Downtown St. Louis Full of Life
Tonight was the monthly First Friday Gallery & Design walk in downtown St. Louis. We have no Final Four or other major event to populate the sidewalks but the streets didn’t lack for activity. No major sporting event yet sidewalks were teaming with people.
OK, not Times Square levels but a lot more than you’d see in Clayton on a Friday night.
As the sun was setting the buildings were bathed in great lighting, including the Syndicate-Trust building on 10th & Olive.
I was tooling around downtown on my stylish Swedish cruiser. I just had the sign made for it this week. I guess the sponsored limo was going too far?
The sidewalk in front of Gallery Urbis Orbis on 10th street lacked bike racks and street signs. The parking meter was the only choice. The next meter over had a Post-Dispatch newspaper box secured to it.
The Vox green apple vodka served at Urbis Orbis was awesome!
Master retailer Mike Finan over at UMA: Urban Materials + Accessories was selling fresh flowers along with his beautiful collection of household accessories.
The cosmos with Vox raspberry vodka were great.
Over on Washington Avenue in the 1200 block the sidewalks were literally packed. Some folks were out for the gallery walk but others were just out on a Friday night.
Washington Avenue was full of life.
Washington Avenue was full of St. Louisans.
Lucas Park Grille, like many places, was taking advantage of the excellent weather by throwing open the doors. Opening up doors and windows to the public sidewalk creates a great connection. Activity within the private spaces visually spill out onto the sidewalk – adding to the life on the street.
Businesses should keep this in mind when building new storefronts – the ability to open up the front of the space.
Tonight we’ve proven we can populate the sidewalks of downtown. The best part is we’ve only scratched the surface. In the next five years (or less) we’ll see the remaining buildings get reused and the vacant lots begin to get new construction. By that time we’ll see busy sidewalks at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon as well as 8pm on a Tuesday night. Friday and Saturday nights will be a collective madhouse. Relative to other cities I still think our loft spaces are larger and offer a greater value.
Tonight was one of the best times I’ve had in downtown St. Louis. No, in St. Louis period. Maybe it was all the vodka?
– Steve
LOL. Well, “no major sporting event” on Friday night — except for the 47,160 people in Busch Stadium.
Still, it was a nice night . . .
[REPLY: Oh, there was a game last night? Who knew? Looks like the first pitch was at 7:10pm so all of those people were in the stadium and not on the downtown sidewalks. Having X-number of people in a specific geographic area is different than having people out and about socializing and patronizing local businesses.
I doubt the fans of the game had very little to do with street life North of Market Street either before or after the game. After we lost the game they got back in their SUVs and drove back to the ‘burbs.
By major sporting event I was mostly referring to the ‘Final Four’ event recently which artificially elevated the excitement levels on the sidewalks. – Steve]
Steve, I ran into those 47,160 fans later in the evening — as they jammed the streets on the south end of downtown scrambling to get onto the interstates. Such teeming street life! Eevn the dowtown bars looked pretty dead after the game got out.
Smarter folks did make a great showing dowtown, actually walking around and creating civc energy. Thanks for writing about it.
“I doubt the fans of the game had very little to do with street life North of Market Street either before or after the game. After we lost the game they got back in their SUVs and drove back to the ‘burbs.”
“Steve, I ran into those 47,160 fans later in the evening — as they jammed the streets on the south end of downtown scrambling to get onto the interstates.”
Are there no baseball fans left in the city of St. Louis? Well, okay, *besides* us and PE? This surely is a sign of the apocalypse!
RB
Friday night downtown was fantastic the streets were alive and the energy was amazing. Hats off to the kick off party for UnSCENE great job to Christophe. The newest member of downtown just off Washington Ave. Urban Breath 1320 Lucas ave 2nd floor also enjoyed the evenings overflow from Philip Sleins’ Art Gallery into our own gallery of “Italy Exposed” and first time ever to show in Saint Louis photo’s by Jim Clemenson. Urban Breath is all about the Yoga Arts and Wellness featuring artist every month with workshops and offering massage therapy for a final touch.
Namaste
Cameron
Friday night downtown was fantastic the streets were alive and the energy was amazing. Hats off to the kick off party for UnSCENE great job to Christophe. The newest member of downtown just off Washington Ave. Urban Breath 1320 Lucas ave 2nd floor also enjoyed the evenings overflow from Philip Sleins’ Art Gallery into our own gallery of “Italy Exposed” and first time ever to show in Saint Louis photo’s by Jim Clemenson. Urban Breath is all about the Yoga Arts and Wellness featuring artist every month with workshops and offering massage therapy for a final touch.
Namaste
Cameron
I saw you on that bike that Friday (while dining outside at Wasabi) and only just now happened upon this article during an unrelated Google search. Creepy.
[REPLY 11:45am – That is great that you were out that night and saw me bike by. It was a fun night. – Steve]