Musings from Brian J. Noggle: Urban Planning Yields Its Fruit

Urban Planning Yields Its Fruit

When "team of architects, urban designers and engineers charged with making the city's downtown shoreline more than just the space underneath the Gateway Arch" get together to spend the public's money, you know the result is going to be absurd:

"The theme of the design is really to put the people in contact with the river," said Diana Balmori, a New York-based landscape artist who led the design project. "As much contact as possible."

Her design certainly provides that - any more contact with the river would require a snorkel.

The vision is to have the riverfront extend into the river itself onto two groups of floating islands that reach into the water like a pair of giant butterfly wings. The islands, which would be connected by floating bridges, would feature walking paths, bike trails and even a swimming pool that would be converted to an ice skating rink in the winter.

Purple, green, red and yellow lights could illuminate the islands, with both island groups shaped in a curve mimicking the Arch. Eero Saarinen's monument would then be literally and figuratively reflected in the river.

The hope, Balmori says, is to bring people back to the river that played a defining role in shaping what St. Louis is today.

Balmoni said that whenever people find themselves surrounded by water, it's "magical."

Of course, the defining role the river played and the contact people had was industrial and logistical. Loading barges, unloading barges, and acting as a hub for agricultural and manufactured goods as they came into or left the middle of the country.

But urban planners who concoct revitalization plans around entertainment venues, sports teams, and shimmering parks on the hill might not know why these things continue to fail to revitalize urban centers. Perhaps they instinctively create money-wastrels that will fail, as their continued struggle against urban decay does keep the money flowing into the teams, the commissions, and the districts from which they draw their own paychecks.

You want to revitalize downtown St. Louis? Remove onerous restrictions on business, reduce taxation, and rebuild the infrastructure. You know, smooth streets, better fire and police and fire protection, and the other things only government can provide. But the governors, too, know that they don't get as many contributions from individual citizens as they do from the unelected Elect, nor do they receive luxury boxes and buffets for schools that maintain accreditation without a revolving door of administrators.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:16 PM