding here is pretty light work. With all the rain we get, the weeds come out pretty easy. Nonetheless, it's boring, lousy stuff, no matter what.
Too much? Not enough? What do you think? How many hours a week of chores are reasonable to expect out of a teenager? Do you push your kids to help out a lot around the house?
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Everything Old is New Again!
USA Today is reporting that to remain competitive, suburbs are embracing urbanism.
However, in areas already suffering low walkability scores, it will take years to change current auto-dependent communities into pedestrian friendly areas.
The same story also reports that property values are dropping faster farther from the urban core.
However, in areas already suffering low walkability scores, it will take years to change current auto-dependent communities into pedestrian friendly areas.
The same story also reports that property values are dropping faster farther from the urban core.
Youth Ballfield Follow Up - This Won't Be Easy!
A couple of weeks ago, we attended an American Legion ballgame out in Washington, Missouri. The field is located in a city park, right next to a huge outdoor bandstand/pavillion.
Ballparks are gathering places for people to have a good time. They're a community space.
They allow for both active (playing) and passive (watching) use. They're fun and offer lots of creative design possibilities.
The city is blessed with abundant parkland. Our parks are filled with a variety of both active and passive uses.
There are golf courses, hiking trails, boating lakes and fishing lakes, rugby fields, playgrounds, rose gardens, zoos, museums, and much more.
Building a new ballpark in a city park would be a change from whatever is currently on the site, unless we improve an existing field, but then you're running into the whole field permit/musical chairs problem.
Building the ballfield in a mature park setting allows for massive trees to be part of the site plan.
I've found an area of passive use inside Wilmore Park where 4 or 5 large trees would need to be removed to build the new field, but once built, the ballpark would be surrounded by 60 foot tall trees. The field would have a historic feel from day one.
Whether to install lights; dealing with noise and parking; managing drainage, covering maintenance costs, allowing signage, hours of use, and many other management issues arise.
The initial cost for a first class facility would run close to a million dollars. The end product could be a source of community pride. Or the effort could turn into a source of tremendous frustration.
It's hard for some people to understand why anyone would oppose such a concept. It's hard for others to consider permitting any changes to something they love exactly the way it is now.
The people who don't want change are sort of like the people who have a grandfathered field permit: their interest is already in place. Treading on it in any way is an offense to them. When it comes to changing the status quo, a lady from South County summed it up this way: "you're going against the establishment".
The only way for something like this to really happen is for the community at large to perceive the plan as a net improvement over our current situation.
While a million dollar improvement might seem a no-brainer to some, to others, the idea is a non-starter.
Ballparks are gathering places for people to have a good time. They're a community space.
They allow for both active (playing) and passive (watching) use. They're fun and offer lots of creative design possibilities.
The city is blessed with abundant parkland. Our parks are filled with a variety of both active and passive uses.
There are golf courses, hiking trails, boating lakes and fishing lakes, rugby fields, playgrounds, rose gardens, zoos, museums, and much more.
Building a new ballpark in a city park would be a change from whatever is currently on the site, unless we improve an existing field, but then you're running into the whole field permit/musical chairs problem.
Building the ballfield in a mature park setting allows for massive trees to be part of the site plan.
I've found an area of passive use inside Wilmore Park where 4 or 5 large trees would need to be removed to build the new field, but once built, the ballpark would be surrounded by 60 foot tall trees. The field would have a historic feel from day one.
Whether to install lights; dealing with noise and parking; managing drainage, covering maintenance costs, allowing signage, hours of use, and many other management issues arise.
The initial cost for a first class facility would run close to a million dollars. The end product could be a source of community pride. Or the effort could turn into a source of tremendous frustration.
It's hard for some people to understand why anyone would oppose such a concept. It's hard for others to consider permitting any changes to something they love exactly the way it is now.
The people who don't want change are sort of like the people who have a grandfathered field permit: their interest is already in place. Treading on it in any way is an offense to them. When it comes to changing the status quo, a lady from South County summed it up this way: "you're going against the establishment".
The only way for something like this to really happen is for the community at large to perceive the plan as a net improvement over our current situation.
While a million dollar improvement might seem a no-brainer to some, to others, the idea is a non-starter.
Arch Connections
About a month ago, I wrote a post about connecting the Arch grounds, downtown, and the riverfront by rebuilding Memorial Drive. There's a lot of thinking going on right now about the future of the Arch and the riverfront. Improving access is one thing. Whether to change anything on the Arch grounds is something else altogether.
St. Louis is famous for arches. The Eads Bridge, old Busch Stadium, and the Gateway Arch are some of the most notable. Arches provide strength and connection. They bridge things. Yesterday's Platform suggested how the Arch site might become a center for advancement, a working connection to tomorrow. It's hard to summarize the idea in a few words.
Best to read the commentary here.
St. Louis is famous for arches. The Eads Bridge, old Busch Stadium, and the Gateway Arch are some of the most notable. Arches provide strength and connection. They bridge things. Yesterday's Platform suggested how the Arch site might become a center for advancement, a working connection to tomorrow. It's hard to summarize the idea in a few words.
Best to read the commentary here.
Monday, July 28, 2008
PD Sunday Highlights Historic Preservation
If you're interested in historic architecture and rehab, pick up a copy of this Sunday's Post Dispatch. The Post covered the issue from a number of interesting angles. Many names and faces familiar to the blog community were featured. Michael Allen, Thomas Crone, and Toby Weiss were all prominently mentioned.
One section was titled, "Would You Save This Building?" Many of the recent controversial demolitions and currently threatened buildings made the list. One that didn't was the old Parkmoor restaurant in Clayton. The Parkmoor's gone and a new Walgreen's is in its place.
The Parkmoor highlighted one of the tensions for lovers of old architecture. Buildings threatened with demolition are usually privately owned. When an owner is tired of operating an old building, or offered a high price to sell (read Walgreen's), the path toward the building's removal is often chosen by the owner. The community has little to say.
Personally, I only ate at the Parkmoor a couple of times, maybe once, but I always thought the building was an exceptionally cool looking building. Maybe if we'd all have spent more money there the building would've been saved? Or maybe Walgreen's could have put their store in the old Parkmoor space?
Another feature of the story was "urban exploring". Much urban exploring results in the photography of abandoned buildings. A photo session of the long abandoned Armour meat packing plant in East St. Louis was featured. The story drew attention to the inherent danger of entering abandoned buildings and the scary prospect of coming face to face with a vagrant or homeless person.
Anyone thinking of entering an abandoned building should be careful of the dangers. Encountering vagrants is only one possible threat. Collapsing floors, wild animals, dead things, disease, broken glass and all sorts of other unseemlies abound. These are dangerous places, indeed on the very edge of civilized society. Want to take a tour sometime?
One important aspect of the historic preservation narrative was little mentioned in the story: the role of community based development organizations. Maybe there will be a follow up? Community based organizations are largely responsible for driving local historic preservation efforts.
When I refer to "community based", I'm not speaking of the broader nonprofit sector, but rather those specific place-based organizations focused on a particular neighborhood, historic district, or municipal geography. There are lots of such local organizations in St. Louis carrying out the heavy lifting of historic preservation.
Groups such as the Lafayette Square Restoration Committee, the Old North St Louis Restoration Group, the Hyde Park Alliance, the Soulard Restoration Group, and the Carondelet Community Betterment Federation are just a few of the many neighborhood based organizations working to preserve St. Louis' rich architectural heritage.
If you share a passion for preserving historic buildings, connecting with a local group doing good work would be a good place to start.
One section was titled, "Would You Save This Building?" Many of the recent controversial demolitions and currently threatened buildings made the list. One that didn't was the old Parkmoor restaurant in Clayton. The Parkmoor's gone and a new Walgreen's is in its place.
The Parkmoor highlighted one of the tensions for lovers of old architecture. Buildings threatened with demolition are usually privately owned. When an owner is tired of operating an old building, or offered a high price to sell (read Walgreen's), the path toward the building's removal is often chosen by the owner. The community has little to say.
Personally, I only ate at the Parkmoor a couple of times, maybe once, but I always thought the building was an exceptionally cool looking building. Maybe if we'd all have spent more money there the building would've been saved? Or maybe Walgreen's could have put their store in the old Parkmoor space?
Another feature of the story was "urban exploring". Much urban exploring results in the photography of abandoned buildings. A photo session of the long abandoned Armour meat packing plant in East St. Louis was featured. The story drew attention to the inherent danger of entering abandoned buildings and the scary prospect of coming face to face with a vagrant or homeless person.
Anyone thinking of entering an abandoned building should be careful of the dangers. Encountering vagrants is only one possible threat. Collapsing floors, wild animals, dead things, disease, broken glass and all sorts of other unseemlies abound. These are dangerous places, indeed on the very edge of civilized society. Want to take a tour sometime?
One important aspect of the historic preservation narrative was little mentioned in the story: the role of community based development organizations. Maybe there will be a follow up? Community based organizations are largely responsible for driving local historic preservation efforts.
When I refer to "community based", I'm not speaking of the broader nonprofit sector, but rather those specific place-based organizations focused on a particular neighborhood, historic district, or municipal geography. There are lots of such local organizations in St. Louis carrying out the heavy lifting of historic preservation.
Groups such as the Lafayette Square Restoration Committee, the Old North St Louis Restoration Group, the Hyde Park Alliance, the Soulard Restoration Group, and the Carondelet Community Betterment Federation are just a few of the many neighborhood based organizations working to preserve St. Louis' rich architectural heritage.
If you share a passion for preserving historic buildings, connecting with a local group doing good work would be a good place to start.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
The miniest of surveys
They say the longest journey begins with a single step. This morning I took a few teensy, weensy baby steps on what promises to be an interesting journey to a destination at this moment very much unknown.
There's a nascent effort underway to see about adding a varsity level youth baseball field somewhere in South City. No sites have been identified and the process is at the very beginning. The Journal has run a couple of articles on the issue over the past two months. One possible location is in Wilmore Park.
I've made a few preliminary phone calls to people on the issue. Today, I took the dog and we went down to Wilmore to walk the area and see about getting some feedback from park users.
I received feedback from an interesting cross section of park users: a couple of older women from South County walking their dogs, a city mom jogging with her dog and young daughter, a couple highly experienced in neighborhood affairs and city business, and a single women from the Lindenwood neighborhood walking for exercise. Here's their feedback about the very general idea of building a new baseball field at Wilmore.
The County ladies were generally against it. They cautioned that something like this is going against the establishment and the environment. They said the city teams should go to Clydesdale Park in South County near Grant's Farm.
The city mom with her daughter in the stroller turned out to have two young sons in elementary school. She lives in the St. Louis Hills Estates area. She was in favor of the concept, and also thought Francis Park should be considered.
The savvy city person was open to the idea, wanting more information on cost and maintenance responsibilities before forming a position.
And the single lady walking was very much in favor. She stated that the area being considered was generally very lightly used and that this would be something good for the park and city youth.
So all in all, that's pretty positive. Out of this completely unscientific sample, it turns out the only people strongly negative to the concept were from St. Louis County.
People are protective of what they have and uncomfortable with change. At the same time, most St. Louisans want to do right by kids and love baseball. It will be interesting to see what happens with this idea in the months to come.
On a related note, there's an effort underway to construct a new public high school football stadium in Fairground Park in North City. It's a similar situation: there's a lack of quality football fields for city school teams. Fairground Park is very historic. The field is proposed to built with private funds. Has anyone heard if this effort is still in the works? Football season is about to begin and it's been months since I've heard anything new on this project.
There's a nascent effort underway to see about adding a varsity level youth baseball field somewhere in South City. No sites have been identified and the process is at the very beginning. The Journal has run a couple of articles on the issue over the past two months. One possible location is in Wilmore Park.
I've made a few preliminary phone calls to people on the issue. Today, I took the dog and we went down to Wilmore to walk the area and see about getting some feedback from park users.
I received feedback from an interesting cross section of park users: a couple of older women from South County walking their dogs, a city mom jogging with her dog and young daughter, a couple highly experienced in neighborhood affairs and city business, and a single women from the Lindenwood neighborhood walking for exercise. Here's their feedback about the very general idea of building a new baseball field at Wilmore.
The County ladies were generally against it. They cautioned that something like this is going against the establishment and the environment. They said the city teams should go to Clydesdale Park in South County near Grant's Farm.
The city mom with her daughter in the stroller turned out to have two young sons in elementary school. She lives in the St. Louis Hills Estates area. She was in favor of the concept, and also thought Francis Park should be considered.
The savvy city person was open to the idea, wanting more information on cost and maintenance responsibilities before forming a position.
And the single lady walking was very much in favor. She stated that the area being considered was generally very lightly used and that this would be something good for the park and city youth.
So all in all, that's pretty positive. Out of this completely unscientific sample, it turns out the only people strongly negative to the concept were from St. Louis County.
People are protective of what they have and uncomfortable with change. At the same time, most St. Louisans want to do right by kids and love baseball. It will be interesting to see what happens with this idea in the months to come.
On a related note, there's an effort underway to construct a new public high school football stadium in Fairground Park in North City. It's a similar situation: there's a lack of quality football fields for city school teams. Fairground Park is very historic. The field is proposed to built with private funds. Has anyone heard if this effort is still in the works? Football season is about to begin and it's been months since I've heard anything new on this project.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Rock Reunions
Our high school-aged son plays guitar and drums in a local rock band. They've worked up to playing small venues around town and a couple of weeks ago played the Creepy Crawl near the Fox. The other guitarist in the band is from Fenton, and he had some of his relatives at the show, including a nice Aunt and Uncle we met for the first time. We're all there to support our young people as they venture out on stage in front of audiences.
One of the cool things about St. Louis is that it's very much like a small town. Bumping into friends and acquaintenances out in public is a common thing around here. Same goes for last night. Todd Rundgren was on tour performing at the Pageant (pictured above with bass player, Rachel Haden).
On the way inside, we bumped into the aunt and uncle of son's Fenton bandmate we met a couple weeks earlier at the Creepy Crawl. Turns out they're old Todd fans too. For the show, we brought young son and his girlfriend. Between the two of them, son had never been to the Pageant, and she had never heard of Todd Rundgren.
Opening up was a 3-piece local rock band named "Logos". Not much older than our son, the band has 2 eighteen year old guitar players and a 22 year old drummer. Son and his date thoroughly enjoyed these guys. They were straight forward, high energy rock and rollers. So even if they weren't to appreciate TR, they had a music snack with Logos. Not to worry. TR would not disappoint.
He opened the show with a shout out to Beatle Bob and then went into "Love in Action". Todd's new record is called "Arena" and it's all about guitar rock. Nothing subtle about it and not an acoustic guitar in sight. The band had four guitars, four part vocal harmony, and powered the house for two hours.
We were on the floor, ten feet from the stage. At sixty, Rundgren looks great. Hopefully he still has a few tours left. One of the cool things about last night's show was the way our fifteen year old son and his girlfriend could see the loyal fans attending the concert. Most of these these fans have followed Rundgren for 30 plus years. It's like a big family.
If your impression of TR is mostly based on "Bang The Drum All Day", "I Saw the Light", and "Hello It's Me", there's a whole world of music he's created far beyond those popular successes. It's worth some checking around. Lots of old videos are on the net.
This was the 6th or 7th time I've seen him perform, and except for losing a little in his voice, this show was no less enjoyable than any of the others. Given the years of enjoying his music, maybe even more.
It was back in high school in the 1970s when we started listening to Todd Rundgren. And it was one of our friends, a great guy named Victor, who got us all started listening to him. Victor was a good friend, and remembering back, my first guitar student. We went to a couple of Todd shows together and even started our own band named after one of Rundgren's lesser known songs. I still have the T-shirt. This was late-70s, San Francisco Bay Area.
After high school, we all went separate ways. Victor moved across the Bay to San Francisco and joined the City's growing gay community. We never saw him again, but heard he had died sometime around 1982 from AIDS. He was one of the early victims of the disease. Back then, there were pretty much no treatments for it. At last night's show we remembered Victor and know he would have loved to have been there with us. He was in spirit.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
STL: A Best Kept Secret...Again
There's a very cool site on the internet: walkscore.com It ranks the country's 40 largest cities based on their walkability.
Unfortunately, since we're 52nd, St. Louis doesn't make the cut for comparison purposes. It's too bad too, because when you enter "St. Louis, MO", it scores downtown a 95 - "Walker's Paradise".
Many St. Louis neighborhoods rate very well. It's easy to compare yours. Just click on the site, enter your address, and a custom map is created built around your address, scoring your neighborhood's walkability.
Among the city's most walkable neighborhoods are Soulard, the Central West End, and South Grand. But check some others. You'll be surprised how well St. Louis neighborhoods score.
Unfortunately, since we're 52nd, St. Louis doesn't make the cut for comparison purposes. It's too bad too, because when you enter "St. Louis, MO", it scores downtown a 95 - "Walker's Paradise".
Many St. Louis neighborhoods rate very well. It's easy to compare yours. Just click on the site, enter your address, and a custom map is created built around your address, scoring your neighborhood's walkability.
Among the city's most walkable neighborhoods are Soulard, the Central West End, and South Grand. But check some others. You'll be surprised how well St. Louis neighborhoods score.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Complicated transformations
Getting through the remaking of the connection between the Arch grounds and riverfront will be a complicated transformation. Not only will reaching agreement on the overall plan be difficult, it will be an equal or greater challenge getting the many governmental agencies holding jurisdiction to sign off on each others' requirements.
The National Park Service controls the Arch grounds and lands under Memorial Drive and the depressed lanes, but the City of St. Louis and MODOT determine uses of local and state roadways.
The City Street Department and the Board of Aldermen decide the future of city streets, while the Federal Highway Administration is over the US highway system.
East West Gateway Coordinating Council serves as lead agency over transporation projects in the bi-state region.
Various citizen and community groups have their list of priorities and concerns. The city of St. Louis has a long list of civic responsibilities and adding the cost of rebuilding Memorial Drive isn't on the list.
Something this big only takes one interested party to block the process, while it will take countless organizations and individuals to buy in and say "yes" to make it happen. Given the level of difficulty involved in carrying out such an ambitious effort, maybe that explains why some consider the task "infeasible" or "undoable"?
Like the pragmatist saying goes: "don't let the great be the enemy of the good". Even if replacing the depressed lanes with a new Memorial Drive is the best long term plan, maybe we'd be better off lowering expectations to gain more cooperation?
How much effort is this concept worth? Better to spend the same time working to add a quality baseball field in South City so all teams there have a place to practice and play games?
Funny thing is, there are those thinking given neighborhood resistence, that's a near impossible task too...so what's one to do?
Let's pursue both.
The National Park Service controls the Arch grounds and lands under Memorial Drive and the depressed lanes, but the City of St. Louis and MODOT determine uses of local and state roadways.
The City Street Department and the Board of Aldermen decide the future of city streets, while the Federal Highway Administration is over the US highway system.
East West Gateway Coordinating Council serves as lead agency over transporation projects in the bi-state region.
Various citizen and community groups have their list of priorities and concerns. The city of St. Louis has a long list of civic responsibilities and adding the cost of rebuilding Memorial Drive isn't on the list.
Something this big only takes one interested party to block the process, while it will take countless organizations and individuals to buy in and say "yes" to make it happen. Given the level of difficulty involved in carrying out such an ambitious effort, maybe that explains why some consider the task "infeasible" or "undoable"?
Like the pragmatist saying goes: "don't let the great be the enemy of the good". Even if replacing the depressed lanes with a new Memorial Drive is the best long term plan, maybe we'd be better off lowering expectations to gain more cooperation?
How much effort is this concept worth? Better to spend the same time working to add a quality baseball field in South City so all teams there have a place to practice and play games?
Funny thing is, there are those thinking given neighborhood resistence, that's a near impossible task too...so what's one to do?
Let's pursue both.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Here or there?
This morning, I was heading out the door the same time as the neighbor across the street. Referring to the hot and humid day ahead of us, he greeted me saying, "On days like these, don't you miss being in California?"
"Not really" I said. "This morning, there was a story on the news about a tiny flower on the endangered species list raising concerns about construction of the new Mississippi River Bridge."
We both laughed and the neighbor said, "Well, I guess we are in California!".
Getting things done is some states is harder than others. I remember many years working in the housing industry in California. The battle was always
on between home builders and environmentalists. And both sides agreed: there was a severe shortage of affordable housing. No matter. Rare plants and animals often stood in the way of producing affordable housing.
That doesn't happen very often here. Not that we don't have lots of wildlife. Really we have more. In abundance. Our year round moisture and hospitable growing environment support great habitats for plant and animal life. What we do have a lot of are native american artifacts, especially along our waterways, and indeed, some artifacts have been found in the path of the new bridge project.
My hunch only, but I'm betting the new bridge project stays pretty much on schedule, with mitigation plans for any rare plants and historic sites in place to allow the project to proceed as planned.
"Not really" I said. "This morning, there was a story on the news about a tiny flower on the endangered species list raising concerns about construction of the new Mississippi River Bridge."
We both laughed and the neighbor said, "Well, I guess we are in California!".
Getting things done is some states is harder than others. I remember many years working in the housing industry in California. The battle was always
on between home builders and environmentalists. And both sides agreed: there was a severe shortage of affordable housing. No matter. Rare plants and animals often stood in the way of producing affordable housing.
That doesn't happen very often here. Not that we don't have lots of wildlife. Really we have more. In abundance. Our year round moisture and hospitable growing environment support great habitats for plant and animal life. What we do have a lot of are native american artifacts, especially along our waterways, and indeed, some artifacts have been found in the path of the new bridge project.
My hunch only, but I'm betting the new bridge project stays pretty much on schedule, with mitigation plans for any rare plants and historic sites in place to allow the project to proceed as planned.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Keeping Rams in STL will be a tough challenge
Rumors are swirling that the Rams are for sale. In the face of this, the Rams stadium lease has an adjuster coming due that requires St. Louis to provide the Rams a facility in the top fifteen or twenty percent of NFL stadiums nationwide. If not, the Rams are free to leave town.
New stadiums are coming in at close to a billion dollars. We're a long way from the top 20 percent now. Is St. Louis ready to pay for a massive upgrade to the Ed or a new stadium altogether to keep the Rams? In our current economy, are people ready to fund a new stadium for NFL football with public money.
Meanwhile, the team's market value is supposedly close to a billion dollars. Combine a billion dollar sale of the team with a billion dollar new venue and there aren't many mid-sized markets in the US capable of raising that kind of money for football.
We lived through the Oakland Raiders departure to Los Angeles and eventual return to Oakland. It wouldn't surprise me to see Al Davis make another move for more money. Oakland California is losing the A's, and if Davis could make a billion dollars by moving the Raiders, that'd be pretty tempting.
It's hard to imagine that the Rams owners would see things much differently.
New stadiums are coming in at close to a billion dollars. We're a long way from the top 20 percent now. Is St. Louis ready to pay for a massive upgrade to the Ed or a new stadium altogether to keep the Rams? In our current economy, are people ready to fund a new stadium for NFL football with public money.
Meanwhile, the team's market value is supposedly close to a billion dollars. Combine a billion dollar sale of the team with a billion dollar new venue and there aren't many mid-sized markets in the US capable of raising that kind of money for football.
We lived through the Oakland Raiders departure to Los Angeles and eventual return to Oakland. It wouldn't surprise me to see Al Davis make another move for more money. Oakland California is losing the A's, and if Davis could make a billion dollars by moving the Raiders, that'd be pretty tempting.
It's hard to imagine that the Rams owners would see things much differently.
All Aboard Metrolink!
After work yesterday, I walked to the 8th and Pine Metrolink Station and rode down the escalator to the underground platform. There were hundreds of people waiting for the train.
The people that came down behind me were looking around in amazement. Ridership numbers for the third quarter 2008 compared to 2007 will probably show a 50+ percent increase.
Riding the trains gives you time to think and plan your next day, or week, or year. Low cost transportation and bonus time in your day! Now, that's a bargain.
Looking out the big windows yesterday, there were these huge, puffy clouds filling the sky above St. Louis. It was a perfect day for mid-July. Meteorologists were in their glory. Mild July weather is sort of like a 50-degree day in January. Yes, we have changeable weather!
So I'm riding the train and wondering about those big clouds. How much do they weigh? According to this article, alot. A whole, heckava lot. As much as forty million elephants for a really big one!
The other day was a very cloudy day. Clouds were hanging low in the sky and they were moving quickly. One cloud on the horizon was shaped just like a volcano. It was like a gray volcano set against a gray/white background. Yeah, so we don't have much for mountains and beaches in St. Louis, but we sure have some awesome skies, clouds, sunrises and sunsets.
The natural beauty of a midwestern sky stands up pretty well compared with any physical landscape. And through those giant Metrolink windows, you get a front row seat!
A kid might find an elephant-shaped cloud up in that sky. Speaking of kids, I am reminded of a little boy riding the train with his mom last week. They were sitting across from me, and I could hear their conversation.
He was about three, brown haired, and chatting the whole way. His nose was pressed up against those big windows and he was asking his mom nonstop questions. He reminded me of our son at that age. Tons of questions and a love of trains.
"Mom, this train goes downtown, right? And we don't want to go downtown, do we?" (Where does a three year old get that idea?)
"Oh sure we do. We go downtown for lots of things. Downtown is good"
"Oh, okay, mom. But is that a river?"
"Well, no, not really. It fills up when it rains. It's more like a big drainage ditch than a river."
"Oh, okay." Then we arrived at the station and the little boy and his mom walked hand and hand down the platform. She didn't want the little guy to drop over the side.
Which was completely the opposite of what I saw this morning. Pulling away from the UCity station, a little kid jumped from the station platform, down onto the railbed, ran across the tracks, presumably to climb up the other side.
Strange. Maybe he/she were looking for a short cut? Who knows? It's always something different. Like that time this lady was going on for fifteen minutes on her cell phone giving college "advice" (more like lecturing) to her daughter or niece or somebody.
Why people have such a personal conversations in front of total strangers is beyond me. Your stop is only a few minutes away!
The people that came down behind me were looking around in amazement. Ridership numbers for the third quarter 2008 compared to 2007 will probably show a 50+ percent increase.
Riding the trains gives you time to think and plan your next day, or week, or year. Low cost transportation and bonus time in your day! Now, that's a bargain.
Looking out the big windows yesterday, there were these huge, puffy clouds filling the sky above St. Louis. It was a perfect day for mid-July. Meteorologists were in their glory. Mild July weather is sort of like a 50-degree day in January. Yes, we have changeable weather!
So I'm riding the train and wondering about those big clouds. How much do they weigh? According to this article, alot. A whole, heckava lot. As much as forty million elephants for a really big one!
The other day was a very cloudy day. Clouds were hanging low in the sky and they were moving quickly. One cloud on the horizon was shaped just like a volcano. It was like a gray volcano set against a gray/white background. Yeah, so we don't have much for mountains and beaches in St. Louis, but we sure have some awesome skies, clouds, sunrises and sunsets.
The natural beauty of a midwestern sky stands up pretty well compared with any physical landscape. And through those giant Metrolink windows, you get a front row seat!
A kid might find an elephant-shaped cloud up in that sky. Speaking of kids, I am reminded of a little boy riding the train with his mom last week. They were sitting across from me, and I could hear their conversation.
He was about three, brown haired, and chatting the whole way. His nose was pressed up against those big windows and he was asking his mom nonstop questions. He reminded me of our son at that age. Tons of questions and a love of trains.
"Mom, this train goes downtown, right? And we don't want to go downtown, do we?" (Where does a three year old get that idea?)
"Oh sure we do. We go downtown for lots of things. Downtown is good"
"Oh, okay, mom. But is that a river?"
"Well, no, not really. It fills up when it rains. It's more like a big drainage ditch than a river."
"Oh, okay." Then we arrived at the station and the little boy and his mom walked hand and hand down the platform. She didn't want the little guy to drop over the side.
Which was completely the opposite of what I saw this morning. Pulling away from the UCity station, a little kid jumped from the station platform, down onto the railbed, ran across the tracks, presumably to climb up the other side.
Strange. Maybe he/she were looking for a short cut? Who knows? It's always something different. Like that time this lady was going on for fifteen minutes on her cell phone giving college "advice" (more like lecturing) to her daughter or niece or somebody.
Why people have such a personal conversations in front of total strangers is beyond me. Your stop is only a few minutes away!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Group Formed to Drive Arch Changes
A new organization, "Groundswell For Change", has been created to promote new changes for the Arch grounds. They have a quality website and long lists of names for both a steering committee and endorsements.
Channel 5 profiles the group in a story here
Groundswell For Change Endorsements:
AIA St. Louis
American Society of Landscape Architects
Associated General Contractors of America
Building & Construction Trades Council of St. Louis, AFL-CIO
Carpenter' District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity
Civic Progress
Downtown NOW!
Downtown St. Louis Partnership
Eastern Missouri Laborers' District Council
Greater St. Louis Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Joint Letter - St. Louis County Executive, Chairman, Madison County Board, St. Charles County Executive, Chairman, St. Clair County Board
Landmarks Association of St. Louis
Metro Mayors of St. Louis
Missouri Growth Assocaition
Missouri Restaurant Association
RCGA, St. Louis
Regional Business Council
Resolution of Support for Revitalization of the Downtown St. Louis Riverfront
St. Louis Area Hotel Association
St. Louis Association of REALTORS
St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission
St. Louis County Municipal League
Groundswell For Change Steering Committee:
Ann Auer, Executive Vice President, Missouri Growth Association
Pat Bergauer, Executive Vice President, Missouri Restaurant Association
Vicki L. Boyer, Executive Director, St. Louis Area Hotel Association
Robert Bray, President, St. Louis Area Hotel Association
James Buford, President and CEO, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis
Hon. T.R. Carr, Mayor, Hazelwood; President, St. Louis County Municipal League
Larry Chapman, President, Missouri Growth Association
James A. Cloar, President and CEO, Downtown St. Louis Partnership
Dr. William H. Danforth, Chancellor Emeritus, Washington University; Danforth Foundation trustee
Dan Dierdorf, Chairman, St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission
Hon. Charlie Dooley, St. Louis County Executive
Hon. Alan Dunstan, Madison County Board Chairman
Gary Elliott, Business Manager, Eastern Missouri Laborers' District Council
Gerald T. Feldhaus, Executive Secretary Treasurer, Building and Construction Trades Council of St. Louis, AFL-CIO
David Fisher, Executive Director, The Great Rivers Greenway District
Richard C.D. Fleming, CEO and President, St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association
Cliff Franklin, President and CEO, FUSE
Brad D. Furfaro, President, St. Louis Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects
Denise Hasty, Vice President, Governmental Affairs Associated General Contractors of St. Louis
Tom Irwin, Executive Director, Civic Progress
Hon. Mark Kern, St. Clair County Board Chairman
Fred Kratky, CEO and Executive Vice President, St. Louis Association of Realtors
William J. Kuehling, Attorney
Rich LoRusso, President, Missouri Restaurant Association
Richard M. McClure, President, Civic Progress
Hon. Michael McMillan, License Collector, City of St. Louis
Terry Nelson, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Carpenters District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity
David Newburger, Attorney; St. Louis City Commissioner on the Disabled
Rudy Nickens, Executive Director, The Black Rep
Kathleen T. Osborn, Regional Business Council
Hon. Alvin Parks, Mayor, City of East St. Louis
Perri Pryor, Secretary Treasurer, Eastern Missouri Laborers' District Council
Kitty Ratcliffe, President, St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission
Hon. Lewis E. Reed, President, Board of Aldermen, City of St. Louis
Hon. Francis Slay, Mayor, City of St. Louis
Robert A. Soutier, President, Greater St. Louis Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Max and Colleen Starkloff, Starkloff Disability Institute
Dr. Donald Suggs, President and Publisher, St. Louis American
Anthony ("Tony") Thompson, president and CEO, KWAME Building Group
Wendy Timm, Treasurer, Missouri Growth Association
Leonard P. Toenjes, President, Associated General Contractors of St. Louis
Hon. Gerry Welch, Mayor, Webster Groves; President, Metro Mayors of St. Louis, Inc.
Hon. Phyllis Young, Alderman, 7th Ward, City of St. Louis
There is a good FAQ section, with lots of information about the organization's vision. The vision describes creating a better connection to the Arch grounds through a lid across the depressed lanes at the Old Court House and the development of a major new institution on the Arch grounds to increase visitor interest in the Arch.
The FAQ estimates the cost of the 3-block Lid project at $106,800,000, which includes an $18,000,000 endowment fund for maintenance.
The Groundswell for Change website has a section devoted to "thinking big". In that section, the group highlights what is happening in other cities, including Louisville. Louisville's riverfront area is very similar to ours in St. Louis. In Louisville, plans required moving a highway and reconfiguration of the street grid to reconnect the waterfront with its downtown. What if a similar plan were considered in St. Louis?
To avoid "junking up the Arch grounds", key advisors to the Danforth Foundation, Walter Metcalf, Dr. Robert Archibald, and Dr. Peter Raven, recommended that an international competition, not unlike the one that led to the design of the Arch, be held to design the new cultural institution and other changes. The call for a design competition is joined by others in the pro-St. louis community seeking solutions to make transformational change at the Arch.
Momentum is building around the issues surrounding the improvement of the Arch and how best to connect the area to downtown.
Channel 5 profiles the group in a story here
Groundswell For Change Endorsements:
AIA St. Louis
American Society of Landscape Architects
Associated General Contractors of America
Building & Construction Trades Council of St. Louis, AFL-CIO
Carpenter' District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity
Civic Progress
Downtown NOW!
Downtown St. Louis Partnership
Eastern Missouri Laborers' District Council
Greater St. Louis Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Joint Letter - St. Louis County Executive, Chairman, Madison County Board, St. Charles County Executive, Chairman, St. Clair County Board
Landmarks Association of St. Louis
Metro Mayors of St. Louis
Missouri Growth Assocaition
Missouri Restaurant Association
RCGA, St. Louis
Regional Business Council
Resolution of Support for Revitalization of the Downtown St. Louis Riverfront
St. Louis Area Hotel Association
St. Louis Association of REALTORS
St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission
St. Louis County Municipal League
Groundswell For Change Steering Committee:
Ann Auer, Executive Vice President, Missouri Growth Association
Pat Bergauer, Executive Vice President, Missouri Restaurant Association
Vicki L. Boyer, Executive Director, St. Louis Area Hotel Association
Robert Bray, President, St. Louis Area Hotel Association
James Buford, President and CEO, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis
Hon. T.R. Carr, Mayor, Hazelwood; President, St. Louis County Municipal League
Larry Chapman, President, Missouri Growth Association
James A. Cloar, President and CEO, Downtown St. Louis Partnership
Dr. William H. Danforth, Chancellor Emeritus, Washington University; Danforth Foundation trustee
Dan Dierdorf, Chairman, St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission
Hon. Charlie Dooley, St. Louis County Executive
Hon. Alan Dunstan, Madison County Board Chairman
Gary Elliott, Business Manager, Eastern Missouri Laborers' District Council
Gerald T. Feldhaus, Executive Secretary Treasurer, Building and Construction Trades Council of St. Louis, AFL-CIO
David Fisher, Executive Director, The Great Rivers Greenway District
Richard C.D. Fleming, CEO and President, St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association
Cliff Franklin, President and CEO, FUSE
Brad D. Furfaro, President, St. Louis Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects
Denise Hasty, Vice President, Governmental Affairs Associated General Contractors of St. Louis
Tom Irwin, Executive Director, Civic Progress
Hon. Mark Kern, St. Clair County Board Chairman
Fred Kratky, CEO and Executive Vice President, St. Louis Association of Realtors
William J. Kuehling, Attorney
Rich LoRusso, President, Missouri Restaurant Association
Richard M. McClure, President, Civic Progress
Hon. Michael McMillan, License Collector, City of St. Louis
Terry Nelson, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Carpenters District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity
David Newburger, Attorney; St. Louis City Commissioner on the Disabled
Rudy Nickens, Executive Director, The Black Rep
Kathleen T. Osborn, Regional Business Council
Hon. Alvin Parks, Mayor, City of East St. Louis
Perri Pryor, Secretary Treasurer, Eastern Missouri Laborers' District Council
Kitty Ratcliffe, President, St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission
Hon. Lewis E. Reed, President, Board of Aldermen, City of St. Louis
Hon. Francis Slay, Mayor, City of St. Louis
Robert A. Soutier, President, Greater St. Louis Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Max and Colleen Starkloff, Starkloff Disability Institute
Dr. Donald Suggs, President and Publisher, St. Louis American
Anthony ("Tony") Thompson, president and CEO, KWAME Building Group
Wendy Timm, Treasurer, Missouri Growth Association
Leonard P. Toenjes, President, Associated General Contractors of St. Louis
Hon. Gerry Welch, Mayor, Webster Groves; President, Metro Mayors of St. Louis, Inc.
Hon. Phyllis Young, Alderman, 7th Ward, City of St. Louis
There is a good FAQ section, with lots of information about the organization's vision. The vision describes creating a better connection to the Arch grounds through a lid across the depressed lanes at the Old Court House and the development of a major new institution on the Arch grounds to increase visitor interest in the Arch.
The FAQ estimates the cost of the 3-block Lid project at $106,800,000, which includes an $18,000,000 endowment fund for maintenance.
The Groundswell for Change website has a section devoted to "thinking big". In that section, the group highlights what is happening in other cities, including Louisville. Louisville's riverfront area is very similar to ours in St. Louis. In Louisville, plans required moving a highway and reconfiguration of the street grid to reconnect the waterfront with its downtown. What if a similar plan were considered in St. Louis?
To avoid "junking up the Arch grounds", key advisors to the Danforth Foundation, Walter Metcalf, Dr. Robert Archibald, and Dr. Peter Raven, recommended that an international competition, not unlike the one that led to the design of the Arch, be held to design the new cultural institution and other changes. The call for a design competition is joined by others in the pro-St. louis community seeking solutions to make transformational change at the Arch.
Momentum is building around the issues surrounding the improvement of the Arch and how best to connect the area to downtown.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Heads Up!
According to the Young Architects Forum St. Louis website, the National Park Service is expected to give preliminary feedback from this month's meetings regarding the future management and possible development of the Arch grounds. From the Young Architect's site we found this reference:
"The National Parks Service will issue a newsletter within the next 30 days that will outline in greater detail the identified potential management options for public review and comment."
This newsletter may provide the first official response to the idea of vacating the depressed and elevated lanes of I-70 adjoining the Arch grounds.
From the same Young Architects website, it appears the AIA is readying an official response on the Arch plan as well. Does anyone know if the AIA has a take on the issue of depressed lanes and Memorial Drive?
The St. Louis Chapter of the AIA could be the perfect group to sponsor a design competition for the future of Memorial Drive.
"The National Parks Service will issue a newsletter within the next 30 days that will outline in greater detail the identified potential management options for public review and comment."
This newsletter may provide the first official response to the idea of vacating the depressed and elevated lanes of I-70 adjoining the Arch grounds.
From the same Young Architects website, it appears the AIA is readying an official response on the Arch plan as well. Does anyone know if the AIA has a take on the issue of depressed lanes and Memorial Drive?
The St. Louis Chapter of the AIA could be the perfect group to sponsor a design competition for the future of Memorial Drive.
I'm with Steve...
When it comes to the St. Louis blogosphere, Steve Patterson with his Urban Review blog is pretty much the giant among the rest of us. Steve's readership dwarfs everone else's. When most of us post, maybe 100 people see it. Steve gets something like 30,000 unique visitors per month. Patterson is always getting recognized for the work in his blog.
Steve was one of the first to post on the idea of rebuilding Memorial Drive, and he's at it again. Steve is joining the chorus of voices calling for the vacation of the depressed and elevated lanes through downtown and their replacement with a new Memorial Drive. This is good. When Steve takes up an issue, it gets noticed.
For years now, there have been countless posts and comments in the blogs about various issues surrounding urban life and St. Louis. Is it possible that a growing base of support around the Memorial Drive issue, given voice through the blogs, may lead to a major public policy outcome in St. Louis?
The idea is out there. The challenge now is to give it life beyond the computer connected.
Steve was one of the first to post on the idea of rebuilding Memorial Drive, and he's at it again. Steve is joining the chorus of voices calling for the vacation of the depressed and elevated lanes through downtown and their replacement with a new Memorial Drive. This is good. When Steve takes up an issue, it gets noticed.
For years now, there have been countless posts and comments in the blogs about various issues surrounding urban life and St. Louis. Is it possible that a growing base of support around the Memorial Drive issue, given voice through the blogs, may lead to a major public policy outcome in St. Louis?
The idea is out there. The challenge now is to give it life beyond the computer connected.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Recentering St. Louis
For the past 50 years, St. Louis has been one of the most sprawling regions anywhere in the country. Statistics show that we have consumed land for development at a pace 7X the rate of our population growth.
The result of all of this sprawl has led to the shift of our geographic center to a point closer to 40 and 270 than downtown St. Louis. With the skyrocketing increase in the cost of fuel, among other cost of living increases, perhaps we are on the brink of a demographic pullback toward the heart of the region?
The Platform at STL Today features a family from DeSoto Missouri who was spending $800 per month on gasoline commuting back and forth from their home in DeSoto to their jobs in the city of St. Louis. They bought a home in the city to lower their expenses. The house payment on their city home is hundreds less than what they were paying in gasoline cost.
Riding Metrolink, we have another opportunity to conserve and reuse older sites within the urban core. Some plans are already in the works, some are completed, and others are possibilities waiting to be explored.
At Emerson Park in East St. Louis, hundreds of new affordable homes have been developed next to the Emerson Park Metrolink Station.
In Maplewood, between the Manchester and Sunnen Metrolink stations, plans are in the works to redevelop the 50+ acre Sunnen products site into a mixed use development.
In Clayton, someone help me out here, but it looks like the County's old jail sits right next to the Metrolink tracks, fronting on Brentwood Boulevard, near Shaw Park, and only a block or so from the Clayton Metrolink stop. The building definitely looks like an old jail, constructed with tall skinny windows and an exercise yard surrounded by 20 foot high, concrete walls. Are there plans for this site?
And maybe the best of all transit oriented development sites sits right in the heart of downtown St. Louis - next to the new Busch Stadium. The site waiting for a project, aka Ballpark Village, is right on top of a Metrolink station with convenient access to points throughout the region.
With people seeking alternatives to reduce dependency on the automobile, a return to the city and inner ring suburbs may be an unanticipated postive outcome toward strengthening the core of the St. Louis region. Affordable housing available in our urban core helps build momentum in that direction.
I'm curious about that old County jail site if that's indeed what it is. Any word on the future of that location?
The result of all of this sprawl has led to the shift of our geographic center to a point closer to 40 and 270 than downtown St. Louis. With the skyrocketing increase in the cost of fuel, among other cost of living increases, perhaps we are on the brink of a demographic pullback toward the heart of the region?
The Platform at STL Today features a family from DeSoto Missouri who was spending $800 per month on gasoline commuting back and forth from their home in DeSoto to their jobs in the city of St. Louis. They bought a home in the city to lower their expenses. The house payment on their city home is hundreds less than what they were paying in gasoline cost.
Riding Metrolink, we have another opportunity to conserve and reuse older sites within the urban core. Some plans are already in the works, some are completed, and others are possibilities waiting to be explored.
At Emerson Park in East St. Louis, hundreds of new affordable homes have been developed next to the Emerson Park Metrolink Station.
In Maplewood, between the Manchester and Sunnen Metrolink stations, plans are in the works to redevelop the 50+ acre Sunnen products site into a mixed use development.
In Clayton, someone help me out here, but it looks like the County's old jail sits right next to the Metrolink tracks, fronting on Brentwood Boulevard, near Shaw Park, and only a block or so from the Clayton Metrolink stop. The building definitely looks like an old jail, constructed with tall skinny windows and an exercise yard surrounded by 20 foot high, concrete walls. Are there plans for this site?
And maybe the best of all transit oriented development sites sits right in the heart of downtown St. Louis - next to the new Busch Stadium. The site waiting for a project, aka Ballpark Village, is right on top of a Metrolink station with convenient access to points throughout the region.
With people seeking alternatives to reduce dependency on the automobile, a return to the city and inner ring suburbs may be an unanticipated postive outcome toward strengthening the core of the St. Louis region. Affordable housing available in our urban core helps build momentum in that direction.
I'm curious about that old County jail site if that's indeed what it is. Any word on the future of that location?
Thursday, July 03, 2008
"But where will the traffic go?"
One of the first reactions most people have when someone suggests removing an interstate or otherwise reducing traffic capacity is, "where will the traffic go"?
We learned with the I-64 project, that people make quick adjustments to changing traffic situations. Here is an article detailing potential benefits in changing/reducing traffic patterns and capacity.
There is evidence that such efforts can lead to community reinvestment, improving neighborhoods, and reducing sprawl.
We learned with the I-64 project, that people make quick adjustments to changing traffic situations. Here is an article detailing potential benefits in changing/reducing traffic patterns and capacity.
There is evidence that such efforts can lead to community reinvestment, improving neighborhoods, and reducing sprawl.
Friday, June 27, 2008
The Case for a New Memorial Drive
The National Park Service is updating the management plan which governs the use of the Arch grounds. Now is the time to attend meetings and give public comment. The first meeting happened earlier this week, and the next meeting will be from 3:00 pm -6:30 pm on Tuesday, July 1, at the Old Court House.
The meetings are being held open house style, with professional planners from the consulting firm EDAW on hand facilitating the process and recording public input. In addition, planning and design professionals with the National Park Service are present.
I attended the meeting this week at Forest Park to help promote the idea of removing the depressed and elevated lanes of I-70 through downtown, and replace them with a new, landscaped Memorial Drive. Here are some of the possibilities we discussed:
NORTH SOUTH ORIENTATION - PARALLELS RIVERFRONT For years, St. Louis has been devising ways to turn our backs on the riverfront and remove people from downtown. Most major roads lead away from the river or follow an east-west orientation. Broadway, an important north-south running street, on the west side of the Old Court House and away from the riverfront and Arch grounds, would connect with an extension of Memorial Drive on the north side of downtown. Other than Broadway, the first major north-south running through street in downtown is Tucker, 12 blocks west of the river.
A new Memorial Drive recreates the entrance to our city, on a north-south axis parallel to the river, in a way that connects most of downtown's main anchors, including the Mississippi river. For years we have looked for ways to restore the city's connection to the Mississippi river, and a new Memorial Drive could make that happen, and a lot more.
CONNECTIVITY - A new Memorial Drive connects downtown assets and anchors: the Eads Bridge, the Dr. Martin Luther King Bridge, Washington Avenue, the Arch Grounds, exit and entrance ramps to the Poplar Street Bridge; Laclede's Landing, the Edward Jones Dome, the Old Cathedral, the Bottle District, the Riverfront, Lumiere Casino, the Old Court House, and downtown hotels.
VIEWS/DAYLIGHT - The elevated sections of I-70 adjacent to Laclede's Landing, the Edward Jones Dome and the proposed Bottle District block views of the Arch grounds, historic downtown architecture, and much more. Removal of the elevated lanes as part of the plan to rebuild Memorial Drive adds open space, improves views, enhances the walkability, and improves the overall experience of people downtown.
PARTNERS AND STAKEHOLDERS - A plan to improve Memorial Drive has many possible partners and stakeholders, including the Downtown Residents Association, the Partnership for Downtown, Downtown Now, Laclede's Landing, the National Park Service, Lumiere Casino, the Rams, the Cardinals, downtown hotels and businesses, downtown workers, city and regional residents and leaders, the RCGA, and others. Basically, anyone interested in the future and quality of life of downtown St. Louis is a potential partner in this effort.
TIMING - The sooner the better, or timed to coincide with the new Mississippi River Bridge.
LEVERAGES OTHER FEDERAL and LOCAL INVESTMENTS - The new Mississippi River Bridge will lessen traffic demands on the I-70 depressed lanes, and is bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in public investment to the St. Louis region, including a substantial federal share. A plan to rebuild Memorial Drive, made possible in part as a result of the new Mississippi River Bridge, leverages substantial public investment in the new bridge into additional benefits designed to enhance the quality of life for downtown St. Louis and the entire region.
NO SITE ACQUISITIONS OR DISPLACMENT - Unlike most major highway construction projects, this plan requires no private site acquisitions or displacement of existing businesses or residents - a major cost savings. Everything necessary to rebuild Memorial Drive can be accomplished on existing public rights of way. In fact, the National Park Service already owns the land under the depressed lanes and both sides of Memorial Drive adjacent to the Arch grounds.
OPENS NEW SITES FOR DEVELOPMENT - Rather than displacing businesses or residents, there is the real possibility that removal of the old interstate will open up new sites for development with excellent views of the Arch.
TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT - We have learned through the rebuilding of Highway 40 that the closing of an interstate highway doesn't automatically bring on Armageddon. We are surviving the 2-year shutdown of Interstate 64 pretty well.
A new Memorial Drive will make available increased north and south access through downtown, connect drivers to the new Mississippi River Bridge on the north and the Poplar Street Bridge and Interstates 44 and 55 on the south, and gives us the opportunity to fix the rush hour gridlock around the Old Court House by redesigning our traffic system along Memorial Drive.
Timing of signalized intersections along the new Memorial Drive based on peak and reduced traffic periods will minimize delays for traffic entering or exiting downtown during commute hours, while maximizing pedestrian access at all other times.
CONSTRUCTION CONSIDERATIONS - Building a new Memorial Drive and vacating the depressed lanes and removal of the elevated highway section next to Laclede's Landing is not as big an endeavor as it might sound. It's mostly demolition, fill, and the building of a new, landscaped, surface boulevard. There are no high cost bridges or tunnels, and no right of way acquisitions involved.
COST FACTORS - The biggest construction project underway in the St. Louis region is the rebuilding of a 10.9 mile stretch of Highway 40 from the City of St. Louis to Ballas Road in West St. Louis County. The total cost of the project is $535,000,000, with a $420,000,000 construction cost. The I-64 project includes demolishing and rebuilding 25 bridges over the highway, plus the massive reconstruciton of the 40/170 interchange.
The current proposal to build a 3-block lid over Memorial Drive is estimated to cost between $80,000,000 - $100,000,000. One reason for the high cost of the lid plan is that since 9/11, new safety standards for tunnels require extensive ventilation systems. For the same $80,000,000 - $100,000,000 (nearly a quarter the cost of the full I-64 rebuild), how much could we do to build a new Memorial Drive?
From a construction standpoint, since there are no bridges or tunnels to build, the project involves the demolition of the old highway sections, filling in the depressed lanes, and building the new section of Memorial Drive. More work is needed to design and engineer the project, however based on the information we have to date, it might be considerably less expensive to vacate the highway and rebuild Memorial Drive than building the 3-block lid over the depressed lanes.
FOLLOWING BEST PRACTICES - Other regions are improving their downtowns by the removal of highway sections cutting through the heart of their downtown areas. By replacing Interstate 70 with a new Memorial Drive, we would be following a proven strategy of successful urban revitalization, one that restores our connection to river.
LET'S FACE IT - THE CURRENT SITUATION STINKS Our downtown and the Arch deserve a lot better than the current configuration of Memorial Drive and I-70. Memorial Drive is dangerous, univiting and tired. I-70 forms either a moat or a wall dividing the Arch, Laclede's Landing, and the riverfront from the rest of St. Louis.
For one of the most beautiful manmade monuments on the planet, the Arch suffers from some, if not the worst, staging of any of them. No one benefits from the current situation - not visitors, not residents, not businesses, not anyone - well except perhaps for those drivers trying to get out of downtown St. Louis as fast as possible.
This is our opportunity to make a major change to the entire area. The change would be a dramatic improvement - the sort of thing that most people understand intuitively - they just think can't be done due to an assumption that the depressed lanes will always be there, but they don't have to be. Other regions have removed obsolete interstate highways from the heart of their downtowns, and we can too!
PROCESS - Ultimately, this is up to us. Senator Danforth is right when he states that for anything to happen in the effort to improve the access to the Arch Grounds and Riverfront, it will require the local community to buy in to the vision and work together. Key regulating agencies will be looking for a locally driven plan and financing strategy.
TRANSFORMATIONAL PROJECT - Over the past ten years, St. Louis has made phenomenal progress in revitalizing downtown. The removal of the depressed and elevated lanes of Interstate 70 through downtown, from the Poplar Street Bridge on the south to approximately Carr Street on the North, (roughly a one mile stretch), would be another huge step forward in our renaissance. A new Memorial Drive will give people entering downtown and approaching the Arch a true sense of arrival. Travelling a beautifully landscaped boulevard, visitors entering our city will see the Arch on one side and the Old Court House on the other.
Civic anchors will be connected. Daylight and views will be dramatically improved. New prime sites for development will be created. Not only will access to the Arch grounds be improved, but the overall connection between downtown, Laclede's Landing and the riverfront will be improved throughout a one-mile north-south section on the eastern edge of downtown.
Now is our time and this is our opportunity. Whatever we decide, we have this chance to make a major improvement to downtown, our riverfront and the Arch. We are in the planning and decision making phase now. St. Louis will live with the decisions we make today for the next 100-200 years, and for all of us around now, certainly the rest of our lives. If you love St. Louis and are excited about its future, this is an extremely important issue.
The next meeting to discuss the future of the Arch grounds is this coming Tuesday afternoon, July 1, at the Old Court House. If you like this idea or have other ideas about how to improve the Arch grounds, please attend the meeting or send your comments to the new Arch Superintendent, Tom Bradley, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, 11 North 4th Street, St. Louis, MO 63102.
The meetings are being held open house style, with professional planners from the consulting firm EDAW on hand facilitating the process and recording public input. In addition, planning and design professionals with the National Park Service are present.
I attended the meeting this week at Forest Park to help promote the idea of removing the depressed and elevated lanes of I-70 through downtown, and replace them with a new, landscaped Memorial Drive. Here are some of the possibilities we discussed:
NORTH SOUTH ORIENTATION - PARALLELS RIVERFRONT For years, St. Louis has been devising ways to turn our backs on the riverfront and remove people from downtown. Most major roads lead away from the river or follow an east-west orientation. Broadway, an important north-south running street, on the west side of the Old Court House and away from the riverfront and Arch grounds, would connect with an extension of Memorial Drive on the north side of downtown. Other than Broadway, the first major north-south running through street in downtown is Tucker, 12 blocks west of the river.
A new Memorial Drive recreates the entrance to our city, on a north-south axis parallel to the river, in a way that connects most of downtown's main anchors, including the Mississippi river. For years we have looked for ways to restore the city's connection to the Mississippi river, and a new Memorial Drive could make that happen, and a lot more.
CONNECTIVITY - A new Memorial Drive connects downtown assets and anchors: the Eads Bridge, the Dr. Martin Luther King Bridge, Washington Avenue, the Arch Grounds, exit and entrance ramps to the Poplar Street Bridge; Laclede's Landing, the Edward Jones Dome, the Old Cathedral, the Bottle District, the Riverfront, Lumiere Casino, the Old Court House, and downtown hotels.
VIEWS/DAYLIGHT - The elevated sections of I-70 adjacent to Laclede's Landing, the Edward Jones Dome and the proposed Bottle District block views of the Arch grounds, historic downtown architecture, and much more. Removal of the elevated lanes as part of the plan to rebuild Memorial Drive adds open space, improves views, enhances the walkability, and improves the overall experience of people downtown.
PARTNERS AND STAKEHOLDERS - A plan to improve Memorial Drive has many possible partners and stakeholders, including the Downtown Residents Association, the Partnership for Downtown, Downtown Now, Laclede's Landing, the National Park Service, Lumiere Casino, the Rams, the Cardinals, downtown hotels and businesses, downtown workers, city and regional residents and leaders, the RCGA, and others. Basically, anyone interested in the future and quality of life of downtown St. Louis is a potential partner in this effort.
TIMING - The sooner the better, or timed to coincide with the new Mississippi River Bridge.
LEVERAGES OTHER FEDERAL and LOCAL INVESTMENTS - The new Mississippi River Bridge will lessen traffic demands on the I-70 depressed lanes, and is bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in public investment to the St. Louis region, including a substantial federal share. A plan to rebuild Memorial Drive, made possible in part as a result of the new Mississippi River Bridge, leverages substantial public investment in the new bridge into additional benefits designed to enhance the quality of life for downtown St. Louis and the entire region.
NO SITE ACQUISITIONS OR DISPLACMENT - Unlike most major highway construction projects, this plan requires no private site acquisitions or displacement of existing businesses or residents - a major cost savings. Everything necessary to rebuild Memorial Drive can be accomplished on existing public rights of way. In fact, the National Park Service already owns the land under the depressed lanes and both sides of Memorial Drive adjacent to the Arch grounds.
OPENS NEW SITES FOR DEVELOPMENT - Rather than displacing businesses or residents, there is the real possibility that removal of the old interstate will open up new sites for development with excellent views of the Arch.
TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT - We have learned through the rebuilding of Highway 40 that the closing of an interstate highway doesn't automatically bring on Armageddon. We are surviving the 2-year shutdown of Interstate 64 pretty well.
A new Memorial Drive will make available increased north and south access through downtown, connect drivers to the new Mississippi River Bridge on the north and the Poplar Street Bridge and Interstates 44 and 55 on the south, and gives us the opportunity to fix the rush hour gridlock around the Old Court House by redesigning our traffic system along Memorial Drive.
Timing of signalized intersections along the new Memorial Drive based on peak and reduced traffic periods will minimize delays for traffic entering or exiting downtown during commute hours, while maximizing pedestrian access at all other times.
CONSTRUCTION CONSIDERATIONS - Building a new Memorial Drive and vacating the depressed lanes and removal of the elevated highway section next to Laclede's Landing is not as big an endeavor as it might sound. It's mostly demolition, fill, and the building of a new, landscaped, surface boulevard. There are no high cost bridges or tunnels, and no right of way acquisitions involved.
COST FACTORS - The biggest construction project underway in the St. Louis region is the rebuilding of a 10.9 mile stretch of Highway 40 from the City of St. Louis to Ballas Road in West St. Louis County. The total cost of the project is $535,000,000, with a $420,000,000 construction cost. The I-64 project includes demolishing and rebuilding 25 bridges over the highway, plus the massive reconstruciton of the 40/170 interchange.
The current proposal to build a 3-block lid over Memorial Drive is estimated to cost between $80,000,000 - $100,000,000. One reason for the high cost of the lid plan is that since 9/11, new safety standards for tunnels require extensive ventilation systems. For the same $80,000,000 - $100,000,000 (nearly a quarter the cost of the full I-64 rebuild), how much could we do to build a new Memorial Drive?
From a construction standpoint, since there are no bridges or tunnels to build, the project involves the demolition of the old highway sections, filling in the depressed lanes, and building the new section of Memorial Drive. More work is needed to design and engineer the project, however based on the information we have to date, it might be considerably less expensive to vacate the highway and rebuild Memorial Drive than building the 3-block lid over the depressed lanes.
FOLLOWING BEST PRACTICES - Other regions are improving their downtowns by the removal of highway sections cutting through the heart of their downtown areas. By replacing Interstate 70 with a new Memorial Drive, we would be following a proven strategy of successful urban revitalization, one that restores our connection to river.
LET'S FACE IT - THE CURRENT SITUATION STINKS Our downtown and the Arch deserve a lot better than the current configuration of Memorial Drive and I-70. Memorial Drive is dangerous, univiting and tired. I-70 forms either a moat or a wall dividing the Arch, Laclede's Landing, and the riverfront from the rest of St. Louis.
For one of the most beautiful manmade monuments on the planet, the Arch suffers from some, if not the worst, staging of any of them. No one benefits from the current situation - not visitors, not residents, not businesses, not anyone - well except perhaps for those drivers trying to get out of downtown St. Louis as fast as possible.
This is our opportunity to make a major change to the entire area. The change would be a dramatic improvement - the sort of thing that most people understand intuitively - they just think can't be done due to an assumption that the depressed lanes will always be there, but they don't have to be. Other regions have removed obsolete interstate highways from the heart of their downtowns, and we can too!
PROCESS - Ultimately, this is up to us. Senator Danforth is right when he states that for anything to happen in the effort to improve the access to the Arch Grounds and Riverfront, it will require the local community to buy in to the vision and work together. Key regulating agencies will be looking for a locally driven plan and financing strategy.
TRANSFORMATIONAL PROJECT - Over the past ten years, St. Louis has made phenomenal progress in revitalizing downtown. The removal of the depressed and elevated lanes of Interstate 70 through downtown, from the Poplar Street Bridge on the south to approximately Carr Street on the North, (roughly a one mile stretch), would be another huge step forward in our renaissance. A new Memorial Drive will give people entering downtown and approaching the Arch a true sense of arrival. Travelling a beautifully landscaped boulevard, visitors entering our city will see the Arch on one side and the Old Court House on the other.
Civic anchors will be connected. Daylight and views will be dramatically improved. New prime sites for development will be created. Not only will access to the Arch grounds be improved, but the overall connection between downtown, Laclede's Landing and the riverfront will be improved throughout a one-mile north-south section on the eastern edge of downtown.
Now is our time and this is our opportunity. Whatever we decide, we have this chance to make a major improvement to downtown, our riverfront and the Arch. We are in the planning and decision making phase now. St. Louis will live with the decisions we make today for the next 100-200 years, and for all of us around now, certainly the rest of our lives. If you love St. Louis and are excited about its future, this is an extremely important issue.
The next meeting to discuss the future of the Arch grounds is this coming Tuesday afternoon, July 1, at the Old Court House. If you like this idea or have other ideas about how to improve the Arch grounds, please attend the meeting or send your comments to the new Arch Superintendent, Tom Bradley, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, 11 North 4th Street, St. Louis, MO 63102.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Downtown 2-Ways
Walking through the streets of downtown this morning, I passed the Old Post Office and the under construction Old Post Office Plaza.
The street on the west side of the Old Post Office, 9th Street, also fronting the Roberts Orpheum theater, has reopened. It's operating as a two-way street between Olive and Washington.
Having to look both ways before crossing a narrow downtown street, felt like a throwback to Old St. Louis, and it was a good feeling.
Maybe with one section of a downtown street working as an "un-medianed" two-way, there's a chance for more?
The street on the west side of the Old Post Office, 9th Street, also fronting the Roberts Orpheum theater, has reopened. It's operating as a two-way street between Olive and Washington.
Having to look both ways before crossing a narrow downtown street, felt like a throwback to Old St. Louis, and it was a good feeling.
Maybe with one section of a downtown street working as an "un-medianed" two-way, there's a chance for more?
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Open Seating?
Today is an absolutely gorgeous day. The city is winning the war on lead poisoning, and the weather outside is perfect.
Walking downtown, there are lots of people outside. Tables at sidewalk cafes are full. It's warm, and a seat at a table under an umbrella is very inviting. Why not have more?
It takes years for a shade tree to grow up and produce shade, but a table under an umbrella offers instant shade.
What do people think of the idea of creating a sidewalk table program for the heart of downtown? There would need to be a sponsor, but we could set it up so anyone could grab a seat for free. Under an umbrella. Watching the world go by.
The owners of Gitto's and Starbucks might not like brown baggers taking up their cafe tables, but certainly people bringing their lunch to work would like a place to sit outside and eat on a nice day like today.
What about the homeless, wouldn't they take up all the free tables? Probably not. They don't seem to congregate outside the Christian Science building next to the Post Office. Besides, we're sharing downtown with homeless people anyway, and a homeless person needs a place to sit for a while the same as everyone else.
Yeah, there are benches in parks already, so why would we need to add tables and umbrellas to sidewalks? The best reason I guess is that it puts more people on the street. For me, personally, given the choice? I think I'd rather sit at a table and chair on the sidewalk than under a tree on a grassy field in a park. That's just me.
I wonder if any other cities have adopted free sidewalk cafe table programs to improve street life? It seems like a low cost way to inject some much sought after pedestrian activity. I like it.
It's Here!
Gas prices in the St. Louis area hit $4.00 per gallon for regular unleaded yesterday, while the news is reporting that Missouri has the lowest priced gasoline in the nation.
Remembering not long ago, when $2.00 per gallon gas seemed expensive, paying double that is borderline surreal.
We're making adjustments, and figuring our future decisions we'll be permanently shifted based on higher fuel costs.
For starters, we're car sharing on the home front, only operating one vehicle. Any car purchased in the future will average a minimum of 30 mpg, and we'll likely share that car as well.
Future residential moves will be withing walkin distance of Metrolink and shopping, and jobs will be in places along the Metrolink line. It's fortunate to have these options in St. Louis.
Having friends living in Jefferson and St. Charles County who deal with long commutes to work makes me wonder how the higher fuel prices are impacting them.
Having family living in California, where gas prices are running around $4.50 per gallon and long drives in heavy traffic are a routine part of the lifestyle, makes me wonder how California and other western states can sustain their car cultures.
Driving the highways on the weekends around St. Louis, and you notice a significant reduction in traffic. There's no doubt that people are definitely cutting back on unnecessary trips.
In the long run, higher fuel prices will encourage greater use of public transportation and walkable, close in communities. This should help make the urban core of the St. Louis region more competitive when people consider their neighborhood choices.
Remembering not long ago, when $2.00 per gallon gas seemed expensive, paying double that is borderline surreal.
We're making adjustments, and figuring our future decisions we'll be permanently shifted based on higher fuel costs.
For starters, we're car sharing on the home front, only operating one vehicle. Any car purchased in the future will average a minimum of 30 mpg, and we'll likely share that car as well.
Future residential moves will be withing walkin distance of Metrolink and shopping, and jobs will be in places along the Metrolink line. It's fortunate to have these options in St. Louis.
Having friends living in Jefferson and St. Charles County who deal with long commutes to work makes me wonder how the higher fuel prices are impacting them.
Having family living in California, where gas prices are running around $4.50 per gallon and long drives in heavy traffic are a routine part of the lifestyle, makes me wonder how California and other western states can sustain their car cultures.
Driving the highways on the weekends around St. Louis, and you notice a significant reduction in traffic. There's no doubt that people are definitely cutting back on unnecessary trips.
In the long run, higher fuel prices will encourage greater use of public transportation and walkable, close in communities. This should help make the urban core of the St. Louis region more competitive when people consider their neighborhood choices.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Heart for STL Corporations
St. Louis has enjoyed being headquarters for lots of major corporations. Unfortunately, for the past ten years or so, we've lost some. Southwestern Bell moved to Texas. Boeing bought out McDonnell Douglas. And now, the grandaddy of StL corporations, Anheuser Busch, is facing a takeover threat.
When we lose corporate headquarters, the whole community suffers. Visit the Zoo, and you see the names of many St. Louis corporate sponsors underwriting our free Zoo. Losing a corporate headquarters hurts us on the asset side of our civic balance sheet.
There's a grass roots move to keep A-B a St. Louis based company. Read more about it here: savebudweiser.com
When we lose corporate headquarters, the whole community suffers. Visit the Zoo, and you see the names of many St. Louis corporate sponsors underwriting our free Zoo. Losing a corporate headquarters hurts us on the asset side of our civic balance sheet.
There's a grass roots move to keep A-B a St. Louis based company. Read more about it here: savebudweiser.com
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Hard left or hard right?
With so much attention focused on the democratic presidential primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it's been easy to lose sight of the major showdown about to happen in our country this fall. While the democratic candidates have been fighting to pin down their parties nomination, it's important to remember, they're playing on the same team. The real choice for this country comes in November. And this time around, the choices for president offer Americans a real difference.
For the republicans, we have an older, white, pro-Iraq war, veteran and former P-O-W. For the democrats, we have a young, black, anti-Iraq war, Harvard trained lawyer. While the candidates will work to keep the campaign respectful, there is no telling what their party operatives and supporters might do.
In the end, this election will move our country in one of two completely opposite directions. The economy, oil prices, the war in Iraq, health care, oh, and the economy, will be central themes. How does McCain lift the economy? How does Obama address the issue of rising gas prices? What will Hillary add to the debate? Where are we headed in Iraq and Afghanistan? Where will all those Bush cabinet people go?
Does McCain pick Romney for VP to strengthen his domestic economy hand? Does Obama bring in Hillary to solidify the democratic base? While the primary race between Clinton and Obama was great political theater, it was just a warm up for what promises to be a fascinating and close general election.
For the republicans, we have an older, white, pro-Iraq war, veteran and former P-O-W. For the democrats, we have a young, black, anti-Iraq war, Harvard trained lawyer. While the candidates will work to keep the campaign respectful, there is no telling what their party operatives and supporters might do.
In the end, this election will move our country in one of two completely opposite directions. The economy, oil prices, the war in Iraq, health care, oh, and the economy, will be central themes. How does McCain lift the economy? How does Obama address the issue of rising gas prices? What will Hillary add to the debate? Where are we headed in Iraq and Afghanistan? Where will all those Bush cabinet people go?
Does McCain pick Romney for VP to strengthen his domestic economy hand? Does Obama bring in Hillary to solidify the democratic base? While the primary race between Clinton and Obama was great political theater, it was just a warm up for what promises to be a fascinating and close general election.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Metro Proposing Fare Increases
Metro, our public transit system which includes Metrolink, is predicting budget shortfalls. To maintain current levels of service, the system is proposing rate increases.
Monthly passes for Metrolink are available for $60 (not sure if that gets you unlimited bus ridership as well). One-way Metrolink tickets are $2 apiece.
With the cost of gasoline and downtown parking, Metro fares seem low. I don't know how our rates compare to those in most other regions, but I do know that Metrolink fares are a tiny fraction compared to the fares charged on the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART).
Increasing public transit fares during tough economic times will be a large pill for some to swallow, especially those living on low and fixed incomes. On the other hand, given the rapidly increasing cost of operating single person occupany vehicles, maintaining the capacity of our public transportation system seems a necessity.
Ridership is growing to record levels. Perhaps increased ridership will offset some of the fare increase?
Monthly passes for Metrolink are available for $60 (not sure if that gets you unlimited bus ridership as well). One-way Metrolink tickets are $2 apiece.
With the cost of gasoline and downtown parking, Metro fares seem low. I don't know how our rates compare to those in most other regions, but I do know that Metrolink fares are a tiny fraction compared to the fares charged on the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART).
Increasing public transit fares during tough economic times will be a large pill for some to swallow, especially those living on low and fixed incomes. On the other hand, given the rapidly increasing cost of operating single person occupany vehicles, maintaining the capacity of our public transportation system seems a necessity.
Ridership is growing to record levels. Perhaps increased ridership will offset some of the fare increase?
Monday, June 02, 2008
Goodbye Old Paint!
Today the tow truck from the Kidney Foundation arrived to haul off our 1996 Dodge Caravan. For two years now, the A/C has been dead, and a couple of weeks ago the transmission locked up. A few minor dings primered over, along with noticeable wear and tear on the interior trim, and it was time to make the decision to part with the car.
There's some sadness in seeing the vehicle that's been a part of so many of our memories being towed away for the last time. On the other hand, it's nice freeing up a parking space in front of the house, not having to budget any repair costs for the aging machine, and to remove it from the insurance policy. The one thing I will miss about it is that full tank of gas I paid for just before the transmission died.
Looking forward, there will be more trips by bicycle to the grocery store and the Metrolink Station. That's not a bad thing. And we can take our time thinking about what/if we should replace the dead van with a new one. With the high cost of the gasoline these days, buying a vehicle that averages less than 30 mpg is a tough decision.
On the bright side, if you're in the market for a new vehicle, they say they're practically giving them away. There are ads running promoting $5,000 cash rebates on new vehicles or three-year guarantees on $2.99 per gallon gas prices. I'm thinking an offer of a high mpg car, with a higher mliegage scooter thrown in the deal, just might turn us into buyers!
There's some sadness in seeing the vehicle that's been a part of so many of our memories being towed away for the last time. On the other hand, it's nice freeing up a parking space in front of the house, not having to budget any repair costs for the aging machine, and to remove it from the insurance policy. The one thing I will miss about it is that full tank of gas I paid for just before the transmission died.
Looking forward, there will be more trips by bicycle to the grocery store and the Metrolink Station. That's not a bad thing. And we can take our time thinking about what/if we should replace the dead van with a new one. With the high cost of the gasoline these days, buying a vehicle that averages less than 30 mpg is a tough decision.
On the bright side, if you're in the market for a new vehicle, they say they're practically giving them away. There are ads running promoting $5,000 cash rebates on new vehicles or three-year guarantees on $2.99 per gallon gas prices. I'm thinking an offer of a high mpg car, with a higher mliegage scooter thrown in the deal, just might turn us into buyers!
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