Poll: Best Thing Expected to Happen in the St. Louis Region in 2014?
2014 will be a busy year in the region with a number of positive things:
- Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge opens to traffic
- St. Louis celebrates 250th anniversary
- Phase One of Ballpark Village opens
- March Madness basketball tournaments
- Fields Foods opens
Some things that are controversial in some circles:
- Same-sex marriages begin in Illinois (mine’s June 8th!)
- Medical marijuana in Illinois
- Loop Trolley construction starts
The poll this week asks you to pick one thing you think is the best thing for the region. Because there may be other things happening I didn’t list you can add your own item in the poll (right sidebar).
— Steve Patterson
I find the choices rather dull. A new bridge opening? A grocery store? Same-sex marriage? Medical marijuana? Ballpark Village? STL 250th? These are all fine things, but all mainly old news. In the meantime, we have many other important issues on the horizon with very uncertain outcomes.
Northside and McKee? The Boeing decision? Development outside the Central Corridor in our more challenged areas (more than half the city geographically). Crime and expansion of the Neighborhood Ownership Model? Possible demolition of more unprotected historic buildings, especially the Record Exchange (former Buder Library?). Implementation of the city’s new vacant building stabilization program? Rollout of local control of the police department? Action on The South County Connector? Regional acceptance or rejection of sustainability programs, including such things as the “Complete Streets Initiative”? The fate of the “Better Together” effort?
These are defining issues for the future of St. Louis region. What kind of community will we become?
Well said! The only thing I’d add would be efforts to merge the city and the county.
That’s the “Better Together” thing. In typical STL fashion, sides are already being chosen before the facts are collected.
The choices I listed are positive things that’ll happen in 2014. Yes, these are “old news” but that’s my point — what are we already aware of in 2014 that we’re excited about? The uncertain things in St. Louis’ future could be a good poll question.
It’s pretty hard to get excited about old news. And most of these are really not that exciting. A grocery store opening? A road? (yes, a bridge, but seriously, it’s highway expansion…). Gay marriage? Okay, yes, that’s exciting. Ballpark Village? C’mon, that’s mostly a disappointment already. An annual basketball tournament? Most exciting thing? STL 250th birthday – oh, whoopee, another chance at a STL retrospective! Okay, yes, we do get excited about our retrospectives…the other things are gonna happen too. Northside breaks ground. Action will be taken on the South County Connector. Complete Streets will either move forward or be thwarted. Actions will happen on all these fronts. Whether the outcomes are positive or negative depends on your point of view. If you oppose city county merger, the failure of Better Together would make you very happy!
If the county moves forward with the SCC I’d view that as a negative and if they abandon it as neutral.
And if you’re Charlie Dooley you’d view a 2014 approval of the SCC’s environmental review as a positive.
Is the record exchange building really in danger of demo or are you just speculating? I haven’t heard anything suggesting demo is being considered.
Speculating since the owner says the building is under contract, but not closing for many months. Usually that means some sort of contingency sale. For a straight purchase of an existing building, financing does not require many to secure, but building permits for a new building would, especially if the proposed development requires demolition. Also, the owner wanted a big price tag. Not a lot of people pay high prices for city buildings, but QT, Walgreens, and CVS are breaking the bank to outbid each other on prime corners like this one.
Those high prices come with contingency contracts subject to approval of use of property for buyer’s desired use. Seller agrees to longer contract to give buyer time to get permits in “exchange” (get the pun?) for the higher price. However, speculating mostly since owner of Record Exchange is being very tight lipped about who’s the conditional purchaser. Until we know for sure the fate of the property, all we know it’s an attractive corner being sold in a very active QT/Walgreens/CVS bidding market.
Another defining issue for the future of St. Louis is what happens with the region’s NFL franchise? And what about major league professional soccer expanding to the STL? Perhaps in a new mid-sized, soccer-only, stadium built near Union Station on land controlled by Paul McKee?
I like the choices myself because all of these are almost certain to happen and we could see what people like best out of them.