Last Day to Show Your Support for Google Fiber in St. Louis! 10:38 AM

Contributed by Joseph Decepida.

Google is planning to build ultra-high speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the country. The plan is to deploy 1 Gbps, fiber optic connections directly to people's homes and businesses. This connection would be over 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today.

You can learn more about the project here: http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/overview

What will Google Fiber mean for St. Louis?

Securing ultra high speed internet infrastructure in St. Louis will provide strong momentum for the creation of next generation internet infrastructure services, companies, and jobs. Many of the internet-based services like YouTube that have come to be a part of our daily lives weren't possible until broadband. Google wants to accelerate the next era of innovation by testing fiber optic cable to the premises in a community. We think that community should be St. Louis! With fiber optic cable coming directly to St. Louis homes and businesses and the enormous media attention that could come with being chosen as a trial community, our City would strengthen its ability to attract companies, new talent, and capital.

What Can You Do to Help?

The City is responding to the Request For Information (RFI) released by Google. The deadline for submissions is March 26th. (EDITOR'S NOTE: YES, that's TOMORROW!) We will be competing with many other communities across the country to be chosen for this experiment.

One part of the RFI requires us to demonstrate our community support for this project. To this end, we've created the following website:

http://stlcin.missouri.org/googlefiber/

Please show Google we deserve ultra high speed broadband by doing any or all of the following:

1. Share the site and our effort via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or through your own email.

2. Embed a link to the site on your business or organization’s website.

2. Nominate St. Louis as a resident. (Note: You must be logged in to a Google account.)

3. Get an organization of which you are a member to support our effort.

4. Leave a comment of support on our map.

5. Upload a video discussing what an ultra high speed connection would do for you, your

    business or organization, and your community.

We’ll measure support through the number of  Facebook fans, re-tweets on Twitter, organizations who’ve added their support, and comments on our map. Don't pass this opportunity up. So far, we're just nearly breaking 1,000 Facebook fans. With all the pride and swagger the online community has when talking up St. Louis, now is one of those times where we really need to demonstrate it. Whether you're a die hard professional blogger or anonymous forum lurker, please show your support for the City of St. Louis!

If you have any questions, please reply to stlwantsfiber@gmail.com and the team will get back to you.

Urban St. Louis v2.0 4:40 PM

The Urban St. Louis forums (http://urbanstl.com/forum/), usually referred to simply as "UrbanSTL", have spent the past couple months undergoing a series of changes. The site has long been St. Louis's go-to source for urban-related news and developments. To those of us who have enjoyed the website since the mid 2000s, the UrbanSTL of those shaky few months was a shadow of its former self. As the forum regularly crashed or froze up, users dwindled and posts became more infrequent.

The new interface

What was once a good source for finding out just about any built environment news, new developments, or other issues in St. Louis became a wholly frustrating experience.

Thankfully, some creative (and patient!) minds have gotten together and retooled the site, adding several new features. Most importantly, the new UrbanSTL is fast and reliable. May its network and frequent posters repopulate so that St. Louis can again brag of this more-than-useful resource!

What I am calling Urban St. Louis v2.0 is integrated with Alex Ihnen's St. Louis Urban Workshop blog, meaning that UrbanSTL now has a companion/host website to aggregate news and developments. Furthermore, the site contains a "social" section to connect with other forumers and a wiki so that users can avoid wading through 400 pages of rumors and chatter about Ballpark Village and find only the latest news.

I encourage every reader of this blog to register and contribute to the discussion. For those who have sworn the site off due to its past problems, rejoice and reconcile!

UrbanSTL is (or at least was) a truly thriving online community unique to St. Louis. Even larger and more prosperous Boston, with its ArchBoston forum, once expressed envy over St. Louis's urbanism forum. Let's make that the case once more! Click here to visit the forum directly.

Register!

Fiber FAIL? St. Louis's Bid for Google Fiber Network Deemed "Lagging" 9:16 AM

KMOX believes that St. Louis is "sitting on the sidelines" when it comes to competing with its Midwestern peers for the coveted experimental Google Fiber network. Google Fiber would deliver home internet speeds over 100 times faster than anything available today. It's possible only one city will get to be the host of this trial network.

KMOX points out that Columbia, Missouri aired a pitch for the Google network with thousands of Mizzou basketball fans holding up signs in support of that city hosting the Fiber network on national television. As was mentioned in my previous post, Topeka recently changed its name to Google, Kansas. St. Louis's Facebook page for its Google bid  has just under 200 fans; Columbia has 5,342, while Topeka...err, Google, Kansas claims 14,777 Facebook fans.

What do you think? Is this enough evidence to show that St. Louis is truly lagging in its bid? The city's website is a nice gesture. What else do you think St. Louis should be doing? Why is our Facebook lobbying so far behind much smaller Columbia and Topeka?

UPDATE: Kudos to the St. Louis Social Media and Tech Report for finding a list of cities that have bid for the Google Fiber network. The competition is stiff--many cities large and small are already in the running.

St. Louis Wants Google Fiber 9:12 AM

Just a PSA: the city has put together a website to promote its bid to host Google's proposed fiber network, which would allow internet connections over 100 times faster than anyone has access to today. The bid is highly competitive, with many cities already in the ring and devising their own strategies to stand out. Famously, Topeka, Kansas recently changed its name to Google (for the period of a month) to woo the internet giant's fiber network.

St. Louis's website is appropriately titled "St. Louis Wants Google Fiber".


There, you may submit a nomination of St. Louis for the fiber network, record a video, or drop a comment tag on a map of the city showing your support.

It'd be great if a Rustbelt city like St. Louis could host experimental technologies like this. Go on the website and vote, record, and comment!

Property Research in the City of St. Louis 9:41 AM

While I can be a harsh critic of the lack of openness of St. Louis's government at time, I must give the city kudos on at least one project: the ever useful "Geo St. Louis".


Now, don't get me wrong. It's definitely not without its kinks. For one, I have never found it by going to the city's main website at http://stlcin.missouri.org. Where is it? This type of tool would be much more useful if it were front and center on the main website. Secondly, it tends to go offline a bit too often; certain links don't work; etc.


Yet, it's a still an immense resource. You can find out who owns a house, how many ordinance violations it has had, whether there's a demolition permit pending, what year the city believes it was built (often inaccurate, especially for older properties, but still), and even images of the property dating back several years. You can grab a property's legal description, assure that a certain parcel is inside a certain neighborhood, find out if it's listed on a historic district. The list goes on regarding the uses of the site (it even has a mini-locational analysis tool whereby you can look at aggregate income and other demographic data of the city with a customizable radius around an area of interest).


For this blog, being able to plug in any address and see whether a demolition permit has been added or whether there's an old photograph of a vacant building on the Preservation Board agenda--it's a lifesaver!


One of my favorite features of this little known site is the "Featured Image" that appears on the main page. From what I can tell, the selection is totally random. Some days we see vacant lots; usually we see vacant crumbling buildings. I always chuckle to myself that the city would "feature" its vacancy and abandonment on this semi-public website, but every once in a while a random photograph showcases the sheer beauty of a restored and revived St. Louis.


Like this home in Gravois Park on Miami:

What a great face to our city! Brick sidewalks, beautiful Second Empire architecture...what could be better?


I appreciate Geo St. Louis for what it currently does and hope the city can find the resources to make it even better. Let's not even discuss their main website, whose outdated interface is like a dingy doormat where wiping one's shoes just gets them dirtier (translation: it's not very welcoming).

St. Louis Intersections in High Definition from Google Maps 6:32 PM

This could be horribly old news, but it's a new discovery to me, at least.

Fans of Google Maps' StreetView might be pleased to know that most, if not all, intersections in the city are now in what I call "high definition" rather than the usual grainy resolution.

Many of our city's corners look great with such rendering! Here's a before and after look, from Soulard. Note that, when you're not in an intersection, the old resolution is still present. Other cities, such as Pittsburgh, seem to have their whole expanses covered with this "high definition" rendering.

10th and Menard Streets, non-intersection view.

10th and Menard - intersection view

I know this post is impossibly nerdy, but just thought I'd pass it along for those with the same cartographic/photographic inclinations.

UPDATE: It looks like the H-D photos are most prevalent in areas heavily covered by Streetview (South City and Downtown). Some Central West End and North Side intersections are not yet updated.

SECOND UPDATE: Google has added more sections of the city (completely HD) to Streetview. The Patch, Princeton Heights, portions of Bevo and Holly Hills, etc. were all basically left untouched and are now available on Streetview. I hope they finish the rest of the city--the North Side is particularly undone.

NabeWise 3:31 PM

In Baltimore, power has been restored, yet three feet of snow remains, with 5 more inches on the way tomorrow. That means blogging time.

For now, a short post.

I found this new website, NabeWise, which beckons users to:

* Explore neighborhoods.
* Discover new neighborhoods.
* Find the right neighborhood for you.

So far, in its infancy, it includes only New York City and San Francisco. Make sure to register and get St. Louis added. This could be an excellent resource!

That's all for now.

Map nerds beware: Yahoo Maps now features neighborhoods! 5:10 PM

Doing a search for "restaurants" along Manchester in the Grove, I stumbled upon what I believe is a new feature of Yahoo! Maps: neighborhood boundaries.



Amazing!

For good measure, I checked Chicago and New Orleans to see if their nabes were so gracefully displayed as well. Indeed, Chicago's Wicker Park and New Orleans' Treme are featured alongside their respective neighborhood neighbors.

I used to despise Yahoo Maps. Their previous role seemed to be almost making Google look like a godsend in comparison. I still enjoy Google Maps (much quicker and more reliable), but Yahoo is on my radar.

Check it out.