urbanSTL

eee123 wrote:It's a bit unfortunate that the sidewalks around the Old Courthouse are going to be closed for years. Some of the busiest downtown and there's no effort to provide an alternative.

On Chestnut, there's only one driving lane west of Broadway, so to carve out a temporary sidewalk with jersey barriers wouldn't even be a traffic problem. You'd just continue the one driving lane another block. Market also has ample space to take a lane away.

I thought we passed some ordinance about providing alternative walking paths during sidewalk closures.

Only has to be provided if both sides are closed. Which is why when Hudson and Expo were being built Hudson was required to maintain their sidewalk via scaffolding.

Might only be required to be one side, but it'd still be a nice contribution to walkability if they went beyond the minimum, it's not like the surrounding streets don't have an abundance of extra lanes. Chestnut in particular would be a good candidate for conversion to bike and pedestrian only/primarily regardless of the work on the old courthouse.

_nomad_ wrote:Might only be required to be one side, but it'd still be a nice contribution to walkability if they went beyond the minimum, it's not like the surrounding streets don't have an abundance of extra lanes. Chestnut in particular would be a good candidate for conversion to bike and pedestrian only/primarily regardless of the work on the old courthouse.

I don’t disagree. Was only referencing that the ordinance only requires additional route if both are closed also I think a route must be provided if the other option isn’t ada.

If we want above the minimum we have to raise the minimum. Nobody is going to spend more to provide a temporary path unless it’s financially neutral to the overall project. At least in my 5 years of designing and contracting exteriors spaces.

How much could it possibly cost to haul a few jersey barriers over? It can't be a cost thing.

They already placed some along Broadway for the construction project. Just needed a few more at the time.

My experience has been that it's not the cost as much as the car-centric mindset of a lot of people managing these projects such that walkability isn't even considered.

eee123 wrote:How much could it possibly cost to haul a few jersey barriers over? It can't be a cost thing.

They already placed some along Broadway for the construction project. Just needed a few more at the time.

To a developer any cost that can be avoided is a cost worth avoiding. Therefore delivery, materials and permitting process of temporary sidewalk that may or may not have to be ada isn’t worth it.

not sure what the issue is here, there are open sidewalks on the other side of the road....

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Apr 27, 2023

not sure what the issue is here, there are open sidewalks on the other side of the road....

We're aware of how sidewalks work, the issue is streamlining the path from city garden/kiener plaza to the arch grounds and presenting the best experience for visitors to our city, this is not well served by doubling the number of times they need to cross car traffic

Former 314 City Bar at Washington and Tucker will be a Middle Eastern restaurant

.In many large downtowns, more than a quarter of properties are used exclusively for parking. This does not count garages nested inside hotels, apartment buildings, and office towers. And it does not count the many miles of curb used for parking.
https://slate.com/business/2023/05/parking-spots-cities-paved-paradise-cars.html
oh no I know spam alert LOL

dweebe wrote: ↑

May 20, 2023

Should be an interesting afternoon/night in downtown (and Downtown West) today.

• Cardinal/Dodger game at Busch at 6:15
• Sold out country music concert at Enterprise at 7:30pm
• City SC vs Kansas City at Citypark at 8:30pm

Drag racing on Broadway at 2am.

whitherSTL wrote: ↑

May 20, 2023

dweebe wrote: ↑

May 20, 2023

Should be an interesting afternoon/night in downtown (and Downtown West) today.

• Cardinal/Dodger game at Busch at 6:15
• Sold out country music concert at Enterprise at 7:30pm
• City SC vs Kansas City at Citypark at 8:30pm

Drag racing on Broadway at 2am.

Better cancel those other 3 events and just close down the city then, no point in going out and doing anything when whitherSTL says there's a possibility something negative might potentially happen

_nomad_ wrote: ↑

May 21, 2023

whitherSTL wrote: ↑

May 20, 2023

dweebe wrote: ↑

May 20, 2023

Should be an interesting afternoon/night in downtown (and Downtown West) today.

• Cardinal/Dodger game at Busch at 6:15
• Sold out country music concert at Enterprise at 7:30pm
• City SC vs Kansas City at Citypark at 8:30pm

Drag racing on Broadway at 2am.

Better cancel those other 3 events and just close down the city then, no point in going out and doing anything when whitherSTL says there's a possibility something negative might potentially happen

A joke dude. Great night in DT

The long vacant (at least since 2017 when I moved downtown) 1500 Washington has a $550k permit issued for office space

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

May 23, 2023

The long vacant (at least since 2017 when I moved downtown) 1500 Washington has a $550k permit issued for office space

Great news.  Beautiful, cool building.  It was a co-working space when I lived around the corner.

ATT consolidating its offices, St. Louis being one of seven core offices nationwide, and calling its managers back to the office might be a bit of good news for downtown as well.   Touched on it in 909 Chestnut thread but believe St Louis will also take a little bit of hit down the road as ATT will also consolidate its tech services to 5 core offices that exclude St. Louis and San Ramon, CA form 

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3972257-a ... st-of-week

AT&T (NYSE:T) is shrinking into fewer core offices and tightening return-to-work policies, moves that could put pressure on some managers further from the office.
The company is consolidating a heavy footprint into nine core offices, with its two main hubs in Dallas and Atlanta, CEO John Stankey told Bloomberg in an interview.
And it will require more than 60,000 managers to show up at the office in person at least three days a week, starting in July in those two hubs, and by Labor Day in the other core offices (in Los Angeles; Seattle; Washington; San Ramon, Calif.; St. Louis; Middletown, N.J.; and Bedminster, N.J.).f

State of Downtown

How are various downtown businesses & attractions doing in 2023 vs 2022?

Arch is up 30% in attendance YTD

Union Station Hotel and Hilton at Ballpark are having their best year EVER to date

Union Station restaurants all up YTD

Cardinals attendance up 3.1% through May 21

Ukraft restaurant +20% (need bigger space, would like to take the window on Kiener space) it’s also up 40% since 2021

Battlehawks had 178,000 fans over 5 games in March and April

Blues sold out every game in 2023

CitySC/CityPark had 180,000 over 8 games (1 USWNT)

City Museum is up year to year

21C hotel is taking reservations for August 1

Victor has a invite only partial opening June 10th

^^The AT&T news is frustrating and worrying. I'd think there's got to be a way to make a real pitch, since the Bedminster and Middleton NJ officers are basically an hour from one another and both in a very expensive area.

How much of the country does ATT cover now, anyway? It's weird how they've grown from one of the regional "Baby Bells" to once again dominate the industry.

If Union Station and Hilton at the Ballpark are having their best years ever, I wonder what Bob O'Laughlin is on about. 

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... ghlin.html