Planning Commissioners Journal in the St. Louis Region
The publisher & editor of the Planning Commissioners Journal, Wayne Senville, recently passed through the St. Louis region on his cross country road trip along US Route 50.
Arriving in the St. Louis region from the east coast Wayne’s first stop is suburban O’Fallon IL where they are experiencing rapid growth and conflicting values about development types. Wayne did three posts on O’Fallon starting here (use the site navigation to see the following posts).
Is This America? looks at some of the dispair in East St. Louis. I intentionally gave Wayne directions from his O’Fallon hotel through East St. Louis on his way to ‘meet me in St. Louis.’ If anything, I knew St. Louis would look better to his eyes after having driven through East St. Louis.
In ‘Blog On, St. Louis‘ Wayne talks about our walk/drive around St. Louis. In the next post Wayne looks at Crown Candy and the 14th Street Mall.
The final part of Wayne’s stay in our region was in suburban Creve Coeur. Like so much of the region’s suburban areas, Creve Coeur is seeking a downtown where none currently exists. In the first of three posts on Creve Coeur Wayne talks about his host, Creve Coeur City Councilperson and eminent domain opponent Laura Bryant. Next up Wayne discusses a common problem in more affluent suburban areas, the older Ranch vs the McMansion. Finally Wayne looks at Creve Coeur’s quest for a downtown with links to their planning documents on the subject in Wanted: One Downtown, Custom Built.
I enjoyed meeting and conversing with Wayne Senville — and getting a fresh outside perspective on our success and problems. From the St. Louis region Wayne continued westbound along Route 50 with his next stop in Jefferson City. Use any of the links above to follow the journey across the US.
I would like to see Wayne’s comments about O’Fallon, East St. Louis and St. Louis. Unfortunately, I was not able to log on to the website for the U.S. 50 trip.
By the way, is U.S. 50 or U.S. 40 remnant of the old National Road? If it is U.S. 40, then what is U.S. 50?
Ken Hise
imagine i am the 23-year old you moving into st louis as a fresh college graduatte. now imagine you are an invisible hand guiding me into neighborhoods i’ve never been to either. that’s what i lov about reading the posts made by your friend., because i’m still in kind of the same impressionable viewpoint. do you have any other posts about that 14th street mall? i confess my ignorance about some (ok, most) parts of the city. but if you two are right (it sounds that way @ least), that area will get knocked off sooner or later, and still deserves documentary photographs…