framer wrote:Brisbane looks awesome.
You know, it really does. I made this thread originally to give us an idea of what is possible and what other cities have done well. Our metro has been largely stagnant for the last 50 years while others have been moving forward or accelerating during all this time. There is now essentially a 70-100 year difference in structural development between our city and most first rate cities of the world. If I showed a child images of the core of these asian cities and compared it to the core of St. Louis, I wouldn't blame the kid if she were confused about which one is in a developed and which one is in a developing country.
It also shows how cities can bounce back. Look at the Chinese cities. In 1970s, not only were there no highrises anywhere in the country, but millions had died the decade before of famine, and most metro areas had been decimated the decades before that from WWII and the chinese civil war. Look at Berlin, it was nothing but rubble even into the 1950s and split politically and literally by a wall until the 1980s. Look at Seoul, which was also reduced by the Korean War. Look at Vietnam, which went through a decade of war which many veterans still remember. St. Louis went through none of this. It was much richer than all of these places in the 1950s and just went through racism and the loss of some manufacturing jobs. Most of the people in these countries who have seen much worse would look at our hardships and think: whats the big deal? Who ***** up?
However, this Brisbane video really struck home for me. It shows how a properly managed medium sized metro can put its best face forward as progressive, advanced, and forward thinking. A place that people would want to move to, start a business in, or raise their children in. There is no city in the US of comparable size that has accomplished this so well. It is the biggest sign of the decline of American civilization in the last few decades. Thus, we should look to the success of cities across Europe and Asia. The civilizations of the old world have been building cities for much longer than we have. The cities of America bet that the automobile would change everything. The cities of Europe and Asia bet that they were an unhealthy passing fad. We all now know who was right.
Maybe another problem was failure of vision. What do you suppose St. Louis will look like 50 years from now? 100 years from now? If your vision is roughly the same as it looks today but with more suburbs, then thats not good enough. We can do better - much better. A city like Brisbane is a good role model. People tend to overestimate what they can do in a short span such as 1-5 years but underestimate what can be done with decades or centuries of time. In fact, if in 30 years, St. Louis looks roughly similar to Brisbane today but with an arch slapped in front of it, I'd consider it a smashing success. But honestly, in 30 years, we could accomplish more than that with the proper investment and regional cooperation. We have a lot of work to do but we all knew that already =)
