The Carbondale Observer

[This is the second post in a series about density, green space, urban design, and neighborhood revitalization. If you haven't done so yet, I'd encourage you to click here to check out the previous post. It attracted several thoughtful comments from community members. In addition to the community comments, I've written around 6,000 words there between the original post and two comments. It's worth a look. ]

In Thursday’s post, I wrote about density, green space, and neighborhood revitalization in the context of the city council’s discussion of Home Rentals’ special use permit to build a four unit apartment building on Monroe Street next to the library. I initially also planned to write a response to a statement from the library’s board of directors, but Thursday’s post was too long and I decided to separate the two posts.   Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday night the Carbondale city council rejected an application from Home Rentals for a special use permit that would have allowed the construction of a four unit apartment complex adjacent to the library on Monroe Street. I think the council made the correct decision, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts. But I wanted to write this post in response to some comments made during the council’s discussion. I originally wanted to include a response to a statement from the library board of directors, but I’ve run out of space, so that will have to be covered in a future post.

I’ll start by restating the reason for my objection to the special use permit for Home Rentals. I had only one reason to oppose the special use permit: Home Rentals’ dismal maintenance record on its existing properties. Their rental houses are in poor shape and their apartment buildings are among the ugliest structures in Carbondale. In recent years, Home Rentals has covered many of their properties in unappealing clay-colored vinyl siding, which has only made their appearance worse.

If Home Rentals built attractive apartment buildings and properly maintained their rental houses, I would have supported the special use permit. I favor increased residential development and increased density in and around the downtown. It was only because of Home Rentals’ poor reputation that I opposed the development. Since this position goes against conventional wisdom in Carbondale, I’ll explain at length. Read the rest of this entry »

Construction of a new gated community is under way on New Era Road. The Villas of Carbondale will contain fifty retirement residences. Ten percent of the residences will be reserved for extremely low income seniors, 86 percent of the units will go to low income seniors, and the remaining four percent will be available at market rate. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I wrote a post about the importance of aesthetics. I am going to expand on that by highlighting a particularly attractive part of town.  The town square is my favorite part of town – especially the 100 block of East Jackson St.

I want to point out the features of the block’s design that make it so appealing. Urban design is important because it affects how we use public space and how we feel about our spaces. This area is an example of what Carbondale needs more of. Read the rest of this entry »

I wrote three posts earlier this week touching on urban design and I wanted to follow up on those. I found this plaque on the Southeast Missourian Building  in Cape Girardeau. I’m not sure how legible the photo will be in your browser so I am going to quote the important part:

Built in 1924-25  Newspaper owners George & Fred Naeter wrote of their inspiration: “To add in a large way beauty and dignity to one’s town is to express affection for the community and confidence in its future.”

In other words, appearance counts. If building something beautiful and dignified expresses affection and confidence, then building something ugly and undignified expresses contempt for the community and indifference about its future.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Daily Egyptian had a great article last week on the nearly rebuilt Hangar 9. I walked past the new building a few days ago and it looks like the exterior is coming together.  I couldn’t see inside but I did notice the floor for the upstairs mezzanine was in place before the front wall was finished. The D.E. article said Hangar’s goal is to be open before the end of November.

I’m really glad Hangar is coming back. The old pole barn was ugly on the outside, but it was a good size to see a live show and a lot of good touring musicians played shows there. The new building is going to be larger and it won’t be a pole barn so I’m going to call that an improvement.  You can see drawings and floor plans for the new building in the Hangar 9.2 folder on Hangar’s Facebook page.

On the other hand, I don’t like the fence enclosing the beer garden.  In the drawings it looks like there will be slats (of wood?) facing the street and a chain link fence behind that, with vines trained to grow up the wall.

It looks pretty cool viewed from the inside, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea to build a wall between the street and your business.  I realize they had to enclose the beer garden, but it would have been nice to have an enclosure that allowed patrons to see out and pedestrians to see in.

Maybe the city council/liquor control commission  wouldn’t permit a more “open” fence like the one enclosing Booby’s beer garden.  I have sometimes wondered whether the wall between Melange and the street contributed to its downfall.  A wall or an opaque fence says “you aren’t welcome here.”

In spite of the opaque wall around the beer garden, the new Hangar will fill a void on the strip and it will be a great venue for live music.  That’s good for Carbondale.  Here are two more photos:

Comments are welcome.

Work is moving ahead on the new police station on the old Lincoln School site. The foundation is in place and some of the steel beams are up.

The drawings for the building look pretty attractive.  Check them out on the city’s website.

The building itself cost $7.02 million, but the city issued bonds for $8 million to furnish the building and cover unexpected expenses.

The Police Department is currently housed in some converted dorms on East College.  The new facility is centrally located and will be earthquake resistant.

The city also recently bought the eastern portion of the old Lincoln School site.  The plan is to keep that area as a park. I haven’t heard what the new park will be called or what the design will be.

Lincoln Street forms the eastern boundary of the site, so I suggest Lincoln Square for the name. The people in charge of naming the park are welcome to use that name without giving me credit.

The area is already set up for softball and basketball.  Adding some benches, landscaping, and restrooms would really spruce it up.

Comments are welcome.

If you’ve been on the strip lately I’m sure you’ve seen this sign at the site of the former Animal Crackers building. The city tore the building down in August. Apparently we’re making way for progress, but I haven’t seen much information on the plans for the site.

Brad Cole had a letter to the editor in the Southern earlier this month in which he wrote:

The city just finished demolition of the former Animal Crackers building at 315 S. Illinois Ave., to make way for the future development of an inter-modal transportation center that will accommodate an expanded Amtrak rail station and other services.

Local blogger and businessman Scott Thorne posted in the Carbondaze Gazette that the city is going to put in “…more parking lots to service a planned intermodal transportation center…”

I couldn’t find an article directly about the city’s plans for the lot on the Southern Illinoisan website, though there are two pictures of the demolition in progress. The Southern did have an article about Amtrak in August that mentioned a station expansion, but it wasn’t really clear:

And Amtrak is looking at ways to keep growing its presence in Southern Illinois. Baity said the city has a proposal from the country to renovate and expand the station on South Illinois Avenue – a move Baity said is necessary.

I assume “country” is a typo, but was it meant to be “company,” or “county” or something else? The article doesn’t mention a timeline and no site or building design plans have been released as far as I can tell.

If it is done well, an intermodal transportation center would be a good thing for Carbondale and for the strip.  107,000 people came through the Amtrak Station in FY 2009, and a nice station would make a good impression. It would also be nice if the space was shared with Greyhound.

Site and building design would be critical.  I’d like to see a brick building with lots of windows built at the front lot line with any additional parking behind the building.  I’m not sure that new parking in really necessary.  The city operates a large lot along the tracks to College Street.  If anything, the strip has too much surface parking and too few buildings.

The worst thing they could do would be to put up a shabby windowless building at the back of the lot with parking in front. If we want the strip to be attractive and pedestrian friendly, we need to employ good principles of urban design. We can accommodate cars without turning over all of our public space to them.

At least on the strip, parking lots aren’t progress.

Comments are welcome.