St. Louis by car, train and foot

Want to talk about your favorite places besides Kansas City? Post any development news or questions about other cities here.
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flyingember
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St. Louis by car, train and foot

Post by flyingember »

Took a kid trip to St. Louis over Memorial day

A smart thing would be to extend the loop trolley into Forest Park to get to a selection of the major destinations and connect it to the community college at the park. this would be a great park to reduce the reliance on endless curbside parking. There's a bus loop right now for this same service.

didn't get to really see the loop trolley construction but unlike KC, they have the construction corridor as local service. I did forget how dead the east loop is and how excessively commercialized the west loop is. completely different than KC's line.

The current thoughts for the Olive St streetcar makes a lot of sense now that I've seen the corridor again. It's perfect for a streetcar. way more potential than KC's line has for new development.

the new Ikea looks like KC's from the outside. it's blue and yellow.

The arch is a huge pain to get to right now. just went to get close, didn't go up it. there's no access from the train on the east end. yet there was still an endless stream of people walking the 100% pedestrian safe detour route. that's hundreds of people walking to it because there's no parking at it right now.

the renovations at the 6th and Washington shopping mall are great. saw an article later they moved the entrance to all the stores to the street. got off the train, walked upstairs and the entrance to a pizza place was right there.

nearly every downtown sidewalk space with sidewalk seating had people using it. this works amazingly to make an area feel inviting, way more than I expected. compare that to the huge empty parking lots of Ballpark Village.

We went to two restaurants in the Central West End different days with sidewalk space and we used it at one. they both had trees shading the space so it was nice to use.

KC's science center is better than St. Louis', but theirs is free and parking costs at both.

I like The Nelson more than the St. Louis Art Museum overall, mostly because I'm a fan of KC's ancient history collection more than European renaissance art.
KC's new art wing is way better than StL's. It felt like a lazy expansion for an art museum. But can't complain about free entry.

St. Louis has way worse streets than KC. They are painting bike lanes on corridors that are horrible to drive on. I saw one super short green painted section near Washington University.
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warwickland
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Re: St. Louis by car, train and foot

Post by warwickland »

I was in KC over memorial day! When I was there, I wondered why I don't spend more of my weekend dollars in-state - like in KC!

I was downtown St. Louis yesterday and noticed the streets, but they are also paving the entire length of a few streets downtown, currently. The streets in Clayton are atrocious too, which is insane, worse than the St. Louis side of Skinker around that area (where I live). Actually, the streets in the areas I frequent/live in the city are superior to the inner county, overall. It seems like they just kind of dawdle with the streets in the county wheras they knock entire areas out in the city at once.

Speaking of bikes and pedestrians...

They are currently repaving Oakland near my house, combined with a huge upgrade to the clusterf**** intersection at Hi-Pointe by the theatre and the Cheshire.

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After they upgrade the pedestrian crossings and add the connector bike bath there that's going to be a great family friendly (or no kids) base of operations - stay at the Cheshire with the pool (and 3 restaurants and starbucks), and walk to Forest Park, DeMun restaurant strip, the Hi-Pointe 1920s movie house (they just added a screen), and Dogtown. I've actually done this as a stay-cation and it's a chill area (and my neighborhood). It's sort of off the radar....if you are wondering what I am talking about, here's the icon of the area:

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yelp.com

If you have a bike with you, you can ride from the Cheshire to the CWE, Loop, etc, on bike paths through Forest Park or down Yale Ave (which is a very low traffic boulevard) to downtown Maplewood, or up Wydown in Clayton. It's hard to beat that location for a bike vacation.
Image planning.org

You can of course easily ride to downtown Dogtown, too, which has a new(ish) brewery and stuff.
flyingember
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Re: St. Louis by car, train and foot

Post by flyingember »

I saw that huge sign. drove by it a couple times.
chingon
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Re: St. Louis by car, train and foot

Post by chingon »

Nice. Still my favorite part of StL (which is unsurprisingly, given that its the most 'Kansas City-ish" part. We stay at the Cheshire probably one out of every 2 times we are in StL.
flyingember
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Re: St. Louis by car, train and foot

Post by flyingember »

I like the area around Tower Grove Park the best
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warwickland
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Re: St. Louis by car, train and foot

Post by warwickland »

chingon wrote:Nice. Still my favorite part of StL (which is unsurprisingly, given that its the most 'Kansas City-ish" part. We stay at the Cheshire probably one out of every 2 times we are in StL.
it's def not really the kind of area/vibe people think of when they think of st. louis. i sort of "ignore" the city limits and cross mccausland/skinker and betwixt maplewood/richmond heights/se clayton/st. louis without any thoughts to the municipal and county/city divide. places like the southwest diner (on southwest) feel weirdly like a portal to kansas city. clifton heights on up the hill is almost sort of like a lost neighborhood of kc.

i hang out at the cheshire and drink beer at the pool on sunday mornings, sometimes. :D in the winter, hanging out by one of the fireplaces at the cheshire/fox and hound after spending time in forest park is pretty devine.

i'll probably end up buying a house in maplewood or richmond heights close to the SW corner of forest park. the accessibilty of the area to the rest of the county and city can't be beat, either.
flyingember wrote:I like the area around Tower Grove Park the best
excellent area, too. it's built a bit more "heavy duty" down there. this sounds weird, but i always marvel at the wide sidewalks in areas like tower grove east, and how the landscape is perfectly graded and the built environment is so rock solid. i definitely use the heck out of forest park, though. i wish dogtown was built like tower grove east.
Louman
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Re: St. Louis by car, train and foot

Post by Louman »

flyingember wrote: KC's new art wing is way better than StL's. It felt like a lazy expansion for an art museum. But can't complain about free entry.
The building was not designed to be flashy purposefully. It's minimalist.

It has been described as ‘quiet and reserved’ by an arts publication.

SLAM's new East Wing, designed by famed British architect David Chipperfield, was designed so that it would not compete with the existing historic Cass Gilbert building, which was the Palace of Fine Arts from the 1904 World's Fair.

The new East Wing was also designed so that when its looked upon from the Grand Basin it fades into the background and you hardly notice that it's there allowing the integrity of the Gilbert Cass to remain.

The architectural landscaping also assists with masking the annex out of respect for the Cass Gilbert.

The annex was $165-million, which added 200,000 square feet. The annex is huge, yet it doesn't look like it.

Read: Architectural Record: Between The Lines

Read: Wall Street Journal, The Virtues of Restraint

Read: Wall Street Journal, Where Austerity Becomes Charm

Read: Denver Post, Best architecture of 2013

See video here.

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