urbanSTL

I've walked Wash Ave a few times recently and the sheer number of available commercial spaces on the street shows me there's plenty of room for improvement. I hope we see a new "urban" style dept. store downtown like some of the more compact targets I've seen in large cities. Also, it would be nice if CVS or Walgreens could get a space in walkable downtown, too.

STREET URINAL MAKES PUBLIC PEEING PRACTICAL

Seems like it could be a moderately cheap option for at least men peeing. Would be nice in often smelling areas like Metrolink stations or downtown. Maybe also in bar areas.

Would definitely be useful here in Soulard

While in Europe - Paris, London and Berlin all had public restroom, most accepting those who stand only (men) but I heard on a tour in Berlin they accepted others too (must have had a door on them).    The US is not as liberal as Europe, and I am not sure how accepting society would be to anything that is gender specific.  

STLCityMike wrote: While in Europe - Paris, London and Berlin all had public restroom, most accepting those who stand only (men) but I heard on a tour in Berlin they accepted others too (must have had a door on them).    The US is not as liberal as Europe, and I am not sure how accepting society would be to anything that is gender specific.  

Many parts of Europe are not liberal at all, and have their own issues. Berlin is not Naples in the same sense as NYC is not Little Rock.

I remember a company selling disposable funnel and tube devices that allowed those without convenient nozzles to pee standing. Don't remember what they called them. Freedom funnels? Stand your ground? Aim high? They were marketed at a more butch and campery crowd, but they could work fine with that sort of thing. Also: restrooms with urinals were often gender neutral in parts of Germany and Switzerland even thirty years ago. And no, Europe is not all the same. Clearly. But . . . I'd be surprised if even Naples is Little Rock. Hot Springs, maybe.

Almost any public restroom (Johnny or not) serving a park/outdoor gathering space is disgusting.  I used the public restroom in Venice Beach yesterday and may never be the same.

Wow

She's a useless alderwoman.

But what is going on in that stretch of Washington? I pass by there regularly, but I'm not even sure what's there that's leading to all this gunfire.

There have been shots fired calls around 15th/16/17th and Washington Avenue about 1am on Saturday nights like three of the past four Saturdays, counting this shooting. I'm walking home around that time regularly, but I've started taking my chances with the homeless/weirdos on Olive instead of the gunplay on Washington.

Literally how are the police so useless as to be unable to prevent shootings downtown. 

I've always been frustrated with the lack of Arch facing restaurants downtown. Gateway Tower (shown here), the old Millennium, and the entire Mansion House complex are perfect for it. Although the highway noise and fumes has never been conducive. 

When driving back to St Louis last Saturday, I listened to the ESPN radio broadcast of the Cardinals game on Sirius XM. They worried about all the construction possibly blocking the Arch view. Then the waxed on and on about the Millennium hotel and the revolving restaurant, obviously unaware that it has been closed for years.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Downtown and all of its wasted space

The blue boxes represent parking garages (17 in total) while the red boxes represent surface lots/ unused green space. 

This is a sobering visual.
 
Looking on the bright side of things, however, look at all that space for development! 

^Nice work.  Maybe you could make the demo lawns green, e.g. the Cupples 7 site, to differentiate those from surface parking lots.  I would also suggest that you add in all the parcels with vacant buildings in a different color (caution yellow perhaps?) next, but that might be too depressing.

Also, a few minor quibbles.  The half block across the street from the Eagleton Courthouse is owned by the Federal Govt, so it is as much park land as the JNEM.  Nothing will be built there unless the courts decide they need more space.  Missed the parking garage at NE corner of Tucker and Clark, and the other surface lot at the NW corner of Spruce / 10th (another recent Cupples demo)

We might as well call the Twain parcel unused green space too

Nice Elek, thanks

By looking at Elek's map the cynical side tells me why you won't see Chouteau's landing development any time soon outside of some rehab's of existing buildings and why Bottle District never took off.  Their is simply not enough demand just by what we already have seen and what Elek highlights of the empty space downtown even with a huge amount of success rehabbing and therefore dwindling the vast amount of empty building stock that existed 5 to 10 years ago.. 

On the optimistic side, BPV phase 2 success could lead to phase 3 a lot sooner, Koman has ready made infill with Cupples X, you got Moxy hotel believe moving forward and Abstract Marketing success & CVC convention expansion might finally convince Drury to pull trigger on multi phase Laclede's Landing development and come Aug 1st we might very well hear MLS announcement and catalyst for continued west downtown expansion with mid town connector development making slow by steady progress on Jeff Ave.  These projects will fill some noticeable holes downtown

^ there is always going to be space downtown that doesn't live up to its potential and that's just the way things are. Taking steps to reduce that space by adding urban conscious low-rise buildings as we see in other parts of the city such as the CWE or the Grove will greatly benefit the neighborhood while adding much-needed density and costing less than traditional highrises. We have seen its success in places like the Gulch in Nashville where a neighborhood has been completely turned around by new developments which, in turn, start to cause a landslide of other developments being proposed. Now I'm not saying that adding a few 10-story apartment buildings here and there will have the same success as the Gulch, but it is a step closer to returning downtown to the urban center it once was. I do think that businesses will seek out the newer buildings for their retail space over an older, restored building which will eventually lure more people downtown. Cost-wise, newer low-rise buildings cost much less than you'd expect (ex. the proposed Moxy - $16.5 million for a 145-foot tall building). I hope to see more low-rise buildings coming to downtown shortly.

Elek.borrelli wrote: ^ there is always going to be space downtown that doesn't live up to its potential and that's just the way things are. Taking steps to reduce that space by adding urban conscious low-rise buildings as we see in other parts of the city such as the CWE or the Grove will greatly benefit the neighborhood while adding much-needed density and costing less than traditional highrises. We have seen its success in places like the Gulch in Nashville where a neighborhood has been completely turned around by new developments which, in turn, start to cause a landslide of other developments being proposed. Now I'm not saying that adding a few 10-story apartment buildings here and there will have the same success as the Gulch, but it is a step closer to returning downtown to the urban center it once was. I do think that businesses will seek out the newer buildings for their retail space over an older, restored building which will eventually lure more people downtown. Cost-wise, newer low-rise buildings cost much less than you'd expect (ex. the proposed Moxy - $16.5 million for a 145-foot tall building). I hope to see more low-rise buildings coming to downtown shortly.

Personally, I'd really like to see the Cupples Station district get completely built out, starting with Cupples 9 - Koman's shelved project at 9th and Spruce - and Cupples 7 - the vacant lot owned by the city.

Then add infill at the SE corner of 11th and Clark (parking lot), the NW corner of 10th and Spruce (parking lot), and the NW corner of 9th and Spruce (parking lot).  Eventually move on to the pointless green space at the NW corner of 9th and Clark next to the tribal armband tattoo park.  There might even be room for a small infill project (retail?) in between the ramps at 10th and Clark.

^ It think the Cupples District and to a larger extent the area south of Market and north of I-64 bounded by Busch/BPV and new MLS stadium on the other end will really move forward in the next couple of years.  Just has a lot going for it.  Build a Bear got its incentives approved for its HQ relocation to the area, I think success of One Cardinal Way will kick of Two Cardinal Way & some more office space in phase III sooner than later, Koman being involved in Cupples district is a plus and they will get Cupples X or some variation off the ground, the Old Muni Courts building and its surface lot facing Clark is a no brainer for mid rise as Elek noted and would be surprised if you see more out of LHM in and around Union Station once ground is broken on MLS stadium.  

Laclede's landing and North Riverfront/Broadway is a great opportunity but to me is really about Drury family willing to get out of their cookie cutter risk averse freeway chain hotel mentality in my opinion.  Between Arch Grounds and Convention Center expansion moving forward they really need to get off their arses or they will be left behind again in the city as they have been left behind on their FPSE/kings highway property.   Or just sell the property and quit banking land because you can.... St Louis has plenty of land banking from outside investors.  It doesn't anymore help from the locals.  

I've always wondered why St. Louis - and other cities - can't creatively build buildings over ramps. 

Maybe it makes ramp work/maintenance prohibitively expensive, but it'd be beautiful to have buildings hide the uglier aspects of our infrastructure. .