St. Louis Riverfront / Chicago Lakefront

There's really only one place a St. Louisan would be on the 4th of July.  The best show in the city is on the Arch Grounds or Gateway Mall.  Fair St. Louis is the biggest thing happening in the region.

One year, I found myself in Chicago.

I was staying with a friend who lived right on Lake Michigan.  That night, we just walked out to the beach.  All along the shore, it seemed like the whole city of Chicago had come out to BBQ and light off their own fireworks.  The combined efforts of a million families all lighting off their own flares and sparklers had a stunning effect on the water.  All up and down the shore lights twinkled.  To the south, there was a large fireworks display at Navy Pier.  To the north, there was a similarly large display at Northwestern University.  I was on a little pier jutting out into the lake and Chicago seemed very impressive.

I'd been to Fair St. Louis annually for most of my life.  I've got VP fair volunteer shirts in all sorts of child and teenage sizes.  The name change was symbolic.  The whole city was coming together.

St. Louis doesn't have a vast lake.  There is no great sea to offer a clear line of sight to downtown and reflect its beauty.  Chicago is concave and looks in on itself.  St. Louis is convex and looks at Illinois.  The Metro-East is concave, and it does afford the best views of downtown.  No matter what St. Louis does though, it cannot have the natural geographic reality that Chicago has.  St. Louis does have a nice river.

In decades past, there has been a retreat from the Mississippi as the population of St. Louis has fled increasingly west to St. Louis County and beyond to St. Charles.

Chicago's lake is an anchor.  It holds the population of Chicago and its suburbs firmly to it. 

Chicago has the largest park system in the United States, and its most important parks are all joined to the waterfront.  Between them stretches beaches, trails, and connections that weave them together into one very large linear park.  This does contrast with the isolated parks in St. Louis.

To compare the parks shown in the images above.
Chicago,
Lincoln Park 1200 acres
Jackson Park 500 acres
Washington Park 372 acres
Grant Park 319 acres

St. Louis,
Forest Park 1293 acres
Jefferson Barracks 426 acres
Tower Grove Park 289 acres
Carondelet Park 179 acres
Arch Grounds 91 acres

St. Louis would be a very different place if Forest Park was along the river and not near the city limits.  As it stands, Clayton's city hall is closer to Forest Park than St. Louis' city hall.  As outlined in many publications, parks are very good investments for cities and have a large economic impact. 

Parks in St. Louis are not connected by beautiful greenways at this moment.  In some cases there are treeless concrete paths away from traffic, but in most cases, one must walk or bike through urban and industrial areas. 

There is a plan to connect the park network.

The River Ring concept is funded by St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and St. Charles County and encompasses a vast area.  The St. Louis Riverfront is being addressed, but slowly.  There is a wonderful, and largely treeless, riverfront trail from the arch grounds to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in the Confluence Greenway.  Every year it gets a little more art and amenities.



The priority at this time is certainly to connect what few parks there are along the Mississippi River with one trail.  Beyond that though, it will be important to make sure the city can connect to the greenway in as many places as possible.  On a nice day, the citizens of Chicago can just walk to any point on their lakefront and have a nice picnic.  In St. Louis, the waterfront options are more limited.

It is important that projects like the Iron Horse Trestle and Gateway Mall exist.  A succcessful riverfront needs a network of roots to draw people to it, and the Trestle is an outstanding piece of infrastructure.

St. Louis has a deep history in river industries and river culture.  We shouldn't build houses in floodplains, but we should enjoy the river.

See the Trestle on KETC.  They talk about it about 8 minutes into the video.