Greg Freeman: To Doubters Down On Downtown: Things Sure Are Looking Up P-D 7/30/2001

Headline: TO DOUBTERS DOWN ON DOWNTOWN: THINGS SURE ARE LOOKING UP
Reporter: By Greg Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Tues., July 30, 2002
Section: METRO, Page: B1, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

I still have the letter.
"Dear Greg Freeman, " it begins. "Why don't you give it up? You're always talking about how downtown is going to come back. Face it, the reality is that most people gave up on downtown and the city a long time ago and nothing's going to bring it back. Why don't you let a dying horse die?" The letter, from a reader, was dated Aug. 16, 1997.

There's no question that things looked bleak for downtown five years ago. Formerly prosperous buildings stood silent and empty. A downtown that once featured a variety of restaurants had become a place where office workers were lucky to find anything at all for lunch.
But as Post-Dispatch reporter Charlene Prost noted in an article Monday, that was then, this is now. Few believed that Washington Avenue -- the old garment warehouse district -- could ever become anything again. The buildings were too far gone, some said. No one would move there, others insisted. Some even suggested that Clayton should somehow be declared the region's downtown.

The naysayers are being proved wrong. Downtown is making a comeback, and Washington Avenue is an example of that. As Charlene wrote in her story, new apartments, hotel suites, office buildings, lofts and trendy restaurants are all becoming familiar sites. The change has been a gradual one. It hasn't happened overnight, as some might have hoped. But it is happening, despite an economy that's not nearly as good as it was in the late '90s.
It's a testimony to ignoring the naysayers. St. Louis, unfortunately, has a lot of those. Many of us have a habit of saying that things will never happen, or that they could never happen here. The gentleman who wrote me in 1997 was hardly alone. I heard from plenty of people saying that the idea of bringing downtown back to life was futile. It would never be what it was, they said.

I agreed that it never would be what it was -- St. Louis and the nation itself have changed a great deal in the last 50 years -- but it still could be brought back, I thought. Fortunately, others thought that as well.
    Like individuals who took the time back in 1997 to attend public meetings of Downtown Now, where ideas were sought, tossed around and developed.
    Like politicians and public officials, including then-Mayor Clarence Harmon and his chief of staff, Mike Jones, who set up Downtown Now to come up with a plan to turn the area around, and Sen. Christopher Bond, who early on came up with $17.3 million in federal funds to reduce traffic, widen sidewalks and beautify Washington Avenue alongside the street's historic six- to 10-story buildings.
     Like younger St. Louisans who believed in downtown and who were willing to take advantage of it for establishing bars and music clubs at a time when no one else would put a business there.
     Like people who were willing to buy lofts downtown years ago at a time when even their own friends told them they were out of their minds.

So many more people were involved -- and continue to be involved today -- in the turning around of downtown. No one person can claim credit for what's happening. Slowly but surely, people are becoming more optimistic about downtown. Many of the existing business owners say they see more promise for downtown today than they have seen in a long time. Developers are popping up, both from here and out of town, who see a real opportunity here.

Even people like Maureen Aaron, who has lived downtown for 25 years. She says she feels a change in downtown's spirit.
"Now, all of a sudden, it seems like every time I pass a building down here, I'm saying, 'Look, they're working on that building now, '" she said. "That gives me a good feeling."

Downtown still has a way to go. But progress is being made, and buildings that were old are new again. Naysayers will always be around. But as supporters of downtown St. Louis are beginning to attest, you can get a lot accomplished if you ignore them.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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