Olympia Eats Into Franz Park

As Dotage St. Louis first posted Wednesday, Olympia, the Greek restaurant that has been a fixture on McCausland for years has suddenly demolished two houses across the street to expand one of two existing parking lots that they own at the intersection of McCauseland and Plateau.  I went by late yestererday afternoon to take a look and 1532 and 5536 McCausland had been reduced to piles of debris.

In the past two days there has been much conversation about this, mostly people condemning the action, as I have, but also a few people saying we should not blame Olympia.  Ultimately it seems that this is about being urban or not being urban.  We should blame Olympia for not realizing that some of their customer base appreciates that they are in an urban location and does not mind parking on the street when both their lots are full.  Some of us will no longer be patronizing Olympia because of what we feel is a lack of respect for the neighborhood where they are located.  I have no doubt that others probably expressed other opinions, but unfortunately they were the ones who spoke up.  

We should also blame the lack of leadership at the City from the Alderman to the lack of any comprehensive enforceable standards to govern this kind of action.  This is not the first time this has happened, and unless there are zoning standards that have the authority of law to prevent this from occurring, it will not be the last. 

The existing Olympia lot at the southeast corner of the intersection.  The second photo shows the smaller lot (with the piles of debris net door) on the northeast corner that will be expanded.

While parking on McCausland is restricted, there is plenty of extra street parking on Plateau that does not require crossing McCausland to get to the restaurant.