Sunday PD details McEagle's grass roots approach

An article by Tim Logan in today's Sunday Post Dispatch details the ongoing effort of McEagle to build community support for its proposed NorthSide plan.

The article describes a low key, high impact effort whereby McEagle principal Paul McKee is holding ongoing small group meetings with neighborhood residents, businesses, and elected officials. The neighborhood meetings are leading up to scheduled public hearings starting later this month where the city's TIF Commission and Board of Aldermen will consider McEagle's request for a record-setting TIF agreement.

Logan details a slow but steady conversion of near northside stakeholders in support of the McEagle plan. Concerns remain, especially with regard to ongoing property maintenance and the possibility of eminent domain, but overall, according to the story, residents, business owners, and elected officials are growing in their support of the plan.

Logan notes that McEagle's website has not been updated in months, and that the twitter and online discussion forum are inactive. Given the growing traction for the NorthSide plan, without the use of an active internet-driven, electronic community engagement effort, it appears that McEagle planners have concluded that their best approach to winning support for the NorthSide plan is by following the direct route of holding steady, face-to-face meetings with locals.

The article does not go into specifics regarding historic preservation or the definition of legacy buildings targeted for preservation.

NorthSide Updates

It's been quite some time since we've updated this blog, so just to let everyone know this site is still active, we are giving a brief update post.

The TIF Commission of the City of St. Louis set a date in September for a public hearing. The hearing was moved to an evening time slot in response to public input. The meeting will be held at 6:30 PM on September 26.

The public's concern over the maintenance of McEagle properties in the redevelopment area remains. The developers are proposing historic rehab and preservation of select older buildings. They are calling these properties "legacy properties".

To date there has not been a list of legacy properties made available for public review.

Northsideregeneration forum taken over by spam

Spam posts have taken over McEagle's northsideregeneration forum site.

Efforts to open a community dialogue at McEagle's Northside Regeneration website forum page have failed to develop. This week, the only activity on the forum has been spam posts about things like how to catch a cheating spouse or how to increase the income of your own personal business.

Since the site went live on July 7th, there have been no responses from McEagle officials to any questions or comments raised by the community.

In the meantime, community residents continue their push for a local set of redevelopment goals. Representatives of the Community Benefits Alliance appeared on KWMU's St. Louis On The Air program with Don Marsh yesterday.

Drug ring busted in JVL area

The Post Dispatch is reporting that the St. Louis Police Department arrested 14 violent offenders accused of operating a crack cocaine ring in the JVL neighborhood, site of much of the proposed NorthSide redevelopment.

Meanwhile, an anonymous commenter at the Ecology of Absence blog is suggesting there is a connection between Paul McKee's efforts to improve the community and these arrests. Does anyone have information to validate this claim?

New organizations/forum groups established

The NorthSide plan is generating lots of online interest.

Hat tip to Ecology of Absence for alerting the community at large to the "NorthSide Community Benefits Alliance" group.

Another group, Summer of Solutions, has produced a lot of online content and discussions about the NorthSide plan.

Both forums are linked on the right side of this page.

What is "OSB"?

People interested in the advancement of St. Louis need to keep up on the terminology.

St. Louis has lots of acronym named organizations, but lately I've read about one involved in the NorthSide effort that I've never heard of before. It's called "OSB" and it sounds like it has something to do with property maintenance.

Can anyone explain what "OSB" stands for and what it does? Is it a public or private entity? A division of the City of St. Louis or McEagle affiliate? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

Mum's the word at McEagle's NorthSide forum

So far there have been practically no comments or questions from the public nor official responses from McEagle reps at the NorthSide project forum. Not much of a forum yet. If you care about what happens, post to the forum!