Hey Pho. I had the rendering of Ballpark Village as my Windows desktop background back in 2002 - might have even been 2001 - and followed each announcement closely. There was very little development in downtown St. Louis at that time - a few lofts on 10th Street and the Renaissance Grand (talk about a complex project 
) was under construction - that was it! Washington Avenue, Cupples Station, Old Post Office District, etc. were a series of boarded-up buildings and downtown's future was still very uncertain. The idea of a project like Ballpark Village was absolutely huge! Many saw Ballpark Village as a project that would ensure downtown's turnaround. Of course that is nonsense, downtown has been successful without it, and will continue to be.
Now, here we are six years later. We've seen billions of dollars of investment and downtown St. Louis has come farther than even many of the most optimistic people would have thought, yet still no progress on Ballpark Village. The renderings haven't changed much since then, and the only "progress" that has been made in those 6 years is a series of increasingly vague promises with seemingly less and less "vision". We have heard various guarantees that construction would start by 2005, then 2006, then 2007, that Ballpark Village would be completed by the All-Star Game, and now, that there could be some construction activity on the site by the All-Star Game.
And after all this time, we get yet another announcement that an "agreement has been reached" - how many agreements does this one make it so far? - but they still can't tell us what the first phase will include or when construction might start?!? And you wonder why people are pessimistic?
Where were you in 2002, Pho? Were you even aware of downtown's existence then?
) was under construction - that was it! Washington Avenue, Cupples Station, Old Post Office District, etc. were a series of boarded-up buildings and downtown's future was still very uncertain. The idea of a project like Ballpark Village was absolutely huge! Many saw Ballpark Village as a project that would ensure downtown's turnaround. Of course that is nonsense, downtown has been successful without it, and will continue to be. Now, here we are six years later. We've seen billions of dollars of investment and downtown St. Louis has come farther than even many of the most optimistic people would have thought, yet still no progress on Ballpark Village. The renderings haven't changed much since then, and the only "progress" that has been made in those 6 years is a series of increasingly vague promises with seemingly less and less "vision". We have heard various guarantees that construction would start by 2005, then 2006, then 2007, that Ballpark Village would be completed by the All-Star Game, and now, that there could be some construction activity on the site by the All-Star Game.
And after all this time, we get yet another announcement that an "agreement has been reached" - how many agreements does this one make it so far? - but they still can't tell us what the first phase will include or when construction might start?!? And you wonder why people are pessimistic?
Where were you in 2002, Pho? Were you even aware of downtown's existence then?
I just wanted to point out the clear and drastic difference between the mindless caterwauling that's typical of other local forums and the more constructive criticism you'll generally see here.
Ran across this article in St. Louis Commerce mag from 2006. It's interesting to go back and see what was being said then. Wow, actual quotes from Cordish! 
