Lonely Walk 3.07.2007 | 0 Comment(s)

This afternoon I had to visit an office about 3 blocks away from my building. As I headed west on Locust from Broadway, I couldn't help but think that there should be way more people on the street. I was the sole pedestrian on the sidewalk for much of my trip. When people say St. Louis Centre creates a void of activity downtown, they aren't lying. The huge, empty hulk of a building just sits there dark and foreboding. I'm not sure what the building that faces the mall on its Locust side is called, but it too appears to be vacant, or at the very least underutilized. When you reach Macy's there's a bit (just a little bit) more life, the department store's window displays add much needed color and excitement to the streetscape.

There's not much activity outside the Old Post Office other than the construction of the garage and the rehabilitation of the Syndicate building across the street. It seems that the construction downtown is hurting street life. Maybe once it's all done we'll see more people on the street.

I was fascinated by the thin, black net that has been draped over the facade of the Old Post Office to keep pigeons off the building. I thought the solution was just great. You barely can see the net, and the net is a much better option than the solution of a row of nails over every window or doing nothing and seeing bird shit all over a beautiful building. I think some other buildings downtown might want to look into this "pigeon solution", it's quite clever and pretty much invisible.