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St Louis Wants to Develop Land under Gateway Arch

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The park next under the Gateway Arch; 'stepha1202' photo via Flickr

The park beneath the Gateway Arch. Photo by Stephanie Axe via flickr.

St. Louis is jealous of Chicago. Chicago has created something called the Millennium Park which includes an amazing outdoor concert venue, wonderful gardens, and a shiny metallic sculpture called "Cloud Gate" (perhaps better known as the 'Chicago Bean'). Chicago's park has transformed a worn down part of town, and people and business have returned.

St. Louis has its own shiny mirrored sculpture called the "Gateway Arch" that draws 2.5 million people annually, but former Senator John Danforth, after having spent 2 years and $2 million, has come up with a development plan that would draw more people and business to the area, and revitalize the waterfront like Chicago has done. There is a problem though. The plan would require the city of St. Louis to develop land that is currently owned by the United States, and managed by the National Park Service.

The plan would create a strong, pedestrian friendly connection between the downtown core and the waterfront near the Arch. Ideas in the plan have included the addition of museums, restaurants, and possibly even an aquarium. As it is now, a common complaint of the area is that, besides the Arch, there isn't any reason to stay near the water. "We are wasting our two most valuable assets, the Gateway Arch and our position on America's greatest river," Mr. Danforth said. "There is little to do at the Riverfront, and the Arch, one of the world's greatest and most beautiful monuments, stands in splendid isolation. As a community, we can do better."

Some say that because the park is like an island (surrounded on one side by the Mississippi River, and on two other sides by Interstate freeways), the isolation of the area will be difficult to overcome. The city plan would address this problem by creating a lid over part of one freeway, creating an above ground pedestrian mall.

There are a lot of people skeptical of the entire plan, not the least of whom is the National Park Service. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial deputy superintendent Frank Mares told the St Louis paper, "we've been involved with a number of community planners over the past two years on the riverfront master plan, so it's surprising that one of the partners in the planning efforts has jumped out in front of everyone and come to this conclusion without consulting us." Plus, removing land from a park unit is a very rare thing. NPS spokesperson David Barna told the paper, "it is very difficult to take property out of the national park system. It's hard for me to even think of ... examples. But we do what Congress wishes us to do."

The National Parks Conservation Association has said, "we need to remember that the Arch and the park surrounding it belong to the people of the United States, not just the residents of St. Louis."

Comments

Daniel, sounds like you've got a pretty close park service connection. Thanks very much for the additional input.


We need more places where there's "little to do"...


Jon, okay, but St. Louis should be one of those places? (Isn't one Kansas City enough? JUST KIDDING!)

Jim Macdonald
The Magic of Yellowstone
Yellowstone Newspaper
Jim's Eclectic World


Yep -- too much "do" and what have ya got?

Doodoo...


What danforth and now the new politco at the head of the interior dept. [responding to clout-heavy pressure form the danforths and their cronies] propose to do is nothing less than vandalize one of the great works of urban landscape art in the world and deface a serene masterpiece by Dan Kiley and Eero Saarinen. Next, the neanderthals behind this project will want to build a new arch, with skyboxes and caviar service. this project is an enormous waste of federal tax dollars for a completely unnecessary and wrongheaded [and pigheaded] project, in a time of economic depression with far more pressing needs, particularly in the education-challenged public school system of slouis. But the rich and the political hacks always get their way, at the expense of the citizenry. And most likely the danforths will again find an underhanded way to get their name plastered on a monument. And your claim that residents of this town are "jealous" of chicago and its stupid trendy "bean" [which didn't restore a rundown part of town at all - the oh-so-trendy-and-quickly-tiresome millenium park is adjacent to the always popular Grant Park and was built over railroad tracks, not a "run-down" part of town - and there was ALWAYS a fine concert venue in Grant Park!] is complete hogwash. This city LOVES the Arch and its park. The "jealousy" runs the other way.


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