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Originally Posted by Centropolis
belleville is like the ancient, stag fueled reproductive hangdown jutting out into sw illinois
belleville actually has a sort of its own small cultural hinterland that dribbles south into “southwest” illinois near the mississippi river. you can still track it with by documenting the big funny stag billboards and rural microbrewery density. theres like rolling german settled countryside
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I mean, now that Stag has become metro St. Louis' answer to hipsters drinking PBR, why not? Fun fact: Belleville is the largest city in Southern Illinois for the moment.
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Originally Posted by SIGSEGV
If Downtown SL had more draw, you'd think at least there would be some riverfront development other than the casino at the East Riverfront Metrolink Station. I guess it doesn't help that there's no actual riverfront access.
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It's a floodplain. That's why there's 76 miles worth of levees along the Illinois side of the Mississippi going from Madison County in the north, through St. Clair County (where ESL is) and the east riverfront, and all the way south into Monroe County.
The city of St. Louis is sitting on higher ground. It's become an island disconnected from its flooding suburbs in years past due to it being higher.
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Originally Posted by Centropolis
brooklyn is terrible and there was sime manhattan project related kerfuffle but its where you go (or used to go) if you considered yourself a learned strip club aficionado. sauget was fucking gauche.
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Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL
But if only DT had more draw this nuclear test site/village 3 miles or so from downtown on the other side of the river would be a metropolis.
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What's this about nuclear testing in the Metro East? It was my understanding that the waste from the Manhattan Project ended up in a factory in downtown St. Louis and the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton.
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i think some here are underestimating the amount of "draw" that DT STL would have to have to fix E. STL. it couldn't fix it back when DT was still the center of shopping and the city population was still over 600K (as recently as the 70s). it would take an insane explosion in population for E. STL to become valuable enough that anyone would invest the billions of dollars needed to clean it up and turn it around. this is a problem with the state of IL basically not giving a shit about anything south of Chicago (or maybe south of Springfield) and letting E. STL become a toxic waste dump. like others have said, the metro has expanded in every direction from DT STL, but that development (suburban as some of it may be) has completely leap-frogged E. STL. there are reasons for that beyond "DT STL doesn't have enough draw."
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East St. Louis actually had suburban style development on its eastern edges decades ago. Some of it still constitutes some of the most intact portions of the city. I'm talking over by the borders with Belleville and Caseyville.
Also, the "Illinois doesn't care about anything south of Chicago" is such a Republican talking point. Pritzker played well in St. Clair County, and he's there often. The trouble is that everyone has tried over the decades to fix ESL and little has worked.
In terms of today though, Illinois has been investing in the Metro East. A project that comes to mind is Illinois' decision to extend the MetroLink to MidAmerica Airport that's due to be complete by 2023.
Another fun fact though: The Metro East is the largest (sub)urban area in Illinois outside of Chicagoland.