urbanSTL

sc4mayor wrote: ↑

Jul 21, 2022

The one constant here is guns and our hands are tied.  4 people were shot to death in KCMO over two days last week.  A North KC police officer was shot twice and murdered while he lay wounded in the street this past Tuesday.  This isn't specific to St. Louis.

It's been a little shocking to see the levels of violence in Kansas City recently. 

It seems that Kansas City is closing the gap on St. Louis in regards to violence. I looked a few days ago, and I think St. Louis had 96 murders to Kansas City's 87. Of course, the North Kansas City police officer would not be included in that total. 

The state's solution to homelessness is to criminalize it, put offenders in jail/debtor's prison, and punish municipalities that dare try to address the problem humanely. We can expect absolutely zero help from them when it comes to guns, even if law enforcement agencies themselves are asking the state for help. The MO solution is literally for the "good" guys to shoot the "bad" guys. Because real life is just like Walker: Texas Ranger.

I will fund, knock doors, and vote for the first mayoral candidate who's willing to tell the MO fascists to pound sand and has a plan to deal with the consequences. Seriously, who here as any loyalty to "Missouri" as more than just a (admittedly very lovely) piece of geography? I bet the answer isn't much different in the rural parts of the state...

Washington Ave looks good today. City has also planted trees at most spots it took them out due bc of the ash borer issue.

dbInSouthCity wrote:Washington Ave looks good today. City has also planted trees at most spots it took them out due bc of the ash borer issue.

Planting trees middle of the summer? Might as well burn our tax money. Spring and fall are substantially better times to plant trees. Also that tree shape is problematic for pedestrian traffic imo.

Those have been there for years. These are people the recently planted

What, did Charlie Brown make the selections?

Bald Cypress is a good tree. Still to small and planted in a very wrong time of year. I should reach out to my LA contact and ask why they did it at such a bad time.

Getting off topic but I think DBs photos and the side discussion on downtown trees is interesting.   Not so much about timing of planting those samplings as LA is right, odd time to plant those samplings and as Framer noted size of samplings planted.  too bad they couldn't have spent a few extra dollars for a little bigger tree to start with.     

My thoughts is that with city flush with some Covid funds including another rounds that still needs to be decided upon wouldn't the city doubling down on trees be a great investment at this time, whether its downtown or other parts of the city.  Maybe city purchases if land owners will maintain type deal, etc.  Thinking of a very good article with a Phoenix city rep talking about recent heat wave in Southwest.  I think without a doubt that a lot of people across a wide swath of political idealogy consider that tree canopies are just a great way to tackle the issue of city created heat islands.  Of course, could be off base and city doing a lot more then known.

dredger wrote: ↑

Jul 23, 2022

Getting off topic but I think DBs photos and the side discussion on downtown trees is interesting.   Not so much about timing of planting those samplings as LA is right, odd time to plant those samplings and as Framer noted size of samplings planted.  too bad they couldn't have spent a few extra dollars for a little bigger tree to start with.     

My thoughts is that with city flush with some Covid funds including another rounds that still needs to be decided upon wouldn't the city doubling down on trees be a great investment at this time, whether its downtown or other parts of the city.  Maybe city purchases if land owners will maintain type deal, etc.  Thinking of a very good article with a Phoenix city rep talking about recent heat wave in Southwest.  I think without a doubt that a lot of people across a wide swath of political idealogy consider that tree canopies are just a great way to tackle the issue of city created heat islands.  Of course, could be off base and city doing a lot more then known.

Agreed.  Tree canopies are a great way to combat the urban heat island effect.  The city needs a more focused program to plant and maintain trees.  You can currently request a tree to be planted in front of your house at no cost through the forestry division if one doesn't currently exist.  Link below.

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... oblems.cfm

Does that request-a-tree thing work for like, three blocks worth of trees? I tried for a newly cleared section of North 20th, but I have no idea if that's a valid request.

All of the places I want trees are blocks-long stretches of streets where I regularly walk. One or two trees is not gonna make a difference.

Some kind of requirement to plant x trees for every x sq/ft of surface lot would be great.

Square is installing electric chargers in their mostly-empty lot off Tucker, which is quite the contrast to the hostile-to-pedestrians surroundings without a bit of shade. It's a perfect snapshot of the city right now. "Going green" by installing car chargers while not caring in the slightest about any other mode of transportation.

eee123 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2022

Does that request-a-tree thing work for like, three blocks worth of trees? I tried for a newly cleared section of North 20th, but I have no idea if that's a valid request.

All of the places I want trees are blocks-long stretches of streets where I regularly walk. One or two trees is not gonna make a difference.

Some kind of requirement to plant x trees for every x sq/ft of surface lot would be great.

Square is installing electric chargers in their mostly-empty lot off Tucker, which is quite the contrast to the hostile-to-pedestrians surroundings without a bit of shade. It's a perfect snapshot of the city right now. "Going green" by installing car chargers while not caring in the slightest about any other mode of transportation.

I’m pretty sure you have to own the land to get the trees planted. Unless you are saying you own these blocks you are requesting.

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2022

eee123 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2022

Does that request-a-tree thing work for like, three blocks worth of trees? I tried for a newly cleared section of North 20th, but I have no idea if that's a valid request.

All of the places I want trees are blocks-long stretches of streets where I regularly walk. One or two trees is not gonna make a difference.

Some kind of requirement to plant x trees for every x sq/ft of surface lot would be great.

Square is installing electric chargers in their mostly-empty lot off Tucker, which is quite the contrast to the hostile-to-pedestrians surroundings without a bit of shade. It's a perfect snapshot of the city right now. "Going green" by installing car chargers while not caring in the slightest about any other mode of transportation.

I’m pretty sure you have to own the land to get the trees planted. Unless you are saying you own these blocks you are requesting.

Correct.  You need to own the land in front of the city tree lawn for it to be planted.  FYI it is much quicker to pull the permit yourself and plant a tree from the city approved list or just plant a tree from the approved list.  City is not going to notice or care.  Typical wait time for free tree can be as long as two years.  

STLAPTS wrote:

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2022

eee123 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2022

Does that request-a-tree thing work for like, three blocks worth of trees? I tried for a newly cleared section of North 20th, but I have no idea if that's a valid request.

All of the places I want trees are blocks-long stretches of streets where I regularly walk. One or two trees is not gonna make a difference.

Some kind of requirement to plant x trees for every x sq/ft of surface lot would be great.

Square is installing electric chargers in their mostly-empty lot off Tucker, which is quite the contrast to the hostile-to-pedestrians surroundings without a bit of shade. It's a perfect snapshot of the city right now. "Going green" by installing car chargers while not caring in the slightest about any other mode of transportation.

I’m pretty sure you have to own the land to get the trees planted. Unless you are saying you own these blocks you are requesting.

Correct.  You need to own the land in front of the city tree lawn for it to be planted.  FYI it is much quicker to pull the permit yourself and plant a tree from the city approved list or just plant a tree from the approved list.  City is not going to notice or care.  Typical wait time for free tree can be as long as two years.  

Honestly in my experience city approved plant lists aren’t very up to date. New varieties of each species come out frequently that can be better suited for a streetscape. Just do your own research choose a tree and plant it. Ask for forgiveness later as I agree the city doesn’t have the resources to act quick enough or to care about a tree.

STLAPTS wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2022

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2022

eee123 wrote: ↑

Jul 24, 2022

Does that request-a-tree thing work for like, three blocks worth of trees? I tried for a newly cleared section of North 20th, but I have no idea if that's a valid request.

All of the places I want trees are blocks-long stretches of streets where I regularly walk. One or two trees is not gonna make a difference.

Some kind of requirement to plant x trees for every x sq/ft of surface lot would be great.

Square is installing electric chargers in their mostly-empty lot off Tucker, which is quite the contrast to the hostile-to-pedestrians surroundings without a bit of shade. It's a perfect snapshot of the city right now. "Going green" by installing car chargers while not caring in the slightest about any other mode of transportation.

I’m pretty sure you have to own the land to get the trees planted. Unless you are saying you own these blocks you are requesting.

Correct.  You need to own the land in front of the city tree lawn for it to be planted.  FYI it is much quicker to pull the permit yourself and plant a tree from the city approved list or just plant a tree from the approved list.  City is not going to notice or care.  Typical wait time for free tree can be as long as two years.  

Thanks. And kind of a dumb rule. The street trees benefit everybody. You don't need the owner's permission to park a car out front.

Good thing property ownership info is publicly available.

Bald Cypress is a good tree. Still to small and planted in a very wrong time of year. I should reach out to my LA contact and ask why they did it at such a bad time. 

These were not planted by the city, likely. I would guess either the CID or another taxing district for that area. Or there's a group/program called Forest Releaf that provides small "whip" trees for planting. Those trees are actually better for planting when the location can take them (and they survive) because they will catch up to the large trees being (re)planted.

The Forestry Division generally only plants Oct - Jan. They'd prefer to plant everything in Oct & Nov, but the scale of the work and manpower allocation can sometimes be limiting factors.

Does that request-a-tree thing work for like, three blocks worth of trees? I tried for a newly cleared section of North 20th, but I have no idea if that's a valid request. 

Not really but also yes. Create requests wherever you want, but make them for a single parcel (property) at a time. They do, though, send a letter to the property owner, in some instances, letting them know a tree is going to be planted on their property’s easement and what type of tree. The letter contains Forestry’s phone number and tells them to call if they want to decline the planting.

Correct.  You need to own the land in front of the city tree lawn for it to be planted.

Nope. (See above.)

FYI it is much quicker to pull the permit yourself and plant a tree from the city-approved list or just plant a tree from the approved list.  City is not going to notice or care.

Doing something yourself is always going to be faster. Forestry Division is trying to plant 3 to 6 thousand trees every year, they can only plant 2" (minimum) caliper trees because it's spelled out in the governing ordinance, and they can only plant where the aldermen provide funds.

Typical wait time for free tree can be as long as two years.

Yup. Definitely. Why? Because, as with many other things (see point three directly above), planting is accomplished using Ward funds, and if the alderman for a particular ward doesn't supply enough to cover all requests in the ward, the requests hold over until the next planting season.

So, is there an effort for an enlarged "Downtown" CID?  Maybe pushed by the Square folks??

I’ve discussed a downtown self governing district that raises $10-15m a year to bond out $250m in improvements with a few big property owners. Nothing official but may meet with some soonish once I get a better feel for a few things. From feed back I’ve gotten is that the cardinals would be very resistant to any sales tax as the funding mechanism

^Thank you 

I think turning downtown into a self-governing district would be wise. 

Why would the Cardinals resist sales tax as a funding mechanism?

Who thinks about sales tax when they're at the ballpark?

Have any alternatives been proposed? 

RockChalkSTL wrote: ↑

Jul 26, 2022

I think turning downtown into a self-governing district would be wise. 

Why would the Cardinals resist sales tax as a funding mechanism?

Who thinks about sales tax when they're at the ballpark?

Have any alternatives been proposed? 

Expanding the current CID boundary to include entire downtown (stops at 18th now) all the way to Jefferson and maybe a slight increase could raise about $10m

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Jul 26, 2022

RockChalkSTL wrote: ↑

Jul 26, 2022

I think turning downtown into a self-governing district would be wise. 

Why would the Cardinals resist sales tax as a funding mechanism?

Who thinks about sales tax when they're at the ballpark?

Have any alternatives been proposed? 

Expanding the current CID boundary to include entire downtown (stops at 18th now) all the way to Jefferson and maybe a slight increase could raise about $10m

This makes a lot of sense, reflects growth and development over the past few years and hopefully going forward. Similarly I've always found it weird that Downtown and Downtown West are classified as separate neighborhoods.

One of the best ways we could use that infrastructure or Rams money would be to temporarily and dramatically increase the funding of the Forestry Department to close the tree gap across the entire city.

It would be an huge undertaking to get them all planted and keep them alive until maturity, but it would pay dividends to the city for decades and decades.

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote:One of the best ways we could use that infrastructure or Rams money would be to temporarily and dramatically increase the funding of the Forestry Department to close the tree gap across the entire city.

It would be an huge undertaking to get them all planted and keep them alive until maturity, but it would pay dividends to the city for decades and decades.

Just absolutely love this idea. And it’s not just a visual impact here, we’re talking major health and cooling improvements for people in less fortunate situations!


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