REDEFINING A REGION
to rebrand it as a project focused on even more than the Forest Park-to-Arch connection. The north-south connec - tions were too transformative to ignore. Along with Erica Henderson, executive director of the St. Louis Promise Zone ( stlpartnership.com ), Phillips has co-chaired a Brickline Greenway subcommittee centered around equitable economic development. Phillips said his background in community and economic development led to his curiosity about how [blue and green] infrastruc - ture like a greenway can be leveraged to help develop the communities and economies of the places where greenways are built. As part of Phillips’ work with the Brickline Greenway, he has looked at other city trail networks to see how their existence led to equitable economic development in their neighborhoods. He noted the effort in Atlanta to dot the BeltLine with Black-owned businesses housed in shipping containers along the trail. “We looked at a bunch of different models around the country. We looked at models in Cincinnati, where they actually are using their greenways to help break the digital divide by offering Wi-Fi hotspots that are free to the residents all over the greenway,” he said. “And that partnership has led to low-income apartment buildings adopting that same model within that area. And so that’s one way of breaking down the digital divide.” Using the trail as a digital bridge, a home base for microenterprises or an opportunity to address afford - able housing issues all have appeal to Phillips. But ultimately, he said, it is not his call. “I think it’s most appropriate to really engage the com - munity and understand what they feel are their priorities and then for us to help Great Rivers Greenway look for those resources in order to help them,” Phillips said. “I think the Wi-Fi is a no-brainer, but they may not consider that a no-brainer.” However the Brickline project builds in equitable eco - nomic development in St. Louis neighborhoods, Phillips said it will help bridge the islands that formed over decades of depopulation. “Seventy years ago, this was a city of almost a million people—contained in 61 square miles,” he said. “We’re still 61 square miles, and we’re 300,000.” Some of the islands that developed have held on and thrived, said Phillips, while others have held on but deteriorated. Connecting them with the Brickline Green - way, he said, offers needed opportunities for St. Louis citizens beyond recreation and transportation. •
Learn more about the vision and progress of the Brickline Greenway on the Great Rivers Greenway website: rtc.li/
back on us, that we were here,” Gibson said. “And you need to look into why we’re not here anymore.”
brickline- greenway .
A Transformative Vision The entire Brickline project is an estimated $250 mil - lion–$300 million effort. Forest Park, a St. Louis gem that ranks high on many national urban-park lists, already serves as a hub for five Great Rivers Greenway trails. The Brickline would connect Forest Park to the city’s signature Gateway Arch National Park, which sits along a section of the Mississippi River Greenway (Riverfront Trail). And it would connect the 131-acre Fairground Park in North St. Louis to the 289-acre Tower Grove Park in the south-central portion of the city. In March, Emma Klues, vice president of commu - nications and outreach with Great Rivers Greenway, described the Brickline as a “network within the (green - way) network” on the 46th episode of a podcast entirely dedicated to the project. Great Rivers Greenway recently earned a $15 million RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustain - ability and Equity) grant to construct the northern por - tion of the Brickline Greenway, and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Fund is on the team’s radar. Antoine said Great Rivers Greenway is always looking for ways to best leverage the dollars it commits to projects with public, private and public- private investments in the region’s trail network. Investing in north St. Louis neighborhoods was a facet of the Brickline project that “every single planning team” saw as a grand opportunity, said Brian Phillips, assistant vice chancellor of Washington University Medical Center. Phillips has worked with several committees related to the Brickline project, which has been under consideration since the late 1990s. Before Great Rivers Greenway was formed, the theoretical trail was called the Chouteau Greenway. In 2020, it was renamed the Brickline in part
Cory Matteson is a contributor to Rails to Trails magazine and the TrailBlog. He lives in Springfield, Missouri, where he works as a public affairs reporter for the nonprofit Springfield Daily Citizen .
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FALL 2022 RAILS TO TRAILS
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