A cyclist heads west on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Avenue at N. Grand Boulevard, after removing his bike from a Metro bus on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. The roadways are proposed to be part of the Brickline Greenway, a series of walking and biking trails in north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ that would connect other parts of the Great Rivers Greenway. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
ST. LOUIS — Throngs of pedestrians who once strolled sidewalks and thoroughfares here gave way long ago to automobiles, stoplights and potholes. But a lofty $245 million plan to build a trail network connecting four important parks in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ aims to change all of that.
Regional trail district Great Rivers Greenway is proposing the Brickline, a roughly 10-mile stretch of bike and walking paths that would connect Fairground Park in the north to Tower Grove Park in the south, and Forest Park to the Gateway Arch. District leaders say the Brickline will improve safety, help break down racial barriers and bring economic development along the paths.
would run past organizations like the Boys & Girls Club of Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ on North Grand Avenue, and the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency at Jefferson and Cass avenues, as well as connect to the new Major League Soccer stadium and City Foundry STL, the Midtown entertainment district.
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Across the street from a Dollar General store where clerk Robert Woods was shot and killed in 2018, Kennisha Harris takes her children Harrison, 5 and Khori, 7, roller skating at Fairground Park on N. Grand Boulevard on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. Though the Harris family doesn't live in the neighborhood, Kennisha likes to expose her kids to the 'skate culture', listening to Albert 'Albizness' Jacobs as DJ for a 'Hump Day Skate'. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
It’s an ambitious plan for a region long criticized for being big on promises but short on delivery. Great Rivers Greenway, known as GRG, still has to finish designs in addition to fully funding the Brickline. And perhaps its biggest hurdle will be persuading enough of the region’s residents to travel to a part of town that receives more attention for homicides than for cycling.
But regional leaders say it will transform sections of the city, entice younger workers and entrepreneurs to move here, and perhaps even land CEOs and larger companies. City officials tout the Brickline’s potential to connect historically white and Black neighborhoods, and, maybe, break down long-standing barriers. Its designers say the greenway, which will be positioned along the most widely used bus line, will provide residents more ways to get to work.
“It would bring light to the area and have some people naturally associate the greenway with the Fairground neighborhood,†said resident Lillie Clay.
And Brickline backers said GRG’s mix of private and public revenue sources and its 20-year track record of building 128 miles of trails so far is proof enough that the organization will fulfill its promise.
Connecting north city to the central corridor is what the city needs to grow, said Alderman Brandon Bosley of the 3rd Ward, where some of the greenway will be laid.
“ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is a tale of two cities, and it shouldn’t be like that,†Bosley said.
With the greenway, he said, “We’re getting ahead of the future.â€
A web of trails
Great Rivers Greenway is a taxing agency, created in 2000 by voters in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County and St. Charles County. It levies a one-tenth of 1 cent sales tax in those counties and an additional three-sixteenths of 1 cent sales tax in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County. GRG receives about $20 million to $25 million annually from taxes, one of the few greenway developers in the U.S. that collects tax dollars.
The rest of its funding comes from federal grants and private donors — Enterprise’s Taylor family is funding the 1-mile stretch of the Brickline that will pass the new Major League Soccer stadium, now under construction, which is also a Taylor family project.
A jogger runs on the sidewalk in the location of a future Great Rivers Greenway project along Market Street in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. Great Rivers Greenway is proposing to build the Brickline, a roughly 10-mile stretch of bike and walking paths that would connect Fairground Park in the north to Tower Grove Park in the south. Photo by Colter Peterson, cpeterson@post-dispatch.com
A digital rendering shows a draft concept for a multi-use path passing in front of Harris-Stowe State University along Market Street in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ that would become a new segment of Great Rivers Greenway's network of trails.
GRG’s greenways already spiderweb across the region, from Kirkwood to River Des Peres; Legacy Park in Cottleville to Dardenne Park in St. Peters; and from Chouteau Avenue up the Mississippi Riverfront to the Chain of Rocks Bridge. It also was involved in the recent renovation of the Gateway Arch grounds.
More than 3 million visitors used the trails in 2020, a 70% increase over 2019, the agency said. Usage dipped last year to 2.5 million — but that was still up 40% over 2019, GRG said.
The agency relies on community input to form its regional plan, refreshed every five years, to help it decide which trails to build next. (The public has until Sunday on the newest plan, which will be published later this spring.) It also looks at data like population, walkability and access to transit. Some desired paths don’t work; others take years to build. It took GRG a decade to get control of land to build a long-requested path connecting Kirkwood to River Des Peres in south ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County, said CEO Susan Trautman.
And it can cost $4 million to $6 million to build one mile, she said.
Greenways have paid off for other metro areas, according to GRG. Indianapolis saw $1 billion of new real estate development when it opened its Indy Cultural Trail that it built for $63 million. Atlanta saw $4.1 billion of new development because of its $800 million Beltline trails.
They also can have benefits that are harder to measure, like improvements to the environment and public health, said Patty Heyda, a professor of urban design at Washington University.
“Greenways are never bad,†Heyda said. “But it’s just one piece of what neighborhoods need.â€
The Brickline
The Brickline, part of which was formerly known as the Chouteau Greenway, would connect major landmarks: the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency campus, the new soccer stadium, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ University and City Foundry. Once complete, it will be at least 10 miles long and perhaps as many as 15, officials said.
The section running by the soccer stadium, which will include art installations honoring the former Black neighborhood called Mill Creek Valley, will be finished by the first MLS game in spring 2023.
Other parts are in the design phase. The northern segment that will connect Fairground Park — a 130-acre former racetrack that once served as a Union encampment during the Civil War — to Page Avenue received a $15 million federal grant late last year to help fund construction. Des Peres-based financial services firm Edward Jones and other private donors are providing a match. Penny Pennington, managing partner of Edward Jones, called the Brickline one of the “most important investments in the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ region.â€
Mother's Fish, a mainstay of the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood at the intersection of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Avenue and N. Grand Boulevard, stands where two arteries of the proposed Brickline Greenway would meet on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022. A series of walking and biking trails in north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ would connect other parts of the Great Rivers Greenway. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
A digital rendering shows a draft concept for a multi-use path passing in front of the Griot Museum of Black History along ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Avenue in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ that would become a new segment of Great Rivers Greenway's network of trails. (Image by Stoss Landscape Urbanism, for Great Rivers Greenway)
GRG is counting on the private sector for funding. Of the Brickline’s $245 million price tag, $155 million will come from businesses and private donors.
The city won’t be solely responsible for maintaining the Brickline; GRG is setting aside about $15 million, or 2% of all private fundraising, for a maintenance fund.
“You have to actually do what you say you’re going to do,†Trautman said. “We are absolutely committed to not starting a project that we can’t finish.â€
The prospect has organizations like the Boys & Girls Club excited for the future. President Flint Fowler, who is involved in the Brickline’s development, said he sees it as a catalyst for development in the neighborhood.
That area of North Grand has seen a high rate of homicides, a symptom of decadeslong disinvestment that also has led to decrepit brick buildings and few opportunities for growth.
The windshield of a pickup truck is left shattered by bullets on Thursday, October 8, 2020, remnants from a June 13 shooting outside the Bad Habitz Social Club, 3111 North Grand Boulevard. Four people were injured and two men died as a result of the shooting. The truck is parked next door, in front of Young Auto Repair where Kae Chris, center, runs the shop. "We have to change," said Chris. "What do you want to see in your community?" Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
“We need an opportunity like this to invest in our communities,†Fowler said.
Trautman said the Brickline could be one strategy to help deter crime: When the neighborhood takes ownership of the trail and more people use it, the area is likely to become safer, she said.
The Boys & Girls Club, which has operated there since 1967, is partnering with the Gateway PGA Reach Foundation to redevelop the neighboring Carter Carburetor plant into a golf activity center. The project and the greenway could be beneficial for each other.
“I used to speak a lot about the psychological impact that the Carburetor building had on the minds of kids with its broken windows and trash,†Fowler said. “Flip that, and imagine trees and music and artwork and people engaged in the community, and what that does to their mental well-being.â€
The gated Carter Carburetor Superfund cleanup site is situated at the intersection of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Avenue and North Grand Boulevard, where two arteries of a proposed Brickline Greenway would meet on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022.
The Brickline also could bring grocery stores, coffee shops and other amenities that make an attractive neighborhood, he said.
Still, urban planners are wary of gentrification: With public projects come attention from outside developers, on the prowl for investment returns, who could oust long-term residents. “The whole thing becomes a land grab,†said Washington University’s Heyda, who has worked on the greenways. “That’s just the story of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.â€
City leaders have an opportunity to create the rules for developers, ensuring there’s some affordable housing, she said.
Trautman said the agency is looking into a community investment trust that can subsidize investment for neighbors or a community development corporation that could help reduce taxes for homeowners.
It’s going to take a village, she said.
Clay, the Fairground resident, already has been working to improve her neighborhood as president of the nonprofit Fairground Neighborhood Revitalization Organization.
Fairground Park is an asset — residents use its 131 acres for fishing and for hosting parties. And they’d like to see more amenities here, like a bigger pool. The greenway, Clay said, would be another positive.
Current designs call for the Brickline to begin at the southern corner of the park. That means it would miss most of Clay’s neighborhood, to the north and east.
“It’s not going to have any big impact on our neighbors, per se,†Clay said. “But it’s good to have.â€
