Steve Patterson
Recent Posts
Turnout In Tuesday’s Primary Varied Widely
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Less than 10% of the city’s 181,967 registered voters actually voted in Tuesday’s partisan primary, but to get the bigger picture we need to delve deeper into the numbers. A total of 17,291 ballots were cast among the three parties selecting their candidates for the general election next month. As expected, the overwhelming majority ...
St. Louis’ Low Standards Turn a Once-Proud City Into a Suburban Office Park
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We can all agree St. Louis must retain existing employers and attract new ones. Unfortunately, St. Louis has a habit of forgetting about urban design along the way. Let’s take a look two examples; one within the proposed 100 acres site for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and one to the immediate West. First is ...
Urban Renewal Officially Ended In 1974, Still Alive In St. Louis
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The redevelopment process commonly known as Urban Renewal, in retrospect, was largely a failure: After World War II, urban planners (then largely concerned with accommodating the increasing presence of automobiles) and social reformers (focused on providing adequate affordable housing) joined forces in what proved to be an awkward alliance. The ...
The Proposed QuikTrip Doesn’t Work in an Urban City
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Chouteau Ave, an East-West roadway, was once like most St. Louis streets — lined with urban buildings on both sides. The prevailing pattern on both Chouteau & Jefferson is urban — buildings built up to the property line. Sure, more holes exist now than 100 or even 50 years ago ...
The Political History Behind Our Current NFL Stadium
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As we debate a new NFL stadium it’s important to understand the history going back nearly three decades. For that I asked Heywood Sanders, Professor of Public Administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio, if I could publish an excerpt from his book Convention Center Follies: Politics, Power, and ...
We’re Not Going To Be an NFL City — That’s OK
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Over the last few weeks, listening to others and reading, I’ve come to realize a few things about the NFL and the St. Louis Rams: The NFL does appeal to many, providing instant cache for a city/region. Even though the number of games are limited, the financial benefits to the ...
Market Open Across From Emerson Park Light Rail Station In East St. Louis
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St. Louis has had very little success with transit-oriented development since our original light rail line, MetroLink, opened in 1993. From the start the Emerson Park station in East St. Louis, which opened in May 2001, was different. The station includes some storefront space and around the station homes & ...