One, I’m not surprised that things didn’t work out. I’m guessing that Centene was using the “announcement” for leverage to get a deal done in Clayton. Two, the short-term “solution” is pretty obvious - make the site flat, pave it, and when the All-Star Game rolls around, it will be the perfect place to put up all the big white tents for all the private parties and the All-Star Fan Fest. The rest of the time, it’ll just be more, convenient parking. And three, eventually our dreams and the market will merge, and what can be built will be built . . .

Laclede Town, Plaza Square, City Center, The Landing, Savis Center to refurbish Keil Opera House, Ball Park Village, TWA, AA abandoning STL as a hub, Southwest Bell moving to Texas, McDonnel bought by Boeing, horrible schools… Just throw this on the pile of failures that makes St Louis a smaller and smaller village. Can’t we get some LEADERSHIP in this town?? Look at any national weather report - - ST Louis ISN’T ON THE MAP!! Nobody cares about weather in a city that doesn’t have an airport or a downtown. Let’s face it, St Louis is moving backwards. Every 5 years or so a bunch of suits will propose some grand scheme to revitalize downtown, all they need is the citizens to pony up some land or higher taxes or whateever and life will be beautiful and Scruggs and Stix will return to downtown and we’ll be back in the 1940’s where we dream to be. When will we stop drinking this Kool Aid? We had a beautiful ball park and tore it down because??? When will we learn??

I believe that St. Louis should copy the great success another city has had. Former Governor of California Jerry Brown loved the City of Oakland and hated to see it crumble. Oakland was in a tough spot because it was competing with the world class cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. In a very unselfish (and unpretentious) act, former Gov. Brown ran for Mayor of Oakland, which is quite a demotion from being Governor. Since becoming Mayor of Oakland, the improvements are nothing short of astonishing. I believe that a former US Senator, (for example), or someone else with extraordinary experience should run for Mayor of St. Louis, even though it will be less prestigious than a former position. I am sure there are many individuals that love St. Louis and are dismayed at what is has become. I believe jobs downtown are much more important than housing downtown. It is not an accomplishment when an employer leaves downtown along with hundreds or thousands of jobs, even if the building is converted into a couple hundred apartments. Think of the possibilities: Someone to heal the hurt felt by the African American community because of lack of respect, someone to address the job killing tax on wages, someone who understands that when you give tremendous tax breaks to a new hotel or apartment house that in the process you are bankrupting competing hotels and apartment houses that have been paying full taxes forever, someone who sheds St. Louis’s reputation as being insular, someone who is chief of staff to the Mayor that does not insult those that disagree with the Administration, someone who is deputy mayor for development that has real big time development experience, someone who says it is a new day, that St. Louis will no longer use eminent domain to benefit the developers that hire the right law firm to represent them, someone who assures the taxpayers that when the City enters into a redevelopment agreement, that it is not intentionally loaded with loopholes that allow the developers to do nothing or to change the redevelopment agreement over and over again, once the developer has got what he wants upfront. Let’s see if anyone with a small ego who loves St. Louis steps up.

Centene’s withdrew from the project, and that means that Centene will not be a part of it. Nothing more. There’s a showcase project that will ultimately be built on that ballpark site, and we need to exercise patience until it gets done. Thomas Edison said that our greatest weakness lies in giving up…that the most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time…..like failing 19 times and succeeding on the 20th!

Let’s be optimistic.

#111 - You’ve got heart but you’re dreaming. Everyone who is talking MERGE is dreaming. Why would the County want to have anything to do with the City? County knows that their job would be to pick of the pieces, clean up the mess that the City made. Why should County be penalized because City F’d up? I heard a story on the news a few weeks back….40 police officers have been assigned to try to crack down on car thefts downtown. I cannot tell you how much this boiled my blood. I’ve lived in STL for a decade, but the City only 4 years. In that time, I have never had an officer pay one lick of attention to me - not when I file a theft report, not when I call 911 hearing gun shots….nothing! We all know how “stretched thin” the force is. Maybe they just keep telling us that so we won’t expect too much. So when I heard 40 officers for downtown car thefts, I was livid. Soulard (my home), Benton & Fox Parks have had this problem consistently for years and years and nothing has ever been done about it. But when the rich kids from the suburbs had their downtown loft bought for them by daddy, and their Audis & BMWs got stolen, the cops all the sudden decided to take action. I’ve payed 1% of my salary for 4 years and have had to get my car fixed 3 times due to vandalism and nobody is helping me. My alderwoman told me that I have ONE (yes, 1!!!) officer assigned to my neighborhood. Excuse me, but 1 officer in Soulard (which is once again the ghetto after a short-lived revitalized period) is just not enough for any of us to feel safe at night. STL has always and will always have its priorities completely backward. It’s embarrassing.

Its a joke and has been from the start. Two year?!?! Two years…of looking at a fenced in muddy hole in the ground in the middle of downtown!! Someone should be held accountable…and obviously that isn’t happening.

As Bernie Miklasz proposed….just fill in the d**n hole and lay some nice sod…let fans hang out there before and after games. During the week downtown workers can sit out there and eat lunch. Kids can bring their gloves, ball and bat and shag flies…whatever.

Its really going to look ridiculous and embarrassing if this is still the state of affairs come the All-Star game in 09. I’m the biggest baseball fan of them all and think the All-Star game here would be awesome. However maybe the only way to get something done would be for the Selig to pull the All-Star game from here until something gets done. Perhaps that might motivate the “powers that be” to start moving on this.

And another thing.

Isn’t open standing shallow water a health risk?? Especially located in downtown of a major city. Think of all the mosquitos and what not swarming around their during the summer. We aren’t too far removed from the whole West Nile thing.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…I really wish we had old Busch stadium back. Especially since the Cardinals “cheaped out” on a lot of aspects of the new park. Take a look at the initially renderings of the new stadium before it was built and you’ll see what I’m talking about. However that is a debate for another time.

I know that a lot of people really like the city. The fact is that it’s getting harder to find anyone that wants to move there. It seems that a good number of people on here knew that it was not going to materalize from the beginning. The Cardinals have until 2011 to get something done and then they start paying.

#135 Your from the old school of thought, You see I’m young and progressive and an urban planning major. As long as the city and county are working as separate entities don’t expect anything progressive to get done. Only an idiot would think that a separate county and city is a good thing and sadly there is a lot of those in this area. If the city core is rotten then the whole apple goes bad and I think we are starting to see these divisions show there ugly heads now. We’ve been trucking along at a slow pace for the last 50 years, but eventually St. Louis will begin to hurt itself because we are not a cohesive regions. The true to life fact is that St. Louis County cannot survive without the city, and St. Louis city cannot survive without the County. We need to work together to get rid of all these damn politicians, because corrupt politicians run the city and county.

I so disgusted at seeing 1% of my salary WASTED every year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!