Consultants seek improvements for South Grand business district
Consultants seek improvements for South Grand business district
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| Erica Burrus photo - Michael (left) and Douglas Mattingly stand outside their Mattingly Brewing Co. at 3000 S. Jefferson Ave. |
"People drive really crazy. It's not pedestrian friendly," said Bahrami, the owner of the Cafe Natasha Kabob International Restaurant at 3200 S. Grand Blvd.
The street - between Arsenal Street and McDonald Avenue - needs more green trees and flowers, Bahrami said."Parking is a big deal," she said. "We don't want them to take the parking away from us."
Bahrami was one of the South Grand business people, customers and residents interviewed by consultants from the East-West Gateway Council of Governments as part of an effort to make the section a "great street."
Monday night, those consultants showed off three different options for slowing down traffic and improving the environment for pedestrians from Arsenal Street south to McDonald Avenue.
Proposals by East-West Gateway planners, engineers and designers are:
- Having four lanes with intermittent "bulbouts" in which sidewalks jut out into the street. Bulbouts shorten pedestrians' walk across the street.
- Having parallel parking and some bulbouts but re-striping the street into three lanes.
- Keeping the street basically as it is, but having some bulbouts at intersections.
The proposals were shown at an open house and program at the Carpenter Branch Library, 3309 S. Grand Blvd.
"Each has benefits and costs that address each of the goals of slowing speeds and addressing the pedestrian environment," said Caroline Twenter, transportation planning manager for East-West Gateway.
The speed limit signs on the South Grand Boulevard business district south of Arsenal Street read 30 miles an hour, said Rachel Witt, executive director of the South Grand Community Improvement District, which promotes business and works for improvement in that area.
But Witt is convinced cars and trucks go much faster along the thoroughfare.
"I would say the average speed that people are going on Grand is 45," said Witt.
She said 40,000 vehicles go down South Grand each day and that it's the number one bus route in the city.
Witt also said the street lights throughout the district are very poor.
Lights at crosswalks don't stay on long enough, she said. She was especially concerned about the elderly and the blind from the nearby Missouri School for the Blind who use the crosswalks.
"Traffic on Grand is extremely congested. It's very difficult to get around here," said Jay Mathews, 31, a doctor who lives in Clayton, sitting in the Gelateria DelLeone coffee house at 3197 S. Grand Blvd.
"Parking is an issue," said Joel Lindsey, 33, pastor of The Journey Tower Grove Campus, 2833 S. Kingshighway Blvd., who was in the same coffeehouse. "You want to maintain kind of the hip uniqueness of the area."
The South Grand business district is one of four streets in the St. Louis area included in East-West Gateway's Great Streets Initiative.
In that program, the agency's traffic consultants work to improve streets to benefit the community and all forms of transportation.
"The idea is to show examples of what can be done to make the streets better," said D.J. Wilson, an East-West Gateway spokesman.
East-West Gateway received 40 proposals and chose the one for South Grand and three other streets for the Great Street Initiative. The three that won besides South Grand were Manchester Road between Route 109 and Route 141, Natural Bridge Road between Florissant and the UMSL South MetroLink station and downtown Labadie.
After receiving public comments at Monday's meeting and elsewhere, the consultants will make a final recommendation. If the city and the South Grand Commercial Improvement decide to go forward, they will be able to compete for federal money to start designing and building the improvements later this year.
Alderwoman Jennifer Florida, D-15th Ward, who represents part of the area of the South Grand business district, said people and business owners in the area would have to strongly support the proposal before she would work for it.
More on the Web
East-West Gateway and consultants met Monday after the Journal's press deadline.
A story about that meeting and the reaction of those in attendance to proposals that would change traffic flow on South Grand Boulevard is on the Journal's Web site at southsidejournal.stltoday.com.
