The Board of Adjustment Wounds Carondelet

While reviewing plans for the former Coca-Cola Syrup plant on Michigan Ave, the city's ever so introspective Board of Adjustment voted to approve the project with the condition that nine planned townhouses across the street be deleted in favor of a parking lot.

A frakking parking lot!!!

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard it. In its zeal to enforce its suburban-influenced parking standards, this board has inflicted a permanent wound on what could have become a pleasant, walkable neighborhood. Poised to take advantage of the next economic upswing, Carondelet was a hotbed of rehab and new development, much of which is now on hold, but some of which is proceeding. The Board of Adjustment had an opportunity to do the sensible thing and allow the construction of a cohesive urban streetscape. Instead, it decided to enforce a lethal gap in a neighborhood that was already walking a delicate line between pass or fail. The project already had accommodation for parking, but more importantly, it had a developer committed to creating a neighborhood in Carondelet instead of another vapid wasteland of cracker boxes floating in an asphalt sea and houses hidden neatly away from the services and traffic they need to be safe and productive.

The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The project will consist of 78 residential units and ground-floor commercial space, including a bowling alley and microbrewery. 121 parking spaces appear on the preliminary plans. With one per dwelling unit, that leaves 43 spaces for the commercial tenants, plus street parking. Perhaps they should also pave the park across Michigan, the long-term effect on the neighborhood wouldn't be any worse.

The rear yard of the plant, with room for parking in addition to indoor parking indicated on the plans [photo credit]

So, as the mighty automobile continues its choke hold on a diverse historic community, slick robber-developers will have the ammunition they need to justify more strip malls and wider roads, perpetuating the cycle we have seen in the inner suburbs of strip mall - traffic - road widening - more traffic - dead strip malls - big box retail. Loughborough Commons seems to be the city's picture of paradise.

Driver Education

Today, I had to educate two drivers about the purpose of crosswalks.

The first class took place at 11th and Pine. I was crossing Pine and apparently, the little hand started flashing. The driver who happened to be turning had the nerve to honk at me, so I stopped. 'It says stop,' she informed me. Yeah, I had already done that and was forming an appropriate expletive while she enjoyed her lesson on right-of-way.

The second class convened a little more than an hour later. Full of pizza and trekking back to city hall, I took my normal route from Gregory's; down Pine, across 12th, and thru the park to the tunnel entrance. Well, the light at 12th was flashing, so being a pedestrian, I proceeded. As I stepped past the median, a little guy in a little minivan gunned it, no doubt thinking I was one of those people who stood in the middle of a major boulevard hoping for a break in traffic. I'm not. I'm a tenured professor of driver education. He had to switch lanes as I yelled 'crosswalk' into his ear, tho I doubt he understood the significance of the word. Amazingly, out of eight lanes of traffic, he was the only driver in need of education.

Pedestrians have the right of way, even at crosswalks were there is no light. It amazes me how many drivers ignore this law. There was a news story last week stating that Missouri is the most dangerous state for pedestrians. With the total lack of driving courtesy demonstrated by our police, it's no surprise.

I believe the private automobile will be the downfall of civilization, and will gladly argue that it is the cause of many of our current social problems. People in cars have no interaction with the world outside their windshield except as an obstacle course. They go about their daily business without the need to speak to another human being. They get in the car, drive to the super-grocery, buy our milk without acknowledging the humanity of the cashier, and drive back home in a cone of silence. It's easy to curse the aggressive guy in the SUV because you can do it safely, because the only thing you can do is swear at him since he's in his own bubble. With each incident you become more brazen and the person in the next car becomes less human.