Urban Living

The 3/16 cent "Arch tax" bill that would authorize a public vote on Proposition P raises questions of priorities and transparency, and the supposed urgency of the measure is highly questionable. Great public works projects can take time, and the imaginative and daring Gateway Arch landscape went through funding hoops between its emerging from the 1948 design competition and the completion of landscaping in 1982. Despite bad infrastructure around the site - largely ignored by the current CityArchRiver plan, in the face of wide public support for removing I-70 - the landscape was worth the time it took. Icons are proven over time, along with the dreams of civic leaders.

As an architectural historian who was a member of one of the design teams in the City+Arch+River 2015 design competition, I fully understand the importance of sensitively addressing the deficiencies in the infrastructural mess around the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The vibrant landscape created by two of modern architecture's greatest practitioners, Eero Saarinen and Dan Kiley, has become the city's entrance and deserves our concerted effort to make it better. Yet most of the early phase improvements, from the "lid" to the lowest-cost version of revamping Leonor K. Sullivan Drive, are already funded through the entities working on improving the Arch grounds: the National Park Service, Great Rivers Greenway and CityArchRiver.

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The City of St. Louis Board of Aldermen Parks Committee meets at 10am this Thursday to hear Board Bill No. 258: Ordinance relating to parks-Arch tax. This is the only public opportunity to address the Board of Alderman prior to the full board voting on the resolution. Attendees will be able to address the committee regarding the bill. If approved by January 22, the 3/16 sales tax increase will appear on the April general election ballot. I do not believe that the Parks Committee should pass the ill-conceived and improperly vetted bill. My argument against the bill.

Below is the Parks Committee roster with email addresses and a draft letter. Please feel free to cut and paste, edit or otherwise utilize the text. It's important that your alderman hear from you regarding this matter, especially if he or she is a member of the Parks Committee.

Parks Committee
Tom Villa 11th Ward: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Donna Baringer 16th Ward: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Joe Roddy, 17th Ward: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Antonio French 21st Ward: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Joe Vaccaro 23rd Ward: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Frank Williamson 26: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Chris Carter 27the Ward: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Lyda Krewson, 28th Ward: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Tomorrow, Alderwoman Phyllis Young will introduce Board Bill No. 258 to the City of St. Louis Board of Aldermen. The bill calls for a 3/16 (0.1875%) sales tax increase in the City of St. Louis to support the CityArchRiver project, Great Rivers Greenway and city parks. If approved by the Board of Aldermen, Prop P would go to the city's voters on April 2, 2013. The board must approve the bill by January 22 for the measure to appear on the April ballot. Approval of similar bills are being sought in St. Louis County and St. Charles County. Two of the three would be required to pass before the tax increase would take affect. One of the two must be St. Louis County. It is estimated that the tax would generate $38M per year if passed in the City of St. Louis ($6.2M), St. Louis County ($24.9M) and St. Charles County ($7.2M).

The bill reads: PROPOSITION P: SAFE AND ACCESSIBLE ARCH AND PUBLIC PARKS INITIATIVE - For the purpose of increasing safety, security, and public accessibility for the Gateway Arch grounds and local, county and regional parks and trails for families and disabled and elderly visitors, and for providing expanded activities and improvements of such areas, shall the City of St. Louis join such other of the counties of St. Louis and St. Charles to impose a three-sixteenths of one cent sales tax in addition to the existing one-tenth of one cent sales tax applied to such purposes...

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The following is an idea I submitted to Rally STL. Unfortunately, none of the images submitted were included in the post on their site, and the idea is really a visual one. The description and reasoning is below, but beyond that, one of the best things is that this idea is imminently affordable. Check out the idea and go to Rally STL and vote it up. You can vote for an idea once each day.

Edit: As a result of the excellent comments made below, I have sent this proposal to an historic preservation officer of the Osage Nation. Clearly there exist a myriad of cultural and historical concerns when considering a project of this sort, and it would never progress without the involvement of relevant groups. However, earthen mounds have a long and varied history and even mounds evocative of the region's history could play an important educational role.

One of early nicknames for St. Louis was Mound City. Now not much in use, the name paid homage to the legacy of Native American mound builders which remained into the past century as the city was expanded and developed. While Cahokia Mounds in Illinois is well known, mounds in the City of St. Louis were destroyed, including during construction for the 1904 World's Fair in Forest Park. We celebrate the fair in many ways, but not what it destroyed. The celebrate our region's cultural history, commemorative mounds should be built in the park.


{image of mound in Forest Park prior to destruction for 1904 World's Fair}

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