Downtown

Downtown Saint Louis, though far from its former glory, has begun to pick up again. The population in 2000 was a mere 806 people, and has exploded to its current 3,721 inhabitants. Many new businesses can be seen, especially on Washington Avenue. However, due to being in Saint Louis, Downtown has many abandoned buildings, empty storefronts, decrepit properties, etc. Transit is good, with quite a few frequent transit lines! (These consist of the MetroLink Blue and Red Lines, and the MetroBus #11 Chippewa and #99 Downtown Circulator. However, there is always the problem of excessive parking, this being Saint Louis. When a lot becomes vacant downtown, the immediate course of action was to turn the space into surface parking. This means that what was once continuous  good, mixed-use, transit and pedestrian friendly development became marred by ugly patches of evil surface parking. An important development in this story is a downtown supermarket, Culinaria by Schnucks having recently opened, destroying Downtown's previous reputation as a food desert. A good are, with potential to be even more!