SLU Public Policy Studies

We will meet on Lindell in front of Tegeler Hall at 7 PM this Friday, November 5. From there, we will caravan over to the Grove and a Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation employee will give us a tour of the Grove, one of St. Louis’ many emerging commercial districts.

After our tour, we will go to the Gramophone, for a meet and greet with the owners of Urban Improvement Construction and members of the Grove Community Improvement District. UIC has graciously given SLUUPA $500 for volunteering at the Grove Fest earlier this fall. The money will pay for our cover charge into the Gramophone and snacks/beverages. Unfortunately, the Gramophone is 21 and up, but minors are more than welcome to come on the tour.

Reminder, if you haven’t paid your $10 dues, you can bring them on Friday. Please RSVP to sluupa@gmail.com if you plan to come to the tour, the Gramophone, or both ASAP.

Please join us for our March SLUUPA event, which will likely be the last one of the year! Pizza and soft drinks will be provided.

Who: Maggie Campbell, Executive Director of the St. Louis Downtown Partnership

What: A discussion on (re)development in downtown St. Louis, upcoming downtown events, and the role of the Downtown Partnership.

Where: Tegeler Hall, Room 102

When: Friday, March 26, 2010 at 5:30 PM

Please RSVP to Dan Burghoff at sluupa@gmail.com.

On Friday, February 26, SLUUPA will be hosting Courtney Sloger (online media specialist), Mark Phillips (Long-Range Planner) and Jennifer Ash (Real Estate Manager) from Metro Transit. They plan to lead a discussion on long-range plans for public transit expansion in the St. Louis region, the construction of the new Scott Avenue Transit plaza (Grand Metrolink Station), as well as the impact of the upcoming ballot initiative.

Proposition A, which will be taken to the polls on April 6, 2010 would raise sales tax in St. Louis County by 0.5%, generating an estimated $75 million per year for public transportation.

Should this initiative fail, Metro will be forced to cut nearly half of its bus routes and lay off 560 employees. Further, the St. Louis region will continue to fall behind peer cities in competitiveness.

Given the importance of these issues, we are opening up this event to everyone. Please invite all of your friends, as we hope to raise awareness at this critical time.

Date: Friday, February 26, 2010

Time: 5:30 PM

Place: Tegeler Hall, Room 102

RVSP: sluupa@gmail.com

Updated information on this week’s SLUUPA event:

Friday, January 15 @ 5:30 PM

Tegeler Hall Room 207

Several UPRED alums are coming to offer resume, cover letter, and general job/internship hunting advice.  They ask that each student bring a copy of their resume and a cover letter used in past job hunts, if possible.

This will be an informal discussion, similar to capstone kickoff in which alumni tell their experiences and tips and then the students throw out their ideas/questions for discussion.

Confirmed attending:

Matt Bauer – Development Strategies

Andy Pfister – Development Strategies

Andy Struckoff – Peckham, Guyton, Albers, & Viets

Thomas Oldenburg – US Bank Community Development Corporation

Please RVSP as soon as possible to Dan Burghoff (sluupa@gmail.com).

Mayor Slay of the City is St. Louis is creating the Vanguard Cabinet, a youth advisory committee designed to promote civic engagement and the retention of persons age 20-39 in the City of St. Louis. If you would like to see a more progressive and innovative culture in the City of St. Louis, please apply. SLU alum Patrick Brown is heading up this project and is in the process of accepting applications. Patrick would like all applications by Christmas, as he hopes to get the project off the ground by the beginning of 2010. Email Dan Burghoff (burghoff@slu.edu) for more details or a copy of the application.

SLUUPA event will be held on Friday, November 13th at 5:30PM

We will meet at 211 N. Broadway #700 in downtown St. Louis, at the offices of HOK

HOK is a renown architecture & planning firm that just happens to be right here in the City of St. Louis. Come learn more about the kind of work they do and get a sense for what it’s like to work in private consulting.

Please RSVP for this event

Free food for paid SLUUPA members

If you need a ride, or would like to volunteer to car pool, please email SLUUPA and we will make arrangements.

We will send out driving directions and parking information next week to everyone who RSVPs.

The Eighth Annual Urban Land Institute/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition is now accepting applications for the 2010 competition.

 Application due date: December 4, 2009

Applicants notified of eligibility: December 11, 2009

Competition dates: January 18, 2010 – February 1, 2010

This interdisciplinary ideas competition calls for a real estate development and urban design solution for a challenging, large-scale site within a U.S. city. Graduate students from at least three disciplines are asked to develop a program that integrates design, planning, market potential and feasibility, and development and finance. The competition encourages cooperation and teamwork among future real estate professionals and the many allied professions, such as architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, historic preservation, engineering, real estate development, finance, law, and others.

The real estate development and urban design competition is open to graduate students in the United States and Canada.

This is an ideas competition with no expectation that any of the submitted schemes will be applied to any site. The winning team will receive $50,000 and the finalist teams $10,000 each.

For more information, visit the Web site: http://www.udcompetition.uli.org.

For inquiries, please e-mail: udcompetition@uli.org.

Don’t forget to RSVP for our SLUUPA Event Featuring East West Gateway on Friday, October 9th.

Also, clear your calendar for our November 13th even at the HOK offices downtown!

Friday, October 9th 5:30PM- Tegeler Hall

All are welcome to attend- free pizza for people who have paid annual SLUUPA dues of $10.

Please RSVP to the SLUUPA president for the event.

This will be a great opportunity to learn more about East-West Gateway, our metropolitan planning organization (MPO). They serve as the regional planning council for eight counties in Missouri and Illinois and their board of directors is made up of the regions’ chief elected officials. Find out how what goes on there affects your daily life and has a huge impact on the future on the region.

Where should the St. Louis region be in 25 years? You’ll have an opportunity to answer that question!

Maggie Hales (Interim Executive Director) of East West Gateway has offered to conduct a focus group to provide our own views on the future of St. Louis that can be incorporated into the long range plan they’re working on right now. Please take this opportunity to provide a fresh perspective and viewpoint of a younger generation and help make St. Louis a better place! For more information on the Renewing the Region initiative- click here.

East-West Gateway Council of Governments (EWG) was formed in 1965 to address regional planning issues around transportation, housing and other community planning issues.  Later EWG was designated as the St. Louis region’s bi-state metropolitan planning organization (MPO) to assist local governments with deciding how to plan and spend federal transportation funds. Since its incorporation the agency has provided a forum for cooperative problem-solving and the coordinated development of regional policy.

As the MPO, EWG is required by federal law to develop a long range transportation plan every five years. The agency must look at economic development patterns, employment, regional fiscal health and a host of other issues to inform the plan. Federal transportation law requires a broader look, because the investments of transportation funds affects so many areas of our lives and can contribute to or hamper the quality of life in a metropolitan area.

The agency is engaging in discussions around the region over the next 8-9 months or so among citizens, business leaders, elected officials and others.  The end result will be a set of guideposts written into the next long range plan (to be published in 2011).  These guideposts will provide direction for investments of federal transportation funding that comes into the region every year.  These discussions can really make a difference and this is your chance to get involved.

Please see the post below for details on our event this week- sounds like it’s going to be great!!

Also, clear your calendar for the October 9th event next month at 5:30PM featuring East West Gateway. More details posted soon.