Per an Instagram story on Michael Allen's account conservation has begun on the Grand Avenue Water Tower.
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- 3,762
fantastic news. hopefully the bissell street tower won't be far behind.
- 6,130
^I just had a conversation about that with a Muslim derived friend. I had this vision of Bissel street adopted by a Hagia Sophia inspired mosque. That could be quite cool. Glad to see Grand getting some TLC. Both of those towers are quite glorious. Also . . . this is sort of the original "camouflaged" cell phone tower. 
Stltoday- Grand Avenue Water Tower gets long-needed makeover during Clean Sweep event
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/met ... 5b84c.html
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/met ... 5b84c.html
Looks good. Amazing what we get from investing instead of destroying.
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I would pay some decent money ($20+) for the opportunity to go up to the top. Hope this will be possible eventually.
^ I would too. I think they rebuilt the top and put a new hatch up there too. Charge a small fee to climb to the top and use the proceeds to maintain it into the future...like Compton Hill.
- 3,762
^ i feel like some money would have to be spent to make the top safe to occupy before allowing people to climb up there. Compton in enclosed.
^ Excellent point. There is an observation deck at Compton, I hadn’t thought of that (even though I’ve been up there a half a dozen times lol). I doubt very much more than one person at a time could climb up the Grand tower. I’d still pay for privilege to climb up there and poke my head (and camera) out of the new hatch though.
I've driven around that thing a thousand times but seeing people right next to it gives a great sense of size. I always observed it to be smaller when I drove by.
Stl Public Radio - For Brandon Bosley’s Ward, Grand Avenue Water Tower Makeover Is A Big Deal
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st ... a-big-deal
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st ... a-big-deal
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i wish this were the case.“Maybe we do cleanups every other week so that we can keep that corridor clean, so those people who are traveling [through], they’ll see us out there,” Bosley said, “and they won’t throw trash down if they see people picking it up, I think.”
^There is some truth to that. Some people that would otherwise litter will not if they see an area relatively clean. Annecdotally, I've been able to keep the LRA lots across the street from me pretty much litter free by picking up any trash quickly and mowing the lots myself. There used to be much more trash before I started doing that several years ago. Granted, I should not be responsible for that, but I have the means and time to do it, so I do. Some of it is also that it's easier to keep an area clean when you keep up with it. But people do notice if it looks like people care about some place.
I've also had people throw trash at us while doing neighborhood cleanup days, so yeah, it's not going to stop everyone. But I'd still rather people make the effort to keep places clean for a multitude of reasons.
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^ yeah, my experience in Dutchtown was extremely disheartening. for a while i was taking a trash bag out every weekend and doing a loop around my block and through Marquette park picking up garbage. after watching people drop fast food bags out of their car windows and tell their kids to dump all the car trash into the street in front of me repeatedly i pretty much gave up.
Ha, just one trash bag???urban_dilettante wrote: ↑Sep 17, 2020^ yeah, my experience in Dutchtown was extremely disheartening. for a while i was taking a trash bag out every weekend and doing a loop around my block and through Marquette park picking up garbage. after watching people drop fast food bags out of their car windows and tell their kids to dump all the car trash into the street in front of me repeatedly i pretty much gave up.
Now the new thing is "ooo I'm gonna have a car party, so I got to get all these icky Covid masks outta my car".
I routinely find literal piles of them along the curb now, along with the usual MickeyD's, White Castle, Raisin' Cane's, and Lee's Chicken detritus...
I've been meaning to post this for awhile and I don't think this has been publicly stated yet but the two north side water towers still need attention (and money). The Grand water tower may have gotten some bird nests cleared out and a nice paint job but it's far from the full restoration that both towers need. The Landmarks Association was leading a funding effort to conduct engineering studies and plans for these towers. I'm hoping that this paint job doesn't detract from this fundraising effort at all.
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^^aprice, Do you have a link for that?
^framer, My oh my! Yes they do. Great stuff!
^framer, My oh my! Yes they do. Great stuff!
- 2,637
I sincerely hope that the Grand water tower can once again be surrounded by mixed use retail like in the past. Would be a great place for the community to come together and build some momentum from in College Hill