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MAKING CONNECTIONS
IN THE RIVER RING
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Great Rivers Greenway District, Bicyclists Adding Spokes to Wheel
By Bill Beggs Jr.
It just might be the best one-tenth of one percent we’ll ever spend.
For the last five years, that pittance of
additional sales tax has been earmarked for developing greenways, improving and connecting parks and bicycle trails in the region. Bridges are being built and refurbished. Trails are being created in St. Louis and St. Charles counties, and routes are being clearly marked on St. Louis City streets with lines and logos on the pavement and colorful, eye-catching
new signage.
But there’s been no need to reinvent the wheel, as it were.
 Metro buses are equipped with bicycle racks which increase the connectivity
to employment, residential and recreational areas throughout St. Louis. Here,
Todd Antoine, senior planner for The Great Rivers Greenway District,
demonstrates how to place a bicycle on the rack. |
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Miles of trail take advantage of former
railroad right-of-way, and in many places will share corridors with MetroLink. Dedicated bike lanes have been or will be constructed on the bridges spanning the Mississippi, Missouri and Meramec rivers. For some time now,
bicyclists and pedestrians have been able to cross from Missouri to Illinois via the historic Eads Bridge.
Momentum is building as progress continues apace in Missouri and Southwestern Illinois. Public entities and private citizens work shoulder to shoulder not only laying groundwork and asphalt, but also printing maps, planning fun, fabulous family rides... and embarking on perhaps the most labor-intensive aspect of the process: Raising public awareness. “Share the Road” isn’t second nature here as it has been for years in other metropolitan areas.
St. Louis, however, is well on the way toward becoming as conscientiously green as have former Midwestern has-beens as Indianapolis, Cleveland and Minneapolis. As for the latter, in the last 30 years Minnesota’s crown jewel has come a long way from a riverfront of abandoned railroad tracks and
crumbling buildings, once slagged as “Many-A-No-Place.”
David Fisher, executive director of The Great Rivers Greenway District, played a
similar role since the 1970s in the rebound of downtown Minneapolis. And he sees even greater potential for our region.
“I think this is the largest quality-of-life issue that has been passed anywhere in the United States for the last 50 years,” Fisher states unequivocally.
| The “River Ring Map” shows the River Ring along
the Mississippi, Missouri, Meramec and Cuivre rivers. |
| The River Ring, with more than 45 greenways identified, is designed to create as many connections as possible along the region’s rivers and streams. |
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Great Rivers Greenway District, formerly known as the Metropolitan Park and Recreation District, was established in November 2000 upon passage of the Clean Water, Safe Parks and Community Trails Initiative (Proposition C) in St. Louis City,
St. Louis County and St. Charles County. The River Ring, an interconnected system of greenways, parks and trails that will encircle the St. Louis region, eventually will be comprised of a 600-mile web of more than 45 greenways, covering an area of 1,216 square miles.
Now, even were you able to drive those 600 miles, you wouldn’t want to think about how much you’d be spending on gasoline to make the trip. With prices not likely to drop below $2 per gallon soon, if ever, perhaps even
drivers of A/C-pumping gas-guzzlers will start to realize the power of the pedal. Julie Padberg-White of Bike St. Louis would like to think so.
Padberg-White points out that a big part of pedal pushing is overcoming an “archaic
mentality” toward bicycling in our area. It’s frustrating to new residents that many roads aren’t bike-friendly, and that drivers seem to perceive bicycles as a nuisance. What’s more, in many parts of the region, it’s an unfortunate fact that “you can’t get there from here”—that is, without strapping your bike(s) on the car rack and driving to Forest Park or the Confluence Trail along the Mississippi levee in Illinois, then repeating the process for the
trip home.
But things are changing, says Padberg-White, most dramatically since last fall, when Bike St. Louis lanes went down and signs went up. Directions and mileage to attractions and destinations such as Missouri Botanical Garden or any number of city parks are clearly labeled, helping cyclists, pedestrians... and motorists. Thank-you notes from teachers and students are welcome proof that the organization’s dozens of presentations to schools have not fallen on deaf ears.
Padberg-White, whose home in Lafayette Square overlooks the park, has been delighted to see the shift for herself.
“It is so gratifying to look out my front
window and see people on the route,” she says. “And not just the people with shaved legs and jerseys,” she adds, responding to a reporter’s somewhat cynical comment. “People use it to commute.”
This isn’t unusual in Europe or scores of U.S. cities, she says. In a sense, St. Louis is a century behind (gulp) Chicago, where the bicycle was introduced to great fanfare at the Columbian Exposition in the early 1900s. Chicago embraced cycling from that point
forward and has developed to include it
as a viable mode of transportation, from infrastructure to legislation. Most important is an intangible, the mind-set that bicycles belong.
“Chicago is very ‘bike-centric’,” Padberg-White says. But the Gateway City is making progress. You could say St. Louisans are
drafting behind the Windy City, which is no big deal. Chicago and other cities have openly shared their expertise, from legal to logos. Everybody wins, and everyone can take pride in being a link in the chain.
“This is legacy stuff,” she says. “It goes to community-building, to health, to economic development.”
Todd Antoine, senior planner for The Great Rivers Greenway District, wholeheartedly agrees with the philosophy of Bike St. Louis. (Full disclosure: Bike St. Louis and The District are affiliated. “One of our fundamental principles,” says Fisher, “is to be transparent in how we do things.”) Achieving consensus... buy-in, a regional state of mind... is as important, if not more so, than the construction process itself.
| The Al Foster Trail in Wildwood provides a relaxing experience along the Meramec River. |
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“It’s more than just an asphalt trail; it’s a way of thinking,” says Antoine. “How do you engage residents so that they interact?” A beautiful, well-designed park is a great urban accomplishment, but the city achieves a
higher level of greatness if that park is easily accessible to other green spaces.
“An interconnected series of parks is important,” emphasizes Fisher, citing Cleveland’s “Emerald Necklace” as an example. The parks link one to another as though draped around the city, from the shore of Lake Erie to the west, traveling in an arc south of downtown and returning northward to the lakeshore on the east.
A decade or so ago, Cleveland was “The Mistake By The Lake,” a punchline, a gritty example of urban decay unabated. Some wondered how in the heck the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame would have chosen to locate there. Indianapolis was “The Buckle Of The Rust Belt.” And few would have imagined that Minneapolis would evolve into a progressive metropolis, a case study for urban renewal.
Greenways were the key to metamorphosis, says Fisher, illustrating via PowerPoint how prime commercial and residential development would soon surround each green
space created in downtown Minneapolis: “We were setting the stage for developers to
come back.”
And come back they did, bringing businesses and residents back to repopulate and revitalize downtown, block by block, creating neighborhoods and mixed-use developments with restaurants, retail, entertainment...
...which sounds a whole lot like the vibrant activity on Washington Avenue, Lafayette Square, Soulard and any number of bustling neighborhoods that should continue to grow and become more desirable, if skyrocketing real estate prices are any indication. But the aim of The District is regional. More than a dozen projects are under way at present. And some of the most exciting are yet to come, not the least of which is the downtown riverfront at the foot of the Gateway Arch, between the Eads and Poplar Street bridges (see sidebar).
An ambitious development slated for
completion in 2007 is the McKinley Bridge Bikeway and the Branch Street Trestle Connector. The project will convert the Illinois Traction System streetcar trestle, abandoned since 1958, into an elevated bicycle/pedestrian trail connecting to the McKinley Bridge. Cyclists will be able to ride from the Riverfront Trail and cross the Mississippi River over the McKinley Bridge between the Eads and Chain of Rocks bridges. HNTB St. Louis started design work on the project in 2003 and is slated to be completed by the summer of 2007.
Cyclists and pedestrians will have not only more points to connect to Illinois, and to St. Louis neighborhoods that had been difficult to reach, but also will be offered opportunities to connect with the region’s rich history. The trestle, in the North City district known as Produce Row, provides a glimpse into public transportation’s past: One of the world’s premier streetcar
systems operated in St. Louis. During the Civil War, an Underground Railroad way station operated nearby.
“I think this will help demystify North
St. Louis,” Antoine says. “It’s not intended to be just a recreational experience, but an interpretive experience.”
Perhaps one day metro St. Louis
residents won’t identify locations by roadway, as in outside I-270, south of “Farty-far,” north of Delmar—or, heaven forbid, the “other side” of the Poplar Street or Blanchette bridges. That is, the great rivers won’t separate us, but be better understood as our raison d’être. After all, the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri is why a trading post was established here in the mid-1700s in the first place.
“This is a way to connect people,” says Fisher. “We’re building a sense of place.”
For more information on River Ring
projects and The Great Rivers Greenway District, click on:
greatrivers.info
To find out where to ride your bicycle—and when... many communities and groups plan rides, some for families... click on: bikestlouis.org
trailnet.org
For an interactive map that shows parks and trails in both Illinois and Missouri,
click on:
bikeways.ridefinders.org
Diana Balmori is a force of nature. This stands to reason. A world-renowned landscape architect, Dr. Balmori has labored to create naturally attractive and
environmentally friendly designs for public spaces from Baltimore to Bilbao, Spain; from New York to Tokyo. Balmori is thrilled to have joined the team charged with redesigning the Downtown St. Louis riverfront.
Bicyclist Wayne White
travels along the Mississippi Riverfront on his way to the Riverfront Trail. |
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Balmori had only a few minutes to spare one recent afternoon, talking on her cell while enroute to teach a class at Yale University. Although characterized as soft-spoken, Balmori was not at a loss for words... and couldn’t have been more effusive about the Gateway Arch.
“My God, to be in sight of the Arch! Like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Arch says ‘St. Louis’ to the world,” exclaimed Balmori.* Balmori was invited to the table by the HOK Planning Group, part of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum Inc.
Although it doesn’t encompass the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial grounds, which belong to the National Park Service, the plan aims to strengthen connectivity with the Memorial, as well as historic Laclede’s Landing and the Chouteau’s Landing district. The plan focuses on the riverfront between the Eads and Poplar Street bridges, with boundaries of Biddle Street to the north, Chouteau Avenue to the south and Lenore K. Sullivan Boulevard to the west.
To the east, of course, is the mighty Mississippi, whose banks Balmori describes as nothing less than “the fourth coast of the United States.”
The yearlong planning process has designed in public sentiment and suggestions; the first of four public hearings was held June 30. The project is projected for completion in five years, Balmori says.
The Great Rivers Greenway District, a public organization, is leading the initiative and
providing the funding. Among project partners are Downtown Now!, the City of St. Louis and the National Park Service. Along with Balmori, of New York, and HOK of St. Louis, the
development team includes:
Vector Communications, St. Louis,
a public engagement and communications consulting firm. Vector will help ensure that stakeholders and the public are involved in the entire planning process, from concept through design, development and implementation.
Moffatt and Nichol, Raleigh, N.C.
The firm’s expertise, critical to riverfront
development, includes such considerations
as flood levels, variable currents and
navigation issues.
ABNA Engineering, St. Louis. ABNA will provide survey information along the riverfront.
CDG Engineers, St. Louis. CDG will work with various regulatory entities to secure necessary agency approvals and permits.
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*Turns out Diana Balmori knows a thing or two about Eero Saarinen, designer of the Gateway Arch. Among volumes she has authored, Balmori co-wrote “Saarinen House and Garden: A Total Work of Art.” Eero was son of Eliel Saarinen, the Finnish-American architect who designed a house in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., for himself—today
centerpiece of the Cranbrook Art Museum. To Eliel, life and art were inextricably bound within an architectural framework that encompassed all aspects of design. Saarinen House and its gardens were a collaborative effort of the entire Saarinen family—Eliel, architecture and furniture; wife Loja, window coverings and rugs; Eero, the
master bedroom suite; and daughter Pipsan, door designs and
vanity accessories.
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