urbanSTL

Has there ever been efforts on UrbanSTL to do some tactical urbanism? It’s odd that there is a group of concerned citizens who want Downtown to be better but the group never says “Let’s throw a party”

rbb wrote: ↑

Nov 19, 2024

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: ↑

Nov 19, 2024

The real problem with the area around the Enterprise Center is the ridiculous 60's urban renewal that tore down the cohesive neighborhood and replaced it with a disjointed mess of dead parks, commie towers with no retail, and of course parking lots.

I would love to see construction along Clark Ave - there was a push to turn it into 'sports alley' a couple of years back I believe championed by @dbInSouthCity if I recall correctly, no? Bars and shops along Clark would go a long way toward making that happen.

Probably the easiest thing would be to build on the City Hall parking lot. But I'd love to see the Metrolink tracks along Clark capped and either built directly on, or on the parking lot to the south with the cap serving as a plaza (not ideal, as there's plenty of plaza space there but that's probably cheaper). The Clark Ave on/offramp to I-64 can probably go away entirely as there are redundant highway access points two blocks east and five blocks west, which would open up the space immediately north of the Edison Bros building for development.  

There's restaurant/bar space just a couple of blocks away from the arena in the parking garage at Clark & Tucker but you'd never know it from the Enterprise Center - wayfinding signs at the main entry points would be useful, as would making the pedestrian crossing experience at Market more palatable. Hang some 'The Grove'-style signage over Clark street, light pole flags, etc, celebrating the Blues, Cardinals, and City SC/soccer history to make that corridor more engaging. Encourage artists to build sports-themed art along the path, etc. Lots of opportunities for improvement there.

-RBB

Spot on for Clark. You could get rid of these blacked out highway ramps and make Clark a great street. These ramps are unsafe for pedestrians and cars. They also take up valuable development space. The 14th Street Westbound on ramp by Enterprise being the biggest transgressor on everything.

You would still have:
Westbound on ramps at Broadway and 22nd/Jefferson
Westbound off ramps at Memorial and Jefferson/22nd
Eastbound on ramps at Jefferson/22nd and Gratiot
Eastbound off ramps at Jefferson/22nd, 14th and Gratiot
+ 44 ramps.

Our traffic patterns downtown in todays age actually allow us to do this.

Clark/Spruce streetscaping and redo would create another potential retail corridor. DBs idea as a sports themed street would work very well imo. Young people could certainly be drawn to the area with lofts in a historic area by three sports stadiums, concert venues, and the Spruce/BPV nightlife. I think it would beat anything other competing cities could offer in their downtowns to new young residents.

addxb2 wrote: ↑

Nov 18, 2024

I think Downtown needs an event coordinator who is responsible for proactively identifying the quiet weekends and working with attractions and spaces to fill them up.

We also need to lean heavily into (1) small group and event attraction and (2) street activation with pop-ups and street closures.

You’re in luck!  There is a Downtown activation coordinator

TheWayoftheArch_V2.0 wrote: ↑

Nov 19, 2024

Not sure I’m liking Jason Halls new messaging trend:

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

Does it say in there how many jobs GSL members will move downtown if the city spends the Rams money as they wish?

quincunx wrote: ↑

Nov 19, 2024

TheWayoftheArch_V2.0 wrote: ↑

Nov 19, 2024

Not sure I’m liking Jason Halls new messaging trend:

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

Does it say in there how many jobs GSL members will move downtown if the city spends the Rams money as they wish?

It does say that they’ll match it 2 to 1

TheWayoftheArch_V2.0 wrote: ↑

Nov 19, 2024

Not sure I’m liking Jason Halls new messaging trend:

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

I'm not liking the Board of Aldermen President's complete inaction on the most important neighborhood in St. Louis to the point where Greater STL has to publicly call her out. Pretty pathetic.

There is no inaction. The process is playing out how it’s suppose to.   Childcare advocates presented yesterday and made a pretty compelling case.  

I outline a few pages above the $40m in downtown roadway underway or starting construction next year.  

I’ve changed my mind on the rams settlement after the Fed election, city should sit on this money in 2025 and see how the Trump clown show play out with his plan to let Elon and Vivek cut away.  Many city depts depend on federal funds for their various programs.  Majority of the human services dept budget is Fed money.  Metro gets tones of Fed money.   There is no guarantee that will be here for federal fiscal year 2025 next Oct 1.  

GSL strategy on this was unnecessarily aggressive and alarmist, it’s back fired and failed.  One day “downtown needs this money to survive” , the next day: HOK is staying because downtown is a great place to work, today “cannot let it fall in more despair”, tomorrow “we are excited about AHMs $300m downtown west project, the union station expansion, Jefferson arms opening, Winterfest setting record attendance again” etc.    
from the media I talk to, nobody is buying what they’re selling because of the day after day flip flops. They’ve lost a lot of credibility with this

Wentzville about to get a few more Bankers jk.

Well, I don't think they will all be downtown.  The closed the Operations center at 10th and Convention and moved those jobs to Earth City.  There are also offices in Maplewood and Olivette and I don't expect those to move either.   It will be interesting to see how the return to office impacts the STL market.

^ earth city will stay and some people will get that as their assigned place.  I know one group that isn’t happy about it when they were told earth city is their site.

TheWayoftheArch_V2.0 wrote: ↑

Nov 20, 2024

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Nov 19, 2024

GSL strategy on this was unnecessarily aggressive and alarmist, it’s back fired and failed.  One day “downtown needs this money to survive” , the next day: HOK is staying because downtown is a great place to work, today “cannot let it fall in more despair”, tomorrow “we are excited about AHMs $300m downtown west project, the union station expansion, Jefferson arms opening, Winterfest setting record attendance again” etc.    
from the media I talk to, nobody is buying what they’re selling because of the day after day flip flops.  They’ve lost a lot of credibility with this

^Exactly the trend I’m alluding to.  They seem to have devised two messaging “strategies”. A Rosey one to the community at large and the doomsday bent for the politicians and business leaders who they are trying to goad to action.  The sky is falling narrative feels like a Bob Clark rant on LinkedIn.  The problem is both are public, where I feel one should have been a “back channel” campaign.

Definitely getting the "sky is falling" message, followed by "only GSL can save us" from the Slay Admin-adjacent lobbyist for my City Globocorp employer. Also, Megan Green is from the "anti-American socialist wing of the democratic party."

130-person Logic Systems relocating to Downtown West from Valley Park.
They will be taking the 92,000 square foot facility at 2233 Delmar Blvd

Would this be considered industrial?

There is a warehouse component for their equipment. They’re also planning to add a music and film studio to the existing footprint

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Nov 22, 2024

130-person Logic Systems relocating to Downtown West from Valley Park.  
They will be taking the 92,000 square foot facility at 2233 Delmar Blvd

The owner actually started his business on Washington Avenue back in the 90's.  Happy to see them moving back into the city.

The proposed boundaries of the Downtown North Stl Community Improvement District Inc. CID.
City of St. Louis

By Jacob Kirn – Managing Editor, St. Louis Business Journal
Nov 22, 2024


St. Louis lawmakers on Friday passed legislation to establish another downtown St. Louis special taxing district.
The Board of Aldermen OK'd a bill establishing the Downtown North Stl Community Improvement District.

Proponents, including Post-Dispatch Building redeveloper John Berglund, have said it's needed to shore up infrastructure and ensure safety, particularly along Washington Avenue. The new community improvement district, though, imposes a new special assessment, on top of current property taxes. And it partially overlaps with another community improvement district downtown that imposes its own special assessment. That CID was renewed, despite much controversy, in 2021.



Read more about the proposed district here.


Maximum rates set in the new CID petition are 4.256 cents per lot square foot and 2.326 cents per square foot per floor. Each assessment could be increased by up to 4% annually over the 10-year term.
Its legislative proponent, Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, has said he backed it primarily because of expressed security concerns in the CID area.
A spokesperson for Mayor Tishaura Jones said in September that so long as community improvement and special business districts abide by state law and city ordinances, Jones has allowed them to become law.
Jones' office didn't immediately respond to a question Friday about whether she'd sign the bill, No. 102.
Dan Pistor and Globe Building owner Steve Stone are also connected to the new CID.

Don’t see them spending much on security…,

Came across this guy on youtube. Obviously a realtor but I think he is fair.

Downtown/Downtown West has such an opportunity to be an outstanding residential neighborhood, and we don’t have to build some faux mixed use community from the ground up that you see in many metros. Downtown StL can have the history, the vibrancy and culture than can’t be replicated.

Streetscaping, retail bays, and abandoned building conversions will be the key,

It may be a blessing that we have so much vacant office space for conversions available for residences

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Nov 22, 2024

Don’t see them spending much on security…,

Executive Director gets $85,000? Is this a full time job, or just grift?

delmar2debaliviere2downtown wrote: ↑

Nov 22, 2024

It may be a blessing that we have so much vacant office space for conversions available for residences

I know Brian Hayden did a couple residential conversions of 1970s towers prior to the pandemic; it would be nice to see him or others tackle at least one more before too long. But I wonder how many vacant/underutilized post-war office towers we have, and which are best poised for residential conversion. (Of course One ATT is being looked at.)  

New article: https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editor ... b609b.html

Not sure of KC mayor’s tone here but he shared it.

I don't understand the people at city hall who think Downtown is anywhere close to where it should be. Do they even visit other cities? Downtown St. Louis is in the lower tier of major city downtowns and has a long way to go.