I've heard it suggested that a community ballpark be put there for use by public schools.



I've also heard it suggested that it be used for something more profitable, residential or commercial.



Whatever we do with it, we need to do something. A school has taken over part of the land, but there's a fair amount of space left. I have no problem with leaving it green, but if you want to make it a park then it needs to look like a park, like with benches or a swingset or that kind of thing.



So, what should be done with this land?

The PI site is where La Saison should have been located. Same proximity to downtown and that way Soulard/Lafayette Square and LaSalle Park could all be tied together with market rate housing.

The corner of cass and 20th should be retail CASS av is a big street with no retail a Walgreens would be great mixed income housing with a park in the middle of the site would be great .Jefferson and cass should be all or mostly retail and all of the surrounding streets should run straight throught so it would connect and be easily asessable to all parts of the city.

The entirety of the remaining land should be captured and rezoned PUD, with form-based, mixed-use development at a minimum residential density of 10-15 DU/Acre. This new development would not only incorporate Metro bus lines into the internal street grid, but would use the transit stops as commercial nodes and therefore, as true TOD. The housing mix would be heavily semi-detached, single family with shared open greens, and perhaps a marquee sustainable ecovillage (cohousing) development that placed its urban farm at the center of a neighborhood pocket where passerby would cognitively map it as an important landmark. The aging hippies in the ecovillage would be asked not to wear so much patchouli so as to keep other yuppies from living there. Methods of prefabricated construction would be employed to rapidly infill certain corners and streets to instill the the needed perception of security to enable the hatchling neighborhood to ultimately flourish.

An urban vinyard should be planted here. It could be a tourist attraction with a tasting room with wine from all the wineries in the state. Along with the wines it could have maps and information about all the wineries. In fact it could include a general information center where tourists could find out about our neighborhoods and other attractions. The vinyard itself could be planted and taken care of by volunteers and homeless people sponsored by the St. Patrick center. Vines themselves do not cost that much money, about $1 a piece. With a few fundraisers we could raise enough money for the tasting room and information center and I am quite certain local wineries would loan or donate equipment for making wine from the vinyard.

considering the fact that it would be the closest vinyard for most people in st. louis I do not think the north st. louis factor would be too bad and if the main entrance was along jefferson it would not look too desolate to people.

No, It would not feature Boone's Farm because that is a california wine and the tasting room would be about promoting missouri wines.

DaronDierkes wrote:Museum of Urban Decay and the Folly of Big Ideas. We could bring in pieces of demolished mistakes from around the world and set them up in a jungle like environment. If you guys have read, "The World Without Us" you know what I'm talking about. Make it into a primal land of cracked foundations and birding. It could be a research park for the adjacent school, get those kids out there counting bugs and stuff.

Cultivate the wildness of it and put a lot of hidden treasures in there.

Daron, do you patent your concepts, cause you should! Thanks for your contiunal stretching of our imaginations.

Who says you have to have the tasting room at the same site? I might be playing into racial fears or stereotypes, but a tasting room at BPV or Lacledes Landing next to the casino or alongside the Arch Grounds on the new Memorial Blvd or even tied into the Gateway Mall master plan might provide the crowd to economical sustain such an idea.

Lets face a little bit of reality when it comes to the north side, its going to take a significant amount of time, decades, for the city to have the population again that will support the density it once had or desired on this blog, if ever does get there. So you have two options, accept less density by encouraging larger residential footprints (making north side into suburbia) or target density with pockets of land/space set aside in such a manner that it minimizes cost of services.

By setting aside this site for an urban vineyard and/or combo organic foodplots you have a better chance of developing denser urban locations in the immediate area. Second, you also create an alternative use not common to urban areas nor competing against establish parks for limitied funds. Third, you can always build later when you have a market or demand for it.