{image from The World of Blairmont and Eco-Absence}
Michael Allen over at Eco-Absence has been on the trail of Blairmont and associated companies for some time. Well today the plan was offered to select attendees at meeting on the North Side. The press wasn’t allowed and even Steve Patterson of Urban Review STL was asked to leave as a member of the press. Well, well, bloggers have come a long way huh?
So what’s on the table?
- $400M TIF
- Mixed infill residential with commercial centers
- 22,000 permanet jobs and up to 43,000 temporary jobs mostly in construction
- Commercial centers located near 22nd street & I-64, Jefferson & Cass, Jefferson & Natural Bridge, and the new I-70 bridge terminus.
- Light rail and the requisite bike lanes
- Preservation of existing historic buildings
So what’s missing? Just developers and financing, that’s all. It appears as though McKee will be asking for concessions from just about everyone and I’m not sure that people are clamoring for development on the north side enough to give him carte blanche. This is just the first word, but it appears that the potential $400M TIF will be up for a vote as early as this coming Friday. This would be before any “public” meeting takes place. If for this reason alone it should be voted down or tabled for further discussion. But there are other reason’s as well including opposition to TIF’s and the fear that current city neighborhoods would lose out to growth on the north side. It’s an open question as to where new north side residents would come from. The area is so stigmatized in the St. Louis region that one would think new residents would be needed and while the metro population continues to climb steadily, there’s simply no indication that people are flocking to St. Louis. However, we all want more residents in the City of St. Louis and neither I nor anyone, save Paul McKee, has a plan that has the ambition to take a great leap.
