Aloe Plaza and Aloe Plaza West

Aloe Plaza and Aloe Plaza West are 2 of St. Louis' 108 parks.  Combined, they make up 4.3 of the total 2,956 acres of parkland.

The parks are located between Chestnut Street, Market Street, 18th Street and the 22nd Street interchange:

Park space continues east of 18th Street all the way to Tucker where Memorial Plaza, Kaufmann Park and Poelker Park exist.  I'll cover those in the future.

Here's a little history on the park from the city website:

Development of Aloe Plaza was made possible by an $87 million bond issue in 1923. The funds were used for the widening of Olive Street and the clearance and development of land for several plazas in the area bounded by Market, Chestnut, 12th and 20th Streets. Aloe Plaza was named in honor of Louis P. Aloe, who died in 1929. Mr. Aloe served as President of the Board of Alderman from 1916 to 1923 and led the movement for passage of the bond issue.

While Aloe Plaza has been around since 1931 and Aloe Plaza West since 1969, the clearing of buildings to the east occurred in the 1950's, as the following photo was taken in 1955:

"Buildings will be cleared from area shown in the foreground, as part of the Plaza redevelopment. The view was taken from the tower of Union Station, at the intersection of 18th and Market Streets looking northeast. Demolition work will begin April 19. R. Yiher(sp?)/photographer. 4-8-1955. (St. Louis Globe-Democrat)" source

As the city started losing population at a staggering rate, there was less need for business and housing...hence, we get more building demolition and are left with easier to maintain park space.  Unfortunately, as go the buildings and people so goes the well planned, dense city.  Anyhow, we lost a lot of tax generating, vibrancy-creating properties and now we have parks.  Albeit...a very beautiful one in the case of Aloe Plaza.

Aloe Plaza West is really nothing more than grass, a few trees and homeless tents and debris. 

tents set up under evergreens in the distance

Most probably recognize this area as a popular taxi stand at 20th Street.

There is also an awkwardly placed information kiosk which probably hasn't been updated since it was installed.  Most of the fliers posted within it are completely sun dyed, illegible and relate to urban tree care...huh?

Aloe Plaza West is really just idle, wasted space that contributes nothing to our city.  A plan should be in place to make it something, anything more appealing for day time employees, tourists and residents.

This is right by the 22nd street interchange, part of Paul McKee's NorthSide development; and per UrbanReviewSTL, the recent subject of a St. Louis Regional Transit Oriented Development Study. Note how this plan would replace a logical street grid, and the Aloe and Aloe West parks remain:

So maybe there is a future for this underutilized swath of land.

Now, Aloe Plaza on the other hand contains a St. Louis landmark with the 'Meeting of the Waters' sculpture and fountain (finished November,1939 by Carl Milles) taking up most of the park's 3.35 acres in the shadow of the gorgeous Union Station. 

 (interior renovations taking place in Union Station)

For an excellent write up on Aloe Plaza, see the UrbanReviewSTL story from June, 2011.

Here's what it looked like today:

Also adding to the beauty of Aloe Plaza are some nice new park benches donated by various members of the Aloe family:

Notice the black bars on the benches that form an arm rest and separator for park goers?  Those serve another very important purpose, keeping homeless from sleeping horizontally on the benches.

I debated whether or not to address the homeless issue in this park, and ended up feeling it was necessary to mention as it is the culture here.  It's accepted and allowed.  It will be a topic I will have to address if doing honest snapshots of the parks.

And if you were to go check out Aloe Plaza and Aloe Plaza West, you will likely encounter homeless, so I wanted to keep it real.

This has always been a big hang out for homeless people since I can remember.  I'm not the only one who knows this is a homeless hangout/encampment, as people come in from church groups, usually from the suburbs to "feed" the homeless.  They drive up, hand out junk food and then leave.  Of course the homeless leave their trash all over the park.  The course today was entirely made of junk food and sports drink.

Here's the byproduct (cookie, chips and Gatorade trash on the ground, right next to the other drink of choice:

Sure, you can mourn the loss of what once was here when St. Louis was a great city occupied by over 800,000...fact is we're down to < 320,000 now and can't support the businesses that once were.  For better or worse, this a nice park that adds to St. Louis' beauty and photogenicity.  Enjoy the fountain and gaze up at Union Station.  Maybe some day there will be an MLS stadium at Union Station and/or people living in this part of the city again!

Viva St. Louis!

Following St. Louis City Talk Via Facebook

A friend recently pointed out that I should add a Facebook page.  I already have a Facebook group, which is by invitation only.

So after giving it some thought, why not have both?  If you want to read my personal thoughts on current events and chime in with a discussion, go to the group.  If you just want to be notified of new and future posts/topics for St. Louis City Talk, "like" the page.

Here are links to both:

St. Louis City Talk Facebook Discussion Group

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Thanks for reading.  Viva St. Louis!

Alaska Park

Alaska Park is 1 of 108 St. Louis parks making up 4.71 acres of the total 2,956 acres of parkland in the city.  Alaska Park came into existence in 1995 and can be found in the Carondelet Neighborhood near the corner of Koeln and Alaska Avenue. 

As can be seen in the map, this park is near the southern city limits, bordering the suburban city of Bella Villa, MO.

The park is basically a field of mowed grass/weeds and maybe 40 trees placed haphazardly and not well maintained.  This park has nothing, literally nothing else.  There are no trash cans, no water fountain, no benches, no picnic tables...nothing.

No where to dispose of your tasty cold beverage.

The only thing that will make you aware that it is a park is the familiar wooden park sign:

There is a sidewalk connecting Koeln to Schirmer that runs along railroad tracks.

This "park" is really nothing more than a field.  A good place for a kid to climb a tree, I suppose.

 ...or a space for the dog to retrieve the Frisbee....

Other than that, not much to see here folks, move right along now.

"Park's closed moose out front should've told you."

This may be one of the more boring spaces of all the 111 parks, but only time will tell.

This part of Carondelet mainly has modest mid century frame houses lining the park.

Alaska Park is in the shadow of A.E. Schmidt billiards and other light manufacturing.  It is also just north of the massive Israel Chemical Limited plant, where ~250 million pounds of phosphate and phosphoric acid products are produced (source). 

Near Shirmer Avenue, there is a weird either homeless encampment or temporary furniture fort near the dumpsters.  There was a grown shirtless man rooting around in the cushions upon my visit.  I couldn't tell if he was living there or looking for something in the cushions after an eviction or something...very strange.

I'm not sure what used to be on this property before this became park land in 1995. 

There was no one using the park on my visit.

What do you do with a space like this?  Clearly the neighborhood has to embrace it and make it a place.  If the community doesn't embrace it and demand something of the space, it will continue in its current state and the park's dept will be happy to do the bare minimum to maintain the space.

It would be nice to see the city sell this parkland for light industrial development; or more homes.  I don't think anyone would mind.

Aboussie Park

According to the St. Louis City website, there are 111 108 parks covering 2,956 acres in St. Louis.

Edit (January, 2016), the city updated their website and corrected the list of parks to include a total of 108 parks. 

If you work in alphabetical order, the first of these is Aboussie Park which the city says is in the Benton Park neighborhood.  Per my understanding, I-55 is the east/west divider between Soulard and Benton Park, and the city website confirms this on its neighborhood maps page; so, in this particular case, I am going against what the "authorities" say and claim Aboussie Park as a Soulard entity.  I spoke to a resident walking his dog in the park and he said that local lore says there are concrete markers for Benton Park and Soulard.  I couldn't confirm that, nor find them but I'd like to know if that is true.

Anyhow, Aboussie Park was established in 1981 and is located near Sidney and 13th Street, and just east of the chain link fence on the I-55 easement.  The stretch of Interstate that Aboussie Park lines is probably most recognizable by the shuttered 'Hi-Way Bar' visible just south of the Sidney overpass.

Aboussie Park is recognized as the smallest of all city parks, covering a mere 0.4 acre.

This park is surrounded by well-kept St. Louis brick homes with manicured front lawns and gardens...St. Louis living at its best being cared for by good stewards of our history and architecture.

Like nearly all St. Louis parks, you will notice the familiar wooden sign marking the park.

Aboussie Park takes its name from Martie "Murph" Aboussie (1909-1970), a politician in the 9th Ward.

There are actually two monuments commemorating members of the Aboussie family, the first a sign that speaks to the life of Martie "Murph" Aboussie and the second, a statuette of St. Francis of Assisi in honor of Martie J. (Jay) Aboussie, Jr. who died at the young age of 23 in 2006.

So who is Martie "Murph" Aboussie?  According to my quick research, he was a 9th ward committeeman who had ties to the Lebanese gangs that competed with the Irish gangs of St. Louis in the 1930's.

In the 1930's, two organized crime groups with national connections-one Italian, one Lebanese-reached an accommodation regarding a division of activity.  A committee would handle disputes between the parties.  Jimmy Michaels led the Lebanese contingent.  Through marriage, Michaels was related to a number of politicians of Lebanese descent.  His sister married Martie "Murph" Aboussie, a longtime 9th ward committeeman.  (source:  St. Louis Politics:  The Triumph of Tradition)

Lebanese gangs?  I learn something new with every one of these blog posts...

Aboussie was laid to rest at Resurrection Cemetery in suburban South County.

The sign commemorating Martie "Murph" Aboussie is rather vague on his actual accomplishments, rather characterizing his time as a servant of the common man and a friend to youth.  See for yourself: 

While the city website claims walking trails and a water fountain, I found neither. 

What this park does provide is an area to walk the dog, a place to sit/rest and a small set of trees and shrubs to attract birds and other small wildlife.  One thing you can't help but notice while walking in the park was the smells of coniferous trees and perennial flowers meshing with the smells of barley from the ABI brewery...another great organic scent...one truly unique to this part of town.  The narrow strip of land is too small for building, so this park seems a very appropriate use of this space.

The park has several nice benches and logically placed trash cans.  There are bike racks to secure your bike (although I'm not sure why, as the park is so small you could see your bike from anywhere in the park).

My favorite element of the park was the iron work that someone installed in and around the center circle in the park.  Circles of various sizes that ring the plantings, and the center area is surrounded by semi-circle iron bars.

On the day of my visit, the park was almost completely free of trash and the grass was mowed.  Since this park is not large enough for sports or other recreation, there are only minor things I'd change.  This would include replacing the many dead burning bushes along the I-55 fence. 

This would complete a nice hedge and backdrop for the park.  I'd also remove an old Japanese Pine that has been overgrown with vines and replace it with a nice tall deciduous tree.

Other than that, this is a nice, relaxing space and serves its role of providing the neighborhood with public space in which to relax, walk the dog or gather.  Again, given the very narrow parcel of land, I think Aboussie Park is a very suitable use of land in this far west side of Soulard.  This is not a destination park, or one I would come back to often; but wow is Soulard a beautiful neighborhood.  Any excuse to spend some time in this part of the city is alright by me.