Changes At The Arch

Last summer, I asked three community leaders, Bob Archibald, Walter Metcalfe, and Peter Raven, to outline a path to get us to a world-class riverfront. Their suggestions — changes to the Arch grounds inspired by the best designers, a three-block connector over the depressed lanes of I-70 and Memorial Drive, creation of an independent regional trust to pay for changes, and better programming of activities along the riverfront — are good ones. And hundreds of you have sent enthusiastic comments, letters, or emails offering refinements to those suggestions.

Today, the National Park Service will announce that it has listened to what we had to say here in St. Louis about the condition of the riverfront and its lack of access to downtown — and that they will be asking for your comments this summer.

I want to express my thanks to them for this decision (and to the Danforth Foundation for helping get to this important point) and my own very strong hope that St. Louisans will come out in significant numbers this summer to talk to the NPS at its public hearings.

Without your enthusiastic support for change, nothing will.