Indianapolis has the best city flag in America.
The flag of St. Louis uses the idea of a French coin at the confluence of two rivers to suggest a meeting of ideas, people, and commerce. The Missouri-Mississippi confluence is north of St. Louis though, so the flag has more of a regional appeal. It has no anchor in the city.
The flag of Indianapolis however, reinforces the idea of the 'Crossroads of America' while conveying an absolute sense of place. It doesn't connect people to a vague sense of the Indianapolis metro area. It connects them to downtown. The flag is downtown Indianapolis.
Monument Circle is the center of Indianapolis.
St. Louisans have a much grander monument downtown (the arch) that reinforces the 'Gateway City' moniker, but that's not the point of comparison here. As the 2010 Census showed, downtown St. Louis and the central corridor are doing ok, but other areas of the city are slipping away. What was once the fourth largest city in the United States has slipped back to its 1880 population. We are gaining in the center and losing the edges. We have other monuments that need to be rallied around.
St. Louis has three historic standpipe water towers along Grand Avenue and all three are accessible by the best bus route in town. They're beautiful, iconic observation towers that are closed to the public and falling apart. Compton Hill Tower, in South City, had a $19 million-dollar restoration, but is still only open to the public one Saturday a month for lack of money and volunteers. The other two have collapsed stairways, rusted insides, and decaying outsides.
These other two are in the College Hill neighborhood, or Bissell Point.
They're both right next to each other and should be major city landmarks. Instead, they, like the College Hill neighborhood are a bit forgotten about.
This beautiful white column in 1957 with its street car wires and open shops now looks like this today,
Some buildings are gone, others are boarded up, and new ones were never built. The Grand Water Tower that was once white now looks like this,
Walking up 20th Street from O'Fallon Park, it shines like a beacon of neglect, abandonment, and poverty. What should be a city or national landmark bringing the neighborhood together is instead a representative example of the north side's disinvestment.
It should be restored. Columns are meant to bear weight, and this one ought to hold up a whole neighborhood.
The idea of the Broken Windows theory is one of perception. Places that look abandoned are abandoned. Places that looked cherished and loved, are.
Stealing an idea from Indianapolis, the street grid could be made into a powerful neighborhood image.
These other two are in the College Hill neighborhood, or Bissell Point.
They're both right next to each other and should be major city landmarks. Instead, they, like the College Hill neighborhood are a bit forgotten about.
This beautiful white column in 1957 with its street car wires and open shops now looks like this today,
Some buildings are gone, others are boarded up, and new ones were never built. The Grand Water Tower that was once white now looks like this,
Walking up 20th Street from O'Fallon Park, it shines like a beacon of neglect, abandonment, and poverty. What should be a city or national landmark bringing the neighborhood together is instead a representative example of the north side's disinvestment.
It should be restored. Columns are meant to bear weight, and this one ought to hold up a whole neighborhood.
The idea of the Broken Windows theory is one of perception. Places that look abandoned are abandoned. Places that looked cherished and loved, are.
Stealing an idea from Indianapolis, the street grid could be made into a powerful neighborhood image.
I agree completely. We are so lucky to still have these monuments standing. And Monument Circle in Indy is a success story worth paying attention to.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything.... but it looks like everyone in Indianapolis is moving away from its core:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.indystar.com/article/99999999/NEWS/110210014/Census-2010-Counting-America&template=interactive2
I would say St. Louis did better then them in the core... So what happened there?
Indy is the only major city in a state that has more people than Missouri. It also has a strong central government. Indy's downtown is much better anchored than ours. With the cultural trail and other positive trends, I don't think downtown Indianapolis is failing yet.
ReplyDeletewatertower landmarks are awesome but, what about something a little more culturally significant on the banners? couldn't it really aid in celebrating the excellence (or former excellence-where applicable) of these neighborhoods. the grid banner idea is a great start... what about incorporating the wonderful history of these neighborhoods via photos placed in the blocks in between the grid of streets? the history is there... and so is the technology!
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Since posting that I've been walking around looking at a lot of neighborhood banners. Mobots colorful climatron image is pretty great. Full color pictures of the towers could look amazing. Regarding the college hill neighborhood, I don't think any other landmarks are as appropriate. It isn't that big of a neighborhood and a lot of the buildings are boarded up or torn down. The point is that these are city landmarks and deserve recognition as such. Once recognized the can then distinguish one neighborhood from the rest of the north side.
ReplyDeleteIf you send me alternate banner images, I will happily publish them.
I love the Saint Louis flag and I personally think it's the greatest city flag in all of the United States. I love the colours and especially the fleur de lys, the symbol of the Kingdom of France by whom we were rightly founded. It's a beautiful flag and much prettier than the one of Indianapolis. If Saint Louis wants to succeed in the future, it must look to its past heritage and understand why it made itself so great in such a short period. The key is transportation, trade, and an open yet sofisticated society. It must remember it's Catholic roots and that it was once called "Rome of the West" for a reason. We must be proud of our heritage and history, but we cannot stay and simply reminisce about the past. We must go forward with these ideas. We must be true to classical, gothic, romanesque, and victorian architecture. We must be true to our European roots and put all of our streets in French. We should have the French language taught as mandatory in every Saint Louis school. We should have our own anthem in both French and English. This is the beginning of a new heritage! Vive la Saint-Louis!
ReplyDeleteYeah, except we were barely French. We were Spanish territory two years before our founding and only briefly French before being sold to the Americans. The only French streets that we had were renamed are now the numbered streets downtown.
ReplyDelete