This is what brick theft looks like:

I hope they like their awesome driveway down in Destin!

STL Union Station: TOD Opportunity?

With the challenges facing Union Station, does it make sense to redevelop the property with an emphasis on transit-oriented-development at or under the current train shed/surface parking lot area?

The site is large enough to support a mixed income, multi-family, rental and/or homeownership development of 100 units or more.

The train shed superstructure could remain or be removed. If it were preserved, the development would be similar to gasometer adaptive ruse projects in other parts of the world.

The location has convenient access to jobs and light rail, and would support the retail, restaurant, and hotel uses of the historic train station.

Increased traffic volume, lower property values, and more accidents?

Are these some of the possible negative environmental impacts of the proposed South County Connector on city neighborhoods? The preferred alternative has been narrowed down to the option which adds substantial commuter traffic to River Des Peres Boulevard in the city of St. Louis.

River Des Peres Boulevard is a street fronted by a large number private homes with multiple intersections leading into residential neighborhoods. This is especially true in the Boulevard Heights neighborhood. For homes fronting on River Des Peres Boulevard, it is already dangerous to pull in and out of driveways, especially during peak commute times.

How will this situation be impacted by adding 20,000-30,000 (or more?) cars per day to the street? It doesn't seem possible that adding more traffic to an already hazardous situation can improve things.

Are there any studies showing that residential property values increase when automobile traffic in front of the home substantially increase? That would seem very doubtful. Personally, althought we loved our neighbors and house, we moved off our old block because of an excess of speeding traffic. More traffic in front of your house is not what most people want.

Nonetheless, the South County Connector project is moving through the system. If built, it will add traffic to city streets. Yet, to date, there have been no meetings for the general public held in the City of St. Louis on this project.

There will certainly be more meetings on the South County Connector plan before finalizing the Environmental Impact Statement. Hopefully organizers will arrange a public meeting in the affected area of the city of St. Louis before they complete the planning process.

current project newsletter

Demolition by Neglect

St. Louis tears down lots of buildings. It's part of our history. We've historically torn down lots of buildings, and today, we tear down historic buildings.

Some. Not all. It all depends. Try to tear down a historic building in Soulard or Lafayette Square, and lots of people will try to stop you. Try to tear down a piece of sentimental history, like an old flying saucer shaped building, and lots of people will try to stop you.

But try to demolish a building by neglect, and hardly anyone notices. Demolition by neglect is hard to detect. It usually starts on the inside. When a building is vacant. Or when the rents no longer support the operating expenses.

Then the building might get into the hands of a slumlord, or "cash flow investor", or a bank through a foreclosure. Or maybe all three through a slow, grinding process, while, all along the building slowly decays. Perhaps in a few years the building ends up in the city's LRA inventory. But by then, most of the damage has already been done.

Look at a privately owned, run down building. Check out its building history on the city's online database. Chances are you'll find records of code violations, Citizen Service Bureau complaints, and maybe even a notice of condemnation for demolition.

Who prevents such losses? In a city with scarce resources, where does the issue of demolition by neglect rank? I think the best answer in St. Louis is that these sorts of things are handled at the neighborhood level, through a partnership effort starting at the individual city block by the people impacted the most: the neighbors. Then efforts build up from there.

If things happen to prevent such problems from taking hold, it usually starts with the neighbors, but it would be good to do more. It would be good to crack down on slumlords, although the housing courts are logjammed. It would be good to carry out emergency stabilization on buildings, liening the owners for the cost, but city funds for such purposes are very tight.

The truth is, looking at any one piece of community development in St. Louis outside of a broader context usually reveals very about the real story behind the raw numbers and photographs. When you dig, you find lots of little stories, all layered together, making for a complex world that doesn't translate easily to quick solutions.

Real solutions require lots of work, usually a lot of money, and working within the system. In time, we can hope that everything comes together to result in slow, gradual progress.

Balkanized Region Takes One Step Toward Reunification

On Tuesday, voters in the tiny St. Louis County town of St. George voted to disincorporate the city, returning it to unincorporated St. Louis county government status. By so doing, one layer of local government was dissolved. The vote to disincorporate passed by a wide margin.

Could the next ten to twenty years see more mergers, consolidations, and disincorporations in and around St. Louis? Perhaps tiny St. George will turn out to the be leader in a good government era in St. Louis.

Free the Rally Squirrel!

They say major league baseball is all about the Benjamins. The inevitable legal battle brewing over who owns the rights to the Rally Squirrel would further that cynical view.

The 2011 Cardinals were the underdog in the National League Division Series between the Cardinals and the Phillies. But in the middle of Game 4, in an at bat featuring Phillies veteran Roy Oswalt against Cardinal utility player Skip Schumacher, a squirrel ran onto the field, well, he more bounded in little flying jumps, running straight toward home plate in the middle of an Oswalt pitch.

The pitch crossed inside the plate, the Squirrel ran in front of Schumacher, headed from the Cardinal dugout toward the Philly dugout, the umpire called the pitch a ball, Oswalt stood slump-shouldered, wanting a do-over, the Cardinals rallied to win the game, and with all of that, a little squirrel set of a craze in St. Louis. He (or she?) became a sensation, and St. Louis had its Rally Squirrel.

In the 2011 post-season, the Cardinals would have many more rallies, and with each one, the legend of the Rally Squirrel would grow larger. When the Cardinal won Game 7 of the World Series, the Rally Squirrel became cemented in Cardinal baseball lore.

The Cardinals started the post season a 1000-1 long shot to go all the way. At the start of their historic run, a a magical thing happened: a little squirrel picked St. Louis. And the Cardinals and their fans rode the charm of the squirrel all the way to a world championship.


Rally Squirrel Shrine (pictured above)

The Rally Squirrel is not like "Fredbird", a corny, corporate created mascot. The Rally Squirrel is a magical thing that was created by no one, except possibly the fans. From day one, all sorts of impromptu Rally Squirrel sightings started to appear. Fans were attaching little squirrel tails to their hats. They'd sport a squirrel on their shoulder. They had fun with it and it added a level of charm to the post season.

Baseball always says it's about the fans. The Rally Squirrel either belongs to no one - or it belongs to the fans. It does not belong in a court room. It does perhaps belong on a statue in front of Busch Stadium, with a placque commemorating this incredible 2011 championship season.

Ghost Towns of St. Louis

With Halloween just a couple of days ago, and daylight hours dwindling, now is a good time to think about the haunted places of St. Louis. A good starting point is:

Zombie Road

There are lots of others. Have any of you heard the stories of Castle Park?

A first on Halloween night

Walsh Street scene on Halloween night

St. Louis rocks Halloween. It leads the nation in commercial haunted houses. Year after year we get over 200 trick or treaters at our door. Lots of neighbors decorate their houses. We close the street with a block party permit, just like the block next to us. Parents walk with kids. Beers and fall treats are exchanged. It's a highlight of the year in the neighborhood.

Enjoying ideal weather, this year we had a first on Halloween. A little girl, about 7, trick or treating by herself with her parents watching from the sidewalk, came up to our porch, told her obligatory joke, and then received her treat from our candy filled treasure chest. Then she gave something back to us.

It was a little, handmade thank you note. She had cut yellow construction paper into the outline of a tiny picture frames. Then she glued a little orange spider to each note and wrote the words "thank you" in pencil across the top. She was maybe seven years old.

Each year, we make up special decorated gift bags with extra candy to give to the immediate neighbor kids on our block. We had one of those left, so we tracked down the little girl's parents to make sure she got one of the special treats. Her mom smiled and told us the idea of the thank you notes was all hers. Pretty awesome thing for a seven-year old to do, wouldn't you say?

Tony LaRussa Rising

After leading the St. Louis Cardinals to their eleventh world championship, yesterday morning Tony LaRussa announced his retirement. Although not always a fan favorite, LaRussa is the winningest manager in Cardinal history, having led the team to three World Series and two titles.

Some thought LaRussa would return for the 2012 season, possibly to overtake the next manager on the all-time wins list. That apparently wasn't enough to keep LaRussa in Cardinal uniform. Instead, leaving on top makes Tony LaRussa the first manager in baseball history to retire after winning a World Series.

Some of his peers are suggesting that LaRussa is perhaps the best baseball manager of all time. Maybe, maybe not, but he's definitely among the top three or four. Let that question stand as one of those perpetual baseball debates.

LaRussa has a big heart. His love of animals probably exceeds his love of baseball. Does he have a star on the U City Loop Walk of Fame? I don't know if he does, but it won't be long before he gets his due in the baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

So how to commemorate the career of Tony LaRussa in St. Louis? Will the Cardinals retire his number? Will they erect a bronze statue in his likeness with the other Cardinal Hall of Famers in front of Busch? Here's a suggestion for a way to honor two birds in one bronze.

Erect a status of Tony Larussa in his Cardinal uniform (being a lover of animals, LaRussa always says how he believes the Cardinals uniform, prominently displaying the birds on the bat, is the best uniform in all of baseball). Then, standing beside LaRussa, add a likeness of the unofficial 2011 mascot of the St. Louis Cardinals: the Rally Squirrel. I think LaRussa would like it that way.

South County Connector Proposed for South City

Options through South County have been eliminated. Public input was a deciding factor. No public meetings were held in St. Louis City.

The idea is to bring a grade-separated, freeway-like structure from I-44 in Shrewsbury and connect it to an urban boulevard at River Des Peres.

The plan is similar to the highway to boulevard concept proposed by City to River. The goal of the City to River effort is to help reconnect the area between the riverfront and downtown.

The connector concept has legs in South City but has been a difficult sell downtown.

Map of refined study area

Sustainability In Action: South Grand Delivered

"South Grand Delivered" Service Area

Serving the neighborhoods and businesses of the South Grand Area with a bicycle delivery service is "South Grand Delivered". For more imformation, check out their website.

Sustainability Planning in the STL Region

Did you know that the St. Louis region is working on a plan for sustainability of the region? The project is underway and here's the latest newsletter:


To learn more information about the program, contact East-West Gateway Council of Governments.

(Click through the image for a larger version)

STL Rising: Crime Patrol

With the holiday season fast approaching, and a bad economy weighing down on us, the threat of crime is a serious concern. A few weeks ago, STL Rising attended a neighborhood crime watch event.

In attendance were a number of representatives from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, aldermen, NSOs, neighborhood association representatives, and Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce.

A number of suggestions were made to reduce crime and convict criminal defendents. They are summarized here for your information.

1) An engaged citizenry is the number one deterrent to crime. You can have lots of police officers and prosecutors, but without engaged citizens, it's hard to control crime.

2) Citizen Patrols work. There is training available. Even noting the little things for attention helps cut down on crime, including such things as reporting the locations of street lights that aren't working to the proper authorities to get them repaired asap.

3) Victim Support Networks help. They help neighors and crime victims deal with the system. They set up a trained group of volunteers to reach out to victims, letting them know they are not alone.

4) Neighborhood impact testimony makes a difference. In the courtroom, whether it's pushing for a higher bond amount, or a longer sentence, judges listen to the testimony of neighbors and victims. The defendent will show up in a suit and with a new haircut, sometimes with family members present. They seek sympathy from judges.

If no one is present from the neighborhood or victim's side, the sympathy factor is more likely to come into play. To prevent this, engaged citizens offering neighborhood impact testimony can strengthen the judges resolve to listen to the concerns of victims and neighborhood residents.

Questions from the audience were discussed.

First, was a call for more officers on the street. With budgets tight, this is a dificult time to be hiring more officers.

Second, someone asked for an explanation of the difference between "clearance rates" and "conviction rates". Clearance rate means the percentage of crimes solved, but not necessarily with a conviction. Conviction rate means percentage of cases resulting in convictions. Clearnace rates are higher than conviction rates.

Third, a question about the use of surveillance cameras in the 21st ward. Law enforcement people like surveillance cameras, but they are a cost. Circuit Attorney Joyce reiterated the value of surveillance cameras when prosecuting crimes.

Fourth, a question came up about how to describe a suspicious person. Such things as age, height, weight, clothing, facial hair, race were all mentioned as key information.

Fall Green Up

With cooler weather in the air, STL lawns (the non-Zoysia varieties) get a chance to recover from summer heat. The next month or so is an ideal time to aerate, overseed, and fertilize.

If you're interested in improving your yard and the look of your block, STL Rising has the people to call: W and H Lawns. We don't do a lot of company recommendations on the blog, but W and H Lawns is a good small business deserving a mention and your business.

Warren Holloway runs the company and does all the work himself. Well, this spring, his daughter helped too. Warren brings a commercial lawn aerator to your property, carefully core aerates the lawn, overseeds by hand, and fertilizes. Prices are very reasonable. If you want to improve the health of your lawn, you will be pleased with the results.

Here's the contact info:

Warren Holloway
W and H Lawns
w.h.lawns@gmail.com
314-541-3240

Share this info with your friends, family, and neighbors. STL Rising and its owner is not affiliated with the company and accepts no compensation for this endorsement.

Rebuilding Connections

St. Louis is working on connections. It's exploring reconnecting with St. Louis County. It's improving connections with Illinois over a new Mississippi River Bridge and high speed rail to Chicago. It's pursuing worldwide connections with a new China Hub. And it's building a light rail connection between University City and St. Louis City along Delmar Boulevard, our region's traditional dividing line.

Connections happen though partnership and collaboration. They are key to creating a successful 21st century regional economy. They happen through the removal of barriers and take time to structure. They are often more doable when taken on in small pieces rather than huge chunks; and, they always require finding shared benefits and common ground. For example, it's much more likely that STL City and County will collaborate on sharing services than making the big step of a full city-county merger.

While regional connections are on the increase, there is a big disconnection in downtown St. Louis. The biggest disconnection is between downtown and the riverfront. The barrier is the interstate highway and it extends all the way from the Koskiousko neighborhood to Cass Avenue.

It's more than just the riverfront that is cut off by highway infrastructure. Fully one-half of downtown St. Louis is carved up by the presence of highways, creating barriers of many different shapes and sizes. An entire post could be written just on the subject of highway barriers in downtown St. Louis. The barriers created by highways 55, 64, 70 and 44 form a broom ushering people out of the downtown area.

As a result, many of the region's most important destinations and investments are cut off from each other, creating a downtown that is difficult to navigate and unfriendly to pedestrians and cyclists and confusing to motorists. In contrast, if downtown's many destination spots were connected, we wouldn't think of them as unique destinations.

If those destinations were part of one unified and connected downtown, it would be a lot easier finding your way around the downtown neighborhood. Downtown STL has invested hundreds of millions in disconnected downtown assets, creating untold opportunity costs. Pulling them together with renewed connections helps build a stronger network for sustainable economic growth.

A damaging side effect of the highway network entangling downtown is the evolution of a dispersed array of cheap parking lots. Today's downtown St. Louis offers an abundance of low grade, surface parking lots. Some of these lots, located within just a block or two from downtown highrise office buildings, offer daily parking at rates less than $5 per day. The current situation devalues downtown real estate and prioritizes highway access over a connected downtown neighborhood.

Work is being done to repair the damage. Efforts are underway to reconnect the Arch grounds to downtown. A plan to bridge the highway with a pedestrian lid will restore the connection between the Gateway Mall and the Old Court House to the Arch grounds and the riverfront. This one step will make a huge positive difference, and is scheduled to happen by October, 2015, as part of the revitalization of the Arch grounds.

There are more opportunities to rebuild connections. Those connections can take the form of physical improvements and community connections. In a region famous for fractured government, there are opportunities where strengthening government connections can lead to improved productivity and community services.

Rebuilding physical connections helps create the infrastructure for regional sustainability. Improving these connections brings multiple benefits to St. Louis. Economic growth, a more vibrant downtown and an improved quality of life for our region are all possible when we work together to bring down barriers and reconnect our city and people.

More Money Than Mystery

Arch project could be in line for federal infrastructure funding, but is it “shovel ready”?

One week from today, President Obama will outline his jobs plan for the country, and it is expected that the centerpiece of the plan will be major investments in the nation’s infrastructure.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that for every billion dollars in infrastructure spending, 35,000 US jobs are created. St. Louis could use some of that funding.

Meanwhile, as Congress debates federal domestic spending, the news is reporting that the Iraq war has seen between $35 and 60 billion in US tax dollars completely wasted as a result of fraud, waste, poor planning, and abuse. That doesn't count any of the actual costs of fighting the war.

Here in St. Louis, we have one huge potential infrastructure project right under our noses: the remaking of the Arch grounds and its connections to downtown, the riverfront, and the Illinois bank. The project is intended to have a transformative effect on the region and promises to create thousands of St. Louis area jobs.

Cost estimates for the project have ranged from $350,000,000 - $700,000,000, a tiny sum compared to the waste going on in the war in Iraq. But will St. Louis get the funding? Is the Arch project ready? How do we make sure we take advantage of this rare opportunity where funding, local and national priorities, and planning are all converging?

The National Park Service is completing the planning process for the Arch project. Public comments on the environmental review closed Tuesday. Meanwhile, MODOT is completing its own planning work on possible highway changes surrounding the Arch, including the possibility of closing Memorial Drive, adding new north and south bound highway ramps in the depressed lanes, and building a new lid to connect the Old Court House to the Arch.

The lid plan has been studied for a long time. The Danforth Foundation spent over $2,000,000 and determined the lid as originally conceived would not be feasible without major changes to the management of the Arch. The Danforth study was the catalyst triggering the National Park Service's update to the General Management Plan (GMP) for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

That GMP update was completed in 2010, with the preferred alternative calling for an international design competition to update the management and improvements of the park. The cost of the new General Management Plan and the Arch design competition was over $1,000,000.

Recently it was announced that federal funding will be provided to complete the studies and plans for the long awaited Lid project. While the final programming for the Arch project is still unclear, one thing does seem certain: the Lid over the depressed lanes is something most people want to happen.

The cost of the Lid is estimated to be in the neighborhood of $60,000,000. That number is likely to increase by the time of final design and construction to possibly in excess of $100,000,000.

Ultimately, a list will be created. That list will be for a Congressional appropriation and have a budget. St. Louis will be working to get projects on the list. The list will have a lot of big ticket items from all around the country.

What should St. Louis work to get on the list? If the big push in a federal jobs program is infrastructure spending, the door may be opening for St. Louis to go big on its plans. Liberals are encouraging President Obama to go big on his jobs plan, and maybe its time for St. Louis to think big on its effort to reconnect downtown to the Arch and riverfront.

While the lid provides a one to three block connection between the Arch and the Old Court House area, why not bury the highway, build a boulevard over the buried highway, and really restore the connections of the downtown street grid leading to the Arch and the riverfront?

With just a billion or two of all the money being wasted in Iraq, we could really transform downtown St. Louis.

Conditions on the ground mirror Arch planning challenges

The future of the Arch grounds and its connection with downtown St. Louis are being decided. The process has been a long one and it's hard to tell how engaged the public is in this mega effort. The total cost of the end product is sure to exceed $500,000,000.

It's been about 6 months since the completion of the Arch design competition. The competition was more an idea competition than a firm determination. A winning team was selected, but much of the detail of the design was left very open. We really haven't seen a final product.

Nontheless, today the process takes a major step forward. Today is the deadline for public comments on the National Park Service's environmental review of the proposed Arch project. But it doesn't close the door on the process. While today ends the NPS review, there's an even bigger decision coming: the future of the highway system surrounding the Arch.

Given that the biggest knock on the Arch is the way it is cut off from downtown by highway infrastructure, it's unfortunate that the highway planning process is separate from the larger Arch environmental review. Or is it? It's hard to say. Is the public supposed to connect Arch plan comments with highway change comments? It's unclear.

There have been no firm plans released to the public for proposed highway changes. There have been no cost estimates. So it's difficult to make an informed comment about how highway changes will impact the future of downtown and the Arch.

It's possible the future highway may feature a substantially widened trench between the northern half of the Arch grounds and downtown. Unfortunately you would not know that from any of the information provided through the Arch design competition. The design competition did not focus on the problems created by the highway.

This is a big deal. The highway has long been identified as the greatest barrier between downtown, the Arch grounds, and the riverfront. The public is being asked to comment on the environmental review of the plans for the Arch. But there has been no official information released about plans or costs for changes to the highway surrounding the Arch.

The highway constrains the Arch site today, and the highway planning process appears to have a constraining effect on the planning effort for the future of the Arch as well.

To make your comment on the environmental review for the Arch (deadline today), visit the National Park Service page for that purpose here.

Grocery Suits Descend on Culinaria

While walking the aisles of the downtown Culinaria today you could not avoid the impression that corporate heavyweights were in town. Whether it was their crisp professional attire, taller than average heights, or the way they were all testing out the computer gadgetry in the food lines, it was clear this group was on some sort of field trip/fact finding mission.

Indeed they were. I asked a staff member what was up, whether there was a corporate meeting or gathering of grocery execs, and she said there was. Grocery professionals, colleagues from different companies around the eastern 1/3 of the US, were in St. Louis, checking out Schnucks stores with a particular interest in its Culinaria, urban grocery store model.

Cleveland and Kansas City have "Constantinos" markets, St. Louis has "Culinaria" and more and more old urban centers are getting their own cool varieties of downtown, full-service grocery stores. It's a sign that sustainable, urban-centered living is on the rise.

Standing in the Kaldi's line, I saw a friend of mine who lives 30 miles away and works downtown leaving the store. The Arch may be the symbol of St. Louis, but Culinaria is quickly becoming her crossroads.

Barack Obama Boulevard

Delmar Boulevard, the traditional dividing line between north and south St. Louis, has been honorarily renamed "Barack Obama Boulevard" at Compton, just east of North Grand Boulevard.

It's a good thing to honor America's first black president with a street named after him. But I don't know about choosing Delmar as the one to do it.

It would have been a good thing to see the street be one that connects north and south St. Louis. Barack Obama is everyone's president and the Delmar divide is something we need to erase. On the other hand, perhaps selecting Delmar as the street for President Obama is part of the cleansing of that old division?

If so, then maybe the old Delmar Boulevard signs should be taken down for the whole run of Delmar through the city (instead of on just a few blocks), and replaced with new Barack Obama Boulevard signs? In this way it would be similar to the renaming of Easton Avenue after Dr. Martin Luther King.

Tea Time

As the summer heat fades, STL enters her best time of year. Kids are back in school, the weather is ideal, and it's block party season; football games and homecoming celebrations on the weekends, haunted house attractions set up in vacant historic buildings, Halloween, and Thanksgiving; and, then, the festival season culiminates with beautiful lighting displays all around the region for Hannukah, Christmas and New Years'.

My favorite tradition is Halloween. Over the years, we've assembled a variety of Halloween props. When Halloween comes, I take the day off to convert our place into a fantasy Victorian graveyard and haunted house.

The usual domestic setting is changed for day to a scary scene, outfitted with antique-looking wrought iron fencing, a wandering skeleton, and a little girl ghost greeting you on the front porch; a cemetery among the hostas and fallen dogwood leaves, wispy ghosts arising from the graves, and haunting music; and purple, orange, and strobe lighting, and scary, deep bass, sound effects.

The kids love it and so do the parents. They pose for family photos up and down the block. Grownups tow wagons with coolers for the exchanging of beers. We average over 200 kids on Halloween night. It's awesome and a highlight of the year.

Last year, we even had a famous conservative radio talk show host come to our door. So for this year, I'm wondering, should I have a tea bag set aside as a special treat just for this trick-or-treater?