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Neglected Aloe Plaza & Carl Milles Fountain Will Be 75 Years Old In Just Three Years

May 11, 2012 Featured, Parks 8 Comments

On October 28 2015 we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the final piece of the Gateway Arch.  The Arch didn’t open to the public until June 10, 1967.

On May 11, 2015 Aloe Plaza  across from Union Station will be 75 years old. Few seem to care.

ABOVE:People enjoying the park on June 19, 2011
ABOVE: Sitting water around the base on June 3, 2008
ABOVE: Carl Milles' "Meeting of the Waters" not the same without water, May 9, 2012
ABOVE: The standing water when the fountain is on due to the drainage system being totally clogged

I’d like to see CityArchRiver focus on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Arch in 2017 rather than rush for a 2015 completion, although we should recognize the topping of the Arch in 2015. I’d also like us to renew Aloe Plaza for it’s 75th anniversary.

– Steve Paterson

 

Currently there are "8 comments" on this Article:

  1. RyleyinSTL says:

    Always wondered why the city just lets water would pool there when a simple regrade could fix the problem.

     
  2. JZ71 says:

    This is just another example of hard choices in a city with limited revenues.  Do you fix the fountain or cut the grass?  The Parks Dept. only has so many dollars and a never-ending list of deferred maintenance items . . . .

     
  3. Rick says:

    Let’s not about those firefighter pensions!   Maybe the fountain needs a corporate sponsor?

     
    • samizdat says:

       NOOOOOOOOO! No corporate sponsors! Jeebus H., why do so many people feel that the public sphere should whore itself to corporate interests? Howsabout we set up a fund and get some bids on what needs to be done, then go from there. Is there no imagination left in this podunk town anymore? The go-to idea is “get a corporation to pay for it”? This town goes from Henry Shaw, who gave us so much without asking for scarcely anything in return, to Mr. Peabody slapping his name on a publicly financed and built asset. What a sad state of affairs. We have fallen so low as both a City and a country when the first idea is to whore ourselves and our property to private business interests.

       
      • Rick says:

        Could be a little of both.   I could see the city putting in some $$$, youth groups from around the region, a fun-run, the Downtown Residents Association, and so on.  Samizdat, that’s collaboration – not selling it on the street! 

         
  4. Rick says:

    (like City Garden….)

     
  5. Blujean says:

    Good idea, Rick.  Isn’t Blue Cross Blue Shield right there? Maybe a good community project for them.

     
  6. JAE says:

    The whole area around Union Station is pretty neglected. We took my dad to the amtrak station last night, having supper at the Hard Rock Cafe first. We finished and hour or so early and tried to spend it walking around the neighborhood: hardly any people, fewer stores, neglect, rather sad. And then we walked to the amtrak station: the blocks in between Union Station and the amtrak station are grim on foot.

     

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