Loughborough Commons - the DESCO clowns are not funny

http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/?p=4414
Blogger Steve Patterson has once again blogged about the Loughborough Commons shopping development and found a problem with the pedestrian and wheelchair access --- this time it's getting to and from the new Burger King. We shouldn't be so surprised that comments to Steve's UrbanReviewSTL blog show a lot of agreement with his assertion that DESCO has --- again --- gotten something INcorrect with regard to those who want to actually conveniently shop or buy there.

I lived across the park from this shopping center for more than 10 years and watched the destruction and redevelopment of it almost as closely as Steve. So many of us watched as people were given no option but to move because of eminent domain regulations, making heads shake almost regularly up until --- well, today. Frankly, I miss the old Schnuck's, the Carondelet Sunday Morning Athletic Club (even though I went into the building only thrice in the 7 years when I was only a half-mile away), and - even though I have shopped at Lowe's, Schnuck's (last night), frequented the Bread Company, purchased goods from Office Max, eaten at Qdoba (it is Qdoba, right?), sipped coffee at Starbucks, and now eaten at Burger King (I once worked for a BK in my younger years, so I had to try it out in the first week) - I cannot see why DESCO continues to develop these engineering NIGHTMARES. DRIVING in and out of Loughborough Commons (as well as across it from Loughborough to Lowe's) is not only complicated and hazardous, it is unfriendly to people who (like I have done dozens of times) walk to and from the shopping center --- not to discuss the wheelchairs or cyclists who attempt becoming customers. I lost count before spring 2008 how many times I had to avoid being hit --- or the times when I purposefully walked across the marked crosswalk by the Bread Company to FORCE SOME IDIOT TO STOP THEIR CAR (I'll bet I've done that no fewer than 20 times). These conditions are all because DESCO seemingly cannot make a development in a pedestrian-friendly manner.
I wouldn't paint them the most evil developers ever. Some DESCO properties were developed with the customer in mind. Probably before DESCO purchased them.
Mr. G. Michaud made a great point in his comment on the UrbanReviewSTL blog mentioned above (you can read the blog and see all the comments). As Mr. Michaud pointed out, the government could have shown SOME kind of oversight while it was becoming obvious that conditions were unfriendly to potential customers.
Steve's documenting the pitfalls at Loughborough Commons have been spot-on. What will this development become if Metro ever gets the funding to run a Metrolink line to the northeast portion of this lot? They'll have more foot traffic and buses and cars than they would even consider --- and they'll never refocus or redistribute the parcels to accomodate that traffic. Parking will be atrocious, and by then they'll have developed another parcel of land to relocate their Schnuck's store --- where do you think, perhaps at the corner of Grand and Holly Hills, taking down the apartments and the Foodland and perhaps ten to twenty houses and a street --- or along Loughborough where the current YMCA is located, also bulldozing part of yet another neighborhood? (a prediction...maybe???)
I wonder what the city's mayor thinks about going in and out of the maze now that he lives nearby. Perhaps one day when he is bicycling and decides to go through the park and cross over to get a Starbuck's coffee he will become a first-hand witness of this debacle from the vantage point we who blog about Loughborough Commons have seen all too often.