Best Thing Expected To Happen In The St. Louis Region In 2014…

The top two answers in last week’s unscientific poll tied, with third close behind.

Q: Best thing expected to happen in the St. Louis region in 2014?

1. Opening of the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge 21 [19.63%]
2. Loop Trolley construction begins 21 [19.63%]
3. St. Louis’ 250th anniversary 19 [17.76%]
4. Phase One of Ballpark Village opens 15 [14.02%]
5. Other: 14 [13.08%]
6. Unsure/no opinion 6 [5.61%]
7. Fields Foods grocery store opens 4 [3.74%]
8. Same-sex marriage in Illinois (June 1st) 3 [2.8%]
9. Medical marijuana in Illinois 3 [2.8%]
10. March Madness (Basketball tournaments) 1 [0.93%]

The fourteen “other” answers supplied by readers were:

1. None of the above
2. Progress on CityArchRiver
3. american airlines merger
4. Groundbreaking on Paul McKee’s Northside project (if it actually happens)
5. City wide form based zoning is adopted
6. Not getting my car ganked downtown cuz now I park in a garage – only $140/month.
7. northside project starts
8. Rams Make a Deal to Stay in STL
9. Buildings around old post office get redeveloped/ Further cwe/cortex development
10. City re-enters the County
11. Freeman Bosley Jr and Charlie Dooley go to jail.
12. Continued neighborhood redevelopment and rehab.
13. move toward city/county consolidation
14. Announcement for Pevely reuse

My point was to look at things actually expected to happen. In the comments on the original post someone unhappy with my choices asked “Boeing decision?”

The company called off its nationwide site search in the wee hours of Saturday morning, immediately after word came that its Seattle-area Machinists union had voted to accept a pension-cutting contract to assemble the plane in the Puget Sound area, 51 percent to 49. (stltoday.com)

It was potentially an exciting thing for the region, but with 20+ states competing it wasn’t something we could’ve expected. In the end, Boeing used Missouri and other states to get their contract accepted in Seattle.

McKee’s vision calls for many projects, the first was completed a few years ago (new building on the north edge of downtown). The city will not reenter the county in 2014, though the topic may come up.  The Rams will reach a decision about the Edward Jones Dome, but we’ll see if anyone is excited by their decision.

I think 2014 will be a decent year, but 2015 will be a bigger year.

— Steve Patterson