With no fanfare St. Louis is losing one of its most well worn shortcut walking paths. Fortunately, the new Gotham development is replacing it:


These paths can be found all over the city, especially on the near Northside. They require two important factors: 1.) people and 2.) places to go. They thrive in areas that have residents, vacant lots (particularly vacant corner lots), small businesses and bus stops. Some examples:


If you look closely at this example, you can see that Google Maps has actually highlighted the walking path, as if it is a recommended route for pedestrians:


These "bum paths" or "bum highways" (as a friend of mine eloquently calls them), are not just a Northside phenomenon:

Heading north from the Soulard Market overpass:


Perhaps the best of them all, heading to The Ritz-Carlton from the Forsyth Metrolink Station:

^ the one labeled "ackert walkway ave" on the Google???

Richmond Heights also has a couple of them in the Moorlands neighborhood. When I lived on Claytonia I remember one was right down the street "Ethel Walk"-it picked up where Ethel Avenue ended. There was another in the area too I just can't remeber.

The best paths cut through the Parkview neighborhood from wash u to the loop.

The Parkview paths are definitely the Cadillacs of St. Louis walking paths. There's also the lesser known Waterman Way path, which used to cut from the alley next to Forest Park Parkway across Pershing up to Waterman. Unfortunately at some point it got Schoemehl-potted. Hopefully some day Skink-D residents will open it back up:

I walked down the Ruth Porter Mall about a month ago. There is at least one street that is still open (Maple) as well as the Hodiamont ROW. This park is pretty nice in my opinion. The West End has been full of dead ends. At least these closed streets aren't restricting pedestrians.

Here are some photos I took of the park:http://www.flickr.com/photos/pasa/sets/ ... 466060739/

There's also a path in North Hampton, running from Pernod to Chippewa, between Macklind and Brannon.

Alex Ihnen wrote:^ I believe all, or at least more of these streets now dead-end with the renovations to the Porter Mall.

GRG didn't change any of the open or closed streets. They are as they were. Too many closed IMO.

debaliviere wrote:There's also a path in North Hampton, running from Pernod to Chippewa, between Macklind and Brannon.

It also went a block south of Chippewa before it was sold to the adjacent property owners in the early 2000's. I used those crosswalks a lot in my youth. My friends and I would ride our bikes around and try to ditch a pre-selected person out of the group. The crosswalks were great for making an unexpected turn out of the alley.