In case you did not catch it. A developer is making a pitch to E St. Louis to build a tourist destination.

For what its worth-

http://www.kmov.com/video/localnews-ind ... vid=278945

"Main Street USA..." WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT!?!?!?!





But seriously, this would be great.

Beer City wrote:A developer is making a pitch to E St. Louis to build a tourist destination.

Now there's something that's never been proposed before...



I'd love to see something done with East St. Louis, but I don't hold out much hope for seeing anything substantial in my lifetime. If our government is going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually for programs that may or may not work anyway, perhaps we should give East St. Louis its own bailout and/or stimulus package.

As long as we're talking about the East St. Louis Riverfront, there's another group that wants to use federal "stimulous" money to build some kind of alternative energy powerplant over there. I've got nothing against the idea, except for the location. The last thing I want to see on the East STL Riverfront is a powerplant, no matter how PC it may be.

I'd like to see them eyesore E STL riverfront turn into something better. The Casino Drag Queen's hotel IMO looks terrible, they need a taller one. Covington-Newport across the river from Cincinnati is an example they should follow.

Crime, decay, stigma, neglect, and political rot are the top reasons.

I vaguely remember seeing a recent article that Casino Queen was experiencing a loss in visitors and revenue. I'm not sure its owners will be willing to invest much more into it. I give it 10 years before its vacant and an eyesore from the arch.

downtown2007 wrote:Crime, decay, stigma, neglect, and political rot are the top reasons.

isn't there a fair amount of contamination in need of remediation as well?

Efforts to attract new development by improving riverfront infrastructure:


http://stlouiscnr.com/departments/assoc ... dium=email

framer wrote: ↑

Jul 13, 2018

Efforts to attract new development by improving riverfront infrastructure:


http://stlouiscnr.com/departments/assoc ... dium=email

It will be interesting to see how things play out with freight/barge traffic on the Upper Mississippi River and if this type of investment will pay off big for the region. You could make a strong argument that a major lock failure is just a matter of when and not if it will happen. Which begs the question, will commodities start making its way to the St Louis region via rail & truck for transfer to barge to avoid an aging lock system? or will market wait for failure and then you will have a fundamental shift with commodity movement in the upper midwest? I believe some shift in commodity movement is happening but don't have any numbers to really support such a claim

Replacing the merchant rail bridge will also strengthen the region as a freight hub. Considering the TRRA is going ahead (therefore the Class 1 railroads that own it) without a big federal grant speaks to some confidence that the region needs two rail crossings going forward.

The Other Side of “Broken Windows”
What if vacant property received the attention that, for decades, has been showered on petty crime?
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-tu ... en-windows

Not sure how this plays out for Metro East or if I picked the right thread if someone wants to move it.   But a pretty substantial infrastructure bill sent to the Governor with significant gas tax and other fees to pay for it.  Assuming a chunk of the $45 billion for road, bridges, transit, buildings, etc will flow down south even though Chicago picks up a fair amount of dollars and the bill puts some behind new state supported rail service to Rockford and Quad cities as well as Chicago CREATE 

https://www.enr.com/external_headlines/ ... _caption=1

June 03-- Jun. 3 -- The Illinois Senate on Sunday afternoon approved a widespread gambling expansion bill that legalizes sports betting across the state and authorizes a Chicago casino.
Working in legislative overtime, the Senate approved the measure on a 46-10 vote. A short time later, the Senate approved on a 48-9 vote a number of tax and fee hikes to finance a $45 billion state construction program.

Both plans now head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker , who has signaled his support.

The Mayor wrote: ^ This could be really good for Fairmount.  I know they support sports gambling as a way to open up some new revenue sources at the park.

Mayor, biz journals picked up your lead on this.   You should get a byline on this if I got journalist jargon correct.

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... s_headline