First, it’s important to examine what Target typically does in the Milwaukee area, as this should present a good indication of what they would likely do downtown if there were no restrictions.  The three Target’s nearest to downtown are on Miller Park Way, South 27th Street, and Chase Avenue. None are urban in form, in their locations they’re the standard suburban big box retail. The parking lots are the same size of the stores themselves, clearly not something fit for downtown.

South 27th Street, Miller Park Way, and Chase Avenue Targets.

Next, it’s worth looking at what Target has done in other urban locations to give an indication of what the Target-loving urbanist might aspire for Target to build in Milwaukee. To-date Target has always focused on building stores that were at least 125,000 square feet in size, but they recently unveiled the “CityTarget” concept of slightly smaller stores (60,000 to 100,000 square feet) for urban neighborhoods. Unfortunately no detailed plans are available for review of any of the proposed CityTarget’s. But it is worth looking at what has been built though, including stores in Chicago, Seattle, Stamford, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.

Chicago has an urban target located in the South Loop neighborhood. It is blocks from two rapid transit stops, on a bus line, walkable by design, surrounded by develop-able land, and contains no surface parking. It appears remarkably urban given that much of the land around is underdeveloped to-date. It is well-located for the future as the blank walls on the back of the building abut the railroad tracks.

Seattle has a Target located across the street from Northgate Mall. It is connected with a Best Buy and shares a parking garage with the electronics store. It is more walkable, but is surrounded by surface parking on an adjacent parking lot. Other retail spaces are part of the two buildings, making the facility a larger demand generator. UrbanReviewSTL has a good write-up on the development.The space appears more attractive at street-level.

Target built an urban store in Stamford, CT. It is in a multi-story, pedestrian-friendly building that includes an attached parking deck. It is connected to a number of other retail outlets. The building is big and box like, but delivers a far more urban big box store than Target typically builds.

The Target in this aerial view is the building with the round corner. It is walkable, incredibly urban and transit acessible, and located in the core of downtown Minneapolis. It is an outlier though because it is connected to the Target headquarters.

This is a new Target in St. Louis. It is a couple miles from downtown, and located in the heart of a residential neighborhood. It is more urban than the Schucks supermarket across the street, but is still quite suburban in nature. It is setback from the street quite a distant, and features a fair amount of surface parking. It's better than any Target currently in Milwaukee, but not urban enough in design to fit within the character of downtown Milwaukee.

Given a choice between all of the presented targets, it seems clear that the downtown Minneapolis best integrates with the urban fabric it occupies. Would Target build that urban of a store in Milwaukee though? It seems unlikely at this point. If Milwaukee is to land a Target, it would seem best to aspire for the Chicago and Seattle examples, while avoiding the not-quite-suburban-or-urban nature of the new St. Louis Target.

Landing a mixed-use Target with a housing or office component would be the holy grail of urban big-box development, and could theoretically be placed on any vacant parcel as a long-term demand generator. The mix of uses would prevent the building from becoming a black hole in the urban fabric at its off-hours.

For a Target to locate in the Park East, as Bruce Westling has proposed, it would need to be a pedestrian-friendly, multi-story building to comply with the Park East Redevelopment Plan. A Target in the Park East is an idea worth supporting, but only if it is a mixed-use building and works to eliminate the blank walls that plague big box stores. While the Park East Redevelopment Plan is about to be amended for the creation of the MSOE Parking Structure, it would be foolish to further amend it to allow a big-box store to be constructed adjacent to proposed parking structure that did not comply with the design guidelines of the plan.

A mixed-use Target faces an uphill battle though because of the currently diminished strength of Milwaukee’s downtown condominium, office, and retail markets. Furthermore there are a number of vacant parcels available for development. Putting together a mixed-use building for Target is going to be complex, and it seems unlikely that any developer would go through with it if they didn’t have to. RSC & Associates had discussions with Target about locating in a mixed-use development in their Park East parcel, but their parcel remains closer to an urban farm than a mixed-use building (with no public indications of that changing anytime soon). A proposal by Ghazi Company for 4th and Wisconsin could have included a large retail anchor as well, but that was a victim of the economic downturn.

If Milwaukee gets a Target downtown in the near future, it’s likely going to come in the form of a single-use building.

Where would a single-use Target fit well? Given that it would likely have a number of blank walls, and not-be a 24 hour demand generator it makes the most since to put it on the fringe of downtown where it would abut another blank wall. It would work even better if it could take advantage of existing parking assets. Given those constraints, a single-use building to house Target (or even Wal-Mart which is rolling out smaller urban stores itself) would best fit near Interstate 794 in Westown.

If Target were to locate on any of the surface lots near Interstate 794, it could be connected to Grand Avenue to breathe new life into the facility and share the parking garage.

The potential store should still be designed in a pedestrian-friendly nature for the sides of the building away from the Interstate or an alley, but allowing the building to have a few largely blank walls would reduce design costs and constraints making it more likely to actually happen should Target or another big-box retailer decide to open here.

A Target would be a welcome addition to downtown Milwaukee, but only in the right-form or location.

The Gateway Arch

For anyone that’s ever been to the iconic Gateway Arch in St. Louis, it’s quite apparent that the structure itself is worthy of praise. It’s imposing presence largely defines the image outsiders’ have of of St. Louis. And as much as riding up to the top of the arch provides a great view of the surrounding area, the grounds that surround the structure are extremely underwhelming.

The Gateway Arch grounds are separated from the city by roads on 3 sides, and the Mississippi River connection is an empty plaza and staircase. The grounds themselves are mere pathways leading to the Arch, lined with trees, devoid of place. Downtown, immediately west of the Arch, is a short, but uncomfortable walk away because of the trenched Interstate 70. Laclede’s Landing to the north is separated by the approach structure to the Eads Bridge. To the south, the Poplar Street Bridge, carrying Interstate’s 55, 64, and 70s separates the grounds from the city with the bridge approach and a large interchange. Because of it’s lack of connection to the city, if the Arch itself was to disappear, the grounds would be devoid completely devoid of people.

Enter The City + The Arch + The River design competition, with the goal of having much of the winning proposal in place by 2015.

The 10 design goals of the competition program are stated as follows:
1. Create an iconic place for the international icon, the Gateway Arch.
2. Catalyze increased vitality in the St. Louis region.
3. Honor the character defining elements of the National Historic Landmark.
4. Weave connections and transitions from the City and the Arch grounds to the
River.
5. Embrace the Mississippi River and the east bank in Illinois as an integral part of
the National Park.
6. Reinvigorate the mission to tell the story of St. Louis as the gateway to national
expansion.
7. Create attractors to promote extended visitation to the Arch, the City and the River.
8. Mitigate the impact of transportation systems.
9. Develop a sustainable future.
10. Enhance the visitor experience and create a welcoming and accessible
environment.

Overview of MVVA's Site Plan

While some of those aspects are a bit more abstract, five design teams submitted thorough bids with those 10 goals in mind. UrbanSTL has a breakdown of each entry, including links to their submitted materials.

Ultimately, the proposal by MVVA was selected as the winner (proposal review). Alex at UrbanSTL wasn’t overwhelmed by their proposal (nor does it seem others were in the site’s forum), but it appears this was the most feasible choice compared to others who had proposed gondolas and large concert venues.

A short video is included below that flies through the project details.

[youtube width="540" height="355"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArNdigN48Kg[/youtube]

As an outsider looking in, I’m still excited about the redesign.  As much it is known as the Gateway to the West, it is really the Gateway to St. Louis through the eyes of tourists. It includes the a freeway cap over Interstate 70 to connect the grounds to the west of the city, something that seems feasible, more so than in Milwaukee. This should make the grounds more seamlessly connect with the city and introduce a much more welcoming pedestrian connection. The design should also encourage visitors and residents alike to explore the entirety of the grounds, instead of trying to get in and out as quick as possible.

Cincinnati's Planned Freeway Cap Park

For cost reasons, it’s most efficient to cover a trenched freeway rather than to replace an elevated freeway with a tunnel (as Boston did). In Dallas construction of a five-acre park over a trenched freeway (Woodall Rodgers Freeway) will connect downtown Dallas with the thriving Uptown neighborhood. The connection will be further enhanced with the expansion of the M-Line Streetcar through the park.

In 1976 Seattle completed Freeway Park, a 5.2 acre park that covered part of their newly completed freeway. The park has recently been reinvented following a 2002 murder and a number of other crimes. The park is adjacent to the city’s convention center in the heart of the city. Phoenix has a tunneled Interstate 10 and built a park on top (Margaret T. Hance Park).

A number of other cities have plans in place to cap freeways. Cincinnati has pilings in place to build a park over Fort Washington Way that would connect downtown with their redeveloping riverfront (UrbanCincy review of the proposal). The Los Angeles area has a number of plans in various states of completion to cap freeways everywhere from downtown to Hollywood. Oak Park, IL has studied capping the Eisenhower Expressway. St. Louis has a design competition underway to redevelop the grounds around the Gateway Arch, with a number of the designers recommending capping the freeway, and the City to River movement recommending replacing the freeway with a boulevard.

A Freeway Cap Park in Milwaukee

A cap over Interstate 43? It's an idea that's happening elsewhere in the country.

How could a freeway cap be utilized in Milwaukee? The most logical spot to build one is north of the Marquette Interchange over Interstate 43 connecting Westown and Avenues West. It could stretch as far north as the Winnebago Street bridge.

The benefits? A freeway cap park would finally make Marquette University feel like it’s part of downtown, instead of just outside of it. This might cause future Marquette student housing (be it built by the university or private interests) to be built in Westown. If the park cap was built far enough north, it’s possible that The Brewery redevelopment might cause a positive spillover effect onto the neighborhood west of it that’s currently underutilized. It also may encourage may infill development in the eastern portions of Avenues West as the park would eliminate the gorge that currently separates the neighborhood from downtown.

Taking the pessimistic viewpoint, a Interstate 43 freeway cap park might not produce much benefit for a number of reasons though. For one, they’re really expensive  to build (~$500 square-foot) so the city would need to recoup a lot of value from new development. Unfortunately, despite the park likely being an attractive space, there isn’t a whole lot of land for development in the area. The Milwaukee County Courthouse consumes much of the east side I-43 as it traverses downtown, drastically limiting the amount of higher value land for redevelopment. The land that isn’t the Courthouse east of the freeway is park land that is already underutilized that likely couldn’t be redeveloped because of it’s proximity to the courthouse.

On the west side of I-43 there is likewise a shortage of land for redevelopment. Aurora Sinai Medical Center occupies most of the land. The parcel north of the medical center that could be redeveloped is unfortunately located just across the potential park from the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (more commonly, “the jail”) handicapping it’s value.

Outside of the area where the capped park could be built, there is likely too much available land in downtown Milwaukee over the next 10 years to effectively return value on the park. The Park East Freeway removal has left a lot of land in county hands, which they’ve been unsuccessful in selling. The Milwaukee Intermodal Station has generated more demand in that area, along with the planned Milwaukee Streetcar and potential Post Office relocation, that’s a lot of land that is set to become available soon. The recently unveiled Downtown Plan also plans for more development near the lakefront and redeveloping MacArthur Square to include potential development sites.

There would be a large amount of value to be captured if the elevated Interstate 794 was to be removed or lowered east of the river, but the lack of political will to do anything other than redeck the Hoan Bridge appears to have doomed any discussion of that issue.

Cities like Dallas and Cincinnati seem poised to capture a lot of value with the cap parks, but they’re using them to connect two thriving neighborhoods. Avenues West, despite a highly laudable continued series of investments by Marquette is not as strong as Uptown in Dallas. Avenues West and Westown will be stronger in the future, and at that point there will be more value to capture with a park to bridge the gap, but until then it would be wise for the focus to be on infill development.

While there are benefits to building the freeway cap park, ultimately Milwaukee is best to invest elsewhere at this time. Building a freeway cap park will likely someday be a good idea, but it doesn’t seem economically feasible in the next 10 to 20 years. Investing and improving connection tools (the Streetcar, the Riverwalk) as well as generating more infill development in the areas outlined by the Downtown Plan appear to be the most promising way for the city to generate a solid return-on-investment with new development.

Our fifth profile is of St. Louis, and is written by Alex Ihnen who runs UrbanSTL and Matt Mourning of Dotage St. Louis. Alex is a member of the City to River effort and also runs Staying in STL.

St. Louis

City Garden in St. Louis (photo by Nick Schnelle)

Where you’re staying:

Drury Inn
711 North Broadway
St Louis, MO 63102-2106
(314) 231-8100
druryhotels.com‎

You’ll be staying in the historic Union Market building, the site of a public market beginning in 1866. The current building dates from 1924 and was built by the City of St. Louis as a public market. The top floor was added during renovation for use as a hotel. The Drury Hotel chain is a St. Louis local, affordable, well-rated and well-known for their free breakfast and drinks.

How to get around:

St. Louis is served by MetroLink and bus service. The light rail line has several stops downtown, connects directly with the airport and will get you to The Loop, Forest Park, the Central West End and near The Grove. The buses are cheap and reliable and can get you everywhere else. Visit the Metro website and find transit directions on Google Maps.

City Museum/Washington Avenue

City Museum in St. Louis (photo by UrbanSTL)

You may want to save City Museum for your last day in St. Louis. If you go there first you may never leave. And that would be a shame as the City has a lot to see. City Museum is the place you would have built if you could turn your dreams into a playground. There’s a ferris wheel on the roof, seven-story slide, aquarium, the outdoor MonstroCity and much, much more. Stroll Washington Avenue from your hotel to 20^th Street and you’ll see the heart of downtown revitalization and loft development in St. Louis. Loft District highlights include the Flamingo Bowl, the Washington Avenue Post (everyone’s favorite coffee shop-office supply store), and the London Tea Room (if you’re seeking tea leaves rather than coffee beans).

Soulard/Lafayette Square

Soulard in St. Louis

Soulard displays St. Louis’s French heritage. Home to corner pubs, jazz, and Creole/Cajun food, Soulard is true to its New Orleans/Louisiana roots. (In French, “Soulard” roughly translates to drunkard, fittingly). The Soulard Market, among the oldest public markets in the country, is located at 9th and Lafayette Streets. Try great “Jersey-style” pizza at Ferraro’s; Nawlins-style food at Molly’s; or grab some coffee and brunch at Soulard Coffee Garden. Seafood at 1860s Hardshell Cafe should be followed with cocktails.

Lafayette Square hosts the oldest public park west of the Mississippi, ringed with “Painted Ladies” and a picturesque wrought iron fence. Park Avenue is a small business district that’s host to Park Avenue Coffee, boasting more than 70 flavors of a local-only morsel, gooey-butter cake – don’t ask, just eat! Nearby you’ll find the 33 Wine Bar, and Bailey’s Chocolate Bar as well as Arcelia’s Mexican restaurant. For diner, explore 1111 Mississippi or the rooftop experience of Vin de Set.

Lafayette Square in St. Louis (photo by Jane Linders)

St. Louis Arch/City Garden/Broadway Blues District

Sure they’re on all tourist agendas, but they’re worth it. Eero Saarinen’s iconic monument to westward expansion is just blocks from your hotel. Visit the underground museum and ride a tram to the top, 630 feet above the city. The museum and Arch grounds may not be the most vibrant part of downtown, but that’s why you need to see it now. A design competition is underway to transform the grounds, its connections to the city and the east side of the river. Vast changes will be announced later this year and implemented in time for the park’s 50th anniversary in 2015.

Look west into the city from the Arch and you will see the Old Courthouse, site of the Dred Scott decision, now a free museum. Four blocks beyond that is City Garden. Two dozen remarkable sculptures and $40M have transformed two square blocks of the Gateway Mall. Water features, limestone bluffs, prairie grass and a serpentine wall mimic the Mississippi River landscape in what has already become one of St. Louis’s favorite picnic spots.

The Broadway Blues District has a lot to be blue about: all but a handful of historic building were torn down and became surface parking to serve nearby Busch Stadium. However, what remains is nothing less than stellar. The Eugene Field House Museum honors its namesake toymaker and poet (think “Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod”), while three blues bars (BB’s, Beale on Broadway, and the Broadway Oyster Bar) beckon St. Louisans from across the region to sample the city’s best food and music. Make sure to seek out Kim Massie, a soul singer if there ever was one, at Beale on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Forest Park

Forest Park in St. Louis (photo by Phil Kamp)

At 1,293 acres, Forest Park is big. However, it’s not the size, but what you can do in the park that brings millions of visitors each year. You can visit the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis Art Museum, Science Center and Zoo for free. There is also 27 holes of golf, a professional tennis center, boat rentals (at the Boat House restaurant), bike rentals (visitor’s center), an 11,000-seat outdoor Municipal Opera Theatre (AKA the Muny) and a one-lap 6-mile trail if you’re looking for more.

The Loop

Delmar Avenue has been named one of America’s 10 best streets by the American Planning Association. Named for the streetcar that once looped around the west end of the street, the Loop has a bit of everything. You can see Chuck Berry perform monthly at Blueberry Hill, grab a locally brewed root-beer at Fitz’s, shop for records at Vintage Vinyl, catch a movie at the historic Tivoli Theatre and peruse the St. Louis Walk of Fame at your feet. Pi, President Obama’s favorite pizza, is here too. You can rent bicycles at Big Shark. If downtown doesn’t seem to cut it for you, you could try out St. Louis’s newest boutique hotel, the Moonrise, opened by Loop proprietor Joe Edwards. If you regret your decision, you can always hop to the rooftop bar and watch the moon rise over the Arch, 7 miles to the east.

The Hill

True Italy, the Hill is where baseball greats Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola called home between seasons, and it’s still home to a flourishing Italian-American community. Visit the Missouri Baking Company for Italian dolce, Volpi for market fare and then visit Milo’s for a round of bocce. The homes are modest, but well-kept and you’ll see more Madonna statues in front yards than you can count. Markets and restaurants are scattered throughout the neighborhood while Marconi, Edwards, and Shaw are the primary commercial streets.

Cherokee/Benton Park

Cherokee Street is a little bit of everything – a progressive arts district, printmaker’s paradise, a Hispanic business district, a thrift store jackpot, an antique district, a microbrewery and coffee hotspot – in its one and a half mile run from Gravois Avenue to Broadway. Must sees are Firecracker Press, Cranky Yellow, and Apop Records, while must-eats are La Vallesana, Shangri-La Diner, and The Stable, one of the aforementioned microbreweries, is also a distillery.

Benton Park, just north of Cherokee Street, is one of St. Louis’s most revived neighborhoods and is nothing short of a foodie destination these days. Sidney Street Cafe, Niche, and Taste are among the best reviewed restaurants in St. Louis, while Frazer’s and Venice Cafe raise the quirkiness bar to new heights. For a brick version of New Orleans, stroll the residential streets, named for Midwestern states.

Crown Candy/Old North St. Louis

Old North Saint Louis (photo by Mark Groth)

No visit to St. Louis is complete without a stop at the city’s oldest soda fountain, Crown Candy Kitchen, est. 1913. Here, your willpower and stomach will be put to the test: consume five malts in a half hour, and not only does the house pick up the tab, they commemorate the experience with your name on a plaque! Old North is serious business, though. The neighborhood is the most astounding case of urban revitalization in a city that’s known for it. While there’s clearly an incredible amount of work remaining, dozens of once ruined mid-1800s row houses have been restored to their former grandeur. So too has the neighborhood’s centerpiece commercial street, North 14th, which has been re-opened to traffic after an ill-fated turn in the 1970s as a pedestrian mall.

CWE/The Grove

The Central West End is glitz of the St. Louis style. Multi-million dollar mansions line the residential streets (make sure to walk Lenox, Pershing and Hortense) while Euclid is filled with restaurants and boutique retail. Maryland Avenue marks the commercial center of the neighborhood. Coffee Cartel is a 24-hour hub of activity, while the Cupcakery is the go-to spot for its namesake. Upscale diners will enjoy Wildflower, Brasserie by Niche, and Herbie’s Vintage 72, while those on a budget will crave the Mediterranean St. Louis Coffee and Tea Oasis, The Majestic, and the Tortillaria. If you can find it, Maryland House is your hub of see-and-be-seen St. Louis. It’s part of Brennan’s Wine Shop, which also features a basement speakeasy. You don’t have to pious, or Catholic, to enjoy the outright splendor of St. Louis’s Cathedral Basilica on Lindell Boulevard – it has the largest collection of mosaics in the Western Hemisphere. Terrene and the Scottish Arms are further east, but worth a visit.

The Grove is south of the Medical Center and may be the city’s fastest-changing neighborhood. Storefronts vacant for decades are springing back to life and restaurants and other stores are starting to fill in. It may also be the city’s premier neighborhood for alternative lifestyles, but most places cater to everyone. Try the Nepalese-Korean-Indian fare at Everest Café and grab a drink at the Atomic Cowboy. The Grove is also home to the live music venue the Gramophone and White Flag Projects, an independent art gallery.

South Grand/Tower Grove/MOBOT

South Grand is the epicenter of ethnic cuisine in St. Louis, whether Thai, Ahfgan, Ethiopian or Bedouin, you’ll find it here. Try Black Thorn for pizza or Pho Grand for fast – and cheap – Vietnamese. You will also find some of the best gelato in St. Louis at the Gelateria. Then you can walk it off in 289-acre Tower Grove Park, a Victorian oasis featuring ornate pavilions dating to the 1870’s, and one of just four American parks deemed National Historic Landmarks. Adjacent to the Park is the Missouri Botanical Garden. Both were gifted to the city by Henry Shaw. The Botanical Garden, called Shaw’s Garden by locals, does charge a fee – one of the only major St. Louis attractions to do so. If you’re in town on a Wednesday from June 2 to August 4, pack a picnic and join a thousand others for live music at the Garden (Whittaker Music Series). Admission is free after 5pm and live music begins at 7:30pm.

The neighborhoods that surround Tower Grove are some of St. Louis’s most thriving, so make sure to explore by foot and you may just stumble upon the elegance of Flora Place or the funkiness of the Morgan Ford business district.

Washington Avenue in St. Louis (photo by UrbanSTL)

Thanks again to Alex Ihnen from UrbanSTL and Matt Mourning of Dotage St. Louis for putting this together.

Other Guides

• Chicago Urban Tour Guide
• Columbus Urban Tour Guide
• Indianapolis Urban Tour Guide
• Pittsburgh Urban Tour Guide

As the likely operator for the Milwaukee to Madison extension of the Chicago to Milwaukee Amtrak Hiawatha Service, Amtrak is the likely brand for high-speed rail in the Midwest. If Amtrak is to be the brand for Midwest high-speed rail, it’s going to bring with it a lot of baggage, both good and bad.

What does the Amtrak brand represent?

• Cross-country, slow travel on the rails.
• Inter-city commuter service on routes similar to the soon-to-be upgraded runs between Milwaukee and Chicago and Chicago and St. Louis.
• A money pit
• An essential piece of the transportation infrastructure to others.
• A dying, legacy system that barely anyone rides.
• A growing system that if it were an airline would be the 8th largest in terms of passengers.

Clearly, investing over a billion dollars in high-speed rail in the Midwest is worthy of having a brand absent of past baggage.

Thankfully, there is an established precedent for how to utilize Amtrak as the operator of a branded service. In the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak operates a multitude of services with the high-speed component being known exclusively as “Acela“. In the Northeast Corridor there isn’t brand confusion, there isn’t service confusion, Acela is high-speed rail, and high-speed rail is Acela.

The Midwest needs its own high-speed brand, and it needs one soon. Chicago is set to become a hub for two high-speed rail lines as soon as 2013, and it’s time for a brand to organize around. Grants have been awarded to implement 110mph high-speed rail service between Madison and Milwaukee as an extension of existing 79mph Hiawatha Service between Milwaukee and Chicago and to upgrade Lincoln Service from 79mph to 110mph between Chicago and St. Louis. If more grants are awarded, as the Obama administration indicates they may be, it’s very likely that one of those grants for another high-speed corridor would go to a route out of Chicago.

Keep the Hiawatha and Lincoln branding for individual routes, but it’s time to give an overreaching brand for high-speed rail based out of Chicago.

Looking at Minneapolis, Melissa Kovach, observes that even with a light-rail line, nearby downtown sporting events, and anchor tenants, the urban mall, Block E, still has a vacancy rate equivelant to Grand Avenue’s (30%).

The way to a healthy urban retail environment proposed by the Public Policy Forum is to focus on unique, indepdent retailers at the street-level.  Words of wisdom that sound similar to what we concluded when we explored the idea of rebuilding the Shops of Grand Avenue.

It’s great to see more and more people coming around to the idea that an urban shopping center that is simply a clone of the suburbs will fail.

What survives?  Look at the Delmar Loop in St. Louis.  An urban neighborhood served by a light-rail line, with good urban, street-level design.  Every time I visit the area, it seems to grow bigger and healthier.

What do we have to look at locally? The Third Ward.  No fixed transit connections, but it is served by two bus lines.  Most importantly though is the extensive network of street-level retail establishments with offices and condos above.  Good urban design grows upon itself, unlike a stationary mall.  This is no more evident than in the growth of the Fifth Ward where retail, offices, and condos are spilling over from the Third Ward.  The Fifth Ward, officially known as Walker’s Pointer is located just south of the Third Ward, and has seen projects like South Water Works spring up over the past year, and now Riviana appears to be moving forward again even in a down economy.

There is also the East Side concept of dorm-oriented development that appears to be taking hold.

By bringing in Deanna Inniss as a recruiter and taking the inside of Grand Avenue off of her plate, she is poised to build off the success of the Third Ward and spread that unique urban shopping experience to the rest of downtown. Godspeed to Deanna, and kudos to BID #21 for bringing her in and not saddling her baggage of bad ideas past.

Market Size

The comparison is worthwhile to make as the size of the St. Louis and Milwaukee markets are quite similar.   Greater St. Louis has a 2007 estimated population of 2,871,421.  Greater Milwaukee has a 2007 estimated population of 1,739,497.  Missouri has an estimated population of approximately 5,900,000, and is home to the Kansas City Royals as well. The population of Wisconsin is estimated near 5,600,000.  The markets are extremely similar in size when taking the state population into consideration.  Furthermore, both stadiums are located in Midwest, making them subject to colder starts and finishes to the season than say the Houston Astros.

Stadium Location

Busch Stadium is located in downtown St. Louis.  Almost every seat in the stadium has a view of a part of the skyline and the Gateway Arch.  The stadium is currently bordered by a few surface parking lots, garages, and hotels.  A few of those surface parking lots will become buildings as the mixed-use Ballpark Village is developed.  There are numerous hotels within walking distance of the stadium, many closer than the surface lots of Miller Park.  The St. Louis light rail system, Metrolink, runs right by the stadium with a stop conveniently labeled “Station” within a stones throw.  I-64 is immediately adjacent to the stadium.

Easily visible from almost every seat in the stadium.

Miller Park is located three miles west of downtown Milwaukee along I-94.  The stadium is surrounding on literally every side by surface parking lots, some stretching as far as a half mile from the stadium.  If the roof is open, and you’re in the top level of the stadium, there is a chance you could catch a glimpse of the US Bank Center, the tallest building in Wisconsin.  The nearest attraction is the Potawatami Casino, and there isn’t a hotel within walking distance.  The 90 bus line runs from Downtown starting two hours before the game, but must contend with traffic waiting to park once it leaves Wisconsin Avenue.

The amount of parking Miller Park requires because of the use of surface lots is really quite amazing.

Both stadiums are not the first iteration at their given location.  County Stadium preceded Miller Park, and Busch Memorial Stadium preceded Busch Stadium.

Cost and Ownership

Busch Stadium had a final cost of $365 million when it opened in 2006.  Of that cost, $45 million (12%) came from a long-term loan from St. Louis County.  Private financing came in the tune of $90.1 million in cash from the Cardinals, $200.5 in bonds paid by the team, and $9.2 million in interest earned on the construction fund the Cardinals held. The stadium has a seating capacity of 46,861 and is owned by the St. Louis Cardinals.  The stadium does not have a roof, or its own named expressway.  I was unable to determine who paid for the cost overruns of $20.2 million.

Miller Park had a final cost of $400 million when it opened in 2001.  The Brewers owners (led by the Seligs at the time) paid for 22.5 percent ($90 million).  The taxpayers of Milwaukee, Racine, Waukesha, Washington, and Ozaukee Counties are still paying (with a 2014 estimated ending date) a 0.1% sales tax to cover 77.5% of the costs ($310 million).  The stadium has a seating capacity of 43,000 and is owned in a partnership between the Southeastern Wisconsin Professional Baseball District (64 percent) and the Milwaukee Brewers (36 percent).  The stadium features a fan-shaped retractable roof.  The location of the stadium necessitates the construction and maintenance of Miller Park Way and the interchange with I-94, an expense I’m not sure is fully internalized in the cost of the stadium.

The most obvious difference between the two ballparks is the percentage of public financing.  Busch Stadium was 12% taxpayer funded, Miller Park was 77.5%.  Why was this?  The biggest aspect appears to be the team’s ability to pay.  The Cardinals had been banking money for years for a new stadium, while the Brewers, led by Bud Selig, did not have nearly the ability to pay what the Cardinals did.  Ironically, the Brewers were able to obtain the retractable roof, despite having less money to start with than the Cardinals.  The second most important factor in the funding for Milwaukee’s stadium appears to be the elected leaders, who were willing to go along with the Brewers plan (ultimately leading to a recall election and defeat for Senator George Petak of Racine).

A downtown stadium without a roof could have shaved at least $80 million from the sales tax burden, as the city could have offered TIF financing at least near $30 million and the retractable roof’s cost of $50 million would have been eliminated.

Busch Stadium has an open atmosphere that should work well with the neighborhood that develops around it.

Accessibility via Transit

As mentioned, Busch Stadium is next door to the Stadium Metrolink light-rail station, with connections to the airport, Illinois, and western St. Louis.  The station platform is packed after games, but I was unable to find ridership figures or estimates for gameday traffic.  The system itself handles about 60,000 riders a day.  The station is located along a standard route, encouraging familiarity and predictability with taking public transit to the stadium.  Unfortunately, a bus wasn’t anywhere to be found during my stay in St. Louis as a referendum was voted down in November and as a result bus service was reduced by nearly a third.

A sign announcing the cancellation of service to a downtown St. Louis bus stop. A frequent sight unfortunately.

In Milwaukee, the MCTS’s 90 bus route serves the bus starting two hours before the game.  Having ridden both after a game, there are significantly more people waiting to take the Metro.  The 90 bus only serves riders from downtown Milwaukee and along Wisconsin Avenue, unlike the St. Louis Metrolink line.  The gameday-only nature of the 90 bus also is rather confusing to many riders who aren’t familiar with the route.  The ride into the stadium is also far from smooth, as the bus must compete with stop and go traffic, from automobiles waiting to get into Miller Park parking lots, once the bus leaves Wisconsin Avenue.  There are many times where getting out of the bus and walking from the edge of the parking lots would be much faster than waiting to get dropped off at the front doors.

Edge to St. Louis and Busch Stadium for frequency of service, quality of service, areas for rides to originate, off-bus ticketing (a problem on buses for visitors), and predictability/reliability of service.

Accessibility via Car

Both stadiums are readily accessible by car.  Milwaukee is clearly more accessible by motor vehicle by virtue of the fact that there is nothing around it, making it ease for riders to find the one interstate exit to the stadium (conveniently labeled Miller Park Way).  Busch Stadium is served by multiple exits, but the large number of one-way streets in downtown St. Louis seem to induce rush hour congestion where none needs to be.  Overall, the traffic flow near Busch Stadium, despite the massive amount of pedestrian traffic, seems to flow just fine.

Ballpark Village will be built at the top of this image, just north of the stadium. Despite the presence of the interstate immediately next to the stadium, Busch Stadium seems less car-orientated than Miller Park.

Spillover Effect

What does each do for businesses, both nearby and far away?

Busch Stadium provides obviously a large boost for the hotels in the surrounding area, perhaps more measurable than Miller Park because of the immediate proximity.  There are also numerous vendors selling goods outside the stadium, something you don’t see at Miller Park.  On the flip side, grocery stores across the state of Wisconsin benefit marginally from the food sales generated by tailgating.

Numerous Brewer fans end up on Water Street and Bluemound Road after games, but not in the numbers that Cardinals fans show up in Laclede’s Landing to drink their In-Bev beers.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Busch Stadium was the lack of restaurants near the stadium.  There were a couple, but not in the number I would expect an urban stadium to bring.  Nothing like what is visible at Wrigley and Fenway.  Ballpark Village will hopefully ignite a process that brings a large amount of street level retail to the area.

Parking is the biggest difference between the two.  At Miller Park almost every parking stall by the stadium is controlled by the Brewers and your money goes directly into their coffers.  In St. Louis, a wide diversity of ownership is present near the stadium.  The result?  A diversity of pricing options, and light competition that works to keep prices down somewhat.  Similar to how things are with the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

The real upside to Busch Stadium’s parking setup is that the stalls can be used for more than one purpose.  At Miller Park the surface parking lots are exclusively for stadium activities.  At Busch Stadium, the parking can be used for many purposes.

Ballpark Village will be a nice addition to the area around the stadium.

Tailgateability

Coining a new term specifically for this article, “tailgateability” is the measure of the ease of eating out of the back of your car an area provides.  Miller Park wins, but really not by a lot.  At Miller Park, you can fire up your grill at any parking stall, in St. Louis this is possible for a lot of the spots, but far from all of them.

This brings up an important point though, is tailgating possible at urban stadiums?  Certainly it is.  There is no reason why the roofs of parking garages and select surface lots couldn’t be sold at a small premium to tailgaters.  In Milwaukee shuttles could run between numerous areas like the lakefront parking lots and Summerfest lots to accommodate even more tailgaters.  Also, grills could be installed and public plazas could be constructed (or actually used) that would accommodate tailgaters.

Fans take to the streets after games in St. Louis as the street grid distributes them across the city. Cars are more confined to a lot of one way streets.

Conclusion

Each stadium has features that make it an enjoyable place to watch baseball.  The roof at Miller Park is nice, but was the $50+ million price tag worth it?  You could argue each way.

The location of Busch Stadium is much more enviable than that of Miller Park and leads to a number of efficiencies.  It’s underdeveloped at this point though, Ballpark Village’s development is a must.  St. Louis has a great asset in the stadium, and a fair number of buildings nearby that work well with it.  Adding more mixed-use buildings nearby will greatly improve the downtown and build a true 24-hour neighborhood.

The fact that so little of Busch Stadium was paid for with taxpayer dollars is a plus.  Having a winning culture that sold tickets and a slightly bigger fan base helped put the team in that position though.  Consequently though, it did appear that every piece of food at the stadium cost a dollar more.  Pick your poison, although I’m sure most would choose the private funding.

Building Miller Park in downtown Milwaukee was studied (drawings included below), but there was likely a hidden cost to that.  Would Milwaukee have been to eliminate the Park East Freeway if the stadium was to be near the end of the freeway stub?  Probably not.  Suburban opposition to such a proposal would have been a lot stronger.

At the end of the day, not building the new stadium in downtown Milwaukee was certainly a missed opportunity.  The only beneficiary of its current location is the Brewers themselves.  But was it something that downtown Milwaukee needed desperately?  No, it’s pretty clear it wasn’t.  Milwaukee did miss out on a chance to accelerate all the good things going on in or near downtown though.

Miller Park Downtown

From Thursday Architects…

This project was commissioned by the City of Milwaukee as a background study in hopes of persuading the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers to locate his new publicly funded ballpark downtown rather than on the suburban fringe of the city. Promoted without success by a New Urbanist Mayor, the City proposed the demolition of a freeway spur on the north side of downtown, and the location of a new ballpark along the edge of the Milwaukee River as part of new neighborhood development at the northern edge of downtown. Parking was to be accommodated by new and existing lots and garages dispersed throughout the downtown area and immediate environs. The Brewers’ owner wasn’t buying it; and the $500M “Miller Field” will open this season in a 20,000-car parking lot west of Milwaukee.

Rendering includes Grace Lutheran Church and Blatz Condos.

Looking south down Water Street.

It’s good to see Senator Dick Durbin demanding better service from Union Pacific on the Amtrak route that runs from St. Louis to Chicago.

What does this have to do with urban Milwaukee? The expansion and improvement of Amtrak (greater frequency of runs, faster service, ultimately lower prices) is good for Milwaukee’s most urban neighborhoods.

The downtown location of the Milwaukee Intermodal Station is great for nearby land values and for access by the greatest number of riders. Easy for us that live here to get out, and for travelers from other cities to get in. The money spent to redevelop the station was worth every penny.

So the station is great, but where can we as Milwaukeeans travel to easily through that station? Currently Minneapolis and Chicago are the only easy destinations (and the few small city stops along the way). Transferring to other lines in Chicago is plausible, but service delays and the frequency of runs make it somewhat difficult.

If Senator Durbin and the people of Illinois get their way, Union Pacific will improve the conditions on the rail line and Amtrak service will improve. This will increase the ease at which Milwaukeeans can get to St. Louis.

More efficient connections to big cities will only drive more people to Milwaukee’s inner-core of great neighborhoods. Better service is both great for business and great for urban residents.

Long-term hopefully this will lead to the development of a high-speed rail corridor that includes Milwaukee. The Chicago-St. Louis route provides a great opportunity to test and implement technologies because of the lack of freight travel and the relatively flat terrain.

High-gas prices, long security check times at airports, and increasingly more extreme weather conditions will lead more and more people to Amtrak and innovators like Megabus. What can be done to create a better, more efficient service? Improving the Chicago-St. Louis line is a good first step towards building a super-efficient rail network in the fresh coast.

• Seattle mayor Greg Nickels is working on a plan that will encourage all city employees to use public transportation, by giving the free transit passes.  Milwaukee should get behind this.
• The Daily Reporter has a good look at the issues affecting the 27th Street ramp off of Interstate 94.
• Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has made a significant donation to promote the improvement of the Harambee neighborhood.  It would be great to see more companies jump on board to help the process along.
• Neal Peirce has a piece on the rebirth of rail as a well-traveled mode for inter-city movement.  He mentions how a leader is Frank Busalacchi, who ironically has been nothing but car happy in the past couple of years (failure of KRM funding source, expansion of I-94).
  • But state initiatives are also vital. Wisconsin Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi heads the "States for Passenger Rail Coalition" of 30 state transportation departments appealing for an 80-20 federal-state funding split to put some real steam behind rail expansion.
• The National Corridors Initiative is hosting a conference, "Carmichael Conference On The Future of American Transportation", in St. Louis discussing the promotion and expansion of inter-city rail travel in the United States.  I won’t be able to attend because of financial reasons (if you have $300 to pay for the conference and hotel, let me know), but look forward to seeing the results.  Inter-city transit is a huge boost for urban areas and Milwaukee could certainly use a boost with more linking with nearby Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, and Racine.
• The Milwaukee Public Library system will no longer transfer movies, television shows, or music CDs around the system and to the suburban libraries in a move that will cut costs and allow the system to be open longer.  I would like to see the system only transfer the media within Milwaukee and not to the suburbs, as I think it gives more access for the people of Milwaukee, especially those that benefit from the free resources of the library most.  Unfortunately, the system has decided to go with an all or nothing route.  I am glad that they chose this route over closing the library earlier though, as I think libraries having longer hours are a great way to deter juvenile crime.
• An intelligent look at how individual route management might work in New York City and does work in Copenhagen.  MCTS could use something like this for areas of its system to improve service.  Bus design and management should certainly be different for routes that serve UWM and Marquette vs those that serve primarily the workforce.

• "Neighbors fed up with vandals, lack of patrols" – A story of chaos and vandalism ensuing in a northwestern Milwaukee neighborhood that the police don’t seem to care to fix.  If I lived there I would be scared for my life judging by the stories told and the police departments unwillingness to monitor things.
• "City ranks at bottom of health categories" – This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to you, but being host to most of the people that experience severe socioeconomic problems in this state means the city’s health ranking will be pretty low.  In other news, keep your pants on.
• "Experts say ‘most dangerous city’ rankings’ twist numbers" – Clearly, it’s disgusting how they glorify Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, and company as such dangerous places.  Offer a solution, not an insult.
• "All routes lead to Amtrak Station" – A summary, more or less, of the status of all transit projects in the Milwaukee-area.  If you’re short on time just know that the story ends with Scott Walker killing everything in favor of a weak express bus plan.
• "Developer completes Park East financing" – Mandel Group Inc. has all the money it needs for the first phase of the North End on the site of the former Pfister & Vogel tannery.  I’m excited to watch the progress of this and enjoy the results.