最新杏吧原创

But you'll have to squint.

When the city launched its revival of downtown in the late 1990s, it had an eye on making the area look and feel inviting to visitors and new residents, and to encourage public gatherings. The sidewalks along that section of Washington Avenue were widened and blended curblessly to the street, giving it the feel of a walkable plaza. Lighting was installed overhead. Trees and foliage were planted along the thoroughfare.

The infrastructure overhauls on Washington Avenue and other parts of downtown worked. For a while. The influx of businesses and residents and the resulting activity 鈥� lively storefronts, sidewalk dining, street music 鈥� peaked around 2010.

It's no coincidence that downtown鈥檚 slide back toward lifelessness has roughly tracked with the physical deterioration of streets and sidewalks. Improvements retrofitted onto the historic, 19th-century neighborhood haven鈥檛 been maintained to their initial shine.

The Post-Dispatch Editorial Board this week is publishing a series of editorials exploring how 最新杏吧原创 can revive its troubled downtown/Downtown West corridor. That鈥檚 the more than two-square-mile stretch from the Arch grounds on the east, Jefferson Avenue on the west, Chouteau Avenue on the south, and just beyond Washington Avenue on the north.听 We are keeping all the editorials in the series outside our paywall, free to everyone, to include as many community members in the conversation as possible.

Today, we focus on downtown infrastructure 鈥� the need to buff up the city鈥檚 front stoop to the rest of the world.

Let's first acknowledge what the city and its partners have done right on this topic in the recent past, and what they鈥檙e getting right today. There鈥檚 a lot there 鈥� more than many 最新杏吧原创ans probably realize 鈥� and it鈥檚 instructive regarding what should happen going forward.

When city and state leaders launched their 鈥淒owntown Now!鈥� initiative to spur investment in the central corridor,听Washington Avenue鈥檚 physical facelift was part of the draw. The $17 million streetscape renovation, using state and federal funding, riffed off the area鈥檚 old status as 最新杏吧原创鈥� garment district with artistic lighting, brick street and sidewalk resurfacing and other work.

In the ensuing years:

鈥� A $30 million project in 2008 and 2009, funded by the nonprofit Gateway Foundation, transformed two blocks along Market Street into Citygarden, the stunning urban park that features more than 20 sculptures in the heart of downtown.

鈥� Kiener Plaza, just to the east of Citygarden, underwent a $23 million renovation in 2016 and 2017 that added a playground, a water feature and a lawn that can accommodate 3,000 people.

鈥� The Gateway Arch grounds, long cut off from downtown by Interstate 44, were transformed with a $380 million renovation starting in 2013 that included a grassy 鈥渓id鈥� over the interstate.

Those overhauls invite uninterrupted foot traffic from the Civil Courts building on Tucker Boulevard, through Citygarden, through Kiener Plaza, past the Old Courthouse and all the way to the Arch and the Mississippi River. It's one of the most impressive urban vistas in America.

We don't necessarily need such a broad renovation today. But there's new work to be done.

Broken streets, shuttered storefronts

On the section of Washington Avenue between Tucker Boulevard and 14th Street, the raised lines of bricks in the middle follow a 鈥渮ipper-and-stitch鈥� pattern, meant to evoke the corridor鈥檚 past as a garment district. But they're now discolored or damaged to the point that it鈥檚 difficult to make out what the objective was in the early 2000s. The storefronts are similarly long in the tooth, and largely vacant.

Put simply, the street and storefront renovation projects haven't been re-upped or even well maintained.听Joel Fuoss of the architectural firm Trivers, which was active in the neighborhood's redevelopment, told the听听last year that the situation is proof of what happens when you "take your eye off the ball a little bit."

And it's not just the specialty infrastructure that has been left to deteriorate. Downtown, as in much of the city, the lack of timely street maintenance is a bread-and-butter issue.

Downtown drivers have long been used to veering around potholes and deep-set manhole covers. Then there's the shuttering bump that comes with rolling over one of the temporary metal plates that cover failing street surfaces. The newly resurfaced stretch of Tucker Boulevard in front of City Hall is a welcome exception, but it stands in mocking contrast to the shabby streets around it.听听

There are also several large downtown structures that have spent years in infrastructure purgatory 鈥� neither renovated nor demolished, just slowly deteriorating in plain view along major roadways.

That鈥檚 due partly to economics, with would-be developers finding it difficult to finance renovation projects. And it鈥檚 partly due to the snail鈥檚 pace at which both city government and the court system move, drawing out the process of seizing the properties via eminent domain and demolishing them or finding well-funded rescuers.

The eyesores include two crumbling, graffiti-covered multistory parking garages that look like something out of 1980s war-torn Beirut, and a former Shell station on Tucker just off Washington. Then there鈥檚 the Chemical Building at Olive and Eighth streets. The historic 17-story building has sat empty for years, deteriorating right outside the windows of the similarly historic but luxuriously renovated Hotel 最新杏吧原创 next door.

"If you're lucky enough to get a room that faces the post apocalyptic, abandoned building next door you may have nightmares," one hotel guest wrote in a Google review of the property, as reported in October by the 最新杏吧原创 Business Journal.

"This needs to be the vibrant, beating heart of the region," the hotel鈥檚 frustrated co-owner, Amrit Gill, told the publication. "It's not. Forget life support, I think we unplugged life support a while back."

Getting that downtown heart beating again is the goal of promising new city legislation designed to upgrade the area within a designated Sports and Entertainment Community Improvement District (CID), recently approved by the Board of Aldermen and signed by the mayor.

The district will be partly focused on aiding with security around big downtown events. But Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, co-sponsor of the measure (with Alderwoman Jami Cox), told us another goal is to ensure that visitors who come in for a ballgame or concerts look around and see better lighting, better streets, better surroundings around those amenities.

鈥淧lanters, flowers, re-doing the lights. Even painting. A lot of the crosswalks, the paint has rubbed off. Anything to beautify the area,鈥� Aldridge said. 鈥淚t will be a facelift to the face of the city.鈥�

CIDs are nothing new, but this one is unusual in how it鈥檚 funded. Rather than assessing a special tax on neighborhood residents and businesses to pay for the neighborhood improvements, it will issue bonds and tap into state funds available through the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

We have leveled more than our share of criticism at Missouri leaders for their treatment of 最新杏吧原创 in recent years. We鈥檙e glad to say "kudos"听to the General Assembly and Gov. Mike Kehoe for approving the providing that support. The more help downtown can get from the state, the better.

The unique CID, focused on sports and entertainment venues, could encourage similar efforts can be undertaken in other chunks of downtown. Progress can happen one street at a time.听

Connecting the pieces

What the CID improvements won鈥檛 address 鈥� and what remains one of the most challenging infrastructure dilemmas 鈥� is the sheer size of the downtown/Downtown West area.

At more than two square miles, the neighborhood is far larger, geographically, than the downtowns of even some much larger cities. And the key amenities in our downtown 鈥� the Arch, Busch Stadium, Enterprise Center, Union Station, the soccer stadium 鈥� are spread out in different parts of the neighborhood.

As problems go, it鈥檚 one that鈥檚 literally set in cement. It鈥檚 not like the city can pick up those major amenities and move them closer together.

What economic life there is downtown is divided into multiple 鈥渋slands鈥� of activity, with vast seas of vacant streets and empty storefronts between them. Fixing that problem will entail connecting those islands of life through areas that currently have little or none.

The city is well aware of the issue. It was the impetus behind the Seventh Street revitalization project completed last year, linking Busch Stadium to America鈥檚 Center with a freshly paved corridor of bike and pedestrian lanes, and lighting and trees.

鈥淚t's what we need more of to keep downtown becoming more and more attractive to residents 鈥� workers, visitors, businesses, all of us,鈥� Mayor Cara Spencer said last summer in .

How can a city that has trouble keeping up with routine street maintenance pay for specialized infrastructure projects? It can't听鈥� not without help. The Seventh Street project, for example, was funded largely through federal grants and matching funds from the Cardinals and other private sources.

Former Mayor Francis Slay stressed to us that the infrastructure overhaul undertaken during his tenure couldn鈥檛 have happened without partnerships.

鈥淚t takes teamwork 鈥� a听lot of people, state and local and at the federal level, and 鈥� all these (local) organizations pulling together to help put together the resources," he said.

Indeed, such projects aren't simple: who's involved, who's in charge, where does the money come from?听But we've risen to meet the challenge before. And we've seen why a street-and-storefront facelift has to be part of the equation for a downtown renaissance.听

This series was conceived, and its subjects interviewed, by the Post-Dispatch Editorial Board: Editorial Page Editor Kevin McDermott, Post-Dispatch Publisher Ian Caso, and community board members Antonio French, Janet Y. Jackson and Lynn Schmidt. It was researched and written by McDermott.