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
Last Thursday, as the seven city council members offered their thoughts on the Kirkwood Apartments project, something seemed to be afoot. The approval of the project was a forgone conclusion. The developers had crossed their t's and dotted their i's and had come up with a proposal in full compliance with the city's code. The… Continue reading So You Want Affordable Housing…
This piece is part two of a series on workable policy solutions to address the shortage of attainable housing in Kirkwood. Part one, on reforming our minimum lot size regulations, can be found here. I've been working on Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) policy a lot for my day job recently and the more I've delved… Continue reading Attainable Housing Part 2: ADUs
Last night, Proposition 1, an initiative that would have instituted a 1-cent city-wide sales tax to fund road repaving, failed by a 344 vote margin. If you read my piece arguing in favor of Prop 1 from a couple of days ago, you know I think that sucks. But before we move on to ideas… Continue reading A Tale of Two Kirkwoods
Update: The rezoning of 250 Commerce failed its first reading before city council last week and seems to have little hope of moving forward in the near term. There's more work to do. Original Story On Thursday night, Kirkwood's newest zoning distinction began its first real test. The R-MM zone (Residential-Missing Middle) created last year,… Continue reading 250 Commerce Ave: A Test for R-MM
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
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.
Six candidates for three spots. This week I focused on the six. I tried my hardest to sort through the six candidates for Tuesday's city council election; to get them to say the quiet part out loud. If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to go back and read those profiles and interviews… Continue reading 3 Spots. 6 Candidates. 14 Prairial.
I've spent a long time trying to get this Maggie Duwe article right. It's been hard to find something new to say. Duwe didn't respond to my email requests to participate in an interview; I've been hard on her voting record in the past. Those two things are probably related. But you can't commit to… Continue reading Maggie Duwe.
Ellen Edman respectfully declined to be quoted for this profile. While outwardly she cited a desire to remain objective in light in the fact she is still currently a member of the council, it's hard to imagine that political calculations didn't play a role. At the beginning of March when I had first asked if… Continue reading Ellen Edman.
