Urban Review STL - Latest Comments

Re: Sunday Poll: Debate Hosting Costs Worthwhile?

Mark-Al — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 05:55:11 -0000

Can't imagine that a private college, even one with the sizable endowment of Centre College, with only 1500 (-) students, can (or should) afford to flush away any money foolishly--meaning in a way that doesn't directly benefit students and faculty. A school sponsored donation to the local humane society would probably have been money better spent than sponsoring a VP debate....and colleges have no business donating to humane societies.

Re: Sunday Poll: Debate Hosting Costs Worthwhile?

JZ71 — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 09:54:15 -0000

Centre College, Danville, KY . . .

Re: Sunday Poll: Debate Hosting Costs Worthwhile?

Mark-AL — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 20:15:57 -0000

10/29: Unfortunately, I can't name the college. Guess the "exposure" from the debate got wasted on me....and I suspect on many others.

IMO, colleges and universities should spend zilch, zippo, nunca for any political debates. And I too would withdraw my financial support if I ever learned that ND or U of I ever spent a penny for such nonsense.

In a society that (I hope) is trying to convince people to aspire to actually pay for what they get, we certainly don't want to enable our presidential and vice-presidential candidates and give them a free ride!

Even $1 M is a HIGH threshold. Just think about the faculty pay increases that could be made possible what that extra $ 1 M in the budget.

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

JZ71 — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 19:31:04 -0000

I agree that Helsinki has better planning practices and processes. My point was that any city that has urban areas / neighborhoods / districts that were laid out / built prior to the 1950's will be inherently more walkable than areas in the same city that were laid out between the 1950's and now. I could be wrong, but I think that Helsinki was spared many of the ravages of WW II, aka involuntary urban renewal, so a larger portion of the old city remains intact, going back centuries.

On this continent, you can see marked differences between our country and Canada and Mexico, where urban renewal took out big chunks of our older, walkable, neighborhoods, here, while similar neighborhoods, there, remained largely intact.

Where you and I disagree is on the suburbs (and suburban-scale redevelopment of older urban areas). You want to believe "build it and they will come" and/or "you have to force people to do the 'right' thing", while I believe that what we see is the organic manifestation of many small choices by many people voting with their wallets. Every city that I've been to, on this continent and in Europe, have suburban areas surrounding the older, urban, walkable, core, and you're deluding yourself if you think that Helsinki is some sort non-suburban nirvana!

People that want the suburban experience gravitate to the suburbs, while people who want the urban experience gravitate to urban areas - it's called choice! If you really want more, dense, urban infill projects in St. Louis, the big hurdle isn't the planning process, the big hurdle is the consuming process (or the lack thereof). We're seeing continued strong interest in the central corridor not because of good or bad planning, we're seeing it because of the success with recently-completed projects, while we're seeing very little private-sector investment north of Delmar because most consumers simply don't want to (or can't) pay what it would cost to develop there. You can "plan" all you want, but if the football team leaves town you ain't gonna build a new stadium!

The same goes for transit. As I've stated many times previously, "investing" in the Delmar Streetcar will set back other transit investments for decades. Voters aren't stupid. If they continue to see boondoggles, like this tourist attraction, they're NOT going to vote for future projects. Yes, it gets back to leadership (or a lack thereof), but it also gets back to repeatable results. Continuing to build projects that over-promise and under-deliver is a sure recipe for either "just say no" or "I'm outta here".

Would a better, more-open and more-inclusive planning process be a good thing? Absolutely! But that is only one part of the equation. More people choose suburban areas for the schools (good), crime rates (low[er]) and the housing stock (newer) than they do for walkability or architectural or urban design. The design choices may suck, but they're simply not a big priority for many people. Heck, a cul-de-sac is a bigger selling feature than a corner bar!

Finally, look at taxes. People in Finland pay 50% more in taxes than we do (45% vs 30%) http://www.nationmaster.com... . . Give ANY government 50% more revenue and they can do wonderful things. Bottom line, on multiple levels, you do get what you pay for!

PS - check this out! https://urbanfinland.com/20... . . . and this: http://www.citylab.com/hous...

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

gmichaud — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 23:02:19 -0000

Well actually Helsinki prohibits highrises and box stores in the core of Helsinki and limits them to only certain areas around Helsinki. I know I spent a little time in suburbs a few years back when my brother in law was building a house and I was surprised to see some of what I considered poor practices that are used in St. Louis. The location you have cited is far outside the core of Helsinki and would be more comparable to St. Charles County.
On the other hand, poor practices are limited and generally I felt the urban planning is more rigorous everywhere, especially compared to St. Louis. As a result there is excellent transit in Helsinki, including the suburbs and all over Finland for that matter.
Go to a comparable location in Helsinki to the St. Louis Ikea site and you will find a much different situation. Just about any open areas are public squares, markets or other public spaces, you will find little or no parking interfering with the pedestrian experience, which is the point I was making.
And n,o even the Helsinki suburbs are nothing like St Louis, there are simply not the parking, auto wastelands that exist in St Louis.
Here is a link to Helsinki City Planning in English. http://www.hel.fi/www/ksv/en
You can link to publications on their front page and find information about what they are doing,all in English For instance, contrast the Helsinki city planning review 2016 to the nothing burger of St Louis.
Or there is a publication on how they have decided that boulevards have been allowed to become too auto orientated and what steps they are taking to moderate and change those boulevards into a more human friendly orientation.
Or compare their 2050 vision with the East West Gateway garbage publication Connected 2045.
Helsinki, by the way, although around the same size metro area as St. Louis right now is actively planning for population increases of around 10,000 per year.
Also please note if you look at the city planning review 2016 look at page 39 which outlines how the public is involved in multiple steps in the urban planning process. Public participation is another nothing burger in St. Louis.
You also might also want to check out the numerous transit expansions, in the city planning review 2016, most are rail.
But yeah you found a parking lot in Helsinki, good for you. And by the way if St. Louis has a central website that makes a similar effort in keeping the public informed, please point it out to me, I haven't seen it.

Re: Know Your Ballot: Citywide, State Rep, US Rep Races; 5th Ward Special Election

Anjana — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 16:18:04 -0000

One thing I'll give Lacy Clay credit for, he was the only one who publicly opposed the McCullough over the Michael Brown case. I give him credit for that despite feeling the way you do overall.

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

JZ71 — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 13:41:38 -0000

Just for grins, I googled Helsinki, using streetview. Helsinki is like every other European and American city - it has "good" parts, older, dense, urban areas, that predate the widespread availability of the private motor vehicle, and then there are the suburbs, where being a pedestrian sucks. And, guess what? The IKEA in Helsinki looks a whole lot like ours! (In a sea of parking!!!) https://www.google.com/maps...

Re: Readers: IKEA St. Louis A Net Positive

JZ71 — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 07:26:29 -0000

And that was my point - technology is great when it works (most of the time), but maddening when it doesn't (for no apparent or good reason)! Thanks for trying!

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

gmichaud — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 21:31:25 -0000

How do they do it in New York, London or Helsinki, all cities with a heavy pedestrian and transit footprint? They use movers. Hell even our local St Vincent De Paul used clothing and furniture store off of South Kingshighway has on call independent driver available to move couches you can't move in a car as well as other items.
As for as the question should every project be "pedestrian friendly", the answer is yes, yes, yes.
How in the hell we are designing for the comfort of cars and not human beings is beyond me.
It cost no more to site a project to serve pedestrians along with auto's. Ikea should have been sited along the street. Even if the configuration of the store demanded the entrance face the parking lot and a shared entrance was not possible it would still be a win for human beings. Forget transit, this is about the human being
Instead today, we have a situation where the pedestrian has the same walk to the building as someone who drove their car into the parking lot and tried to find the furthest point away from the entrance to park.
You should know a city such as Helsinki has street after street, block after block of pedestrian friendly environments. In St. Louis human environments are hacked apart in favor of what is best for the automobile, with zero consideration for the pedestrian.
So yes, from my experience and study successful and prosperous cities are those that put the human being foremost, or at least equal, to all design considerations with the auto.
The Ikea site is a total failure in this regard and does not deserve millions of dollars. The failure of Otis Williams and the Board of Alderman to demand more from the Ikea project is sloppy leadership.
There is a far different type of leadership in successful cities that actively include citizens as part of the process.
St. Louis has a closed process that serves insiders. It's nice and cozy that way and why they don't want to end their gravy train. Hence any democratic voice of the citizen is not needed nor desired as a check and balance. The hilarious result is aldermanic courtesy where the fucking aldermen and women sign off any piece of shit that is presented by their fellow aldermen and women.
Ikea is a failure in city building even if it may be a commercial success.

Re: Readers: IKEA St. Louis A Net Positive

Steve Patterson — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 20:26:38 -0000

Just had my husband pull up the post on his laptop running Windows 10, he had the same issue as you in Chrime & Firefox. I reviewed the blog & poll settings, I see nothing I can do to change it. If there was something I could've done I would have done so Sunday.

Re: Readers: IKEA St. Louis A Net Positive

JZ71 — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 16:33:17 -0000

I was guessing it might be Mac versus Microsoft or mobile versus desktop . . . but I'm certainly no expert!

Re: Readers: IKEA St. Louis A Net Positive

Mark-AL — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 13:58:06 -0000

The problem obviously has something to do with the user's computer operating system. My personal on-the-road system is Chrome, (chromebook), and the poll showed "closed" on that computer. My business computer is a Mac, and I had no problems with that. I called my youngest son and asked him to check using his Mac, and he too had no problems. With similar issues, it's been my experience that this glitch may eventually work itself out--don't know why, but sometimes it just does.

Re: Readers: IKEA St. Louis A Net Positive

Steve Patterson — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 09:27:10 -0000

I gladly take the blame when I'm at fault, like the poll being closed initially. There might be something I could do -- I just don't know what that would be. A total of 42 votes were collected, more than usual. I can't afford to pay an expert by the hour because of a few people not being able to see the numbers on a post.

Re: Readers: IKEA St. Louis A Net Positive

JZ71 — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 08:24:09 -0000

I just checked my computer at work - both Chrome and Edge are showing zeros . . . and it was turned off for the weekend and restarted yesterday . . . so, just for grins, I did a cold install of Opera and got the same result! I guess you can continue to "blame" the end user, but most internet providers would rather figure out the problems on their end . . .

That said, a) I hope you had a great weekend in Chicago, and b) this wasn't a very important poll, so I don't regret not having an opportunity to vote. My frustration is with various platforms working differently, for no reason other than it's "different", and I know it's nothing that either one of us can fix, because some computer geek wants "their" system to be "unique"!

Re: Readers: IKEA St. Louis A Net Positive

Steve Patterson — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 08:03:42 -0000

I know of no setting I can change, your browser has chached the page. It's good practice to have more than one browser available.

Re: Readers: IKEA St. Louis A Net Positive

JZ71 — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 07:30:25 -0000

Even today, on my 3 computers running Chrome, at home, the original post has the poll showing closed with zero votes. I wonder if it's a problem with the browser or the mobile versus desktop version of your blog?

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

Steve Patterson — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 19:30:52 -0000

I've been their many times in the last year as a pedestrian each time. I made a purchase each time, not one a sofa.

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

Timm — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 19:07:26 -0000

How would one walk or take mass transit to a furniture store and carry a sofa, dresser etc home? Does every project no matter what it is demand "pedestrian friendly"?

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

gmichaud — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 13:13:38 -0000

I agree, especially tax abatement schemes harm those who can least afford it as well as services. It is estimated that St. Louis granted around 30 million in tax abatements last year (and the year before etc). This comes out to around 100 bucks for every man, woman and child in St. Louis. And while a reduction of services is included, with the raising of property tax with the school bond issue last year it is clear, it is money coming out of property owners pockets to service the wealthy. It is absolutely grotesque that you have elderly homeowners, the working poor and middle class homeowners taking, what I estimate to be around 100 to 150 bucks per 100,000 valuation and giving it directly to wealthy insiders. It is ridiculous, tax the poor to give to the rich. (Note I can only do a rough estimate, the city itself cannot supply accurate cost figures, another problem with tax abatements)

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

gmichaud — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 13:07:59 -0000

The problem I have, among others, is that St. Louis does not demand that these projects are pedestrian and transit friendly. How damn hard would it have been to push the building up to the street? The main entrance design would have been a bit tricky, but that design has been accomplished many times. The parking experience would have been the exact same as it is now, but the pedestrian would be accommodated. This is especially important given the rest of the Cortex development is at least trying to include pedestrians and transit in the design. It's bad enough giving tax money away, but when it is not used to further the interests of the citizens it makes for poor leadership and a poor, low quality living environment. I think Otis Williams and the Board of Aldermen are responsible.

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

JZ71 — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 08:13:29 -0000

It's more of a bigger question - should EVERY new development expect to receive significant tax incentives from the government? Incentives being paid by all the existing taxpayers, who've been paying taxes, for years, in the city? Because taxes not paid have to be made up from other sources: https://nextstl.com/2016/05...

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

Timm — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 22:02:38 -0000

Only on this site would someone vote a "net negative" for an area with BILLIONS in recent/current or planned development. Question though....was IKEA award a NEW TIF or allocated part of the over all TIF previously awarded the CORTEX district?

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

JZ71 — Sun, 23 Oct 2016 15:50:47 -0000

If nothing else, it attracts shoppers to St. Louis . . .

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

JZ71 — Sun, 23 Oct 2016 15:50:01 -0000

me too . . .

Re: Sunday Poll: After Millions in Tax Incentives, Has IKEA Been A Net Positive or Net Negative?

Greg — Sun, 23 Oct 2016 15:32:21 -0000

It's impossible to call it a bad thing... The TIF is revenue we will not receive vs. money we paid out up front -- and we probably wouldn't have gotten the IKEA without it. It is generating some new taxes and definitely promotes buzz about the City and the Cortex area in specific.