Citizens for Modern Transit (CMT) is hosting a Walkabout at the Wellston MetroLink Station on Thursday, June 28, to look at the possibilities for the surrounding neighborhood around MetroLink with national walkability expert, Dan Burden. Please join us! This is a part of Walk/Live St. Louis 2012.
CMT received a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to look at areas surrounding MetroLink stations in St. Louis communities. We are asking for your help to create a healthier place to live through better use of our transit system.
Our goal is to get the community’s opinions about development near MetroLink and walkable neighborhoods. What do you like about the station? What would you like to see near the station? How is access to the Wellston station? We will have Dan Burden on-site to lead us on our walkabout and to help facilitate conversations about the possibilities for the community.
Dan Burden, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Walkable Communities (http://www.walklive.org/about-the-institute/our-team/), has spent more than 35 years helping the world get “back on its feet” and his efforts have not only earned him the first-ever lifetime-achievement awards issued by the New Partners for Smart Growth and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, but in 2001, Dan was named by TIME magazine as “one of the six most important civic innovators in the world.” Dan serves on the board of advisors for Walkscore (www.walkscore.com) and Transportation for America (www.t4america.com).
The event details are as follows:
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. at the Wellston Station
The Wellston Walkabout will last for about two hours.
Please consider making a difference in St. Louis by participating. RSVP at 231.7272 or info@cmt-stl.org. Reservations required. Thank you! Together, we can make St. Louis an even better place to live and work.
Walk/Live St. Louis 2012
Walk/Live St. Louis 2012 is designed to train community leaders and members to become “walking ambassadors” – those with a new level of awareness and skills to help make their communities more walkable, bikeable, and safe. This three-day series of events is open to anyone who wants to create great, safe streets and spaces for people in their own community, contributing to St. Louis’ cultural and economic growth.
Second, there are several direct issues with Metro getting into the restroom business. First is the fiscal issue. Metro only has a certain amount of dollars to spend in the region, and the question becomes should the money go to bus/trains/Call-A-Ride service/equipment or to restrooms. The self-cleaning facilities can run upwards of $350,000 each. The second issue is security. Metro has looked into the selfcleaning restrooms however nationally security has been a significant issue with this infrastructure. Once the restrooms are in place, there is the need to have constant security to ensure problems do not occur within the facility. With that said, Metro will say that the facility that they have in place at the Riverview-Hall Transfer Center is a functioning model that works where Metro provides the facilities in the transfer center and the retailer onsite manages/watches over the facility. More models like th is may be considered in the future along the system but there is no current timeframe in place. I hope this helps with your comments.
On a positive note, I was glad to read about the farmers market coming near the Delmar station stop. Is that still in the works? Or is it already going on? I don't go through there on a regular basis anymore, but that sounded like a great thing.