Readers Split On Northside Light Rail Alignment
In the recent non-scientiifc Sunday Poll readers were split on the twi competing alignments that’ll be recommended to East Wes. Planning approved a decade ago was to use 14th, North Florissant, and Natural Bridge. Since then a big chunk of the St. Louis Place neighborhood was razed for the new West headquarters of the National Geospatial Agency (NGA West), now under construction. So an alternative is to use Cars & Jefferson avenues to serve NGA West’s workforce.
![](http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/northside.southside.072018b.jpg)
Here are the results:
Q: Which of the two alternatives for the Northside light rail alignment do you prefer:
- Unsure/no answer 9 [36%]
- Florissant Ave 9 [36%]
- Cass Ave 7 [28%]
The results are lower than typical weeks, and some selected Unsure/no answer because they oppose investing in additional rail transit — even though taxpayers approved taxes to build additional rail to serve North & South St. Louis.
Advantages of Florissant Ave alignment:
- Serves 3 neighborhoods: Carr Square, St. Louis Place, & Old North St. Louis
- Taking transit to/from Crown Candy would be easier than now
- No 90-degree turns to slow down speeds
Advantages of Cars Ave alignment
- Serves 2 neighborhoods: Carr Square & St. Louis Place
- Serves more of Jeff Vanderlou neighborhood than Florissant Ave alignment
- Serves NGA West
- Could spur development of long-vacant Pruitt-Igoe site
It’s tough picking a favorite. Would more NGA workers use transit if it stopped right out front? Would think significantly reduce auto traffic to/from NGA?
On Monday I’ll propose an alternative to the Case Ave alignment.
— Steve Patterson.