Downtown St. Louis residents, along with business leaders and other stakeholders, are launching an effort to solve problems plaguing the city鈥檚 core.
Citizens for a Greater Downtown St. Louis aims to tackle long-standing issues such as infrastructure, property upkeep and crime, and some members have already met with Mayor Lyda Krewson.
As a result, the city shut down Eads Bridge to prevent drag racing, but the group says more action is needed. Arnold Stricker, of Citizens for a Greater Downtown St. Louis and a Downtown West resident, recently spoke with 漏 2024 外网天堂鈥檚 Wayne Pratt.
Wayne Pratt: This is an organization concerned about the future of downtown St. Louis and that wants to make it safe. What鈥檚 the strategy to go about doing that?
Arnold Stricker: There are some key practices that we would like to see; management, some leadership structure that facilitates those individuals out in the community who have some ideas. And then the governance of how that鈥檚 going to come about.
Pratt: I think when most people think downtown, the first thing that may come to mind is safety, especially at night. Is that priority one for this organization or am I off base?
Stricker: That is a critical thing. When people come down at night for ballgames, which we really haven鈥檛 had. But when they come downtown or they go anywhere, they want to know that they鈥檙e safe. And the atmosphere prior to COVID was a little testy, and things were not being tightened up like we felt that they could be or should be. And they鈥檝e been exacerbated, really, by COVID.
Pratt: How safe do you feel downtown?
Stricker: I feel safe. I don鈥檛 go out late at night when a lot of the craziness is happening. I know there鈥檚 other individuals who have different schedules, and they do different things.
We鈥檙e going to have a Zoom Town Hall meeting on September the 15th from 7 o鈥檆lock to 8:30. And at that time discuss some of the solutions that we have been talking about within our group and then really solicit some input from the individuals who are in the downtown area. They鈥檙e the ones who live, play, invest in and work in downtown. And we want to hear from those people what they think should be done.
We would like to see a total area-wide organized effort, all hands on deck, to solve these issues. We鈥檙e talking about problem properties, synchronization of traffic lights and paving of streets. So everybody really needs to step up and be involved in these solutions.
Pratt: Are the barricades at Eads Bridge a start?
Stricker: It is a temporary solution, and so we鈥檙e looking for some long-term strategies. That may be one portion of that. How long is that going to last? How long can that last? That detracts a lot of people from coming over from Illinois, but at the same time, it prevents people from St. Louis going over to Illinois. And it鈥檚 not the best solution for the long term.
Pratt: Have there been conversations with other urban centers that may have revitalized their downtown?
Stricker: That鈥檚 a great question. One of the things we would like to focus on and we have been focusing on in our group, the best practices that are going on.
How have things worked in other cities? I don鈥檛 think you can necessarily transplant what happens in one city to another verbatim and identically and expect some of the same results. I think you have to adapt some of these situations to your particular area. That鈥檚 one thing that we are actively looking at.
Pratt: Is there a timeline when you would like to see results?
Stricker: We鈥檇 like to see results today. But that鈥檚 not going to happen. It鈥檚 something where people have to be engaged, who live, work and play and invest in downtown.
The entire city government needs to invest in this particular solution of how can we make downtown a safer place. How can it be more secure? How can we take care of our infrastructure? How can we plan things out in our public spaces that are better? Can we get some better economic development going on with all of that? Everybody needs to participate, and it鈥檚 a very long-term process.
This didn鈥檛 happen overnight, and it鈥檚 not gonna be solved overnight.
Follow Wayne on Twitter:
