last week i visited my birthplace of st. louis after not visiting for over a year. I noticed a lot had been going on in the community and it just seemed like a totally different place. They were building and renovating and i felt like st. louis was on the rise has anyone been to st. louis lately and notice the same?

^ I have. I was at a wedding there last weekend. I went to college there (graduated in 2002) and I probably go back every six months or so. Soulard and the West End always had plenty of activity, but downtown looked the best I have seen it EVER. So much more stuff going on downtown in and around Washington Ave. than ever before.

I also noticed a ridiculous amount of new construction in Clayton. To the point where I almost didn't make it to the hotel to meet with the rest of the groomsmen to put on our tuxes because it seemed like every possible route was closed due to construction.

^ I have. I was at a wedding there last weekend. I went to college there (graduated in 2002) and I probably go back every six months or so. Soulard and the West End always had plenty of activity, but downtown looked the best I have seen it EVER. So much more stuff going on downtown in and around Washington Ave. than ever before.

I also noticed a ridiculous amount of new construction in Clayton. To the point where I almost didn't make it to the hotel to meet with the rest of the groomsmen to put on our tuxes because it seemed like every possible route was closed due to construction.

i love to see work being done in my hometown it brings me a since of pride to say im from st. louis

Metrolink has helped a ton.

METROLINK

http://www.artic.edu/~rmoran1/metro.gif

Planning for new MetroLink extensions advances
By Phil Sutin
Of the Post-Dispatch
07/30/2005

The federal highway bill includes $410 million for two expansions, including one from downtown to points north, west and south.

Plans for expanding MetroLink took two steps forward this week, but money to build future projects still is not in sight.

Congress authorized spending $410 million for two expansions in a six-year, $286.5 billion transportation bill. The House passed the measure, and the Senate followed suit.

The East-West Gateway Council of Governments hired a team of consultants on Wednesday to plan part of an expansion north, south and west from downtown St. Louis.

The projects in the transportation bill call for spending:

$275 million for 28 miles of an expansion north, south and west of downtown St. Louis. If fully developed, the expansion would extend MetroLink from a loop in downtown St. Louis north to St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, south to Interstate 55 near the South County shopping mall and west to West Port Plaza.

$135 million for 11 miles of an extension of MetroLink south of Shrewsbury. That expansion would go along either the Burlington Northern Railroad right of way or the River Des Peres to Interstate 55, ending at Butler Hill Road. Metro is building an extension to Shrewsbury from Forest Park that it expects to open by Oct. 31 next year.

The importance of Congress' action is not the money, but putting the projects on the bureaucratic and political table for future action. Before construction begins, lawmakers have to appropriate the federal share and regional officials have to come up with the local one.

However, the money in the federal authorizations may not be close to the cost of the two expansions. The highest cost estimate of the extension south of Shrewsbury is $700 million, and engineers have yet to determine the cost of the north-south-west extension.

Money from a quarter-cent transit sales tax in St. Louis and St. Louis County, the main source for local financing of MetroLink expansion, is tied up retiring bonds for an expansion now under construction.

Reporter Phil Sutin
E-mail: psutin@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-863-2812

cant wait to see if the metrolink is going to expand throughout west county but there are so many politics when it comes to the county and city

I cant wait for North and South STL. Do you realize how good that would be for the city?

I cant wait for North and South STL. Do you realize how good that would be for the city?

yes that would be great as far as economics, politics and everything else.

Goatman, I found the same thing when I visited St. Louis in April. Something is really happening there. You can see it everywhere. It seemed like they are rehabbing or building on every corner. And people are out all over the city. New restaurants, bars, condos, townhouses, etc. It is really exciting and makes me want to move back very badly!!!!!

St. Louis is really taking off lately. I love having a front-row seat and watching it progress day to day. I've always felt that STL is one of the greatest cities in the country, even in the dark days of the '90s, but now I can say it with confidence.

St. Louis is really taking off lately. I love having a front-row seat and watching it progress day to day. I've always felt that STL is one of the greatest cities in the country, even in the dark days of the '90s, but now I can say it with confidence.

^Agreed.