Not sure who was involved in project conception, but I see that the Thurman Underpass won one of the city's $5,000 neighborhood sustainability grants:

Thurman Gateway Park

Neighborhood: Shaw

Sustainability Category: Urban Character, Vitality & Ecology

This project will reintroduce native prairie grasses and flowering perennials along each side of Thurman Avenue between DeTonty and Lafayette to create the new Thurman Gateway Park in an area that is currently blighted. The prairie anchors the transformation of this decayed portion of both neighborhoods into a vibrant multiple use public area through beautification and environmentally sensitive improvements.

Not sure if this makes it any harder to remove the planters and curb and re-open the street.

Here is the entire list of winners:
http://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/de ... ounced.cfm

I was able to connect with Monte Abbott for a quick interview on Thurman Gateway Park. Monte is working on the prairie restoration that will flank the Thurman Underpass work that is upcoming. Quite an exciting project...lots of opportunities to help.

Read all about it. http://www.stlouiscitytalk.com/2013/10/ ... -park.html

^I share your thoughts, but both neighborhoods are against it. The people's voices were heard and they are not ready for the street to be through.

"both neighborhoods are against it. "

Both neighborhoods, or a handful of obnoxious nimby's in each?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIMBY

Reasons they oppose everything include:

Increased traffic: More jobs, more housing or more stores correlates to increased traffic on local streets. Industrial facilities such as warehouses, factories, or landfills often increase the volume of truck traffic.
Harm to locally owned small businesses: The development of a big box store may provide too much competition to a locally owned store; similarly, the construction of a new road may make the older road less travelled, leading to a loss of business for property owners. This can lead to excessive relocation costs, or to respected local businesses becoming insolvent.
Loss of residential property value: Homes near an undesirable development may be less desirable when the owner attempts to sell it. The lost revenue from property taxes may, or may not, be offset by increased revenue from the project.
Environmental pollution of land, air, and water: Power plants, factories, chemical facilities, crematoriums, sewage treatment facilities, airports, and similar projects may, or may be claimed to, contaminate the land, air, or water around them. Especially facilities assumed to smell might cause objections.
Light pollution: Projects that operate at night, or that include security lighting (such as streetlights in a parking lot), may be accused of causing light pollution.
Noise pollution: In addition to the noise of traffic, a project may inherently be noisy. This is a common objection to wind power, airports, and many industrial facilities.
Visual blight and failure to "blend in" with the surrounding architecture: The proposed project might be ugly or particularly large.
Loss of a community's small-town feel: Proposals that might result in new people moving into the community, such as a plan to build many new houses, are often claimed to change the community's character.
Strain of public resources and schools: This reason is given for any increase in the local area's population, as additional school facilities might be needed for the additional children, but particularly to projects that might result in certain kinds of people joining the community, such as a group home for people with disabilities, or immigrants.
Disproportionate benefit to non-locals: The project appears to benefit distant people, such as investors (in the case of commercial projects like factories or big-box stores) or people from neighboring areas (in the case of regional government projects, such as airports, highways, sewage treatment, or landfills).
Increases in crime: This is usually applied to projects that are perceived as attracting or employing low-skill workers or racial minorities, as well as projects that cater to "undesirables", such as the mentally ill, the poor, and drug addicts. Additionally, certain types of projects, such as pubs or medical marijuana dispensaries, might be perceived as directly increasing the amount of crime in the area.