I got a question for you. What does this city know about discovery, hmm? What does a town that's been to hell and back know about the unknown? Well, I'll tell you. More than most. This is the Gateway City and this is what we do.

The Chrysler Super Bowl add "Imported from Detroit" sold the Chrysler 200 by selling city. Could St. Louis be used in the same way? (If you haven't seen the ad, watch it below). For decades Anheuser-Busch featured St. Louis. Of course it's no longer a St. Louis company, but then again, Chrysler is on its way to being 51% owned by Italian car maker Fiat (Fiat's apparently considered moving their headquarters from Turin to Detroit, for what it's worth). Budweiser had some real American cache; seems doubtful that shoes, dog food, batteries or genetically modified corn seed could do the same.

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Be informed. Be engaged. Be part of what's next.

urbanSTL is now nextSTL. Why? The change highlights a necessary expansion of the original site's vision. More than an online forum, more than a blog, more than "urban" issues, nextSTL is about what's next for St. Louis. What's next for Ballpark Village? What's next for transit in St. Louis? What's next for NorthSide? What's next for the vacant lot at Lafayette and Oregon?

So what's new? nextSTL will feature a new collection of writers, some having their own established websites, some new to the online community. Discussing topics as varied and essential to the future of Saint Louis as economic growth, quality of life, perception and history, and education, a wide variety of topics will be featured. Guest features and op-eds will be featured from time to time as well.

Neighborhood guides featuring nearly 100 photos of each of the City of St. Louis' 79 neighborhoods will be a prominent feature on the homepage. In collaboration with writer Mark Groth and his incomparable “Groth Guides” nextSTL will revamp existing guides, adding proposed developments and additional information. Mark's begged out of doing the same for the 91 municipalities in St. Louis County, but we're working on it.

Perhaps the greatest shortcoming of this robust online community has been the challenge of moving the discussion off-line and in the city we love. nextSTL will be highlighting opportunities to be engaged in community events in the new nextSTL calendar. The excellent monthly City Affair events will have dedicated threads in the forum, fostering discussion leading to the event and continuing after. And in case you miss something, more events will be covered by nextSTL writers.

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It was a big year for urbanSTL. The oldest urban news and issues website and forum in St. Louis was revitalized. The forum, which had been neglected for some time, received a modern makeover. With the IT infrastructure in place, we were free to focus on covering timely topics, exploring new options for St. Louis and seeing what we could learn about our city. There's more to come, but here's the countdown of our most popular posts of 2010 by number of reads. In all, six of the top 10 stories were related to design reviews of the Arch grounds competition. They're excluded from this list, but can all be found on the Arch competition page.

10. What Does an Interstate Removal Study Look Like?

  9. Armstrong Wins Jefferson Memorial Competition, Runner-up Saarinen’s Arch Deemed High-risk

  8. New Shriners Hospital in St. Louis City Closer to Reality, Project Team Shares Images, Thoughts on Project

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If you're reading this, you should read Colin Gordon's Mapping Decline. If you aren't inclined to read much more than a blog post, like pictures more than words, or don't have the $66 for the book, but rarely turn down the opportunity to waste an hour (or more) online, click the image above and get the visually striking images from Gordon's research. Also be sure to check the "documents" box  and learn even more.