Anarchy in Affton, and Other Reflections on St. Louis's Placeblogosphere 4:23 PM

Does anyone know the whereabouts of one J. Patrick O'Brien, the "city" of Affton's onetime mayor? Has there been a coup?

On December 23, 2007, after a somewhat regular posting schedule, the esteemed pseudo-mayor of a pseudo-city (Affton is not incorporated) simply stopped posting. See for yourself here at his now-defunct blog: Mayor of Affton.

The Mayor offered St. Louis placeblog readers something we're all too light on: laughter. O'Brien would refer to his wife as the "First Lady" and his home, more than likely, being in Affton, a Tudor-style gingerbread or a Post-War saltbox, the "Mayoral Mansion".

Whether he reviewed the Affton restaurant scene...:

Last night the First Lady and I tried out the new Trattoria Toscana restaurant on Gravois next to the Ten Mile House. Let me first say that earlier I told a friend that I was going out to Affton's newest Italian eatery and he said "Fazoli's?" Chris, you are a jerk and so are you Fazoli's. I hate Fazoli's food and apparently they hate Affton since they don't have a location here.

...or faux-bombastically trumpeted his mayoral background in real estate development...

The Mayor attended a conference on Sustainable Development this morning hosted by the Urban Land Institute.  Most of the discussion was old hat for the Mayor as I am well aware of the concepts that create such developments.  What was enlightening was to see actual reports and data that proved the return on investment to developers that choose to “go green”.

...the Mayor of Affton was a delight to read.

If this were the end of the story, I'd be kind of depressed. With the passing of the Mayor of Affton blog, there was definitely a visible void, and not just in everyone's favorite South County hamlet. Our region needed more people writing about their neighborhoods, their municipalities, to get us excited and interested. Affton is one of the most stereotyped places in the region--it's all retirees, it's boring, it's not urban, etc.--yet I believe O'Brien opened our eyes to a colorful place. That's St. Louis--an impossibly varied kaleidoscope of villages.

So, it's important to note now, three years after Affton's Mayor disappeared from the blogosphere, that we have plenty of other Mayors running around town (keep in mind--some of these mayors predated the ascendancy of Foursquare!).

One of my favorites is Nicki's Central West End Guide. Neighborhood resident Nicki Dwyer snaps photos of businesses new and old, street life, flora and fauna, and more--all in the Central West End or nearby. By focusing on the life of the neighborhood, as opposed to blogs like mine that settle for our great, if inanimate, built environment, Nicki truly enlivens the neighborhood. I know she doesn't go by "mayor", but I'd vote for her!

We now even have a Near South Side-centric neighborhood newspaper online, called Your Local Messenger, and an online-only (and VERY well done) North County magazine at NoCoSTL.

56 Houses Left dutifully and beautifully cataloged the long destruction of a North County neighborhood near the airport--the Carrollton Subdivision. In happier news, a swanky mid-century modern neighborhood of Crestwood (the Ridgewood subdivision) gets much love on this web site.

Old North St. Louis has a whole band of blogger-rehabbers. Check out 1318 Hebert and the 3 Walls Project (covering the process of a stunning renovation at 3240 N. 19th). Our Little Easy hasn't been updated in a while, but is worth a look.

So, neighborhood mayors out there reading this--urban, suburban, rural, it matters not, of course--please send us your placecentric blogs so that we can all rest assured that the faux-Mayoral blogging doesn't have a term limit.

Proposition A Passes! 10:44 PM

An early call, but likely a safe one!

Thank you, St. Louis County, for investing in the future of our region's transportation system! Today's vote triggers the enactment of a 1997 vote by St. Louis City to kick in a quarter-cent sales tax increase there, in addition to the half cent sales tax increase in St. Louis County. With a relatively reliable funding source, Metro may now plan its future. The agency may now expand rather than contract!

What's the next stop...err, step? Fighting for a greater share of the state of Missouri's transportation funding pie--one of the most road-centric in the country.

For more coverage of this exciting victory for St. Louis transit, see UrbanSTL.

Ferguson Says 'No' to CVS 2:05 AM

As recently reported by NoCoSTL.com, CVS officials have dropped plans for a CVS store at North Florissant and Hereford Avenues in the North County municipality of Ferguson.

CVS wished to demolish seven historic homes in Ferguson to shoehorn one of its generic suburban stores onto a lot conveniently located across the street from arch rival Walgreens.

We've seen this move by CVS before. The pharmacy giant built a store catty-corner to a Walgreens on Gravois in Boulevard Heights, taking several homes down with it. A proposed CVS on Lindell nearly demolished three buildings off of the landscape before being called off, more than likely due to issues with usage of the alley for the drive-through. The Walgreens on Lindell is less than a block from this site.

It's nice to see a citizens' group rise up and defeat one of these proposals to demolish sound and attractive buildings for duplicative services. Bravo, Ferguson!

Here's a Google Streetview shot of two of the homes slated for demolition:


View Larger Map

St. Louis: Let Ferguson be our guide. Historic character is more important than allowing chain pharmacies to steal away some market share from one another!

On a slightly different note: just because a CVS promises to build up to the street and screen parking, it doesn't mean the building is "urban" in format or that gestures toward urbanism justify squandering historic buildings for unneeded services. That Central West End CVS was dangerously close to being approved if it "urbanized" itself a bit more. To me, architectural diversity and pedestrian-friendliness spell urbanism. If CVS can't reuse a building, or find a vacant parcel in the city to build on and to build a new store appropriate to the urban environment, then CVS is simply not welcome.

Mayor Slay Recommends St. Louis City Re-Enter St. Louis County 7:06 PM

On MayorSlay.com, the mayor bluntly stated that the city should rejoin the county, citing inefficiencies involved in regional infighting. In red below is a good portion of his blog post:

Competing against the world for new employers is hindered by the fact that much of our energy is spent competing with each other – municipality against municipality, City versus County.
...
If St. Louis is going to stay competitive both nationally and globally, we have to work together as a region, rather competing against each other as fiefdoms. And we have to make more sense to people from outside the region.

How? As an important early step, the City of St. Louis should re-enter St. Louis County and the two should work together to create partnerships in public safety, parks maintenance, sustainability, and economic development.
...
The change would be a good, dramatic story. St. Louis County’s population would grow by 360 thousand residents, making it one of the “fastest growing” counties in the country. It would be able to count within its boundaries dozens of vibrant neighborhoods, including most of the historic ones; a sizable percentage of the state’s jobs; the cathedrals of several religions; the venues for three major professional sports; the stage of a major symphony orchestra; double or triple the number art galleries it now has; a menu of great restaurants; almost a hundred new parks; several new universities and colleges; and the state’s largest and best equipped police and fire departments.


What do you think: would a symbolic reconciliation of the "Great Divorce of 1876" contribute to a healthier, more cooperative region? Would it ever even happen?

I support the idea, but have one fear. When I read about previous attempts to combine the City and County, it was always mentioned that the entire state of Missouri would have to vote and approve such changes to county boundaries. Does anyone know if this indeed would be the process of getting this done? Other thoughts?

Click here to read the whole post.

Out of City, Out of Mind 8:00 AM

This blog doesn't often cover non-City of St. Louis topics, but that's a fault of its own. Our metropolitan region is vast and full of discoveries. (By the way, check out the rapidly ballooning Facebook group "Secret St. Louis" for hundreds of recommendations on food, urban exploration, nightlife, and more across all corners of the region).

So I wanted to bring some sad, albeit non-city news.

> The historic Mansion House of Alton, Illinois is being demolished after a nasty fire gutted it. The 1830s-era building was Alton's first hotel. I never saw it, but I will miss it still. Despite what this Telegraph article says, I still wonder if at least the facade could have been saved.

The Mansion House pre-fire:

View Larger Map

> In other more lighthearted news, the St. Louis County Council must have listened to my advice, because Carondelet and Weber Roads will now be River City Boulevard rather than River City Casino Boulevard. I'm still skeptical on the need for a name change, since signage has been shown to work, but this is better. We are in fact a "River City", so perhaps, with luck, tourists will not make the connection that the road name is an ad for the nearby casino.

Rants and Raves, Quick and Dirty 1:20 PM

Rants

Grand Center--the Intersection of Art and Life--is getting an artless, lifeless streetscape improvement project. New sidewalks, essentially...that's it. See Gateway Streets blog for more details. Why waste the money?

In a 4-3 vote Tuesday, the St. Louis County Council approved the name change of Weber/Carondelet Roads in South County bordering River des Peres to, gulp, River City Casino Boulevard. River City Boulevard? Maybe. The "casino" portion does indeed turn this stretch of road into a billboard. It erases the history and identity of the street so that drivers cannot mistake where they're heading. Anyone ever heard of a directional sign?

Raves

On the other side of Grand Boulevard, in the Grand South Grand strip, things look a bit better. This streetscape project will shrink the bloated roadway without the use of ugly barriers, will plant new trees, install new street furniture, wayfinding signs, etc. Here is the link to the latest presentation on the project, which includes the rendering.

Sappington Farmers' Market is expanding into the city. The market's owners plan to build a two-story structure at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and Truman Parkway in the City Hospital Complex. It'll include 25,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor and an 80,000 square foot greenhouse atop the building. This excellent development should make the Near South Side an even better place to live. Here's to hoping the building is designed well and is urban in form.

"Watson in the City" 6:45 PM

I grew up in what is probably the geographic center of "south St. Louis".

I can't truly speak for others, but my family mostly did its shopping to the south and southwest of our home. That included Southtown, Hampton Village, South County, and Crestwood. Even after graduating high school, I could literally count on two hands the number of times I'd gone east of Grand or north of I-64/40, excepting Forest Park. Heck, even Tower Grove South off of Morgan Ford Road itself was foreign to me.

In retrospect, my world was infinetismal then--I didn't drive until I was nearly 19 and rarely took the bus either. I hung out around Bevo mainly; anything past St. Louis Hills was a road trip as far as I was concerned in the passenger seat. My mother did make semi-frequent trips out to Crestwood (was this the edge of the world?), but instead of complaining about the distance I liked to watch the transition of urban development down Chippewa.

First Shop N Save and Famous Barr (sigh), then some brown-brick apartment buildings with porches that all lined up; there's the 7-11. Soon came the gingerbread houses, then a mess of cars fighting for a space in Hampton Village or adjacent Target. More gingerbreads and apartments. A couple medical towers. Donut stand. TED DREWES. Blockbuster. Blocky apartment buildings. River Des Peres--ewww. Overpass. That strange little business that manufactures headstones for cemeteries. More shopping centers. Then that St. Louis gray marker near the sign with the population count I was always fascinated by. I know for a fact that it read "ST. LOUIS, Pop. 396,685 (1990)" well past the 2000 census. I knew the population had fallen and didn't want to see the sign ever replaced. It was, eventually.

Right at that gray pylon, after entering St. Louis County--BAM--Chippewa Street magically became Watson Road. Why? Wasn't there one of those back in the city? Even as a child, the divide between city-and-county seemed so pronounced (the road pavement in each even clashed).

I knew of "Watson in the City" because my aunt used to live off of City Watson on Pernod in the Lindenwood neighborhood. I always enjoyed the concept of the competing Watsons, without ever understanding why. I was proud that I lived in the city and "we" had a Watson, too.

I felt compelled to spill this ramble after reading the Lindenwood Neighbor newsletter (September 2009). They used the term "Watson in the City" describing their second annual "What's on Watson" a.k.a. WOWFest!, which is coming up this weekend.

Since I have something of an obsession with neighborhood festivals, I thought I'd just post the information for the WOWFest this Saturday, but took a little detour getting there. Memory Lane may be officially located in Wildwood; but that doesn't stop me from going there.

To be WOWed:

Saturday, October 17, 2009 - 11:00 am-4:00 pm
Watson Business District's
Second Annual WOWFest

2009 will celebrate the great businesses on "Watson in the City." Look
for the crowd under the big tent at Southwest Baptist Church (across the street
from the Machacek Library).
Enjoy Live Music, Good Food & Cold Drinks.
Visit Informational and Crafter's Booths with great items for sale. 50-50 Raffle
and other Raffle items. Children's Activities and Crafts provided by
Neighborhood Churches and the Library.

Several of Watson’s great restaurants will sell delicious dishes at
reasonable prices including:

Biggie's
Chris' Pancake
LoRusso's Cucina
Pietro's
Stellina Pasta Cafe
Trattoria Marcella
possibly others ...

For more information call Nancy Doerhoff @ the
Library:
781-2948

By the way, it's worth going for Stellina Pasta alone--one of my favorite restaurants in the city!

EDIT: The festival also takes place adjacent to everyone's favorite bomb-shelter-library-combo. Ah, Machacek.

What would shoppers at Chesterfield Commons change about St. Louis? 7:48 PM

ToastedRav.com posed this question: We know you love St. Louis, but what would you change about it?

For some reason, they stalked shoppers at Chesterfield Commons to elicit answers.

I don't know if it was careful editing or there were good sales going on, but negative responses were no where to be found (minus one lady griping about traffic)!

Watch the video here.

Have St. Louis County's western reaches warmed to transit? 11:52 AM

See the St. Louis Beacon's article: "West County talks to Metro about contracting for bus service".

The title says it all.

Might this spur a re-vote sometime in the near future to actually fund transit in the St. Louis region?

Strassenfest Should Have Gone to South City, not Chesterfield! 1:01 AM

This is the wurst news I've heard all week.

St. Louis is spilling over with German heritage--especially the South Side. Most know that the "Scrubby Dutch" for which the South Side neighborhood of Dutchtown was named was actually due to a mispronunciation of the word "Deutsch"--Germans.

From Bevo Mill, to Dutchtown, to Carondelet, to Benton Park West, to Gravois Park, to the Patch...I can think of dozens of locations that might have been more appropriate for a relocated Strassenfest. But loads of parking and "security" is always key, huh?

It's going to be on Chesterfield Parkway West, too? Is there even a space fit for a large community event there?

Boo, I say. What next? Hill Day moves to Arnold?

This is the very precise point at which you know your region has been irrevocably damaged by suburban sprawl: 3:44 PM

"We would also like the St. Louis Symphony to have a summer home here in Chesterfield," said Kathy Higgins, president of Sachs Properties. Cultural resources like the Missouri Botanical Garden, the St. Louis Zoo, as well as public libraries and parks get funded by tax money from all county residents, Sachs said, but the bulk of them are located within St. Louis City.

"We would like to bring at least pieces of those to other places, to Chesterfield," Higgins said.

Ms. Higgins is helping develop a sterile, suburban downtown for Chesterfield.

And she wants to cannibalize St. Louis's historical institutions for her (and other West Countians') driving convenience.

A bold quote if I've ever read one--and, as stated above, a sure sign that St. Louis has some of the world's worst sprawl.

If a suburbanite hypothesizes about handpicking away tourist attractions from the central city, it show a total disconnect between that suburb and its host region, and especially that suburb's relationship to the central city.

Far too many "St. Louisans" grow up without any urban frame of reference. The city, to them, is but another one of the myriad municipalities in the region.

Well, even in their minds, it is a special municipality--one marked by poverty and crime and undeserving of tourist dollars anyway, likely.

Shameful.

(To end on a more light-hearted note, here is some wackiness from Big Small Town Designs in reference to Chesterfield:



).

When Credit is Due... 2:29 PM

I have to hand it to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at times. Just when I'm ready to write it off as a tabloid unconcerned with St. Louis's myriad urban issues, it produces an article of journalistic excellence.

A previous such article is "A Tax-Credit Bill for One Man?" by Jake Wagman (written on my birthday in 2007 (June 17)--a present just for me?). Wagman's article was so balanced (perhaps even biased towards the beleaguered Blairmont-afflicted neighborhoods) that it drew fire from Mayor Slay. In a city where Mr. Slay was able to recruit the National Trust for Historic Preservation to supply a fluff piece about the "unfortunate need" to demolish the Century Building in that same newspaper, Wagman's criticism of the deathly silence at City Hall was astonishing.

The latest gold star for the P-D comes in the form of "Charles Lee 'Cookie' Thornton: Behind the smile". The shootings at the Kirkwood City Hall back in February of this year by "Cookie" shocked the nation. But the article seems to indicate that the city of Kirkwood had become inured to Cookie's explosive behavior, watching his deterioration without wondering why.

My point is not to exonerate Cookie. What happened at City Hall is inexcusable. But the article does display the bitter irony of Negro Removal that I hinted at in my previous post, which also mentioned Cookie's Meacham Park neighborhood.

Poor African American neighborhoods are often so neglected that, when they do get any sort of attention, even if the form of urban renewal, the residents are often complicit in the plans. City leaders can then point to residents' willingness to sell their homes as evidence that there's no will or way to salvage these neighborhoods.

Truly, the burden of proof should be on the municipalities who neglected the neighborhoods, who ushered in or failed to halt the decline in the first place.

Instead, they become humanitarians--givers of fresh new housing, destroyers of dilapidated old housing; bringers of Wal-Mart and Target, takers of hopelessness and blight.

"Negro Removal" stalled in Richmond Heights' Hadley Township: given St. Louis history, it will likely go through 11:41 AM

Another St. Louis area historic black community has been under siege--but Richmond Heights' Hadley Township may just get a reprieve.

Developers of the $190 million "Hadley Center"--to include "a 150-room hotel, offices, shops, restaurants, 153 houses and 48 condos on 50 acres south of Highway 40 (Interstate 64) and east of Hanley Road"--have been stuck in litigation with area homeowners and now are unsure whether the project will move forward in light of the recent economic downturn.

Take a look at one of the model homes proposed for the development:




If you think it looks like a McBride & Son Homes concoction, then you've won the grand prize! The design is strikingly similar to a group of homes featured at their other Negro Removal project that went through in 2004--McRee Town's razing for Botanical Heights.

Margaret Gillerman of the Post writes:

Hadley Township was founded in 1907 as a company town for Evens-Howard brick workers, many of whom were blacks migrating from the South. Some residents' families have been there for several generations.In the two years since the plan was revealed, some residents moved, some died and at least one house burned. The neighborhood still appears vibrant, if fraying.

Bert Coleman said he needs to be paid so he can put his 91-year-old mother in assisted living.Another resident, JoAnn Bailey, said: "If we can stay, we will stay and be happy. If not, give us our money in 30 days and stop holding us hostage."

Sure, you could make the argument that race has little to do with this urban renewal scheme. The dreary shopping center and squandered transit-oriented development opportunity known as Maplewood Commons has already risen and delivered the area into the open arms of big box commerce. I'm not sure I would want to remain in the area given its character now as an imitation of congested exurbia complete with a super-sized Wal Mart.

Still, the "coincidence" that another black neighborhood would be sacrificed for the goal to transform Mid-County into one big strip shopping center is nevertheless disappointing.

The city of Kirkwood annexed the controversial and mostly African-American Meacham Park neighborhood in 1991. Previously, it was an unicorporated area. What did they do with the land they acquired via annexation? Eminent domain the western 1/3 for a Target store, a couple outparcel mini-boxes, and, of course, a Wal Mart.

The city of Kinloch--the state of Missouri's first incorporated black community--has been assaulted by airport expansion. It lost three quarters of its population and housing in 1990s. Ironically, Paul McKee, Jr.'s own NorthPark development rests within the boundaries of Kinloch. McKee plans to use the land that was taken from the former residents of Kinloch to develop a sprawling industrial park with ample water features. Maybe he would be good for redeveloping St. Louis's north side!

Of course, the list of black neighborhoods demolished by the City of St. Louis during the official urban renewal days is quite sad. The largest are DeSoto-Carr, which gave way to Pruitt Igoe, and Mill Creek Valley, a neighborhood of some 20,000 residents. More recent examples include aforementioned McRee Town as well as Blairmont's demolition by neglect and brick rustling neighborhoods (St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou, chiefly).

The St. Louis area has a long history of ignoring its African American population until it is convenient to seize their low-valued land and "humanely" remove them from the blight that failed urban policy and structural racism helped to create in the first place.

It's all very convenient for the private developers of publicly subsidized big box shopping centers and industrial park developers in Missouri and in St. Louis, the state's most reliable and willing experimenter.