Why not close Memorial Drive?
Rick Bonasch, a planner at RHCDA who in his spare time blogs and thinks very clearly about a wide range of urban issues, sent out an email a couple of weeks ago.
His purpose was to see if a bunch of people who have a nerd-like fascination with community improvement would be interested in meeting and possibly working together on a narrow but important project:
How might a small, sharply-focused group help to improve connections between downtown and the Arch grounds and Riverfront?
On Saturday, about 16 people showed up at Landmark Association of St. Louis‘ terrific new offices in the Lammert Building on Washington Avenue.
It was a serious group made up of architects, planners, environmentalists — people who have had a real impact in making things happen in this community.
Bob Duffy at the St. Louis Beacon wrote this excellent account of what transpired (including information on how to join the group).
I would add this:
Even though they approached the question of the Arch, Arch grounds, riverfront, and their significance and potential from many angles, the participants seemed to reach genuine consensus on this point:
The scheme of streets, sidewalks, elevated and depressed highways separating downtown and the riverfront is horrible, an absolute disgrace and embarrassment to St. Louis.
Rick Bonasch
What also made the meeting invigorating was a sense that doing something significant to improve the connections might actually be within reach, and might be achievable in relatively short order with some sharp planning and help from people with influence.
The question is:
Why shouldn’t St. Louis permanently close a couple of blocks — or even just one block — of Memorial Drive?
Anyone who went to hear Barack Obama speak on the Arch grounds experienced how liberating it is to move seamlessly from Downtown to the Arch across Memorial Drive. Traffic was shut down that day.
People who understand traffic schemes pointed out that there’s plenty of capacity on downtown streets to carry traffic now handled by Memorial Drive.
Another participant at the meeting made a trenchant observation about the example of Highway 40.
People who worried and predicted chaos and intractable inconvenience, he said, were decisively wrong.
People adapted, barely breaking a sweat.
By that standard, permanently closing a couple of blocks of Memorial Drive would go all but unnoticed — except by those walking carefree to the Arch grounds.
Closing Memorial Drive would not be a final solution. But it be an impressive start with immediate benefits, and one that enables people to imagine grander possibilities.
Why shouldn’t we make that happen?
What do we need to do to make it happen?
Eddie Roth writes about education, social justice, public safety, transportation, legal affairs and historic preservation. He joined the Post-Dispatch editorial page in 2008 after six years as an editorial writer with the Dayton Daily News. But he is not new to St. Louis. Eddie grew up in Webster Groves and south St. Louis County. He's a lawyer who for many years practiced with a downtown firm, and was active in civic affairs, including serving a term on the St. Louis Police Board. He and his wife, Jeanne, and their three daughters, Emily, Julia and Alice, live in the Shaw Neighborhood.
When it comes to community organizing, he endorses Quentin Crisp's advice: Rather than keeping up with the Joneses, it's better to pull them down to your level. 
Then how do you get from Downtown onto I-55/44/64 headed south and west?
That’s the route I’ve used since they put in the highway because, quite frankly, I don’t understand that whole mess around 7th St.
I rarely go downtown, but doing that would ensure that I never do.