Destructive Stimulus

MODoT just doesn't get it. It's proposing to toss a paltry sum at the city of St. Louis to repave Memorial Drive, and spend a massive amount of money extending highway 141 in northwest St. Louis County. The bulk of the funds would go into rural highway projects. In other words, stimulus funds intended to boost the economy are going to be thrown away on the wasteful practices that got us into this mess in the first place.

Repaving Memorial Drive will do nothing to boost the economy. It is a place devoid of anything but motorists moving between freeways and that offers no opportunity for other development. Extending 141 will certainly lead to development, but it will be the same old story of new strip malls and big-box retail that will suck the life out of strip malls and big-box retail in other parts of the county. Suburban sprawl can only sustain itself on the constant duplication of existing infrastructure; there's just not enough population to support the rapidly expanding amount of commercial space that is cluttering the suburban fringe. MODoT's plan plays right into this wasteful cycle by opening new tracts of north county to developers who will build the boxes, take the profits, and disappear with the asphalt compactors.

The stimulus funds offer an opportunity to build the 14th Street Metrolink line, which will draw vital investment into North St. Louis and promote the development of sustainable commercial space that will actually feed neighborhoods instead of bleed them dry. Improvements to rail service between the state's major cities could relieve pressure on the interstates. A high-speed train between St. Louis and Kansas City would go a long way to creating sustainable freight and passenger transportation in Missouri, and bolster smaller cities along the way, such as Fulton, Columbia, and Sedalia. Instead of drawing traffic out of the small towns of Missouri, as the interstates do [just look at the tawdry development at every exit ramp], a rail line would spawn freight transfer depots in the decaying industrial districts of town all along the line, and bring visitors into the depots of downtowns that desperately need investment.

Last time I was in northwest St. Louis County [and I avoid it], it didn't strike me as a place that needs stimulus. Last time I walked Memorial Drive [which everybody avoids], it struck me as a place that needs massive redevelopment to turn back over to the pedestrians who sustain urban cores, not a place that needed to accomodate more cars.

Thoughts That Occur in the Shower

I realized this morning what's the problem with America's economy, as horror struck at the thought that the 'rescue plan' will only worsen the situation.

America has destroyed its engines of economic growth. Jane Jacobs eloquently explained it to us nearly sixty years ago: cities are the primary source of economic strength. But in America, we have utterly wasted most of our real cities with suburban sprawl. We have funneled resources into a wasteful infrastructure that depends on a self-devouring cycle of constant redevelopment to sustain itself.

So, what's America's plan to pull itself out of this failing economy? Roads. An 'economic expert' on the Today show this morning stated that in order for the stimulus funds to have maximum effect on the economy, a large portion of them must be spent on new infrastructure that will stimulate new development. In other words, more new roads into virgin forests and undeveloped farmland; more big box retail and strip malls; more roads, sewers, and power lines that we won't be able to afford to maintain and will strap local governments with costs that will siphon funds away from sensible development.

If we don't break this cycle now, it will only continue to suck us into oblivion.

Dante, meet President Obama.

St Louis: a Case Study in Sprawl

St Louis loves sprawl so much that we've perfected it to an art. Our outer suburbs are a fashionable display of fussy strip malls and quaint light posts dividing seas of cookie-cutter vinyl boxes, occupied only by strands of lurching cars under the twinkling red-amber-green of traffic signals. Here in the central city, we are so impressed by this sterile beauty that we are turning our historic core into a shadow of suburbia.

Our administration imported a celebrity planner from Toronto, and have proven themselves just as good at ignoring him as they were at ignoring a long line of his competent predecessors. We have a plan, tho. One more expensive master plan that the board of aldermen will never adopt because it will threaten the 28 fiefdoms we have incorrectly labeled as wards.

A stunning downtown plan was nullified mere months after its completion when the administration fought like caged beasts to demolish an architecturally and historically significant building in order to build a parking garage for the Missouri state courts. They deceived the National Trust for Historic Preservation into funding this demolition that severed an awe-inspiring streetscape in a late-eighteenth century urban canyon. They shamed a successful loft developer who dared to suggest that the building could be saved and still provide the court's parking needs while adding to the city's inventory of residential lofts and unique commercial space.

Now, they're building a cookie-cutter Walgreen's and its asphalt lagoon between two of the city's most important historic district. Bohemian hill was to have been a cutting-edge urban infill project of affordable and market-rate housing with [omg!!!] office and retail space mixed in. This dire threat to sprawl had to be put down! So, they pulled the eminent domain card. Luckily, they got smacked down on that one, but land had already been assembled so here comes suburbia to the big city yet again.

I think that very soon, if the housing market ever recovers, the north side will be indistinguishable from Wentzville. Our brave politicians helped the former president of a large contracting company assemble large tracts of land there in secret. He acquired stable, occupied houses and evicted their occupants, then left the buildings open to vandalism and deterioration. In spite of the growing presence and success of independent rehabbers in the area, the administration helped him get legislation introduced to state government that would give huge economic benefits to developers who assemble large tracts of land in 'distressed communities'. The legislation encouraged land clearance along the lines of the failed urban renewal programs of the 1960's, and threatened to destroy existing neighborhoods. But this was o.k. with the powers that be in St Louis because it would put 'marketable' [read suburban] housing in the north side. Also, one must conclude, because it helped their campaign funds.

The latest developmental whimper is the scaling-down of Ballpark Village. In a desperate attempt to get development--any development--our fine city fathers are pressuring the Cardinals to move forward with the remnants of the old Busch Stadium site. There must be an election coming up, but to be fair, the Cardinals left the site in deplorable condition. The Riverfront Times did the best story on the situation in 'A Village Runs Through It'. The current plan is to eliminate most of the housing and scale back the commercial space, effectively rendering Ballpark Village a pretty set-piece rather than a neighborhood.

It's like I always say, 'If you can't build it right, don't build it at all.'