Sweet! Thanks for posting this Shimmy!

That is good news. I really like the marina they have under the Bridge. I know the river is wider and perhaps not as powerful at Alton, but I still think that is something we could do downtown. Especially on the East Side. East Saint Louis' redevelopment could learn a thing to two from Alton's progress.

southsidepride wrote:unfortunately for the city of St. Louis our riverscape is more utilitarian than it is picturesque. It's fairly narrow downtown and with the barge traffic I have a hard time seeing a marina there. I try to send visitors to Alton if they have time to see how beautiful the Mississippi River can be. With these improvements it can only get better.



South of downtown (Bellerive Park) is quite picturesque though. I wonder if a marina of some sort could work there.

Here are the options I see. First, if you got rid of the grain elevator on the East Side, you could do a narrow marina from the Queen to the PSB. There is a little land there that could be removed up to the tracks. It would have to be dredged and a wall put in to stop erosion from under the tracks, but a narrow marina directly across from the Arch could work. But, even if we did put it there, I don't think it would be that visually pleasing (obviously better than the elevator, but if boats were permanently harbored there you would have to have roofs over the docks so you wouldn't see much of the boats anyway.



A better option would be for East Saint Louis to dig in a harbor from the river. Because there is no natural harbor at Saint Louis, the real key is being protected from the rushing river. To do that you can either block off part of the river with riprap, like Alton did and like the narrow marina option would entail, or you can dig in a protected area off the main river. Obviously, if we wanted a signifigant marina downtown with permanent boat docks, we would have to be looking at the second option.



Now, there is only so many places you can do that and still be downtown. Another factor is the railroad tracks. Anything north of the PSB would require going under the train tracks. I am thinking the railroad would not be a huge fan of that. So, south of the PSB would be easier. Luckily, just south of the MacArthur Bridge is a place where this could work. There is land available (I don't know who owns it) that could be turned into a marina (containing a boat ramp). In fact, to protect against flooding, you could even dig past the levee and add in a levee gate. Then, make the MacArthur a pedestrian bridge and wizz bang boom we have a first class marina, a pedestrian bridge, a reason to cross the river, a reason to go into Chouteau's Landing, development in East Saint Louis, and the first steps toward developing the Saint Louis riverfront. Hell, you might even see some new condo development between the marina and Route 3. Imagine that, new condo development in East Saint Louis!



Obviously, that would be a major project and require coordination on both sides of the river and with the Corp of Engineers and whomever else, but it is possible. That is the point. It is possible to develop downtowns riverfront. It is our most natural asset and we need to figure out how to best utilize it. We just have to get serious about it and say what is possible and how do we get there. We can either live with an industrial riverfront for the rest of time, or we can start to be creative about how to develop it. Alton has shown it is possible, and we need to follow their lead.