nextSTL | Page 10

When the Art World Came to St. Louis: The Noonan-Kocian Art Company at Tenth & Locust
St. Louis Zoo Rethinks Almost Everything, Offers Transformative Vision of Expansion
Biondi Before and After
CVS Finally Gets Its Lindell Boulevard Store, Elliptical AAA Building Remains
Urban Chestnut Brewing Company to Open 100K bbls Capacity Brewery, Retail Location in The Grove

You Paid For It - Downtown St. Louis (1774)

Published on Friday, 08 March 2013 15:57

Written by Alex Ihnen

ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) - You Paid For It takes a hard look at Downtown St. Louis. An unprecedented amount has been spent to found the city over the past 10 years yet some areas of downtown still look barren. Fox2Now's Elliott Davis caught up with Auguste Chouteau and Pierre Laclede to demand answers.

When it rains, downtown streets are muddy and nearly impassible, unlike better developed cities in the east. Ramparts and stone defense towers studied by a consultant sit unrealized on a shelf. The smell of horse manure is omnipresent. Several homes are made of sod, or inferior materials.

There are of course successes. No settlement existed here 10 years ago. Homes and store houses have been built according to a rectilinear street grid in the French tradition. Families are commonplace now, where five years prior only working men could be found.

Category: Downtown

Understanding St. Louis: Democratic Mayoral Primary Results - 2013

Published on Thursday, 07 March 2013 00:10

Written by Alex Ihnen

Category: Urban Living

Understanding St. Louis: City of St. Louis Primary Municipal Election - 2013

Published on Tuesday, 05 March 2013 23:52

Written by Alex Ihnen

Category: Urban Living

The Nine Network's #StayTunedSTL Talks St. Louis Mayoral Election

Published on Sunday, 03 March 2013 00:28

Written by Alex Ihnen

Hosted by KSDK's Casey Nolen, the Nine Network's Stay Tuned turned its focus to the St. Louis mayoral election this week. Stay Tuned is envisioned as a new town square community discussion featuring in-studio interviews and panel discussion infused with a heavy dose of social media (Twitter, Facebook, Google+). Aired live at 9:00 p.m. each Thursday, the show is also available via livestream and simultaneous discussions occur on Twitter using #StayTunedSTL and on Facebook. To watch my comments concering the mayoral contest offered on the show, view segments starting at 33:45 and 57:18. You can check out all the episodes here. You can also find my endorsement of Mayor Francis Slay here: Francis Slay for Mayor of St. Louis.

Category: Urban Living

Francis Slay for Mayor of St. Louis

Published on Thursday, 28 February 2013 06:57

Written by Alex Ihnen

If a mayor is to take full credit and blame for everything within the city limits over their tenure, this is likely an argument for Mayor Slay. While St. Louis has many problems, and nextSTL continues to highlight quite a few of them, the reality is that the chief executive of this city is juggling macro trends of urban disinvestment, loss of manufacturing jobs and the billion dollar subsidies of suburban growth. Without dumbing down our expectations, success in St. Louis is going to look different than success in Boston, San Francisco and elsewhere.

The list of successes in St. Louis over the past decade are numerous. Neighborhoods from Old North to Wells-Goodfellow to The Grove have experienced a resurgence. Washington Avenue, Downtown West, the Central West End, all more vibrant than a decade ago. A secure source of funding for the Metro transit agency is in place. The Peabody Opera House is open. The first new bridge across the Mississippi, which will create a new northern entrance to downtown is nearly complete. Cherokee Street is a major cultural destination. Forest Park hasn’t looked so good since 1904. The mayor didn’t make these happen single-handedly by any means, but it’s happening on his watch.

Crime continues on the mayor’s watch as well, but just shouting “crime!” at an incumbent isn’t going to cut it. Is there too much crime? Yes. Always. Is crime spiraling out of control? No. We have asked quite a number of open-ended questions about crime on this site. We’ve highlighted the incredible racial disparity in homicides, for just one example. The knee-jerk defensiveness of the mayor’s office has been unnecessary and even misleading, but a fair reading of crime trends in the city does show increases that might point to negligence or incompetence. To his credit, Slay has pushed to return local control of the city’s police department for the first time since 1861. Oddly, this has managed to make him some enemies.

Category: Urban Living