Stltoday - Under pressure, St. Louis’ Railway Exchange boosts security to combat break-ins
https://www.stltoday.com/business/local ... 5f898.html
https://www.stltoday.com/business/local ... 5f898.html
Biggest issue downtown right now IMO. Getting this building into even semi-capable hands and demoing that terrible garage across the street will save two entire city blocks and massively improve the 10ish surrounding them.
Agreed. Those blocks (plus, to a lesser extent, the Chemical Building) make what should be the nicest part of Downtown (Hotel St. Louis, Hotel Indigo, and One Metro, among others) feel barren and unsafe.Aesir wrote:Biggest issue downtown right now IMO. Getting this building into even semi-capable hands and demoing that terrible garage across the street will save two entire city blocks and massively improve the 10ish surrounding them.
Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
- 3,757
Found it to be very embarrassing when I look out into left field on opening day and see a large graffiti-gang tag “YAKSAP” painted on the Railway Exchange Building roof. Anybody know how we can get the City go up there and paint over that. It’s quite an eyesore. Not what we want visitors to see! Anyone with connections, please see what you can do. Thanks!
- 3,757
^ I thought about that, but I’d like to see a quicker fix. Maybe a call to the alderman would help?
^ The building’s owner is responsible. I think graffiti is the least of the city’s worries considering the much more dangerous issues happening inside the building currently. A fire department rescue dog just plummeted to its death within the last week or so during a search…
I was at the game…didn’t notice it. No one else I was with did either. And I was taking all kinds of skyline pics, I went back and looked at them today and can barely notice it. I think some of you overthink some of these things…every city has graffiti and tags, most regular folks simply don’t notice or care.
I was at the game…didn’t notice it. No one else I was with did either. And I was taking all kinds of skyline pics, I went back and looked at them today and can barely notice it. I think some of you overthink some of these things…every city has graffiti and tags, most regular folks simply don’t notice or care.
- 3,757
Yes, the city has MANY problems but I COMPLETELY disagree. This kind of stuff speaks volumes about our City when visitors come here. I do not see this in other cities I visit. While you may not have noticed due to the hoopla of Opening Day, this along with the Millennium hotel being boarded up and spray painted, the south riverfront building collapsing, trash and debris everywhere, streets in awful shape, I think WE as City residents deserve better. This complacency is unacceptable and can be CHEAPLY fixed by departments unrelated to public safety, public education, etc.. Clearly, the owner of the RW Exchange Building is not going to do a damn thing to clean up the mess. Sometimes leaders have to take issues into their own hands. When visitors come, they will stereotype St. Louis based upon preconceived perceptions, that are only fortified by seeing it in person. I was with out of towners. They had a blast but commented on how run down our downtown has become. You don't think it is important to counter the narrative that St. Louis is decaying and dying? There is a lot of good going on, but this stuff is cheap and easy to fix. No reason not to put some focus on this, along with the other stuff, especially when the City is flush with cash right now.
Many of them just pass this sort of thing to the CSB.DogtownBnR wrote: ↑Mar 31, 2023^ I thought about that, but I’d like to see a quicker fix. Maybe a call to the alderman would help?
- 9,529
Wouldn't be surprised if a Butler Brothers building development team takes over this project.
- 3,757
^That would great to get a developer that has a proven track record to take over. Hopefully sooner than later so the building doesn't fall even deeper into disrepair.
Good lord, I said most people don’t notice or care about graffiti. I certainly wasn’t papering over all of the city’s problems, relax. I was downtown with a bunch of people, we had fun and nobody had their day ruined. Sorry to disappoint.DogtownBnR wrote: ↑Mar 31, 2023Yes, the city has MANY problems but I COMPLETELY disagree. This kind of stuff speaks volumes about our City when visitors come here. I do not see this in other cities I visit. While you may not have noticed due to the hoopla of Opening Day, this along with the Millennium hotel being boarded up and spray painted, the south riverfront building collapsing, trash and debris everywhere, streets in awful shape, I think WE as City residents deserve better. This complacency is unacceptable and can be CHEAPLY fixed by departments unrelated to public safety, public education, etc.. Clearly, the owner of the RW Exchange Building is not going to do a damn thing to clean up the mess. Sometimes leaders have to take issues into their own hands. When visitors come, they will stereotype St. Louis based upon preconceived perceptions, that are only fortified by seeing it in person. I was with out of towners. They had a blast but commented on how run down our downtown has become. You don't think it is important to counter the narrative that St. Louis is decaying and dying? There is a lot of good going on, but this stuff is cheap and easy to fix. No reason not to put some focus on this, along with the other stuff, especially when the City is flush with cash right now.
- 3,757
I had a blast myself. My day was not at all ruined. You can still have a good time and point out some things that need improvement. I think we all want the best for our City. However, looking the other way when it comes to things that can be easily fixed is not something I would ever do. Optics go a long way in changing perceptions. The optics Downtown currently, are really bad in a lot of spots and great in others. Just like your home, a little curb appeal can go a long way. I do not feel like that matters in Downtown proper at the moment.
I hope this building gets rehabbed, but in the meantime, it would take a coat of white paint to cover the eyesore that the building has become. I'm not willing to accept the old "it's St. Louis, what do you expect" comment from local and out of town visitors. I heard that a few times from both.
I hope this building gets rehabbed, but in the meantime, it would take a coat of white paint to cover the eyesore that the building has become. I'm not willing to accept the old "it's St. Louis, what do you expect" comment from local and out of town visitors. I heard that a few times from both.
I get the YAKSAP argument, but the garage across the street has it WAY worse, graffiti-wise. Not to mention the horrible ground-level experience around all of it. The ripped awnings flapping in the wind add a lovely kinetic and audial noteworthiness to the level of abandonment.
- 3,757
I agree, this should be a wider effort to clean up downtown. City leaders should organize volunteer events if staffing is the issue. As we all know, opening day is one of the biggest days of the year for St. Louis pride. There are a lot of people in this town that want to see the city succeed. I bet if city leaders organized cleanup days, we would get a ton of volunteers. Charlie Brennan organized something like this to clean up the highways, along w/ MODOT. Little bit of paint, some trash bags and trash trucks would go a long way. Near Kilroy’s south of Downtown, the trash and debris is endless. And this was before opening day.
I think I get what you're saying and have to agree. St. Louis has a habit of ignoring the small stuff to focus on the big stuff, and I think it's not a good way of going about things. For example, Mayor Jones said police don't spend their time addressing the speeding and expired tags because they have bigger things to worry about. While that's true, it also contributes to the idea that wrongs go unpunished here and the overall lack of safeness in the city. Similarly, small things like keeping the streets and buildings clean would a go a long way to making downtown feel safer, nicer, and a good place to invest.DogtownBnR wrote:Yes, the city has MANY problems but I COMPLETELY disagree. This kind of stuff speaks volumes about our City when visitors come here. I do not see this in other cities I visit. While you may not have noticed due to the hoopla of Opening Day, this along with the Millennium hotel being boarded up and spray painted, the south riverfront building collapsing, trash and debris everywhere, streets in awful shape, I think WE as City residents deserve better. This complacency is unacceptable and can be CHEAPLY fixed by departments unrelated to public safety, public education, etc.. Clearly, the owner of the RW Exchange Building is not going to do a damn thing to clean up the mess. Sometimes leaders have to take issues into their own hands. When visitors come, they will stereotype St. Louis based upon preconceived perceptions, that are only fortified by seeing it in person. I was with out of towners. They had a blast but commented on how run down our downtown has become. You don't think it is important to counter the narrative that St. Louis is decaying and dying? There is a lot of good going on, but this stuff is cheap and easy to fix. No reason not to put some focus on this, along with the other stuff, especially when the City is flush with cash right now.
Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
Anyone around here remember Operation Brightside? It was a big push back in the '80s, I think, to clean up St. Louis. It really did seem to spark a bit of pride, and participation was pretty good. Maybe it's time for something similar.
Just finished my neighborhood's 1st of at least 2 Brightside days earlier this afternoon, albeit participation wasn't great this time because the weather was a bit... blustery. You schedule your own now anytime of the year and pick up bags and tools from Brightside, which makes it a lot easier to do projects when they work for a specific spot. We filled a roll-off dumspter provided by the City with trash and debris, and cut lots and lots of invasive bush honeysuckle and siberian elms. If someone wants to organize a cleanup for any part of the City, the resources are there. Just have to organize the volunteers.framer wrote: ↑Apr 01, 2023Anyone around here remember Operation Brightside? It was a big push back in the '80s, I think, to clean up St. Louis. It really did seem to spark a bit of pride, and participation was pretty good. Maybe it's time for something similar.
That said, it's probably not the way to get graffiti on top of a building abated. That's really only able to be done by the building owner. Which it is a code violation that an owner can be cited for, fined for, and taken to court for if the inspectors are on top of things.
So, let's be real, how many parking spaces can they reasonably fit in the existing building, and subsequently how big of a replacement garage are they going to try to build to meet the perceived needs of an occupied 1.2-million-square-foot building?
I'd like to have 0 parking spaces in the Railway Exchange building itself, it was specially built not to have loading docks (goods were delivered underground from across the street) and it should stay that way.
- 1,792
Are they under the current garage...? i never thought about loading docks for the building before.PeterXCV wrote: ↑Apr 19, 2023I'd like to have 0 parking spaces in the Railway Exchange building itself, it was specially built not to have loading docks (goods were delivered underground from across the street) and it should stay that way.
I expect there would be a replacement garage. It would be tall because 1.2 million sqft at 1000 sqft per apartment would be 1200 units lets say the building is partial retail (maybe 1st and second floor) At minimum i'd expect 600-1000 dedicated parking spaces to be "needed". Needed is in quotes because its anticipated demand from a developer not which is debatable but I would be shocked if it was any less. At about 100 spaces per level thats a 6-10 story garage. If its well placed on the site i think it could be buttressed by some smaller mixed use buildings to screen the ugly garage from view from most angles.
Alternatively they could build a much larger garage with 200ish spaces per level on the whole block and as high as necessary to service REX AND 1MetSq, but only justified if it is tied to the removal and redevelopment of the Kiener Garages.
Personally I'm ok with either path as long as they work around The Gill. I'm ok with losing the old Charlie Gitto's building (likely a requirement even though its a shame), if it meant bringing the REX online.
I'd rather not have a whole block garage, those just kill the pedestrian experience even when adjacent blocks are more active. I would much rather see the buttressed option like the one on 9th street between Washington and LocustSTLEnginerd wrote: ↑Apr 19, 2023Are they under the current garage...? i never thought about loading docks for the building before.PeterXCV wrote: ↑Apr 19, 2023I'd like to have 0 parking spaces in the Railway Exchange building itself, it was specially built not to have loading docks (goods were delivered underground from across the street) and it should stay that way.
I expect there would be a replacement garage. It would be tall because 1.2 million sqft at 1000 sqft per apartment would be 1200 units lets say the building is partial retail (maybe 1st and second floor) At minimum i'd expect 600-1000 dedicated parking spaces to be "needed". Needed is in quotes because its anticipated demand from a developer not which is debatable but I would be shocked if it was any less. At about 100 spaces per level thats a 6-10 story garage. If its well placed on the site i think it could be buttressed by some smaller mixed use buildings to screen the ugly garage from view from most angles.
Alternatively they could build a much larger garage with 200ish spaces per level on the whole block and as high as necessary to service REX AND 1MetSq, but only justified if it is tied to the removal and redevelopment of the Kiener Garages.
Personally I'm ok with either path as long as they work around The Gill. I'm ok with losing the old Charlie Gitto's building (likely a requirement even though its a shame), if it meant bringing the REX online.