Seen in St. Louis

We finally sold our new car as a commitment to a carfree lifestyle, and while we can’t wait for the new Schucks to open up in the downstairs of our building, we decided we should go to the Schucks a couple miles away up Olive toward St. Louis University after D.J. got off work today.

We rode a bus, the same bus I will be taking every day to law school!

But we had no way of getting the groceries home, so we had to buy a personal shopping cart, which I had to put together outside of Schucks.

I was very proud to walk our groceries home from the bus-stop. Everyone will be living a carfree lifestyle eventually, as the cities become the place that the well-off financially live, and the urban poor are pushed to the suburbs. 

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Last Friday night we were thrilled to finally see one of our favorite vocalists, Iron and Wine. The venue, The Pageant in University City, is a fantastic performance space, and one of the successes of the impressive Joe Edwards, who owns Blueberry Hill and opened up the Tivoli and basically is responsible for U City being what it is. It has his signature—there is a great lounge for cocktails before concerts, and you can bring your drinks to your seats.

It could not be easier to get to the Pageant from downtown: the Metrolink has a stop directly behind the music hall. Carfree is carefree! (Although we have yet to sell the sedan).

About Iron and Wine: Samuel Beam’s big hair and beard is as cozy and warm as the duet’s beautifully acoustic guitar and hushed vocals. You can see the Pageant concert online at Played Last Night. Our seats were on the right center balcony, first row, first two seats. It was great to look below and see so many kids at this decidedly folk concert.

After the concert, we met a couple of nice young women as we were exiting the Pageant and D.J. discovered they were here from some small town in the middle of Missouri and saw Iron and Wine as part of a birthday celebration for one of them. So the four of us went together to the Delmar a block away and had another drink and fun conversation.

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CNN has a article up tonight discussing the recent trends in new urbanism, downtown revitalization, and the popularity of walkable communities; and coupling these with both high gas prices and the subprime mortgage crisis in predicting the soon demise of suburbia. Of note, the article projects that within 10 to 15 years the inner city poor will be priced out of America’s downtown communities and be relegated to rundown McMansions, empty plazas, and fields of unused parking lots. Apparently this is already happening in some communities where the subprime crisis has transformed whole subdivisions from well kept single family homes and into low income rental slums.

More at CNN

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St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, who is one of the leading forces for the revival of downtown St. Louis, attended the Syndicate’s ribbon-cutting yesterday afternoon. Many other St. Louis big whigs also came out for it, including Jim Cloar, Craig Heller, the developer George Sherman, etc. etc.

Highlights of the various talks include George Sherman’s celebration of the fact that living in the Syndicate means you can live carfree, and suggested that this is just the beginning; he just returned from a vacation in Europe where gas is something like $12 a gallon and people drive very little, out of necessity. It was also good to hear about all the new awards St. Louis and the Syndicate are getting nationally, and the announcement by Craig Heller that within the one block around the Syndicate, something like 50,000 square feet of new retail space is opening up within the next year, including the new Schnucks, a bookstore, a sports bar, a chocolate bar, and a music venue.

The Mayor was all aglow during his speech about why downtown revitalization is working and how the Syndicate building is one of the centers of downtown’s success.

One impressive and telling thing about the event was when the blow-up picture of the city fell over during Jim Cloar’s talk (it was just leaning on the podium) and the Mayor jumped in and started trying to right it. I imagine lots of other city executives in other cities would find that sort of thing beneath them. It was nice to see the Mayor’s humility and servant leadership right after his rousing talk about the great future of St. Louis

I would estimate that 100 people attended the event, but they were asked to remain inside the foyer for the ribbon-cutting since it was drizzling outside. I snuck out anyway with my dinky camera, and took pictures along with two busy and legit photogs. Pictured are the Mayor Francis Slay, Alderwoman Phyllis Young, Loftwork’s president Craig Heller, Minneapolis developer George Sherman, Deputy Mayor Barb Geisman, Downtown St. Louis Partnership’s Jim Cloar, etc. etc.

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The Syndicate, a hub of downtown St. Louis activity, scored a perfect 100 on walkscore.com, a rating service that gauges the “walkability” of a neighborhood. They consider it considered a “walker’s paradise.” From walkscore’s website, walkable neighborhoods have:

1. A center: Walkable neighborhoods have a discernable center, whether it’s a shopping district, a main street, or a public space.
2. Density: The neighborhood is dense enough for local businesses to flourish and for public transportation to be cost effective.
3. Mixed income, mixed use: Housing is provided for everyone who works in the neighborhood: young and old, singles and families, rich and poor. Businesses and residences are located near each other.
4. Parks and public space: There are plenty of public places to gather and play.
5. Accessibility: The neighborhood is accessible to everyone and has wheelchair access, plenty of benches with shade, sidewalks on all streets, etc.
6. Well connected, speed controlled streets: Streets form a connected grid that improves traffic by providing many routes to any destination. Streets are narrow to control speed, and shaded by trees to protect pedestrians.
7. Pedestrian-centric design: Buildings are placed close to the street to cater to foot traffic, with parking lots relegated to the back.
8. Close schools and workplaces: Schools and workplaces are close enough that most residents can walk from their home

Because such a “walker’s paradise” means that “most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car,” we have decided to sell ours, despite that it is only a couple years old and was paid off last year. Thomas argues its part of our commitment to an ethical lifestyle, so who can disagree

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