Quelle Horreur! Gravois.

An open letter to Gravois Avenue:

Dear Gravois. What the hell is the matter with you? Or, really, WTF? You are a mess. No matter the weather, time of day or day of week, you are all messed up. Everything. The cars traveling on you, the lights that regulate you, the folks trying to cross you. I know Gravois means "road to the dump" in French, but it's getting ridiculous.

I must stop at every. single. light. And even though there is a light and crosswalk about every 50 feet, there are oblivious jay walkers sauntering across the street. And there are car crashes and broke down cars and cars going 50 MPH next to cars chugging along at 15 MPH.

I beg for Todd Waelterman, director of St. Louis Streets, Traffic Lights, Crosswalks and other stuff, to fix Gravois.

Gravois, you provide the most direct way for me to get where I need to go. But the lights have gotten so ridiculous that I am better off taking 55 to Germania or 44 to Kingshighway or Sidney to Grand. For now, I quit Gravois. When it gets better someone let me know.

Jacques dans le Box- Je suis l'etudiante.

I want to know more about the 'architect' at Jack in the Box and how he determined how heavy-handed his use of the mansard would be.  As you can see, the mansard on the left at Kingshighway/Chippewa is more severe than its cousin at Gravois/Russell.  Did he have a drinking problem?  A love/hate relation with the mansard?  Did he (or she) get called out for being crazy enough to go 50-50% on the roofline proportion and subsequently lighten up?  Or did he start with the style on Gravois and progress to the 50/50 roof, just like a drug addict gateways from pothead and to heroin addict?

Or, more likely, the Gravois Jacques didn't start as a Jacques.  By the way, did we all know Gravois actually means Road to the Dump in French?  That's true.

Re: Gravois- I've lived in St. Louis for most of my life and it wasn't until a few years ago I really got comfortable with Gravois, which is confusing as it meanders on a weird diagonal and has so many jaywalkers that I deem it the official Frogger of St. Louis streets.