urbanSTL

Back in the day, we occasionally used that land for football practice when the fields at Forest Park were unusable.

Any chance the City Treasurer would help finance Chouteau Lake?! Seems like the quickest way to fill up his parking garages would be to get rid of the competition at the $2 lot ($20+ on game days).

Unfortunately, it might also give DeWitt the incentive to give up on the softball field, pave the entire BPV lot at the same time and punt altogether on BPV (pun intended). Thus giving the treasure the same $2 competition, ok, $4 competition because any decent business man would keep his prices just below the competition to take away the market share.

However, lets start digging the pond if and when they start building BPV!!

TimeForGuinness wrote:

debaliviere wrote:Back in the day, we occasionally used that land for football practice when the fields at Forest Park were unusable.

I remember playing bash ball near that building with Smokin Joe Mimlitz as the PE coach.

sorry to go a little off topic here, but i feel it must be said: since the administration wouldn't allow it on school property, we nearly had our senior campout there this year. then we found out we'd be arrested and jailed if we did it

Any news on this?

I believe the way to get Chouteau Lake and Greenway going is for the city and county to create a special taxing district and execute an Oklahoma City style Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS) project with a 1 cent sales tax for 5 years max.

http://www.okc.gov/maps/index.html

After Oklahoma City executed MAPS to revitalize the city core, home values in the entire OKC area, which had been some of the lowest in the country, took off, bucking the national trend. Look at this graph from Zillow of OKC vs. major US metro areas at these two links. I believe a downtown revitalization could have the same effect on home values throughout our metro area by making our face to the outside -- the downtown core -- highly appealing.

Oklahoma City home values since 2006 Zillow
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/OK-Okl ... 8%26el%3D0

USA Major Metro Areas home values since 2006 Zillow
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/#metri ... 3%26el%3D0

I believe our city and county residents would fund a clearly defined greenway district downtown as a companion to the Arch grounds renewal with a small 1 cent sales tax over a fixed time period. Maybe it could be combined with a commitment from a major St. Louis area corporation to build a Class A office tower near the Greenway, and maybe tie in funding for replacement of the I-70 depressed lanes with a boulevard.

City to River has been so successful in steering the titanic public opinion toward the idea of eliminating I-70 downtown. I'd like to see the organization consider taking on the challenge of convincing the metro area citizens that it would be in all of our interests to fund a MAPS style revitalization of the metro area downtown core starting with the Chouteau Greenway.

They have the planning stage of the project listed on their website as completed in 2007. There isn't a next phase of this project listed but just by looking at the list of their current projects, I would imagine they are overextended at this time.

I was riding past Chouteau's Crossing yesterday and saw the project sign say something about a new Bike St. Louis extension or something to that effect. I realize Chouteau's Crossing is south of where the lake district would be, but I wondered if they had anything to do with each other? After all, what does a new ironworkers building have to do with biking?

Any word on this? Seems like a very important project for the future of the region.

goat314 wrote:Any word on this? Seems like a very important project for the future of the region.

Unfortunatly there is no real strong advocate for this project. About the only ones who could really do something is GRG district, and they have alot on their plate with maintaining the existing trails and the trestle. It would be great to see BJC, Wash U and SLU climb on board to complete the sections near their respective campuses, but downtown portion would need an interested, and money bags, partner.

^Ameren?

^i think you missed the part about "money bags."

I think you gain something if they would simply tear up the surface parking lot between Cerre Street & metrolink tracks that exists now and put in some ball fields and access from S. Tucker. Worry about the lakes later on, between Arch Grounds, Mall and N. Trestle their is plenty on the plate you want to see happen and done right first

As far as sponsors, make it the new home for DeWitt's softball field Otherwise, don't forget about Nestle/Purina along with Ameren.

onecity wrote:Any thoughts as to how and why STL so exquisitely wrecked its water amenities in the first place? I understand there used to be an Arrow Head Lake on the SW edge of Forest Park, the River Des Peres was buried and turned into an ugly concrete pit, Chouteau's Lake was drained for railroad bed, the riverfront was treated as anything-goes and still appears to be outside the bounds of Jefferson National Memorial, and I believe there was some kind of lake on the north side once upon a time too. I'm sure there must have been other creeks and springs and so forth, too.

River Des Peres had become so polluted and an eyesore (especially with the world's eye on the city for the 1904 Fair), that the solution was the engineering marvel to bury/channelize (or my favorite fluvial term 'condomize') the River.

Chouteau's Lake was drained in name of progress and development.

Arrow Head Lake - ?

Miss. River was/is seen as a economic engine - all you have to do is look to who oversees it (Army Corps) for its current condition and use.

If you look at Compton and Drys' Pictorial you will notice that the City was chock-full of small ponds, streams, hills and valleys - not the type of landscape for an urban city, yet majestic in its own right...

Let's not forget that St. Louis grew as an industrial city, and in the 1800s and early 1900s it was very dependent on the river and rail for its growth. So lets put the decision for STL to wreck its water amenities in that context.

My understanding was that it was a pond/swampy area in the early 1800s and was a big source of mosquitos and malaria/yellow fever. Keep in mind that in those days this would have been used for dumping and sewage waste. Not the pristine lake and waterway you see in the conceptual drawings. So it made sense to drain the water fill it and eventually put rails through there at the time.

It was not JUST a pie in the sky proposal. Also up until at least a few years ago (maybe still?) McCormack Baron was actively working on the project and land assembly along with GRG. I know Al Hrabosky's was a problem for a while, but it is closed now. Not sure exactly where things stand. I am not saying anything is close at hand, but there were (are?) people actively working on the project.

I really hope this project happens at some point.

Just to dream a little....

Imagine office towers on the north side of the lake between it and the highway. Then imagine taking that road that currently runs in front of old Al Rebosky's and lining the north side of it with trees and the GRG trail. Now how cool would it be if you lined to south side of the lake with house boats. Thinking twenty or thirty creative houseboats such as this...

http://www.curbly.com/users/DIY-Maven/p ... -houseboat

Your view on the back would be a lake with the STL skyline in the back ground. I think that would be pretty sweet and would sell in a heartbeat.