urbanSTL

Looks like rooms are available starting on December 20th.

StlToday - New AC Hotel opens in Central West End

https://www.stltoday.com/business/local ... 88c5f.html

Hope that means the sidewalks on York st will reopen, they were still closed as of Wednesday...

Stayed here the other night. I wish they'd stuck with the original exterior design (current one is pretty boring), but the inside is incredible. Really nice lobby with a great bar. Fantastic fitness center. Rooms are minimalistic, but have everything you could need. Hopefully the old Bar Louie across the street gets filled next.

Stayed here for a long weekend, agree that the rooms were nice & minimalistic.  Would have been good to have a clock in the room and would have preferred a bathroom door instead of sliding frosted glass.  Enjoyed walking to all kinds of restaurants and grocery stores.  Hadn't been in CWE since we moved out of STL in '15.  The new apartment buildings along Euclid really make it feel like you're in a big city.  (Would like to see the SW & SE corners of Lindell get something, but would be hard to fit anything on the sliver on the SE corner.) Lots of cranes visible, too.  I don't know if it's just a product of living somewhere without a ton of traffic, but I didn't remember STL street traffic as heavy as I saw it this weekend in the CWE.

Took our kids to do touristy things for spring break and we were all very impressed with nearly everything we did.  Zoo was good, crowds weren't crazy because we went on Thursday afternoon and it was rainy-ish.  Friday morning we went to City Museum and it was absolutely nuts in there.  Kids loved it.  Saturday we went to the Arch and Union Station.  US was also packed - aquarium was not what I expected, but was neat, none the less. Outdoor stuff was cold, never before had I mini-golfed while it was snowing.  A bit expensive, as we dropped $200+ for their multi-pack ticket deal for 4 of us.  Went to The Foundry (also crowded) for lunch on Sunday before heading out of town and the food was great.  Pizza, Indian & waffles were all good.  Overall, almost everywhere we went was crowded & enjoyable.  Had to wait for a table every time we tried to eat.  Surprised at how poor the shape of the roads were

^Glad you had a good time and I feel like things are generally on a solid upward trajectory all along the central corridor, but the roads really do need help, even there. (And I'd really like to see more of that central corridor love spread.)

Bart Harley Jarvis wrote: ↑

Mar 20, 2023

Stayed here for a long weekend, agree that the rooms were nice & minimalistic.  Would have been good to have a clock in the room and would have preferred a bathroom door instead of sliding frosted glass.  Enjoyed walking to all kinds of restaurants and grocery stores.  Hadn't been in CWE since we moved out of STL in '15.  The new apartment buildings along Euclid really make it feel like you're in a big city.  (Would like to see the SW & SE corners of Lindell get something, but would be hard to fit anything on the sliver on the SE corner.) Lots of cranes visible, too.  I don't know if it's just a product of living somewhere without a ton of traffic, but I didn't remember STL street traffic as heavy as I saw it this weekend in the CWE.

Took our kids to do touristy things for spring break and we were all very impressed with nearly everything we did.  Zoo was good, crowds weren't crazy because we went on Thursday afternoon and it was rainy-ish.  Friday morning we went to City Museum and it was absolutely nuts in there.  Kids loved it.  Saturday we went to the Arch and Union Station.  US was also packed - aquarium was not what I expected, but was neat, none the less. Outdoor stuff was cold, never before had I mini-golfed while it was snowing.  A bit expensive, as we dropped $200+ for their multi-pack ticket deal for 4 of us.  Went to The Foundry (also crowded) for lunch on Sunday before heading out of town and the food was great.  Pizza, Indian & waffles were all good.  Overall, almost everywhere we went was crowded & enjoyable.  Had to wait for a table every time we tried to eat.  Surprised at how poor the shape of the roads were

Yes, I know what you mean. St. Louis actually has a pretty imposing urban presence when you haven't been there in a while. I could only imagine how it would feel if we had the infill investment of say a Nashville or Denver. St. Louis would easily get back into the top 10 urban cities in America again.

Sometimes I think we're thisclose to taking off and becoming a hip city . . . of course, I've been thinking that for the last 30 years. 

framer wrote: ↑

Mar 21, 2023

Sometimes I think we're thisclose to taking off and becoming a hip city . . . of course, I've been thinking that for the last 30 years. 

If an out-of-towner flew in, got on the Metro, took a quick nap until the Clayton metro station and then got off at Barnes & walked up Euclid to the York, they'd think STL was very cool (Probably.  I'm a semi-lame ~40 year old dad, I don't know what cool is).  

I also forgot that the already cool view of EB FPP between DeBaliviere and Union looks even better with the new buildings in that part.  I made that drive every day for work, and thought it was impressive back in 2006, even more so today.

I've said it a million times here - the only thing lacking for STL to become an "IT" city is hype and local belief that it is.  We have the bones only a half dozen other cities share and diverse neighborhoods Austin, CLT, and Nashville will never have.  I went to lunch today at Broadway Oyster Bar, out of towners sitting next to me kept saying how cool this restaurant and city are. There are modern buildings in STL (BPV) that feel like any other garden variety new city, but move a few blocks away and you're in beautiful historic neighborhoods. 

The CWE is incredibly unique, I hosted my Ukrainian friend who is a travel writer and has been to over 110 countries (compared to my 52), his first reaction to the CWE was how European it felt.  In 6 months in the USA, STL was in his top 4 cities he visited.

All of this I already know and don't need reassurance by outsiders, but I'd love to hear the local media and county folk start to agree. 

cteclipse wrote:I've said it a million times here - the only thing lacking for STL to become an "IT" city is hype and local belief that it is.  We have the bones only a half dozen other cities share and diverse neighborhoods Austin, CLT, and Nashville will never have.  I went to lunch today at Broadway Oyster Bar, out of towners sitting next to me kept saying how cool this restaurant and city are. There are modern buildings in STL (BPV) that feel like any other garden variety new city, but move a few blocks away and you're in beautiful historic neighborhoods. 

The CWE is incredibly unique, I hosted my Ukrainian friend who is a travel writer and has been to over 110 countries (compared to my 52), his first reaction to the CWE was how European it felt.  In 6 months in the USA, STL was in his top 4 cities he visited.

All of this I already know and don't need reassurance by outsiders, but I'd love to hear the local media and county folk start to agree. 

As a transplant, St. Louisans can often be the worst part of St. Louis.

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^ As a transplant that loves St. Louis, I completely agree. 

Our weak downtown and crime rate will also hold us back from becoming a major transplant and corporate destination. Both tough to address but once we do, watch out.

^^ I do enjoy reading posts on where locals take out of towners so I would vote yes. I've got family arriving in June so I need all the suggestions that I can get.

There's also a thread somewhere on where to take out of town visitors

pdm_ad wrote: ↑

Mar 22, 2023

^^ I do enjoy reading posts on where locals take out of towners so I would vote yes. I've got family arriving in June so I need all the suggestions that I can get.

My wife is from the Bay Area and went to school in Boston. Every time people she knows come to visit they are shocked how great it is. Sometimes it seems like people on the coasts think the Midwest is all rural farmland and even cities don’t have nice restaurants or fun places to go. It makes me laugh sometimes.