Gotta get Larry Rice out first.
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If you look closely to the rendering you can see a guy that looks like Larry.... he has a check in his pocket to relocate to "New Saint Louis" a.k.a. Chesterfield.downtown2007 wrote:Gotta get Larry Rice out first.
In regards to esteem playing a role in our identity, I also agree. I think that it ties directly to our marketing efforts as well. Down here in Memphis we were watching TV late one night 2 weeks ago with our in laws and an STL tourism commercial came on. It made me sad. It is catered to the wrong crowd. We must shake our family friendly "come on down and bring the kids" image (while not sacrificing that quality). Do the people in charge of marketing actually believe we are a comfortable cosmopolitan city and not a backyard for families? If not, it's time for a change. St. Lou is all within reach.....but what is it we are telling people to reach for?
This seems shallow and trite but I'd have to hear a really good argument that it is not relevant: Places like Nashville will always beat out STL in the youth arms race right now because of all the press and image strength they get. TV shows like Nashville, country stars building palaces in the near suburbs, and reality shows that highlight young artsy types trying to make it all give Nashville a magnetic vibe that is probably disproportionate to what they truly have to offer....but it doesn't matter because people believe what they want to believe. We need (young) leaders to market us. Forget the politics for now and put a brand out there that will attract people. For all of the good going on in the city, it is beat out by the negative in the press and masses. For crying out loud, the recent BPV article someone posted even was turned into a negative with comments highlighting our blighted identity. Those voices need to be matched by positives to a national audience; not about the Cardinals, not about City Museum, not about the Magic House, but about what we have and are intrinsically building as an urban experience.
This seems shallow and trite but I'd have to hear a really good argument that it is not relevant: Places like Nashville will always beat out STL in the youth arms race right now because of all the press and image strength they get. TV shows like Nashville, country stars building palaces in the near suburbs, and reality shows that highlight young artsy types trying to make it all give Nashville a magnetic vibe that is probably disproportionate to what they truly have to offer....but it doesn't matter because people believe what they want to believe. We need (young) leaders to market us. Forget the politics for now and put a brand out there that will attract people. For all of the good going on in the city, it is beat out by the negative in the press and masses. For crying out loud, the recent BPV article someone posted even was turned into a negative with comments highlighting our blighted identity. Those voices need to be matched by positives to a national audience; not about the Cardinals, not about City Museum, not about the Magic House, but about what we have and are intrinsically building as an urban experience.
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I don't know what kind of press Nashville is getting. I only know one 20-something who has ever moved there and when he comes back to visit our friends do a goofy southern accent (though he doesn't have one) and ask him how sister bangin', snaggletooth, bible-thumpin', tractor-drivin' Nashville is going for him. Most of the young people I know in STL have moved from the County to the City by now and love it. The trick, though, is getting them to move here from other states. Colleges do that, but we have to make them stay permanently after they graduate. I know some that did, though! And I was just talking to a friend who lives in Denver last night who says she's always wanted to visit St. Louis and wishes that she had considered it for college! She is 21.
From which Budweiser?Knowitall wrote:Gov defense mapping place across the street from Budweiser is on the chopping block, 5,000 job and $4m in earnings tax lose if it happens
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So the joint Saint Louis City and County economic development partnership released its strategic plan today. Aside from the usual lack of concreteness, I am a bit alarmed. There is a lot of mention of North County, but not much about North Riverfront or Northside Regeneration. No mention really of improved transit, etc. But it does say that we should redefine our CBD as being from Downtown to Clayton! Might as well make it the whole I-64 corridor, that way when companies leave downtown for Clayton or Chesterfield Mayor Slay can say that at least they are staying in the CBD.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... f2eec.html
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... f2eec.html
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I don't think it was that bad I love how there are planing to go after emigrants and start up companies. But I hope transit and historic rehabs have a strong place in the plan.roger wyoming II wrote:So the joint Saint Louis City and County economic development partnership released its strategic plan today. Aside from the usual lack of concreteness, I am a bit alarmed. There is a lot of mention of North County, but not much about North Riverfront or Northside Regeneration. No mention really of improved transit, etc. But it does say that we should redefine our CBD as being from Downtown to Clayton! Might as well make it the whole I-64 corridor, that way when companies leave downtown for Clayton or Chesterfield Mayor Slay can say that at least they are staying in the CBD.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... f2eec.html
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^ going after immigrants and start-ups are good and are pretty much universal strategy.... I hope our region can grow these efforts. What I think was lacking was the any acknowledgement that we need to have a strong core through investments in transit and creating a vibrant area attractive to young people.
^ What seems to be lacking, in addition to the transit silence, is a public or even a political discussion about of the 500 lb gorilla in the room, Stan K's new football stadium for the RAMS. You got Nixon negotiating with everyone else remaining mum. You get this feeling that their is a back room trade offs going on. Speculation on my part.
The new "plan" is super vague and nebulous with a total lack of enforcement or accountability.
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March 2018 should be good for downtown businesses.... SEC Tournament plus presumably MVC Tourney as well.
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I did some rough math of adding a 10 cents tax to tickets on all sport events downtown Like rams, cards and blues games. The tax would add about 544,000 in revenue a year and counting concerts and NCAA tournaments the revenue could be over 600,000 and that money could be for downtown improvements like new sidewalks, New streetlights, or the money can be used to add extra police officers just for downtown. Or use the money to create a city wide historic building stabilization fund. Thought it would be a interesting Idea to talk about.
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^ Actually the city already has an entertainment admission tax; I can't remember the details but I think it may be a flat $1 per ticket rather than a percentage. Anyway, the Cardinals are definitely exempt -- part of the subsidy that was granted for the new stadium. If we still had it, that would be over $3 million a year! Personally, I think the City should have revoked the exemption as a penalty for BPV delays. I believe the Blues and Rams are also exempt, although I am not positive. But a good thought!
^ Roger, I believe the same for Blues/Scottrade events. However, that tax revenue is going towards to paying a good chunk of the bonds for the Peabody renovation.
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Was just reading that downtown Portland Or is getting a apple store ... Only if our downtown could do the same..
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Well, more residents and more job losses downtown.
Recent losses include 80 from Bank of America mortgage unit at the Anthem building, 130 from ConAgra at the Bank of America building on Market, 40 from Manifest Digital at 10th & Locust and 30+ from Infuz on Washington. So that's at least 280.... that's about the same number of people who work in all of T-Rex. And then there are the big boys... 820 VA workers and an large but unknown amount of ATT workers (I believe seeing insiders say most will be transferred out of downtown so that should be at least a couple hundred.)
Downtown is said to be gaining 500 or so new residents a year, so it will take 2-3 years of typical residential growth to make up for the loss of jobs to get to the same daytime population numbers.
Really a shame that our downtown is among the worst performers in the nation when it comes to job growth.
On the more optimistic side, I do believe the residential growth has the chance to exceed that of the past few years and some of these projects like the Arcade and Blues Museum will also bring a lot of construction workers downtown for the next few years.... hopefully they spend some dough.
Recent losses include 80 from Bank of America mortgage unit at the Anthem building, 130 from ConAgra at the Bank of America building on Market, 40 from Manifest Digital at 10th & Locust and 30+ from Infuz on Washington. So that's at least 280.... that's about the same number of people who work in all of T-Rex. And then there are the big boys... 820 VA workers and an large but unknown amount of ATT workers (I believe seeing insiders say most will be transferred out of downtown so that should be at least a couple hundred.)
Downtown is said to be gaining 500 or so new residents a year, so it will take 2-3 years of typical residential growth to make up for the loss of jobs to get to the same daytime population numbers.
Really a shame that our downtown is among the worst performers in the nation when it comes to job growth.
On the more optimistic side, I do believe the residential growth has the chance to exceed that of the past few years and some of these projects like the Arcade and Blues Museum will also bring a lot of construction workers downtown for the next few years.... hopefully they spend some dough.
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Hope in the next few years things will change and there be jobs coming to downtown... It would have been awesome if we could have woo those 500 IBM jobs to downtown Saint.Louis instead of Buffalo
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^ I hope so, too; residential growth can take us only so far. Hopefully the Arcade project (and Chemical) will be a tipping point that brings a greater interest from corporations to get in on the action.
If we could build more units (faster), I think downtown could gain more than 500 new residents per year. Seems like there's a single file line for projects in the city.roger wyoming II wrote:Well, more residents and more job losses downtown.
Recent losses include 80 from Bank of America mortgage unit at the Anthem building, 130 from ConAgra at the Bank of America building on Market, 40 from Manifest Digital at 10th & Locust and 30+ from Infuz on Washington. So that's at least 280.... that's about the same number of people who work in all of T-Rex. And then there are the big boys... 820 VA workers and an large but unknown amount of ATT workers (I believe seeing insiders say most will be transferred out of downtown so that should be at least a couple hundred.)
Downtown is said to be gaining 500 or so new residents a year, so it will take 2-3 years of typical residential growth to make up for the loss of jobs to get to the same daytime population numbers.
Really a shame that our downtown is among the worst performers in the nation when it comes to job growth.
On the more optimistic side, I do believe the residential growth has the chance to exceed that of the past few years and some of these projects like the Arcade and Blues Museum will also bring a lot of construction workers downtown for the next few years.... hopefully they spend some dough.
To put into perspective, Downtown Denver currently has 4,000 units under construction. I think we have about what 1,000 units?
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^ Even Baltimore has 4,000 units under construction or in planning downtown. This is a special time for downtowns across America, and we really have to make the most of it here.
On the other hand, I don't really care if we're beating or keeping pace with this or that town, but I just want to see us making good, solid progress on making a dense, vibrant downtown full of people, Unfortunately, for every step forward on residential, it seems there is at least a half-step step back on jobs. That's got to change.
On the other hand, I don't really care if we're beating or keeping pace with this or that town, but I just want to see us making good, solid progress on making a dense, vibrant downtown full of people, Unfortunately, for every step forward on residential, it seems there is at least a half-step step back on jobs. That's got to change.
I think Downtown has the potential to build at least twice as many units as its currently building, I just think St. Louis lenders are extra conservative with lending on urban projects.roger wyoming II wrote:^ Even Baltimore has 4,000 units under construction or in planning downtown. This is a special time for downtowns across America, and we really have to make the most of it here.
On the other hand, I don't really care if we're beating or keeping pace with this or that town, but I just want to see us making good, solid progress on making a dense, vibrant downtown full of people, Unfortunately, for every step forward on residential, it seems there is at least a half-step step back on jobs. That's got to change.
I do think we will eventually get there though. Just haven't hit that critical mass yet.
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^ I agree... projects like the Arcade and Jefferson Arms are very complex beasts, but other projects should be a sure thing.... I've mentioned before, but I think a good showing from Tower OPOP should help the spigot open for more new construction. But even if we can amp up residential to say adding 1,000 people a year instead of 500 as said currently, we still need lots of jobs, I'd rather be like Pittsburgh, which has a very healthy business presence downtown (over 100,000 salaried jobs and excellent occupancy rates) while the residential side is seeing some action downtown and impressive growth in surrounding areas.
By my count we're right around 1,000 downtown units recently completed, under construction and/or planned if you include the Chemical and some other ones like 1900 Pine and Intrada Lofts.goat314 wrote:To put into perspective, Downtown Denver currently has 4,000 units under construction. I think we have about what 1,000 units?