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.
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.
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.
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.
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
It's going to take WAY more than “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.” It's going take changing a lot of perceptions (since perceptions are reality), about the larger area. It's going to take multiple, small, private investments, not a few, larger, public ones. It's going to take more jobs and less crime. It's going to take many more people choosing to live here. In it's simplest terms, it's going to take people, including many current residents, wanting to be here, not wanting to be somewhere, anywhere, else.
Yes, the infrastructure investment in transportation is what must happen to kick off the things you list. Otherwise, none will happen.
Huh? MLK is a four-lane corridor with bus service (#32) every 20 minutes. That's the same “infrastructure” you find on Highway K (minus the bus line) in St. Charles County. That's the same “infrastructure” you find on Delmar in the Loop and along Manchester in the County, again, with less bus service. All these areas are considered to be relatively “successful”. Do you think adding a streetcar along MLK will convince more people to either invest in or move to the corridor? As much as I support public transit, it, in and of itself, is NOT a silver bullet for development, it's merely one amenity that makes a desirable area more desirable. Burned out storefronts, roll-down security grilles, vacant lots with no signs of development, rusting chain link fences and a retail mix that doesn't appeal to most shoppers are much bigger isses here than not having a streetcar available!
Making the 32 into a streetcar would be huge for this city. It's a fantastic route. Kirkwood-Maplewood-Fipsy-SLU-Lafayette Square-Downtown-MLK as far as PageDale.