The new "old" curbs are in, the sidewalks are being paved and the vintage light standards are up at the Old Post Office in St. Louis. One thing is clear: there will be no on-street parking on the Old Post Office block when the renovation is done.
Really, for a project whose backers are so paranoid about insufficient adjacent parking, it's a huge embarrassment that there is no actual street parking on three sides of the Old Post Office block itself. Such parking would be convenient to people wanting to stop in at one of of the Old Post Office shops and would form a protective buffer between sidewalk diners and through traffic on Olive, Ninth, Locust or Eighth streets. Assuming any of those people ever show up.
And that the number of on-street spaces would have been enough for the judges, the only ones truly demanding extremely close parking, is especially sad. Sure, I don't think on-street parking is for long-term parkers (though used such at the Carnahan and Eagleton courts), but the space comparison remains ironic.
ReplyDeleteI guess you have to deaden the OPO streetscape even more to help ensure that at least one more level of the garage-mahal will be regularly used. But now where will Callow park to dash in/out of the Biz Journal?
Who is this Callow?
ReplyDeleteDoes he control the Board of Aldermen?
Nope, just the Mayor.
ReplyDeleteAnother irony: David Newburger, an attorney and advocate for folks living with disabilities, is the registered agent for Richard Callow's Public Eye, Inc.
ReplyDeleteI guess no one in the Old Post Office will be needing handicap parking curbside.
But handicap parking isn't Historic(TM)!
ReplyDeleteIf Callow only controls the Mayor, then how do redevelopment plans, like the Century, get through the Board of Alderman?
ReplyDeleteNo one ever said the Aldermen are smart.
ReplyDeleteNo one ever said that Callow doesn't know a few of them, or that Stogel never gave a dollar to any of their re-election efforts.
Not sure Callow "controls" anyone -- he's more of a mercenary than a general.
I think the people on the Board of Alderman are pretty smart, and didn't they all vote in favor of the Century project?
ReplyDeleteCallow is also unfortunately on the Preservation Board. Slay had to appoint someone to the board who would do whatever he tells them.
ReplyDeleteGee, I guess if the aldermen are smart then that makes the Century Building demolition smart. Thanks for the clarification.
ReplyDeleteLooking at their track record on development, our modern City leaders really aren't much smarter than their highway/urban renewal-backing predecessors:
ReplyDelete-Backing StL Marketplace with general revenue;
-Backing Kiel Opera on an agreement with the Lauries;
-Backing the Convention Hotel with Community Development Block Grant funds;
-Backing the Admiral casino with Port Authority revenue;
-Backing City Parks operations on Prop C funds;
And much more!
And look what happened when a progressive person like Steve Patterson ran for alderman against a democratic incumbent.
ReplyDeleteHe lost.
Speaking of progressives, Jeff Smith would do more for us if he ran as alderman. Which ward is he in?
Smith is in Ward 8, which surely could use a progressive candidate in 2007.
ReplyDeleteIf Jeff Smith was on the Board of Aldermen, do you think he would have voted for the Century demolition?
ReplyDeleteYeah, he probably would. Isn't that how aldermanic courtesy works?
ReplyDeleteIf he didn't, wouldn't he be "voted off the island" by his fellow aldermen?