Signs of Hope Along St. Louis’ Dr. Martin Luther King Drive
This is my seventh year writing on Dr. Martin Luther King Day. Â Every year, except 2008 I have looked at the St. Louis road named Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, in 2008 I looked at the issue of race.
Here are links to each of the prior posts:
Today we will start at Tucker (12th) and work our way West.
ABOVE: The infill of the old rail tunnel under Tucker has now reached MLK Dr.
ABOVE: South of MLK Dr Interco Plaza has already been removed.
ABOVE: this handsome glazed brick building is showing recent damage
ABOVE: The fire likely happened in the last year.
ABOVE: Site where a farmers' market was to be built
ABOVE: So glad to see this building being renovated as part of a larger project
ABOVE: This building & others were very close to being razed
ABOVE: A few years ago it looked like one of my favorite buildings in the city might not survive.
The two buildings above are part of the Dick Gregory Place project. This building is the NE corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. and Marcus Ave.
ABOVE: A former muffler shop at Kingshighway is being converted to a gas station. Progress?
ABOVE: Only the front remains (barely) standing
The back of the above building. located just west of Union, is nearly gone. I don’t expect to see this building next year, but I’ve thought that the last couple of years.
ABOVE: The adaptive reuse of the Arlington School into housing is a huge step forward for the Wells/Goodfellow neighborhood
ABOVE: These buildings at Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. & Bud Ave were razed to make room for new housing to be built as part of the Arlington Grove project. Image: Google Streetview
ABOVE: The Arlington Grove project will occupy the entire city block. Image: Google Maps (click to view)
From Multi-Family Housing News this past October:
Construction has started on the Arlington Grove residential redevelopment project in north St. Louis. When complete it will include 112 mixed-income rental units in garden apartments, townhouse and semi-detached housing, along with a new mixed-use building and rehabilitation of the historic Arlington Elementary School. All together, the redevelopment will total 162,000 square feet of residential space and 5,000 square feet of commercial space.
The school renovation will include 21 apartments. The rest of the Arlington Grove’s residential space will be 91 new-construction townhomes and garden apartments. All of the units are designed to meet mandatory Enterprise Green Communities (EGC) criteria as required by the Capital Fund Recovery Competition (CFRC) grant, a stimulus-related grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that helped pay for the $41 million development. (full story)
Foundation work on the new construction on the placement looks good from an urban perspective. I will report more on this later this year as well as on Martin Luther King Day 2012.
ABOVE: near the west city limits storefronts in the once bustling Wellston Loop area remain largely vacant
I say it every year but it is going to take a major transportation infrastructure project (modern streetcar or even a BRT line) to make MLK Dr a desirable enough street to bring back the middle class.
Peace!
- Steve Patterson
