Events

Sundays in the Streets

Background The Open Streets project is an initiative to return the 30-35% of cities that are composed of streets to the people that live there to use as they please. The international open streets concept is not new to St. Louis: on June 2nd 2018 a fourteen block stretch of South Compton from Cherokee to… Continue reading Sundays in the Streets

Development, Policy Analysis

Kirkwork & The Triangle

Updates (07/27/2019) Yikes... (02/22/2019) Kirkwork's design seems to be a pretty solid one. The structure is built to the street with parking limited to the sides and rear of the building. While dual curb cuts onto Big Bend (one on either side of the building) are less than ideal, they do represent an improvement from… Continue reading Kirkwork & The Triangle

Development, Policy Analysis

Big Bend, Big NIMBY

Update: After the February 7th city council public hearing, more details are known regarding the proposed apartments. The first thing to notice is that the apartments are actually comprised of two separate buildings. In addition to better fitting the shape of the lot, this seems to be in an effort to adhere to zoning language… Continue reading Big Bend, Big NIMBY

Meacham Park

Meacham Park & Urbanism: A Tenuous Affair

A new development is nearing completion in Meacham Park at the corner of Big Bend and S. Fillmore (10505 Big Bend Blvd). While the 3-4 unit strip mall's exterior has been completed, its interior has a way to go before it will be ready for any businesses to move in. Unfortunately there seems to be… Continue reading Meacham Park & Urbanism: A Tenuous Affair

Development

The Madison: A Mid-Summer’s Update

Kirkwood Gadfly often, almost exclusively, focuses on hypotheticals and things that should happen rather than things that actually are happening. That's for a variety of reasons I guess but mostly its because I don't know anything more than you do. I'm really not sure how other people that are good at this, buildingstlnews.com and nextstl.com,… Continue reading The Madison: A Mid-Summer’s Update

St. Louis County

Potential Partners in the Consolidation Game

The city-county question has dominated local discussion of fragmentation and subsequent consolidation. Recently, the implications of this conversation has come into more focus. The most likely route to consolidation between  the city and county is for St. Louis City to re enter St. Louis County as its 89th municipality [Editors note: I've had to reduce… Continue reading Potential Partners in the Consolidation Game

Environment & Nature

Kirkwood Park Forever

Kirkwood Park is the crown Jewel of the Kirkwood park system. With tennis courts, baseball fields, playgrounds, forests, pools, an ice rink, a lake and even an outdoor amphitheater it is bears a striking resemblance to a scaled down version of our very own Forest Park in our backyard. While the majority of the park… Continue reading Kirkwood Park Forever

Transportation

KirkWeb Bike Share

St. Louis is the largest city/metropolitan area without a bike share program. But if the city as a whole can't figure its shit out, maybe a few of its suburbs can. If you scoffed at that last sentence, I understand. Bike-share programs are expensive and to think Kirkwood and Webster could afford to fully fund… Continue reading KirkWeb Bike Share

Development, Transportation

College Town

Meramec Community College's large campus and voluminous student traffic makes for a challenging environment to craft a more walkable neighborhood. With that being said, however, there are steps that can be taken in both the short-term an the long-term to ensure that this stretch of Geyer is not only walkable for the residences that sit… Continue reading College Town