We invited Les Sterman, former executive of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments, and Steven Patterson, urban planner and publisher of Urban Review St. Louis to debate the merits of the north-south line.
Does St. Louis need to expand MetroLink north and south?
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Sterman: It depends on your vision for the future of this region. Clearly, we have an undersized public transportation system for a metropolitan region of our size. If we want to grow and prosper, we have to provide reasonable transportation options for everybody.
Patterson: The city of St. Louis needs improved transit in a north-south direction. Whether that should be light rail, bus rapid transit, or streetcars, I’m not certain. I don’t think we’ve done a fair evaluation of that. I think people are blindly saying, “Expand MetroLink,” without knowing what that means.
What do you see as the biggest impediment?
Sterman: It’s a political one. This would be a shared responsibility between the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County, which just don’t have a good track record of working with each other, especially lately. It takes a truly regional vision. Unfortunately, we’re not seeing a lot of that.
Patterson: Having a clear right-of-way to operate in. With the current MetroLink we’ve had since ’93, we’ve had an old railroad corridor to use. In the north-south direction, we don’t exactly have a good railroad corridor to use. Therefore, they’d have to operate in the street and take some right-of-way from the street.
Who would benefit most?
Sterman: Because it’s a network, the gains would be very broad based. Obviously, the community that the line goes through [would benefit], but also businesses…[many of whose] employees are low and moderate income.
Patterson: Residents from North County and South County who want to go to Cardinals games.
Would a north-south line help address issues of inequality?
Sterman: It’s one piece of the puzzle. It was mentioned in the Ferguson Report. Clearly, transportation and access to jobs is a big deal. Back when I was with East-West Gateway, we did a lot of studies about that, and it’s not a mystery why some people have a hard time finding employment. In a lot of cases, they just can’t get there.
Patterson: I think it would actually make them worse. Right now, they have bus stops every block or two. With light rail, you have substantially fewer points of access, and most likely the bus service would be cut back or eliminated completely where the light rail would run.
