Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

St. Louis Struggles With an Old Question: “Why Go Downtown at All?”

11:07 AM EST on December 9, 2015

Alex Ihnen at NextSTL uncovered this video from a 1965 television program about traffic and commuting in the St. Louis region. Noting the growing number of businesses in the suburbs with "free parking," the narrator asks, "Who needs to go downtown at all?" This leads to a vision of the future that turned out to be eerily accurate:

On the surface at least, this question seems to suggest a realistic and sensible solution to the problem of all-day parking and rush hour traffic in the central business district of any big city. Why go downtown at all? Why, indeed.

Just the same, many of us will have the uneasy feeling that this solution is almost too easy, that there’s a hint of danger in it, the threat perhaps of some kind of social disorganization on an enormous scale.

The suburbs surround what we have long thought of as the central city, the core area, but what will happen to the surrounding belt of suburbs if this core simply disintegrates and then vanishes? Could the suburban belt just go on expanding forever leaving a bigger and bigger circle of nothing much in the middle, a bigger and bigger hole in the doughnut?

Ihnen says the video presages the hollowing out of St. Louis, which lost about 60 percent of its residents since the time this video was shot. And to an unfortunate extent, the question at the center of the video is still relevant today, he writes:

We continue to talk about rapid transit expansion (a new MetroLink line), and urban transit in the form of streetcars and buses. We continue to preach the necessity of a strong urban core. We continue to complain about traffic and parking. What’s been learned, what’s changed in half a century?

Why are we still asking “Why go downtown at all”?

Elsewhere on the Network today: Seattle Transit Blog reports that the city might cancel the transit portion of the deep-bore underground highway project that was sold as a "tunnel plus transit" plan. Naked City considers whether Charlotte can become more walkable and bikeable. And Streets.mn presents a four-part proposal for growing the Nice Ride bike share system.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Distracted Off-Duty Cop Jumped Curb and Killed Chicago Woman On Sidewalk

It's infuriating that a person who was entrusted to help keep the public safe was reckless enough to take her eyes off the road while driving to pick up a phone, with tragic consequences.

December 8, 2023

Friday’s Headlines Include Transit

An International Association of Public Transport study found that many countries are neglecting transit in their plans to combat climate change.

December 8, 2023

Calif. Using“Auxiliary Lane” Freeway Widening Loophole for Non-Aux Lane Projects

Beyond just using harmful loopholes legally, Metro and Caltrans deceptively bypass environmental regulations in order to keep on widening freeways.

December 8, 2023

Talking Headways Podcast: Sausage Making and the ADA

"It is fundamentally inappropriate to keep charging disabled people twice as much," our guest Ron Brooks says.

December 7, 2023

The Real Reason Assaults Against Transit Workers Are On The Rise

Hint: it's not just because service has been slashed.

December 7, 2023
See all posts