Update: 02/02/24 Last night's public hearing saw seventeen people comment against the proposal and just six in favor of it. Written comments submitted to the Council prior to the meeting had a much stronger St. Peter-skew with ~240 emails in favor and ~60 opposed. Council members' lines of questioning offered little insight into how they… Continue reading Jefferson, Clay, & STP’s Cul-de-Sac
It's hard to tell if Connect Our Community actually has the grassroots support that the yard signs and Webster-Kirkwood Times coverage seem to indicate, or whether it's the narrow project of a couple of incredibly hardworking gadflies who have managed to drag support for the project out of the swamp as if it were Sutpen's… Continue reading Connect Our Community: Wheat from the Chaff
A few weeks back, we received word that East-West Gateway's has granted STP (Surface Transportation Program) funding for Phase 1B of the Grant's Trail Extension to Downtown Kirkwood. This is the second of four legs to be funded, with the first leg —running from Argonne to the corner of Fillmore and Monroe— having received TAP… Continue reading Grant’s Trail: Halfway Home, It’s Time for B-GT
Happy (belated) Earth Day, Kirkwood! To mark the day, I wanted to write a little something focusing, as we always do, on the politics of the possible. Before we start, I want to offer my usual annoying caveat that the single best thing Kirkwood can do for the environment is to allow the construction of… Continue reading Time For Kirkwood To Embrace Electric Vehicles
Kirkwood has walled off its poorest neighborhood, Meacham Park, from the rest of the city. It has isolated this neighborhood by erecting physical barriers. These physical barriers prevent neighborhood residents from participating in our town's social, political, and economic activities. The inability of some residents to participate in these social, political, and economic activities, in… Continue reading Meacham Park is an Island: Part 1
This past weekend we got good news (about the North-South MetroLink expansion) that quickly turned into bad news. The good news is that the expansion is moving ahead: The Bi-State Development Board of Commissioners approved a resolution authorizing the BSD team to plan, design and develop the Jefferson alignment of the extension utilizing $7.4 million… Continue reading N-S MetroLink: Devil In The Details
Now that the dust has (finally) settled on the first round of voting in the St. Louis aldermanic primary, I want to take some time to advocate for a policy change that the City should implement but which the entire region would benefit from. That policy is the legalization of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) through… Continue reading To Unlock Promise of MetroLink, TOD is Key
Update 01/27/2023: Good news! Kirkwood will, in fact, be pursuing Phase 1B in this year's call for STP grant proposals according to next week's City Council agenda. The proposal matches that which I outlined below, running from Fillmore to Leffingwell. The city is asking for $1,731,310 in Federal funding and will match that share, should… Continue reading Grant’s Trail: More Work to Do
Update: 9/13/2023 The diet is happening and the plan is to follow all the established best urbanist practice save for the fact that the lanes should be 10-ft wide rather than 12, but we fight on! Here's Council Member Gibbons with the update: At the work session last week, the Council reviewed new plans for… Continue reading Getting Over the Line: A Road Diet Update
Update 09/13/2023: At the work session last week, the Council reviewed new plans for narrowing Kirkwood Road from Adams to Bodley. Based on lessons learned from the demonstration project, the new plans call for 12-foot, single lanes going north and south and a 14-foot, center, turning lane. There will be no parallel parking on either side of Kirkwood Road. The proposal includes 6-foot sidewalks… Continue reading Kirkwood Rd Needs a Diet
