According to Movoto, the online real estate broker

http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... dc95a.html

We can all say what we want to about yet another list but regardless in 2000 no one would have thunk PDW would be topping any listing like this.

With no disrespect to the advances of the neighborhood in recent years almost all of the "restaurants, coffee shops, and bars" are in Lafayette Square or Soulard.

Still the Georgian and other City Hospital developments along with Walgreens and the soon to open Fields Foods have made this area almost unrecognizable from the 1990's.

So does anyone think a name change might be in order? The actual Darst-Webbe development is history. Maybe combine with LaSalle to make Peabody-LaSalle?

southsidepride wrote:
So does anyone think a name change might be in order? The actual Darst-Webbe development is history. Maybe combine with LaSalle to make Peabody-LaSalle?

How about PeaSalle or LaBody?

How about just Peabody?

A while back I'd heard people referring to the neighborhood as 'Near Southside.' Don't know what happened to that trend.

I love that St. Louis has a TON of neighborhoods, but this is one of the few examples where I'd like to see some consolidation:

Peadbody-Darst-Webbe + LaSalle Park = Make it all LaSalle Park (or call it Nepomuk)
Midtown + Covenant Blu/Grand Center = Make it all Midtown
The Tiffany + Botanical Heights = Make it all Botanical Heights
Clayton-Tamm + Cheltenham + Kings Oak = Dogtown
McKinley Heights + Fox Park = Jefferson Heights
Carr Square + Columbus Square = Pruitt Square

I usually refer to all of Lafayette Square, LaSalle Park, McKinley Heights, Soulard, and Benton Park as the Near Southside.

"Best" is certainly not the term I'd use to describe PDW. "Bland" maybe? "Soulless"? "Pre-fabricated"? "Disappointing" certainly fits.

Every time I drive through that area -- on Park/Chouteau/14th/Truman/etc -- I'm filled with a deep and passionate anger that these vapid play-set houses exist a stone's throw from our city center. Same with some of the devs east of Truman...and the contrast is even more stark there with some of those old beauties on Morrison neighboring a bunch of 80s-era apartment complexes!

I think this, more than any other reason, is why downtown St. Louis can't quite clear that last hurdle as a steady, smart bet for businesses and individuals. There's no natural flow outward and inward. Its an island, surrounded by ungainly (but necessary) infrastructure and contextually-ugly developments like PDW and Columbus Square. I understand why these projects were built back when -- affordable, centrally-located housing for a struggling St. Louis. I'd like to think there's a point somewhere in the not-too-distant future where PDW can become a great St. Louis neighborhood in its own right, connecting Lafayette Square, Soulard and Downtown rather than separating it, but sadly, the development plan as it stands doesn't seem to allow for it.

Wasn't it called Bohiemian Hill? I have also heard it called Frenchtown.

Hmm, Wabash's idea to combine McKinley Heights and Fox Park to make "Jefferson Heights" intrigues me.

It seems to me commercial corridors should be the center of neighborhoods rather than the boundaries.

I'd like to see Cherokee become the center of a neighborhood that bares it's name rather than the dividing line between Benton Park West and Gravois Park. Maybe combine those two nabes into "Cherokee Town".

Maybe bring money instead?

StlToday - Mice-infested St. Louis housing complex sued by Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/cri ... e3c22.html

KcStar - Hawley sues over conditions at St. Louis housing complex

https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/m ... 08255.html

I totally agree-back in the early 2000s, nobody thought PDW would ever make a “best neighborhood” list. It’s wild how much it’s changed with the hospital project, Walgreens, and the new Fields Foods popping up. Even if most of the bars and coffee spots are technically in Lafayette Square or Soulard, it’s nice having spots right here. 

Speaking of which, when does this project get started?

I think the neighborhood needs a new name. It's kinda sad that it's named for 3 public housing developments (after prominent St. Louisans) of which 2 have been long demolished...

^I have always thought of it as a part of Lafayette.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Apr 19, 2025

^I have always thought of it as a part of Lafayette.

Lafayette has a very specific housing type so I would keep its identity to that, but only see a positive by including within Lasalle Park or redefining some way otherwise. Obviously all of these neighborhoods would be more seamless if it wasn’t for the i44/55 exchange dividing up what would be the likely the largest historic city district in the country between Soulard, Lafayette Sq,, Benton Park

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Apr 19, 2025

^I have always thought of it as a part of Lafayette.

Lafayette sq disagrees so much that it put a fence between the 2 neighborhoods

^That fence is one of the most disgraceful local acts of racism/classism in recent memory. 

Let's be honest here. The fence isn't about the neighborhood boundary. It's about keeping poor people out. They don't really care what you call it, they just don't want people walking from the projects through their yards. And before things were demolished for the projects, do you really think the housing types were all that different? I doubt it.