Op-ed, City of St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, The St. Louis American, October 10, 2024
St. Louis is about to see a transformation in the ways we all get around.
Between 2024 and 2027, more than $300 million will be invested in repaving and calming our streets, making our sidewalks and crosswalks safer, and building miles of new trails and bike paths. But the project that will be the most transformational for our city is the expansion of MetroLink, with the creation of the new Green Line along Jefferson Avenue that will connect Natural Bridge Avenue in the north to Chippewa Street in the south. This in-street light rail line will provide convenient access to jobs, education, cultural experiences, friends, and family. Ultimately, it will connect more St. Louisans to opportunity.
The MetroLink Green Line will also help preserve and grow the city’s unique neighborhoods. Our residents know better than most that when neighborhoods don’t receive the investment and opportunities they deserve, those neighborhoods will eventually decline. We need to prevent that, and where it’s already happened, we need to reverse it.
My goal is to not just move the needle. We are aiming for historic change through transit investment. This is the time to think big and to swing for the fences, because the returns are so important – to empower, develop, and transform our city for many years to come.
This summer, I signed a bill to responsibly loosen restrictions on parking minimums, the maximum number of floors, and the minimum lot sizes in areas within half a mile of the proposed Green Line stations. In these ways, we’re encouraging the use of public transit, we’re reducing barriers to constructing new housing and business dwellings, and we’re increasing density along the Green Line. My administration has also implemented a property tax freeze for seniors, making it easier for them to remain in their homes and benefit from the improvements to the neighborhoods they have helped shape.
These changes are essential to making our neighborhoods, and our entire city, safer, stronger, and healthier.
In fact, an economic impact report prepared by the Saint Louis University Community Planning Lab for Citizens for Modern Transit found that the construction of the Green Line will create thousands of jobs and nearly $2.9 billion of cumulative economic activity. That’s not something St. Louis should pass on.
To make this all a reality, we hope to secure as much as $600 million in federal funding. The Federal Transit Administration has already approved the expansion project development request, which means we are one step closer to doing just that. Our partners at Bi-State Development are currently working hard to complete an environmental review and 30% of the design, which is what needs to be done before we can apply for federal funding.
St. Louis residents along this historic corridor – which has the lowest percentage of car owners in the city – deserve more options when getting around. And young families deserve even more reasons to move here. They want convenient access to entertainment, restaurants, and jobs. It’s essential for the future of St. Louis that we can attract more families who will establish roots here.
The Green Line isn’t the only transformational change you’ll see and feel in St. Louis City.
Thanks to the American Rescue Plan Act, we are investing $46 million in repaving and improving the designs of 30 miles of arterial streets, including Kingshighway, Grand, Jefferson, Union, and Goodfellow. Paving begins on Kingshighway this fall, with work on all these arterials to be completed by the end of 2026. That means your trips down these roadways will be smoother and safer along the entire route.
Construction of the Brickline Greenway has already begun. Once completed, this Great Rivers Greenway trail for pedestrians and bicyclists will be a vibrant, open, and welcoming network of paths connecting the Arch, Forest Park, Fairground Park and – with the help of a new, protected bike lane on Tower Grove Avenue – Tower Grove Park. Plus, hundreds of destinations in between.
Not to mention the 20th Street Cycle Track, Tucker Boulevard Cycle Track, and South Broadway Cycle Track, which will all be under construction next year, making the bicycle a real option for more St. Louisans as they decide how to get around.
To keep you informed on all of these changes, my administration has built our easy-to-read Friendly Streets web page. There, St. Louisans can also find an interactive map to more easily discover the what, where, and when of current and upcoming projects in St. Louis.
These are some of the reasons why St. Louis recently has received national coverage for the work we are doing to make our streets people-friendly.
In just a few years, especially once the Brickline Greenway and MetroLink Green Line are completed, St. Louis – with our world-class parks, incredible theater venues, and downtown sports arenas – will be hard to resist. And those of us who already call St. Louis home will get to experience our city in new, safe, and enjoyable ways.
Tishaura O. Jones
Mayor, City of St. Louis