Hear from the voices of St. Louis as they discuss the challenges and solutions for creating a vibrant Downtown. Hear their thoughts on the state of education, infrastructure, safety, development & revitalization. FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2010 at 6:00PM MCGRAW MILHAVEN, 550 KTRS
The Old Post Office, MO Court of Appeals
815 Olive Street, St. Louis MO 63101

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2010 at 6:00PM
CAROL DANIEL, KMOX 1120
Left Bank Books, Downtown Location
321 North 10th Street, St. Louis

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2010 at 6:00PM MIKE OWENS, KSDK NEWS CH. 5
Mosaic Restaurant
1001 Washington Ave., St. Louis,

HURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2010 at 6:00PM
JO MANNIES, THE ST. LOUIS BEACON
The California Room at The Pacific Grille
1000 Washington Avenue St. Louis

For more information please visit our website: www.webster.edu/holdenppf

I'll be there!

so how was it?

I enjoyed it. It was interesting to hear everyones opinions on how to make the city better.

It kind of reminded me of a live urbanstl conversation. We all love this city and we know what we all would like to make it better, but we just don't necessarily know if the powers that be know how to change perceptions of city life and make it all happen.

Since I live downtown I find this topic to be very interesting. Can anyone that went please post a recap?

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I have not been able to log in for a while.

Here is a little summary: This event is not one where we are going to learn what projects are moving forward or hear about any one thing that is occurring in St. Louis. The format is to have a Media Personality (McGraw Milhaven at this event) give their opinion of how STL and downtown are portrayed in the media, and how they think we can change that to a better and more accurate one.

The format starts with some questions from the Governor to McGraw and then it is open to discussion within the group. Here are a few of the tidbits that I remember.

1. I did not realize that Mr. Milhaven lives in the City (Shaw Neighborhood) and that he is originally from Long Island and then Lincoln NE (college) and finally STL.
2. He made a point that we have an inferiority complex in this city and we shouldn't. He states all the good things about STL and yet we seem to only want to bring up the bad. He says Lincoln has the same thing to Omaha, Omaha to KC, KC to STL, and STL to Chicago, Chicago to NYC...etc..

This point was driven home when a University professor was speaking to our group and he quoted a book that was written about STL and how the author chose STL because it "had fallen so far and was the poster child for decline." Milhaven said "look every one of us in this room loves downtown and love st louis but because someone wrote about us being in decline we all nod our heads and kind of agree." I kind of laughed when I realized he was right.

3. There were questions about Race and what is being done, about how to attract young people, metro expansion, etc.

The vibe of the crowd was pro STL, pro City and urban life and most would fit in on this site.

4. One younger gentlemen who lives DT brought up the fact that about 80% of his friends from SLU and Wash U (he is from England) left STL after graduation. He wanted to know what was being done to keep the young people. Most people then said that things like the DT revitalization, job creating (China HUB), and metro expansion in the city are all ways to help this problem.

5. Someone brought up the instance where the news or media reports crimes or shootings in dt stl and that in many cases they are no where near DT. The head of the DTSLP asked how can they respond to those and McGraw said, "find me someone to come on air and say hey, KSDK got it wrong etc, and I will put you on the air."

6. He was also asked how we can keep more people DT after sporting events etc and he joked that "you already shut down the major highway for over a year and they still left!" He talked about how many of those suburbanites have to work (during the week) have kids and babysitters etc and that it will always be hard to get them to stay during the week.

It was a neat event and what I took away from it is the same I get from this website or from any conversation that involves people passionate about ST. Louis city. We want a vibrant city with shops, residential, transit, new jobs, and culture. We have lots of people who think the same way but we don't necessarily think the people in charge know how to make this happen.

My personal opinion is that if the China Hub goes through and we can lure new business and jobs to the region and DT then we will start to attract the younger crowd which will help fill in our holes in the city. In the meantime we need to expand our revitalization from the pockets of our neighborhoods and work on connecting them together. This can be done with transit (street Cars, metro lines, etc) and by connecting them one building at a time. I also hope that the Northside plan can be executed and that new construction is just around the corner. I especially want the downtown west portion to begin with new modern office space and hope we can connect the desolate Jefferson with DT.