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Apologies for the radio silence over the past couple of weeks. When the calendar flips to January, I will have been writing Kirkwood Gadfly, in some form or another, for a decade. I’ve certainly learned a lot and grown a lot personally and professionally as a result of that effort, but in many ways it has also often been a frustrating, disillusioning, Sisyphean endeavour, too. You read endless agendas and interminable research papers, and you write them up before work and after trivia and on the weekends. You argue with the same three people over and over and over again. They tell you why you’re wrong even though it’s what you do professionally, and they haven’t thought about the issue for a single second until you brought it up just now. Sometimes those people are council members. Sometimes it’s the guy churning out asinine, AI-generated memes on Facebook. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like you’re accomplishing very much at all. And yet, Camus argued we must imagine Sisyphus happy, and I have been convinced that he is ultimately correct. There is so much stubborn hope in a human heart. Sometimes you need a couple of weeks. We roll on.
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Half of my melodramatic musings above are the result of the Council dragging their feet on the rezoning of the Aufenberg site to the point that the developer pulled the project ahead of the vote, stating they’ll resubmit at a later date. This is insane. Three small condo buildings are the highest and best use of this site. The Council holding the zoning hostage and demanding that they get to decide how the building is designed to secure its release is insane. The Council needs to show a tiny bit of courage and revise the city’s architecture code to set rules that everyone can follow. Brick, columns, whatever they want. But forcing developers to try and read their minds is completely backwards.
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The other half of my melodramatic musings is the fact that the home builders dog walked the Council on the stormwater ordinance and got every change they asked for wow the attainable housing people got a small gesture from the council with one hand (setting the review limit at 750sqft additions so as to exempt ADUs which max-out at 750sqft) and stabbed in the back with the other (banning buildings like The Madison across from City Hall by limiting multifamily lots to 85% impervious surface, no matter the actual context of the site or the mitigation provided). If we’re saying we want to encourage ADUs, then please let’s make them by-right, rather than subject to “discretionary” council review where the council doesn’t actually have any discretion.
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I’m very glad the Council rejected Chapter 100 for Double Eagle and the public works site (read the new Kirkwood Ledger on why tax abatements shouldn’t be written off entirely), but I also have no idea where it now leaves us now. The site plan public hearing is still on tonight’s Council agenda. The options seem to be either Double Eagle does the same project but pays the City less for the site or Double Eagle walks away from the site and the City tries to reopen the process. I’m really not sure which option I prefer at this point.
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- I figured out why the Mayor started saying Kirkwood Station is the third busiest in the state, second only to Kansas City: It’s the second busiest Missouri River Runner (KC - STL) stop; if STL gets to count both Missouri River Runner and Lincoln Service (STL - CHI) passengers, it’s far and away the busiest station in the state, and Kirkwood remains third.
- HUGE win by Council Member Lavender to get on-street parking (23 spots) on Kirkwood Rd between Argonne and Monroe. This should help slow traffic, create a barrier between moving vehicles and the sidewalk, and make Kirkwood feel more walkable overall. We can and should extend this South to Kirkwood Cinema. A few other ideas we should do while there's interest:
- Three-lane roads (with a center turn lane) move traffic much more efficiently than four lanes. We can use the extra space we gain for productive uses
- Pedestrians shouldn't have to push walk "beg buttons" to cross the street. You can automatically include walk signals in the regular light cycle, and we should do it. Cars automatically get the signal, walkers should too,
- Kirkwood finally won a federal TAP grant for the upgrades along Argonne, which is great and I'm glad we're getting a new painted bike lane route to the park. Still, it is unprotected, with no physical barrier separating cyclists from cars. We've never managed to build a protected bike lane, despite evidence that they improve safety by 23% and would likely at least occasionally pass a cost benefit analysis (especially in cases where it might make the difference between a parent feeling comfortable allowing their kid to ride their bike to Kirkwood Park or not)
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That’s all for this week. Anyone have a good theory of change? I’m exhausted by the combination of negativity towards the status quo and the lack of initiative to do anything about it.
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