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.

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

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).

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.

 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.

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

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.

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

Free Pizza- MUST RSVP- click here

Not only will there be free pizza- we have gift certificates to give away to some lucky students!

Our first big event of the year will focus on the efforts of Grand Center, Inc. (GCI)- a not-for-profit agency (with some quasi-governmental powers) that is facilitating the revitalization of the Grand Center arts and entertainment district- right in SLU’s backyard. Ken Christian, Director of Real Estate Development, will talk about the organization, his role with GCI, past progress, and development expected to occur over the next 18 months.

After the official meeting (for those who can stay), we’ll walk over to Jazz at the Bistro to talk, snack, drink, and debate.

If you like what you see and want to stay involved in SLUUPA for the rest of the year, membership is only $10.

A big thanks to Jonathan Roper (our new treasurer) who did so much work to put this all together!!