The Parkie

Conceptual Plan for a Live-able Community

(Note: This entry was written by Northeast Park resident Eddie Mastalerz, who is a principal and architect at ARC3 ARCHITECTURE)

Community Design

Historically, neighborhoods evolved from a sense of protection that the community could provide through social interaction and awareness. The public street was the place of that interaction. A variety of communications occurred between people through a variety of thresholds:

• Public (Streets and sidewalks)
• Semi-Public (Front yards)
• Semi-Private (Porches and stoops)
• Private (Enclosed spaces)

It was the sequence of these spaces that offered choices to the residents for their social interaction in their environment. This sequence allowed the resident the opportunity to “people watch” and/or communicate with the pedestrians. It also provided the pedestrians a safe environment to walk. The basics of these design principals included the ability and/or desire for pedestrian activity, the formal structure of pedestrian paths (sidewalks), and the residential components that responded to those paths. These design features provided perception that “eyes were on the streets” and the community was self-aware. Surveillance, for lack of a better term, occurred naturally.

The Automobile

With the introduction of the automobile, the social aspects of the street began to change. The enclosed structure of the automobile created an isolation bubble between people. Consider the difference of human actions between two (open) motor boats on water versus two cars on the street. In most instances, boaters at least acknowledge one another with a simple wave, not unlike how people said, “Hi” when the mode of travel was the horse and buggy. The difference is the seclusion that the auto provides through its enclosed design and speed of travel. While we may recognize the color or make of the car, we rarely pay attention to the drivers.

In many places, the social aspect of the street vanished and the remaining thresholds lost their meaning all together. Pedestrians gave way to the automobile. Eventually, some suburban communities were constructed without any sequence of social thresholds. In those instances, the separation between public and private was reduced to a peephole or completely replaced with a garage door.  The experience of social interaction was reduced and “eyes” were no longer on the streets.

Returning to Basics

Today, Urban Planning has embraced the design concepts that include alternative transportation in addition to the Automobile. Biking, jogging, roller skating and walking are widely promoted in newer neighborhood designs. These activities preserve the natural environment, reduce waste and improve health (both physically and mentally).  While pedestrian activities may exist in any environment, it is important to note that they thrive when the environment is designed with intent to include them. Travel distances, destinations, and general reasons for the pedestrian to want to be in this setting are necessary for the pedestrian path to function properly. However, it is the path itself which physically links the community together.

Our Plan

Fortunately, our Northeast Park Neighborhood contains the basics of good community design. We have local destinations provided by churches, schools, parks and retail spaces. We have activity corridors provided by designated trails and waterfront access. We also have great neighbors who are welcoming and socially active. Pedestrian activities exist simply due to the nature of our surroundings and the amenities of our environment. What is lacking can be improved upon.

Sidewalks provide the structure for pedestrian activities to exist safely. They help to define the boundaries of the semi-public space. This specific space is a link to which our social lives extend towards our neighbors. It marks a boundary that our homes must respond to and it allows us the opportunity to improve the experience of our environment at the human scale. We are not merely separating people from cars. Instead, we are creating a space where pedestrian activities enhance our lives, reduce crime, improve the buffers of our social thresholds and make our community more live-able. Sidewalks offer us the opportunity to not only improve our environment, but to improve our lives.

- Eddie Mastalerz

• May 25 – Plan Rationale and Funding Opportunities (Darren Bishop)
• June 1 – Expanding on the Plan Rationale – Family Safety (Heather Bishop)
• June 8 – NEPNA Neighborhood Design and Community Health Concepts (Dyan Backe)
• June 15 – Landscape Architecture Opportunities (Paul Kurtz)

A special note for those new to the NEPNA email list or this blog: The Traffic Circulation Plan discussed below was developed over a two year process with several of your neighbors working with the City of St. Petersburg to become the first neighborhood in the city to have a proposed holistic plan of enhancing pedestrian safety. Over the past two years, two neighborhood-wide postal mailings have been sent out to announce the Plan development and several NEPNA Monthly Meetings have been held to refine the Plan (all meetings and meeting topics are published in the St. Petersburg Times). As an added measure, we have undertaken this five part series answering questions and summarizing the rationale for the Plan.

On June 29th, ballots will be mailed to all households in Northeast Park. Residents will have until July 12th to mail in the ballot or attend the July 12th NEPNA Monthly Meeting at the Masonic Home (7:00 p.m.) to hand-deliver the ballot. The ballot is for approval or rejection of the Traffic Circulation Plan concept only – no payment or special assessments are being voted on with this ballot. Our goal is to have an approved Plan in place so that the city and NEPNA Leadership can pursue grants or existing funding sources with the directive that we will avoid any special assessment to the greatest extent practicable. If a special assessment is needed, a second, separate ballot will be sent out at a later date. A link to the current Plan can be found HERE.

We hope you enjoy the information and we welcome comments or additional questions!

Landscape Design Opportunities

(Note: This entry was written by Northeast Park resident Paul Kurtz, who is Registered Landscape Architect and a LEED Accredited Professional)

Over the past three weeks I have read some very compelling reasons for supporting the NEPNA Traffic Circulation Plan.  The issues of neighborhood connectivity, pedestrian safety, promoting more walking and biking, and traffic calming provide more than enough benefits for me to support the Plan.

I am also interested in how the Plan could help to create a unique identity for Northeast Park. In particular, I am referring to how the proposed improvements will change the look of our streets through the incorporation of landscape design concepts.  The improvements should be more than just functional – it should have aesthetic value as well. I envision sidewalks and crosswalks that have a decorative finish and that are integrated into the existing landscape of Northeast Park to preserve and enhance the urban forest.  As a member of the NEPNA North Bay Trail Advisory Committee, we have been successful in helping to convince the City of St. Petersburg to route the extension of the Pinellas Trail that travels along 1st Street in a manner that avoids as many existing trees as possible to preserve the urban forest, as shade is at a premium.  The design of the proposed sidewalks in the Plan will focus on the following three objectives:

• Avoid all existing trees and landscaping to the greatest extent practicable while still maintaining pedestrian safety
• Where trees cannot be avoided (due to human health or engineering design reasons), plant replacement trees at a minimum 2:1 ratio
• Work with property owners in areas that are devoid of trees to plant vegetation that would provide shade for proposed sidewalk paths

Enhanced aesthetics don’t necessarily mean higher cost, in most cases it could be as simple as a well thought out design.  NEPNA has offered to provide in-kind professional design services to aid in keeping the cost for producing the plans to a minimum.

My family currently lives on a street where a sidewalk has been proposed. At first, we were not crazy about the idea of losing some of our yard – as you know lots in Northeast Park are pretty small. But then I realized that this really would be a great opportunity to enhance our neighborhood and make Northeast Park that much better of a place to live.

- Paul Kurtz

• May 25 – Plan Rationale and Funding Opportunities (Darren Bishop)
• June 1 – Expanding on the Plan Rationale – Family Safety (Heather Bishop)
• June 8 – NEPNA Neighborhood Design and Community Health Concepts (Dyan Backe)

Up Next:

• June 22 – Conceptual Plans and Livable Communities (Eddie Mastalerz)

NEPNA Neighborhood Design and Community Health Impacts

(Note: This entry was written by Northeast Park resident Dyan Backe, who is an AICP certified planner)

Northeast Park has an upcoming opportunity to improve our neighborhood through the support of the NEPNA Traffic Circulation Plan.  The benefits of implementation of this plan are numerous and include an increase in pedestrian and bicyclist safety, a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and the movement toward a healthier, less car-dependent lifestyle for our residents.

The Northeast Park neighborhood presently has many positive features, including:

• Located close to employment centers such as downtown St. Petersburg;
• Amenities and opportunities for recreation such as: Crisp Park, NE Little League, and bayous for boating and kayaking;
• Shopping and dining at Northeast Shopping Center;
• Diversity in housing including multi-family housing, single family residences, housing for the elderly, and work force housing;
• Access to the North Bay Trail;
• Schools and churches

With additional sidewalks and pedestrian/bicyclist safety measures, prospective residents will be encouraged to move to our neighborhood and existing residents will be excited to stay.  The improvements envisioned by the NEPNA Traffic Circulation Plan will foster a healthy environment for a diverse population including families with young children, active singles, teenagers, retirees, disabled individuals, and dog owners.

There are health risks to complete dependence on the automobile for all of our needs.  In an article for Miller-McCune, Jonathan Lerner writes, “unwalkable distances and the culture of automobility encourage sedentary habits, contributing to obesity and diabetes and other illnesses.”  Our neighborhood has many opportunities for retrofitting and the improvement of the pedestrian environment is one that would benefit the health and safety of our residents.

I would also encourage, while you think about your vote for the NEPNA Traffic Circulation Plan, that you consider the needs of the children in the neighborhood.  They do not get to vote for or against the Plan; however they are a vital segment of our neighborhood’s population and our community’s future.  I advocate for a neighborhood where our children feel safe to explore our public spaces and parks and have a means to access our neighborhood amenities.  Outdoor exploration for our children is especially important as our world becomes increasingly technologically dominated.

It is my hope that this is the first of many steps in the right direction for our neighborhood toward a healthier lifestyle.

- Dyan Backe

• May 25 – Plan Rationale and Funding Opportunities (Darren Bishop)
• June 1 – Expanding on the Plan Rationale – Family Safety (Heather Bishop)

Up Next:

• June 15 – Landscape Architecture Opportunities (Paul Kurtz)
• June 22 – Conceptual Plans and Livable Communities (Eddie Mastalerz)

Expanding on the Plan Rationale – Family Safety

The second installment in the five part series of information regarding the NEPNA Traffic Circulation Plan addresses safety issues related to intra-neighborhood travel from a family’s perspective.

Family

Everyone’s definition of a family is different — It may be a working professional and his dog; a retired couple; parents and their two children; or grandparents raising their grandchildren. I am a mother of two children, an active adult, engaged neighbor, and concerned citizen. However you define your family, it is likely that their safety and well-being is one of your highest priorities.

We are fortunate that Northeast Park has so many wonderful businesses, parks, and other destinations located within its boundaries and that all are located at the most two miles away. The close proximity of these destinations (in contrast to a more suburban, automobile-dependent neighborhood) encourages pedestrian travel, provided that pedestrians feel safe doing so.

As most NEPNA Neighbors are aware, our current sidewalk configuration is disconnected and does not facilitate travel between our homes and neighborhood destinations. Any route likely has a significant portion along which pedestrians must share the road with cars, bikes, and other pedestrians. Below is a photo series that I took during a walk to pick up our son at school. It’s difficult to find a place for a pedestrian to fit into this situation without risking their safety – especially with a stroller, dog, or child in tow.

The NEPNA Traffic Circulation Plan has been designed to provide our NEPNA Neighbors with the option to more safely walk with our families to our businesses and parks without needing to share roadways with vehicles (parked or moving).

Intra-Neighborhood Travel

As a mother, my immediate concern is the safe pedestrian travel of my children. Those living in Northeast Park are zoned to attend North Shore Elementary, which is no more than 1.75 miles away from any given home in our neighborhood. According to the National Center for Safe Routes to School (LINK), less than half of students living within one mile of school walk or bike there even once a week and fewer do now than did a generation ago. This is a national trend that likely applies to North Shore Elementary. Parents’ work schedules, the perception of crime, the absence of sidewalks, and distracted or speeding drivers all may play a role in whether or not students walk or bicycle to school.

Most NEPNA parents that I have spoken to express concern over walking their children to North Shore Elementary, citing the lack of consistent, interconnected sidewalks; lack of safe major thoroughfare crossings (40^th Avenue and 1^st Street); and having to share the road with cars as the impetus for driving their children the two miles or less to school.

With a network of sidewalks and safe means of crossing major streets (such as enhanced cross walks), we would at the very least provide the opportunity for parents to walk with their children to school like we did a generation ago.

And the benefits of walking children to school extend beyond the obvious health advantages. Consider the other benefits that you cannot achieve during a car ride such as spending precious time with your children (with our busy schedules who doesn’t want a few extra minutes with their children?); becoming more familiar with your neighborhood (on a street level); teaching your child to take pride in their community; and interacting with your neighbors.

Expanding the Scope to Your Family

This was written from the perspective of what safe pedestrian travel means to me and my family. But the same rationale for the Plan can be applied to any definition of family by replacing the individuals and destinations.

• A young professional walking to Northeast Shopping Center for a slice of pizza after work;
• A retired couple enjoying a walk to watch the sun rise over Smacks Bayou or Coffee Pot Bayou;
• A family walking to Crisp Park for their child’s birthday party;
• Grandparents walking to Northeast Little League to watch their granddaughter play baseball for the first time; or
• A (insert your pronoun) walking to (insert your destination) to (insert your activity).

Safe pedestrian travel benefits everyone in our community.

- Heather Bishop

• May 25 – Plan Rationale and Funding Opportunities (Darren Bishop)
  

Up Next:

• June 8 – Community Planner Perspective (Dyan Backe)
• June 15 – Landscape Architecture Opportunities (Paul Kurtz)
• June 22 – Conceptual Plans and Livable Communities (Eddie Mastalerz)

Plan Rationale and Funding Opportunities

The first installment of this five part series addresses two topics that have been discussed most frequently at our NEPNA Monthly Meetings regarding the Traffic Circulation Plan (Plan).Feel free to post comments or questions so that we address all outstanding questions before the June 29 to July 12 mailed ballot process begins.

Plan Rationale

The overarching rationale for the Plan is to facilitate safe pedestrian travel to the various destinations in Northeast Park. There are very few existing sidewalks and functional road crossings in our neighborhood, and with a growing number of young families and active adults moving to Northeast Park, the ability to safely walk, run, or ride bikes has become a focus of NEPNA (in fact, NEPNA is the first neighborhood to undertake this process, so we are setting the standard). The Plan establishes a grid of pedestrian corridors along which new interconnected sidewalks, crosswalks, increased vehicle speed enforcement, and traffic calming measures would be implemented. (Click HERE to view the recently revised Plan.) Not every street has a sidewalk – but neighbors will never be more than a couple blocks away from a corridor. And having the corridors allows NEPNA to focus on making pedestrian travel safe along those designated routes rather than diluting our focus throughout the neighborhood.

Additional sidewalks would directly improve pedestrian safety – and there are many indirect benefits such as the promotion of neighbor interaction, increased safety through familiarity of neighbors and more ‘feet on the street’, and the promotion of healthy lifestyles that are less dependent on automobiles (and the list of benefits continues). The Parkie Blog postings coming over the next four weeks will provide additional detail on the benefits of a pedestrian-friendly community.

Funding Opportunities

Before we can even begin to explore funding opportunities, an approved Plan must be in place. NEPNA Leadership would have a viable, neighborhood-supported Plan for grant applications and projected cost calculations. Here are our funding options in order of priority:

1. Existing Grants - Applicable grant sources such as the Federal Safe Routes to School Program will be pursued by NEPNA Leadership as the first option for funding the Plan. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is currently assessing the safety of routes children have available to reach North Shore Elementary (among other schools throughout the state). Assuming that the FDOT study documents the lack of connected sidewalks and coexistence of cars and pedestrians on roads during early morning hours, it will provide NEPNA with a strong reference when applying for various grants. NEPNA Leadership will exhaust this option to the greatest extent practicable because there is no direct cost to NEPNA Neighbors.
2. City Funding – The next option will be to work with the City of St. Petersburg to identify potential budgets that are available to fund portions of the Plan. For example, there are potentially funds available to increase connectivity of existing sidewalks that are only separated by a short distance (e.g., two to three blocks). NEPNA will pursue budget sources such as this to at least partially fund applicable potions of the Plan. This option also does not have a direct cost to our NEPNA Neighbors because it is funded by taxes that we have already paid and would otherwise (presumably) not directly benefit from.
3. Sponsorships / In-Kind Services - It’s been nothing short of amazing to witness the selfless offerings of services from many of our NEPNA Neighbors who are focused on making the Plan a reality. We have had offers of architectural design, landscape architecture, logo development, and materials (e.g., reduced cost for cement) that are all focused on driving down the cost of constructing the elements of the Plan. This option has multiple benefits – including a sense of ownership for the neighborhood – and will significantly reduce the overall cost to our NEPNA Neighbors.
4. Special Funding District – After fully exhausting the first three options, the remaining costs would be put to vote through a ballot separate from the Plan approval ballot . The total remaining cost will be divided among all approx. 1,700 NEPNA Neighbors. Neighbors with sidewalks on their property will not pay the full bill because the benefits of the sidewalks will be shared by the entire neighborhood (this is similar to how nearly all community assets are paid for – the elements of the Plan would be a community asset approved by the majority of NEPNA Neighbors, all of whom may benefit from the asset). There is no estimate as to what the cost per person will be at this time because we have not fully explored the first three options. The goal will be to avoid this option if at all possible.

The ballot being sent out on June 29 will document that the elements of the Plan will have to be funded, but specifics (e.g., costs, funding sources) will not be documented because we have not worked through all of the funding options (because we do not have an approved Plan yet). It may be that NEPNA Neighbors do not have to pay anything (optimistic) – or it may be that none of the first three options work out (worst case). We don’t know – but we do know that if NEPNA Neighbors have to pay anything at all, everyone will have an opportunity to vote on the funding. Local Democracy at its finest!

- Darren Bishop

Up Next:

• June 1 – Expanding on the Plan Rationale – Family Safety (Heather Bishop)
• June 8 – Community Planner Perspective (Dyan Backe)
• June 15 – Landscape Architecture Opportunities (Paul Kurtz)
• June 22 – Conceptual Plans and Livable Communities (Eddie Mastalerz)