The date Oct. 28, 2015 is starting to look like a millstone, not just a milestone, for downtown St. Louis.
That will be the 50th anniversary of the topping of the Gateway Arch, the national treasure signaling America's westward expansion that has become emblematic of St. Louis.
By that date, an incredibly vast coalition of civic, business and government leaders hopes to be mostly finished with a remaking of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial that will integrate this important national park with a city in need of some revival.
Wednesday night, these leaders unveiled how that vision is coming together. The new park will be more active, accessible and practical. It will connect to downtown and Laclede's Landing. Gone will be the barrier of Interstate 70, which makes the monument an island between the grand Mississippi River and the fastest route out of the city.
The new design is an invitation to stay.
To a city in need of good news, the fact that the CityArchRiver 2015 project has obtained the necessary funding to put a park-like earthen and concrete "lid" over the interstate, connecting the Arch in a meaningful way with the Old Courthouse, Kiener Plaza, CityGarden and the rest of downtown, can't be understated. That the money for that $57 million part of the entire $553 project is in hand is more significant than any arbitrary deadline.
The optimistic and hard-working leaders behind the project put themselves in an impossible public relations box by tying their ambitions plans to a specific date. They might not make it. The effort is far more important than the calendar.
Good things are happening in the meantime.
Tuesday, for instance, began with four St. Louis businessmen announcing a new $2 million national competition called Arch Grants (there's that emblem again) to entice budding entrepreneurs to bring their business ideas to the Gateway City (and again).
Later that afternoon, St. Louis University announced that it was relocating its law school from its midtown campus to a donated building at 100 N. Tucker Blvd.
Starting next fall, 1,100 young people, law professors and staff will reinvigorate downtown. Those people will need to eat and park, live and entertain, sleep and study.
Over the next three years, many of them may steal an hour or so to walk 10 blocks east and watch a national treasure become revitalized.
Downtown St. Louis, the heart of the region that is the economic engine of the state, is remaking itself.
For all the recent disappointments in the city — being cast aside by the Missouri Legislature, seeing promises like Ballpark Village unfulfilled, with doubts wafting about the future of the St. Louis Rams — there is a strong heartbeat throbbing in downtown St. Louis.
It starts at the Arch and pulses west to Tucker Boulevard. It reverberates as nearly a thousand students pound the law books. It's heard in the thriving Washington Avenue loft and entertainment district and in the roar of the heavy equipment erecting the new Mississippi River bridge.
Forget about Oct. 28, 2015. That date is just an anniversary. The future is a process. St. Louis' future is now.
