Green Machine

This time of year, the garden grows. Fast. Based on the filling up of garden pales and rain gauges, lately we've been getting 2-3 inches of rain per week. A mild winter, coupled with all that rain, has put the green machine into high gear.

The only way I can keep up is to work a little bit each weekend, section by section. Or, to keep things interesting, work a little bit in different sections, twenty minutes or so at a time. Still the green machine keeps ahead.

This weekend, I did a little of both. Cutting back sucker branches on trees in the high reaches, and working at ground level in the alley. In the alley, there's a stone terraced garden, home to daylilies, and an invasion of wild onions.

You never know who might drop by when you're working in the garden. All that digging up of wild onions attracted a new friend. He was following where I was digging, looking for his breakfast. We worked side by side for about twenty minutes until we both moved on to other things (him winging away to a telephone wire and me a glass of ice water waiting in the kitchen). Here's a picture of my garden friend, finishing his breakfast.

Open for Business: The St. Louis Chamber of Commerce?

The St. Louis Business Journal just released its 2012 list of the region's top 25 chambers of commerce. Nowhere on the list will you find the City of St. Louis. Why? Because there is no such thing as the "St. Louis Chamber of Commerce".

Chambers of Commerce serve as business associations for area businesses. They are by and large membership organizations, with businesses making up the membership. Businesses pay dues to join, and the chamber provides services to member businesses.

A standard mission statement of a chamber of commerce often reads, "The Mission of the ____ Chamber of Commerce, in close association with the City of ______, is dedicated to developing a strong network for potential and existing local business to prosper and thrive in our community".

Another example is, "The Greater _____ Chamber of Commerce is a trusted business organization working for the development and voice of business success in ______. We provide opportunities for all businesses and individuals who invest in the _______community. Our goal is to keep ______ a healthy, thriving community with an exceptional quality of life. We invite you to join us today and help build a sound foundation to support the economic momentum in ______!"

So why doesn't St. Louis have its own chamber of commerce? One reason is that there are already a number of smaller business associations serving neighborhood business districts. There is the South Broadway Business Association serving the Carondelet area, the Hampton Chippewa Business Association serving the Hampton Village, Southwest City area. In Baden, there was a Businessmen's Association formed in 1913.

A chamber of commerce builds sense of community. It creates a sense of shared purpose and interest among community stakeholders. If St. Louis had a city-wide chamber of commerce, connections would be made across neighborhood, ward, and bigger city boundaries.

In the past, people may have believed that the most important thing to them was to have a healthy neighborhood business district where they lived. They weren't too concerned about what was happening in another neighborhood or the other side of town.

With efforts on today to build a more sustainable city, does it make sense to establish a citywide chamber of commerce for the entire city of St. Louis? It might go to number one on the St. Louis Business Journal's list of the region's Top 25 Chambers of Commerce!

City of St. Louis Sustainability Summit Meetings: May 8-12

The second round of community meetings for sustainability planning for the City of St. Louis has been set. More info is available by visiting this page:

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Lid Study Officially Underway

Today at 3:00 pm, MoDOT will hold a public hearing regarding the proposed lid over the depressed lanes in downtown St. Louis, now referred to as the "Park over the the Highway". Here is the official MoDOT announcment:

MoDOT St. Louis District Press Releases Page

Prepared by Andrew Gates 314/453-1808

April 02, 2012

MoDOT to hold public meeting on Park over the Highway alternatives

ST. LOUIS - The Missouri Department of Transportation will hold an open-house style public meeting to allow the public to discuss MoDOT's portion of the CityArchRiver 2015 project.

The public meeting is scheduled April 10, between 3 and 5 p.m. in the St. Louis City Hall Board of Aldermen boardroom (on the second floor), 1200 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri, 63103.

During the meeting, MoDOT engineers will be on hand to discuss several proposed alternatives for the Park over the Highway portion of the CAR2015 project, to include what the department believes is the preferred alternative. Engineers will also be able to discuss potential impacts of each alternative.

This meeting will allow the public to provide input, and comments, either directly to the engineers or in written comments, on the alternatives presented. This meeting is part of the process to complete necessary Federal requirements for the project.

Since there are no formal presentations during the public meeting, participants may attend at any time during the open house.

The purpose of today's meeting is to fulfill MoDOT's legal obligation to seek public comment on plans to spend tens of millions of public dollars.

The public has already weighed in on this issue, during years of meetings on the remaking of the Arch grounds. Based on NPS published comments, the public overwhelmingly favors planning for highway removal.

However, those comments were deemed "out of scope" by the National Park Service, as MoDOT has jurisdiction over the highway portion of the City+Arch+River 2015 project.

This morning on KMOX radio, news anchor Doug McElvin played an interview of MoDOT district engineer Ed Hassinger announcing today's meeting, where Hassinger stated that the Lid over the highway plan is pretty much "set in stone".

With the Lid plan apparently already decided, is it still important for the public to weigh in with its comments about the Lid?

Either way, if you do decide to go, you will get to see one of the most awesome meeting rooms at St. Louis City Hall!

Minority Contractor Initiative (MCI)

When it comes to economic development, it's important for all members of our community to be part of the picture. Sal Martinez and George Robnett, two long-time St. Louis leaders, have co-founded the "Minority Contractor Initiative" (MCI).

The MCI is located at 1712 Macklind, at the north entrance to the famous Hill neighborhood, sharing office space with state-of-the-art printing company, Cross Rhodes Reprographics, right around the corner from one of St. Louis' best night spots and lesser known music venues, Pops Blue Moon.

Although the open house was held back on March 8 (the night a lot of other Good Ideas for St. Louis were presented), if you contact MCI's Executive Director, Kem Mosely, (tel. 314-371-1548) you can learn how to find out more about the program. In the meantime, here are some of the details provided the night of the open house (click on each image for a larger/printable view):

MCI FACT SHEET:



MCI MEMBERSHIP INFO:



MCI MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION:

STL Regional Plan for Sustainable Development

Focus St. Louis and East-West Gateway Council of Governments are leading the effort to create a Regional Plan for Sustainable Development for the Bi-State region. The first in a series of public meetings will be held throughout the region from March through early May. Click on the image above for more information about the times and locations of upcoming meetings.

Please review the info, attend one or more of the meetings if you are available, and forward this flier to your contacts and other interested groups. The goal of the public engagement effort is to engage as broad a cross section of the St. Louis community as possible.

For more details about the project, click here:

East-West Gateway RPSD

SLPS to offer Charter Schools?

Word around town is that the St. Louis Public Schools may open its own charter schools.

This would be a huge change in policy given that for years the public school system has opposed the expansion of charter schools in St. Louis.

I must say that the development is confusing, but maybe in a good way. Charter Schools are operated outside of the regular public school system. By proposing its own charter schools, is the SLPS trying to distance itself from some of its own challenges?

Charter Schools need a sponsor to get a charter. They can be geographically based. Or with a certain educational emphasis. They are a little experimental in that they provide families an education option outside of the regular public schools and are an attempt at a school reform.

Not everyone is convinced that Charter Schools outperform their regular public school competitors.

Nonetheless, if this information is indeed true, that the SLPS is getting into the Charter School business, would you call this move the "If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em" strategy?

Lid or No Lid, Boulevard Plan Comes Full Circle

With the Arch connector plan finalized, proponents of highway removal are wondering what happens next with the boulevard plan? Is the idea of removal of the I-70 barrier between downtown and the riverfront dead? Not really. The truth is, it's in about the same place it was three years ago when the idea first started getting serious attention.

Linking highway removal with the changes to the Arch always had one major obstacle: timing. Proponents of the remake to the Arch grounds and the lid connector set an October 2015 deadline for completion. There's no way highway removal could be completed by then, so in the world of the Arch remix, highway removal was a non-starter. Highway removal, or the boulevard, however you want to think of it, needs to be its own effort.

Which gets us to where we are today. We know that highway removal will not be part of the Arch 2015 plan. What we don't know is who or how the idea of highway removal happens. Who leads the effort? One thing we do know about St. Louis is that this place is an organization town. Things happen through people collaborating together through organizations, networks, and coalitions. Neither outspoken individuals nor blog posts will ever result in something like highway removal becoming reality.

The only local organization really pushing highway removal is "City to River". City to River has done a lot to raise awareness of the idea and generate support, but on its own, City to River is not enough. The organization needs more partners. The movement has to grow.

And why is that? Because for one thing, there is built-in opposition to the idea of highway removal. Topping the list is the way St. Louisans are resistant to change. Taking out a highway is a big change, so anyone leery of change is going to have big raised eyebrows on something like this. Next is what I like to refer to as the "Community of Commuters". The Community of Commuters is a sort of silent majority.

The Community of Commuters is powerful and comes from all over the region. The community of interest they share is the unfettered use of the highway and road system. Every day they get on the highway to go to work or make their daily trips to school, the doctor, you name it. They battle traffic and long commutes. They don't like to be delayed. They will be a big part of the larger discussion of highway removal, and elected officials and MODOT answer to them.

So where to go from here? For starters, supporters of highway removal need to be better organized and strengthen their network. By strengthening their numbers, supporters of highway removal start to build the critical mass it will take to get the attention of elected officials and highway departments. Until that time, the boulevard or the idea of downtown highway removal will be just that, an idea.

If you want to get more actively involved in the ongoing, working effort to remove I-70 from the downtown landscape, replacing it with an at-grade boulevard, one place to start is by contacting City to River and offering to become part of the organization. Contact them via email at info@citytoriver.org for more information.

Or contact the moderator of this blog and I will put you in touch with the organization.

(Near North) City to River?

With the depressed lanes in front of the Arch apparently a permanent fixture downtown as part of the City Arch River 2015 plan, does it make sense to look to the near northside and the elevated lanes of I-70 for removal and replacement with an at-grade boulevard?

The elevated lanes create a major barrier between the Bottle District, the near north side, and the riverside areas including and north of Laclede's Landing. As the economic benefits map above shows, there is still a lot to be gained by building a boulevard to the north of the Arch grounds.

A near northside boulevard could be accomplished at lower cost than the full length boulevard between the Poplar Street Bridge and the New Mississippi River Bridge, and still would be over a half mile in length.

(image courtesy City to River)

82 degrees of difference

If you're a weather fan (like we are), today might be the most impressive day on the STL calendar.

For this date, January 25th, the spread between the record high temperature (75 degrees on 1/25/50) and the record low temperature (-7 degrees on 1/25/40) is an amazing 82 degrees!

There are not a lot of places that can make that claim. On the downside, such wild temperature swings are what give birth to the severe weather conditions we also risk here.

Today was in the more normal 35-40 degree range, with about an inch of rain. Had it been a few degrees colder, we'd be shoveling almost a foot of snow right now.

Except, it's not. So all the wet stuff coming down is landing, and staying, the form of liquid precipitation. This time.

Like the old saying goes: don't like (STL) weather? Just wait a few minutes (or degrees!) and it'll change.

Okay, so we confess: strange as it may sound, STL Rising actually likes it this way. It feeds our sense of community. Let's talk (and do something) about the weather!

Sustainability Planning in STL

There are two major sustainability planning initiatives currently underway in our region. One is being led by East-West Gateway Council of Governments, the second by the City of St. Louis.

What sorts of things would you like to see come from such plans, and would you be interested in participating in any public events to help shape the final product?

More importantly, have you heard of either of these two projects, and what would it take to get you personally involved?

Free food? Child care? Complimentary movie passes? Seriously. There is a role for the public in these efforts. Do you plan to participate? If not, why not?

Odds Against the Avalon

It's been maybe ten years since the Avalon Theater on South Kingshighway showed its last movie. Since that time, the building has gone through a slow decline until its demolition which started yesterday. In the meantime, the building and its ownership have played out a long struggle in the court system, the building division, the newspaper, and in plain sight, with many negative impacts visited upon its South St. Louis neighbors.

The building's ultimate demise points to one challenge we face with our decentralized system of community planning and development in St. Louis - that by maintaining local control over the planning and development process, the public loses leverage it would otherwise have through a more centralized system. The challenge gets at a classic St. Louis question: which is better - local control over development decisions or city-wide, centralized planning and redevelopment?

It may seem odd that by maintaining local control over development, all the way down to the neighborhood and ward level, that the public loses leverage, but that is exactly what happened in the case of the Avalon. Communities in the St. Louis region are set up with very divided leadership. Within this framework, it is difficult to maintain sustainable redevelopment strategies. The loss of the Avalon is an outcome of this fragmented system.

Left to rely on the resources of a single neighborhood or ward, the tools available to save one blighted building from loss are few. Outside of Southampton and perhaps the South Kingshighway Business Association, the dilapidated building did not represent much of a concern. And after about a decade of decay, local residents and businesses are mostly happy to see the building come down, regardless of whatever potential it might have once had.

In most cases, STL Rising supports the long-standing St. Louis tradition of local control over planning and development. Neighborhood residents are the people with the greatest stake in the future of their communities so they should have a powerful voice in the process. However, in cases like the Avalon, we see the downside of what happens when neighborhoods are left with little leverage to influence outcomes of problem situations.

Looking to the future, we should consider alternatives that increase opportunities for sustainable redevelopment initiatives while protecting the role of local residents and community organizations in the process.

Did Surface Parking Save (Downtown) Cardinal Baseball?

The abundance of surface parking lots in downtown St. Louis is the bane of most urbanists. But is it possible that because there was that huge surface parking lot right next to old Busch Stadium, that downtown St. Louis is the place for Cardinal baseball today?

All the complicated financing aside, if it wasn't for the availability of a buildable downtown location for a new stadium, the Cardinals would have been a lot more likely to leave town for "greener pastures" outside of the city.

Where once there were lifeless surface parking lots, today stands one of the most prominent landmarks on the downtown skyline. Now if we could just get something built on the Ballpark Village parking lots, we'd have two big destinations where there was once just one.

Part of what makes St. Louis attractive for the future is the availability of redevelopment sites. We just need to figure out how to use them.

Time to Illuminate the Bridges?

Some years ago, an effort began to illuminate the Gateway Arch. It took overcoming some red tape and raising funds to install the lighting and pay the bills, but the results are striking.

Maybe it's time to try something similar with downtown's three bridges, the Poplar Street, the Eads, and the Dr. King? There would be more red tape to overcome, costs, and maintenance. But the results would be similarly beautiful.

Right now, for the most part, downtown's bridges stand in darkness. They are mostly invisible at night, especially when viewed from the St. Louis riverfront. The darkened bridges are an underutilized asset.

Lighting the bridges would create an inviting atmosphere for the riverfront and help attract more people. From the highways and air, illuminated bridges would create a sense of arrival downtown and help emphasize St. Louis standing as a river city.

The old joke is, "will the last person to leave downtown turn out the lights?". With more people returning downtown than leaving, maybe it's time to start lighting up the place.

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.