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Venice

Venice

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PostSep 25, 2016#1

New auto infrastructure didn't revive Venice, shock. When your aspirations for economic development are a gas station, my heart goes out to you.

Stltoday - Struggling Venice doesn't reap economic rewards from McKinley Bridge
When the McKinley Bridge reopened in 2007 after being closed for six years due to its bad condition, high hopes abounded that it would spur an economic rejuvenation in long-struggling Venice and nearby cities.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... c6278.html
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PostSep 25, 2016#2

I think you could write the exact same story but replace Venice with Downtown, and McKinley Bridge with Stan Span.
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PostSep 26, 2016#3

Was the Stan Span ever predicted to bring direct economic benefits to downtown? I thought the point was mostly relieving congestion on the Poplar Street . . . which I'd guess it has done to about the degree expected.

I'm inclined to wonder if Venice, Granite, Madison, and Pontoon Beach would make more sense as a single municipality. If North County is ripe for consolidation, so too is the east side. Not that Granite would necessarily want to assume a leadership role in that, but maybe if there were tangible benefits to all . . . Hmm.
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PostSep 26, 2016#4

I see Pontoon Beach as a unique town of poor man's lake houses filled with retired people. It seems quite culturally distinct from those other places you mention, though that doesn't mean it needs to be a stand alone city the shape of an ink spill.
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PostSep 26, 2016#5

Venice, Madison, and Granite all have distinct histories as well. Venice is very much an old railroad town. Granite was designed from the ground up as a factory city. Places like Carondelet and downtown St. Louis can have retain quite distinctive histories and characters while still sharing a common government. I'm all in favor of learning and celebrating the histories and distinctive characters, but we do need to better use our limited resources in this general neighborhood. (Both sides of the river. Wish it were easier to cooperate across state lines, honestly.)
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PostSep 26, 2016#6

symphonicpoet wrote:Wish it were easier to cooperate across state lines, honestly.
It's really neat that Great Rivers Greenway and the Metro-East Parks and Recreation Districts can exist as twins with similar funding structures and ideas, but very different implementation plans. I don't know why their master plans appear to be done in a vacuum with the opposing state blank on the map, but it's still interesting. They're really tackling very different problems.

If Madison and St. Clair counties made their own ZMD for Cahokia Mounds and some other Metro-East specific institutions like the confluence nature centers or SIUE's botanical garden, I would not interpret that as competition or poor regional thinking. It'd be neat to have parallel trajectories.
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