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15 Comments For This Post

1. Antonio D. French Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 8:50 am

   Looks like we lost some comments here. I’m not sure what happened, but I know there were three comments here last night (including one from me!). Hmmmm….

2. Mary Homan Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 11:02 am

   It’s not like it’s just any parking lot nor is it for the Archbishop. It’s for the young women of Rosati-Kain High School. And, while not my alma mater, I know the importance of keeping RK in the City which means affordable, accessible, and exceptional. The young women who graduate from Rosati are some of the best and brightest (my mom included). There is ZERO parking for those young ladies and their instructors. There is an itty-bitty lot behind the school and many of the girls park on the street blocks away and walk school. Please tell me how many of you would allow your newly licensed daughter walk 5 or 6 blocks in not the best of neighborhoods in a plaid skirt. If Sr. Joan says that she is concerned that without adequate and safe parking, the student body will decline to the point of closing, then we ought to take her word for it. If anything, the neighborhood ought to rise to the occasion to assist Rosati if the current option isn’t the most pleasing aesthetically. Rather than criticize, offer a concrete solution! **Stepping down off my soapbox. Pardon me.**

3. john w. Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 4:28 pm

   I think that’s just the point Mary. Those who are proposing to build a surface parking lot at a very prominent corner on a very important urban street have not offered any other sort of solution themselves. It appears others will have to propose more sensible solutions because the A-D has been less than willing. This is an issue of land use and the value of the urban fabric. The value of the properties affronting Lindell Boulevard are clearly higher than that deserving of surface parking. I was say the same of the very unfortunate surface lot at the corner of Lindell and Kingshighway across the street from the Chase Park Plaza hotel, but of course that lot already exists. The A-D and Rosati-Kain H.S. are not the only entities in the CWE, and it would not be fair to say that ‘as goes the A-D, so goes the rest of the urban district’. Clearly the A-D feels there is need for more parking, but this should not come at the expense of the urban fabric and an entity like the A-D should be just as prepared to be good neighbors as any other. The cathedral and Rosati-Kain are, and have always been, located in a walkable urban environment since they’ve existed, and ceding the very virtues that make a great urban neighborhood like the CWE to the concerns of a few from the outside so that they can avoid walking several blocks to school is very disappointing. There are likely several urbanists who have concrete alternative solutions to offer, but the question is whether the A-D is even willing to entertain them. The CWE is a neighborhood, and not the protectorate of a sovereign such as the A-D. All should be expected to be good neighbors, and when proposals that threaten the very urban fabric in of the neighborhood are put forth and met with resistance, the A-D should not be surprised. The CWE is about walkability, and not about cars. If you cannot find parking, perhaps you should not drive. Carpooling and public transit are possibilities, and allow a walkable community to remain walkable.

4. Jeff Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 4:50 pm

   Thank you, John W., for articulating this point so eloquently. We need not turn this high-profile intersection into a surburban commmuter campus for the Archdiocese. The idea of a surface parking lot (the antithesis of “green” by any measure) is a pitifully stupid proposal. I am embarrassed for my city that this is even considered for such a high-density location.

   The threat of closing Rosati-Kain is a cheap political move, but the CWE would continue to thrive regardless (and the building would surely be snapped up quickly by developers).

   We can do so much better! ?

5. Douglas Duckworth Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 6:40 pm

   Shuttles anyone?

6. anon Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 7:08 pm

   It is really hard for me to believe that RK will shrivel up and die without this parking lot. Teenagers don’t all need their own car (isn’t their generation supposed to be more environmentally savvy than us old folks? Guess having wheels trumps ideals). A shuttle system of some sort, or else setting up “escorts” of teachers/parents to walk the girls from the bus stops are both possibilities. I say this as a member of a family that has had several generations attend RK, and consider it a good possibility my girls may attend it as well.

7. CWEGuy Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 7:47 pm

   Frankly, I think the San Luis is an ugly building. But, a parking lot? So the A-D can expand its “campus” (the word they used at the meeting)? No way. As a long-time resident of the CWE, I believe a better solution would be for the A-D to buy and raze the gas station/laundromat at Boyle and Lindell. That would eliminate a crime center and also help with night-time parking at The Grind.

   The A-D also mentioned that RK did not have as big a problem when the Shuttle Bug ran. Wouldn’t the A-D be a better neighbor if it subidized it?

8. Senior@ RK Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 8:47 pm

   As a current senior at RK. I am excited that our school has started the process to improve our facilities.However, i am disappointed that they picked such non-issue to address. In my opinion, I think it would be better to build a new convent across the street and turn the old convent into more classrooms! At Rk, many teachers are forced out of their classrooms through out the day so that another teacher may use their space. This is a great inconvenience to the students because one of the great parts of Rosati is the unscheduled time, which allows students to seek help from teachers, or type a paper in the computer lab. But with the shortage of rooms teachers are displaced to random parts of the school making them hard to find, and many times a class is permanently moved to the computer lab, making it difficult to find an available computer.

   I am also disappointed in our administration for not seeking student opinions about possible expansions, As a very active student leader at my school, i feel that RK should have at least asked us what we thought. Students often can help come up with creative resolutions to practical problems in school.

   Personally I do not feel as if we need a parking lot, ya it stinks to have to walk 2 blocks sometimes, but really what is an extra 10 minutes, we could all use a little more excerise (after driving for 2 years the max has been 3 and NEVER at night.) … CWE is a beautiful community, if it is truly necessary to demolish historic buildings, then the space should be used more efficiently.

9. anonymous Says:
   March 31st, 2008 at 9:27 pm

   I think that all the points made have been very eloquently made, and everyone brings valuable information to the table. I personally think that tearing down the apartments and putting surface parking on the corner of Lindell and Newstead would be very displeasing esthetically to the CWE.
   One possible solution would be for Rosati to purchase the building to the east of it; the Engineers Club. They have been trying to purchase it for many years, and Rosati acquiring this building would solve many problems. Rosati students already park in that lot, and if Rosati purchased the building, the school could have a theater, a bigger gym, and more classrooms as well as parking.
   Currently, parking isn’t that big of an issue. The farthest away any girl has to park is two and a half blocks (unless it’s a street cleaning day), and where the girls park is almost always visible from the school. Personally, driving to Rosati only made me a better driver and I think every person should be able to decently parallel park.
   However, I am surprised that the people posting on this board are under the impression that every Rosati student drives to school. Almost everyone is in a carpool, most consisting of at least three girls. There are also girls that take the bus (there is a bus stop on the north and south sides of Lindell directly in front of Rosati) and the metro link. Girls who live in the area walk to school as well.
   Rosati wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t in the CWE, but parking isn’t really priority number one. Rosati needs more space to expand the building.

10. Mary Homan Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 10:17 pm

    Gosh y’all, I just re-read my post & I apologize for coming off so abrasive! Clearly I was having a manic Monday!

11. john w. Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 10:21 pm

    NP Mary, that’s what good conversation in an open forum is all about. Pub Def is a great, great blog.

12. Star Jones Says:
    April 1st, 2008 at 11:40 am

    I blame that damn Slay for this fiasco!

13. VanishingSTL (Paul Hohmann) Says:
    April 1st, 2008 at 1:43 pm

    Thank you Senior@RK and anonymous for sharing the student perspective. Both your comments are very encouraging and very opposite of what we heard Saturday morning. It sounds like building space and not parking space is the bigger physical issue at RK. The current proposal from the A-D does nothing to address this. It seems like the A-D should spend the money that they are planning to use to demolish the San Luis and build the lot to address the bigger picture of expansion of RK itself. If that solution includes some extra parking for faculty and some students (say if they bought the Engineering Club), great, but it seems short sighted to make that the only determining factor in this equasion. Maybe the A-D should offer the Engineering Club one of the churches they have closed (or some other site) as trade for their building on Lindell.

14. MattHurst Says:
    April 3rd, 2008 at 4:09 am

    I asked my mom about this when we drove by it a couple month ago, because I had heard about this plan. She said she was driven out from her Catholic high school in the country (well, Washington MO) to see the work the archdiose was doing on this apartment complex. At the time it was heralded as the upmost in modern progress.
    I think the same is true today. Just like so many part of urban develioment in this city, we can do better than this. I simply annot believe that we’re still talking about parking lots in the age of $3+ a gallon cars. It is only a matter of time before public transport, if not outright reurbanization, change this dialog. We can do better than this, and we will. Thanks for telling this story.

15. CWELOV Says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

    Just as the students said, the issue at hand IS the building space. R-K wants to expand classrooms, add an elevator, and improve the building for current and future students. However, the school cannot obtain the necessary permits to do that work unless they can accomodate parking. There are many steps that must happen before the school can expand, and providing parking is one of them. The City of St. louis will not allow a building to be structurally improved unless it is up to code. R-K’s current parking situation makes it not up to code. (The only reason it has been able to exist for so many years without parking is that it was “grandfathered in” because it was built in 1922 when students took buses to school.) Without additional parking, R-K will not be able to expand, the enrollment will decline, and the school will inevitably close. I see more architectural value in the R-K building from 1922 than the San Luis building.

    Also, R-K and the AD have been trying to purchase the Engineer’s Club lot for about 25 years now, and the Engineer’s refuse to sell.

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