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shooting fish in a crate & barrel

I caved in to temptation and just had to "blog" this Post story about a new retail development getting ready to open across from the Galleria (massive upscale suburban mall). My responses to some of the weirder parts of the article:

While the vast majority of Boulevard-St. Louis along Brentwood Boulevard in Richmond Heights remains under construction, the development's anchor store, Crate and Barrel, officially opened Nov. 16.

Since when did journalism devolve into doing stories that are essential just free advertising for corporations? The Post is getting to be really bad about this, I remember a few weeks ago when the did this really fawning, corporate memo-sounding 'story' about Anheuser-Busch getting ready to launch a new "flavored malt beverage".

"The most original concept behind it are the great European towns and cities � Verona, Italy or York, England � great little streets with retail along them and places to live nearby, with walkability for residents and visitors to be able to get from one place to another by foot," he said. "That's the original model, and then there are some more recent models in the United States such as the Reston Town Center in Washington, D.C., and Mizner Park in Boca Raton, Fla."

Things like this totally get my ire. Why bother trying to recreate an old-style urban center within the suburban environment when you could just redevelop the rotting inner cities that people fled in the first place? If you must build a Crate & Barrel, why not put it and its accompanying housing units somewhere within the St. Louis city limits?

Also, I don't doubt that this Boulevard development will be "walkable" or whatever. If nothing else, it's promising that people are at least sort of trying. But at the same time, I doubt it will have much real impact at all. This development will be bordered by Clayton Road to the north, 64/40 to the south, Brentwood Blvd. to the west and 170/metro tracks to the east. So all around it will be nothing but choked city roads and some of the biggest, busiest interstates in the metro area. You might be able to walk around in your little Boulevard bubble, but it won't make any of the surrounding area any more walkable. This whole project is almost like lip service to urbanism -- "see, you can walk from your condo to a half dozen chain stores! If you can cross the 6 lane road you can also walk to a mega-mall!". Contrast to something like the U City Loop, south Grand, Lafayette Park or Soulard. That's urbanism, not any of this raze & build suburban nonsense. Brentwood/Richmond Heights -- not quite York. Sorry.

The City of Richmond Heights, for one, is just happy to have the land developed opposite the Galleria on the other side of Brentwood Boulevard. Prior to the Boulevard development, the land had been occupied by St. Louis County Blueprint (which has since relocated) and various other commercial establishments such as a Dairy Queen, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Steak 'n Shake, to name a few.

"There's a lot of issues that kept that area down. In fact, if you travel around the country, it's probably pretty unusual to see that kind of neighborhood across the street from a mall like the Galleria," said David Reary, Richmond Heights building commissioner and zoning administrator.

Question -- since when does a strip mall and a handful of warehouses and restaurants count as a "neighborhood"? Also, what's with the whole 'sense of relief' thing from Richmond Heights? Were rich people from Clayton, Ladue, Brentwood, etc. horrified by the sight of a common KFC?

"I think that this area of St. Louis has the best combination of density and incomes of anywhere in the St. Louis area," Sherwood added. "So, if anywhere could support more retail, it's this area."

That much is true, the whole 64/40/170 - Clayton - Brentwood nexus does draw a diverse crowd. Although in my mind, the question remains -- just because an area can support more retail, should it? With more big-box type retail always comes more massive, eventually-clogged multi-lane roads, which leads to less overall urban setting. The more of these types of developments that come along, more areas cease to be mixed use or pure residential. They just knocked down multiple square blocks of houses in Maplewood to build a Wal-Mart/Sam's Club/insert chain restaurant here complex!

Also, Sherwood said the number of curb cuts � entrances off the street � along Brentwood Boulevard would be reduced from about 13 to three, thus keeping traffic moving instead of slowing up each time a vehicle turns into an entrance. Each curb cut would also have stoplights that would help coordinate traffic.

Great, just what that clusterfuck of an interchange needs -- more stop lights. It already takes what feels like 20 minutes to go the quarter mile between Clayton and Eager on Brentwood. I guess they're now trying to up it to an even half hour?

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