Development, Policy Analysis

An Update on West Adams in the New Year

Update 06/07/2023 The fourth unit is back, and the design has changed as 144 W. Adams finally made its way back before the Architectural Review Board this week! Original Story Tonight Kirkwood City Council will hold it's first public hearing of 2021. Most notably on the agenda is the Council's incredibly important vote on the… Continue reading An Update on West Adams in the New Year

Development, Policy Analysis

The Starbucks Project is Really Bad, Actually.

Update 01/07/2021: The Starbucks was unanimously voted down upon first reading. I'll keep you updated if Starbucks comes back to the drawing board as I suspect they will. Previous Story: First of all, I just want to say sorry for going AWOL for a couple months. The end of the semester got sort of busy… Continue reading The Starbucks Project is Really Bad, Actually.

Development

The Hutton

Update 11/20/2020 Last night, a proposal recently redubbed "The Hutton", Savoy's twelve unit condominium proposal for 134-138 West Madison was approved 6-1. Pitched as the"last of it's kind" by Savoy, this project completes their rapid transformation of this block long stretch that up until very recently had been dominated by small businesses located in small… Continue reading The Hutton

Development

144 West Adams

Update 06/07/2023 The fourth unit is back, and the design has changed as the project makes its way back before the Architectural Review Board this week. Update 10/17/2020 144 W. Adams is back on the agenda with a new look and one fewer unit. Where the previous plans called for four units and room for… Continue reading 144 West Adams

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

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

Parking, Transportation

Paid Parking: A Case to be Made

Kirkwood has struggled with parking for as long as it has excelled at attracting people. The mindset amongst Kirkwood's recent political leadership seems to be that if you tear enough buildings down and reserve enough surface area for parking, parking will no longer be an issue. This is true. It true, not because the supply… Continue reading Paid Parking: A Case to be Made

Development

Kirkwood Road Re-Imagined

Kirkwood Road is the eye of the hurricane that is Kirkwood. Around it the rest of Kirkwood, especially downtown Kirkwood, revolves, taking its energy and spinning that energy ever further outward. Just because Kirkwood Road is doing its job, however, doesn't mean that, given ideal conditions, it can't further organize, coalesce, and strengthen. Step One… Continue reading Kirkwood Road Re-Imagined

Transportation

Kirkwood-Webster Shuttle

According to Walkable City (p.155), transit works when you get four factors right regardless of scale: urbanity, clarity, frequency and pleasure. Urbanity essentially meaning that the route has walkable, significant, urban attractions at both ends; Clarity refers to the idea that routes should be easy to comprehend and visualize. Frequency is pretty self explanatory but… Continue reading Kirkwood-Webster Shuttle