West Florissant revamp nears start as 10-year anniversary of Ferguson unrest approaches
![]()
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/west-florissant-revamp-nears-start-as-10-year-anniversary-of-ferguson-unrest-approaches/article_a49bef46-0d6d-11ef-9521-e71ac5005797.html#tracking-source=home-top-storyt’s been almost a decade since civil unrest caused frequent shutdowns of West Florissant Avenue, the north St. Louis County road that was the epicenter of protests and looting in the months following the August 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown.
As the attention of the region, and the world, turned to the wide, asphalt-heavy thoroughfare lined with chop suey restaurants, midcentury strip malls and parking lots, local leaders at the time rallied behind a plan to transform it into a safer, greener, more inviting street.
Regional transportation planners elevated a plan to add the corridor to its “Great Streets Initiative,” with designs for slowing traffic and beautifying the busy stretch of road with medians, narrower lanes, a pedestrian path, landscaping and sidewalks. The mayors of Ferguson and Dellwood, two cities that bore the brunt of the unrest, argued back in 2015 the project would instill confidence and encourage economic development for residents and businesses hammered by civil strife. The St. Louis County executive at the time called it “extremely important.” But today, as the 10th anniversary of the Ferguson unrest approaches, the long-awaited revamp to the road has yet to begin. Vacant lots remain from where rioters burned buildings in 2014. The mostly four-lane road stretches as wide as seven lanes near its intersection with Chambers Road, the site of hundreds of crashes and injuries over the past 20 years. There are no medians for pedestrians, and it’s been described as a “big asphalt mess” by local leaders.
“I have been on city council since 2016, and this has been talked about until I’m blue in the face,” said Ferguson City Councilwoman Linda Lipka, who revived the Ferguson Traffic Commission in recent years and has advocated for traffic safety improvements in the city. “West Florissant has always been a concern for anybody who’s lived here for 40 years.” Finally, after years searching for funding, a global pandemic and political change at all levels of government, the $30 million revamp of the 1.5-mile corridor between the Dellwood Recreation Center and the former Emerson corporate campus is poised to begin. Dellwood Mayor Reggie Jones has been mayor long enough to remember when regional planners first began studying the project, which actually began in the months before Brown’s August 2014 death. It’s a bit “weird” that it’s finally coming together around the 10-year anniversary, he said.
“It was right on time because of the damage that was done to West Florissant,” Jones said of planners’ decision to add the corridor to the Great Streets Initiative. “And now it’s fitting that’s it’s being rebuilt.”
After several rejected applications, St. Louis County, which is managing the project, in 2021 finally won an $18.2 million federal grant that enabled the project to move from the drawing board to reality. It cobbled together other sources of matching funding, including $5.2 million in county road funds, $500,000 from regional trail developer Great Rivers Greenway and $1.5 million from nonprofit Health and Homes STL that helped build a Mercy health clinic on West Florissant Avenue.
