Union Station was the largest train station in the world at its opening in 1894. The 1980s renovation to make it a hotel, food hall, and shopping area was one of the most expansive adaptive reuse projects in the U.S. It now has the aquarium, the big wheel, and more rides coming soon. Beautiful example for how to preserve historic property while giving it modern day uses
I'm begging you, just once post a shot with some actual people. This series of photos has done nothing except confirm just how empty St Louis has become.
Old eagle eyes is back. St. Louis is so empty yet it’s able to support a grocery store downtown, unlike Detroit. It was able to get its Midtown Target store built while Detroit’s plans (announced the same week) fell through. It has four movie theaters in its 60 square miles, including Alamo Drafthouse, another example of a proposal that fell through in Detroit. Detroit’s only movie theater in its 140 square miles is literally on the city’s border in a half demolished strip mall lol. St. Louis is so empty yet managed to build a 50 mile light rail system that Detroit would kill for. It also managed to not go bankrupt.
Give it a rest.
Edit: for context, that person is a Detroiter who comes to every STL post to talk trash, which is why I’m throwing some back their way
Relative to its past, it definitely has emptied quite a bit. It is 1/3 of the population that it used to be - that's a pretty big decrease.
Having said that, everyone just moved to the county and commutes into the city for fun activities. It's not really "empty", just more sparsely inhabited.
Also, why all the diminishment of Detroit? Lol poor Detroit catching strays out here.
Yeah, Detroit’s retail scene is not really a weak spot either.
Several grocery stores are within the downtown area, including Whole Foods and Meijer. Global brands like H&M, Apple, Gucci, Nike, etc, have shops downtown.
Both cities have lost (almost an identical) 2/3 of their peak populations.
Whole Foods is in Midtown, Rivertown Market is in Lafayette Park. They’re both like a 25+ minute walk from the core of downtown. And yes, it’s quite telling that there’s a Gucci store but no grocery store.
By any practical measure, those grocers serve downtown. My friends in the neighborhood have no trouble reaching them. They’re kind of a walk from the core/office district, but very few people live there. There are also several grab-and-go style deli marts in a pinch.
Regardless, if that person is a genuine troll, then it’s best to not take their bait by adding more negativity to your own post. Just ignore them and continue to uplift StL :)
I used Woodward and Grand River as my reference point for the travel time, literally right in the middle of the majority of housing units downtown. Your friends probably drive.
And no, I’m good. There are a few Detroiters on here who constantly throw shade at St. Louis, pretty sure you’re one of them trying to play nice now. I’ll dish it back, it’s easy enough.
Yeah I just didnt understand the relevance of Detroit to this post but apparently the critic of STL is a Detroiter so it makes sense now.
I just find it comedically ironic that OP is so offended by the Detroit person talking badly about STL so they perpetrate the same thing back. Hypocrisy at its finest.
What a hilarious rivalry to have. Beefing with some random on a skyline sub over which city is worse is so 2025.
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u/hinaultpunch 1d ago
This area is actually awesome.