When Jo Noero moved to St. Louis in 1996, he was surprised and disturbed. A white man from South Africa who had opposed the apartheid regime in his home country, he arrived in a very segregated American city where surprisingly few people on either side of the divide were engaged in overcoming that segregation. And an architect who had been appalled at how apartheid divided buildings back home, he found an American city dominated visually by a giant architectural symbol that he felt was physically divisive. The Gateway Arch, Noero observed, did not actually act as a gateway. It was landscaped in a way that divided the city from its greatest natural resource, the Mississippi River.
Noero has since moved back home, but our segregation and the divisiveness of our most public monument largely remain. More than 15 years after Noero was first disturbed by our segregation, a BBC news team assigned to cover a St. Louis story was so amazed at our north/south racial divide that they produced a spin-off piece about Delmar Boulevard as racial divider. This spawned some self-reflection among a certain kind of cultured St. Louisan who is touchy about what the BBC reports, and the Missouri History Museum organized a series of public events to discuss our remaining segregation and its effects.
As for the Gateway Arch, a group has organized a ballot initiative on the April 2 ballot in St. Louis County and city that would, we think, help to address the disconnects in how our most iconic public monument is currently staged while funding improvements in other parks in the city and county. We are not ordinarily proponents of sales tax increases, but Proposition P would enact only a 3/16 of a cent sales tax increase, not applicable to food or medicine, that would raise an estimated $31 million a year – or a projected $780 million by the time the tax expires in 20 years. The tax increase is equal to only two cents for a $10 purchase. The public agency Great Rivers Greenway District would administer 60 percent of the funds, and 40 percent of the revenue would go directly to St. Louis County, the city and municipalities in the county for park improvements.
Great Rivers will use a portion of its money to make the Arch more accessible, not only to disabled visitors and residents, but to the city itself by elevating the boulevard that passes in front of the Arch and connecting the park grounds to the city through a series of trails. These trails also would connect to a series of Metro stops that in turn would connect the park grounds and trail systems to the entire metropolitan region. The agency would allot $9.4 million for expanding a park-and-trail system called the River Ring. It would be able to revamp and connect more parks, such as Ruth Porter Park and the Maline Greenway in Berkeley, with biking and jogging trails all over the St. Louis area. A $47 million “Park Over the Highway” would be built over Interstate 70 between Chestnut and Market streets and join the Arch grounds with the Old Courthouse. Prop P is part of a larger plan to fund $380 million in improvements to the Arch grounds, the riverfront and its surroundings that includes a mix of private funding.
We should all decide that we will no longer accept our chronic problems, such as racial segregation and a public monument named for a “Gateway” that is actually closed off from the city it symbolizes. Our racial segregation requires ongoing efforts of many kinds, but better connecting the Arch to the city and region can start right now with the passage of this small sales tax increase. Beyond its obvious practical value, the Arch project that would be funded by Prop P also offers this region an opportunity to affirm its commitment to realizing the region’s great potential as a place to live, work and invest. We strongly endorse a votes of YES ON PROPOSITION P.
Need a ride on April 2? Call Souls to the Polls at 314-480-6233 or visit wwww.stlsoulstothepolls.org.
