South County Connector / Cheonggye Highway

There was once a highway through the middle of Seoul, and it was called Cheonggye after the stream that once flowed there.

It was a huge highway that connected different parts of the central core.  It was needed.  It was used.  It was... actually a huge wall cutting Jongno in half.  It was dirty, loud, and promoted the wrong kind of transportation.

So why is this man laughing?

As mayor of Seoul, he ripped out the highway and replaced it with a simulacra of the stream that traditionally flowed there.  It was an international success.  It made him president of South Korea.  It gave him the nickname, "Cheonggyecheon Lee Myung-Bak."  It made his career.

Now that stream is one of the most important strolling and gathering places in the city.

The success with Cheonggyecheon triggered an unstoppable program of daylighting streams throughout the country, a reinvestment in the Han River, better bike paths, more community spaces, and better air quality.



Once upon a time, there was a river in St. Louis called the River Des Peres.  It was used as a toilet.  The region dumped all its sewage into it and grew to hate its smell.  They buried it and added a concrete drainage ditch on top of it.  It flooded every so often.  It dumped raw sewage into the Mississippi. 

Yet, nature cracked the old concrete, something like a natural stream slowly began to emerge, citizens began to care about the watershed, a bike trail was added to the side of it, and a new future seemed possible.

It is still a far cry from Seoul's Yangjaecheon,

but it could be argued that the River Des Peres has been on its way back to a natural state... ever so slowly.

Now this,

I-170 never made it south of I-64, but people have been planning to finish it for years.  They will make Hanley into a highway and then hop it right onto the River Des Peres.  It will be called the South County Connector and be Cheonggecheon in reverse.  We will further destroy an already badly damaged waterway, and we'll put a highway on top of it.

Seoul and South Korea are moving forward.

St. Louis is conspiring to undermine itself.  While the urbanists of other cities push progressive projects, urbanists in St. Louis must spend their time fighting destructive projects.  One moment we're shutting down a casino downtown to build a new one in a wetlands conservation area, the next we're trying to cover up a river with a highway. 

Get to the public meeting tonight and speak your mind.
"The meeting runs from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Affton White-Rodgers Community Center on 9801 MacKenzie Road."