Missouri

A successful tax credit that boosts development and preservation in St. Louis's historic urban core is under legislative attack in Missouri.

March 30, 2013 - Next City

A new study analyzing the amenities in 165 parks in the four-county Kansas City metro region found that low-income neighborhoods suffer from a lack of play spaces, despite having more parks per capita, reports Emily Badger.

March 25, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

It's not the grand slam that the Cardinals and their developer partner were hoping for, but news that the first piece of the $650 million Ballpark Village development project has started construction was welcomed in St. Louis.

February 28, 2013 - The Wall Street Journal

Millions of dollars donated by the United Arab Emirates are being used to fund the rebuilding of Joplin, Mo., which was devastated by a tornado in 2011. The handouts represent a "remarkable shift in global economic power."

February 19, 2013 - The Washington Post

Two articles from non-profit organizations - a think tank and an advocacy group, seemingly arrive at the same conclusion: the future of the state gas tax is grim due to lack of political will to raise it. However, some states are bucking the trend.

February 6, 2013 - Stateline

Our friends at Streetsblog are hunting for the worst intersection in America. Help them decide from among a host of qualified entries.

February 1, 2013 - DC.Streetsblog

Funding for a $100 million two-mile downtown streetcar system has been approved by voters in Kansas City, according to results announced this week.

December 15, 2012 - Kansas City Star

Joining a host of other Midwestern cities establishing land banks to help corral, clear, and repurpose their vacant properties, Kansas City will begin transferring 3,500 vacant properties it recently acquired into a city-owned land bank.

October 29, 2012 - The Architect's Newspaper

The speedometer on the Chicago to St. Louis train hit 110 mph - and stayed there for five minutes, but it was enough to elevate the spirits of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the other dignitaries on-board. Normal speeds top out at 79 mph.

October 22, 2012 - The Huffington Post

Once a national hub of passenger rail service, St. Louis's majestic Union Station hasn't seen a train in five years. The impending sale of the station may provide the opportunity to bring a historic use back to one of the country's grand relics.

October 11, 2012 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

As St. Louis and Portland speed along with new streetcar developments, Yonah Freemark considers how zoning may determine the success of one, and the failure of another.

September 23, 2012 - the transport politic

The satirical newspaper The Onion lampoons long shot economic development strategies and overly ambitious city leaders with a post on "St. Louis 2.0" - a "sad little plan" for turning the city into a technology hub.

September 21, 2012 - The Onion

Chuck Marohn opines on the oddly empty, and unnecessarily wide, streets of Kansas City, Missouri. With no traffic to speak of, Marohn argues that by building roads simply to move cars quickly, "We're fighting a beast that does not exist."

September 14, 2012 - Strong Towns

The competition to determine which communities in Kansas City will qualify to receive Google Fiber, the nation's fastest internet service, has stoked fears of increasing the city's historic patterns of segregation, reports John Eligon.

September 11, 2012 - The New York Times

Of a whopping 555 eligible voters, 318 voted this week to approve a special taxing district to help pay for a downtown Kansas City streetcar, reports David Twiddy.

August 4, 2012 - Kansas City Business Journal

Calling it the "next phase of the Internet", Google announced the details of the roll out of its ultrahigh-speed Internet network this week, which will offer speeds 100 times faster than typical broadband connections to residents of Kansas City.

July 27, 2012 - The New York Times

Architect Ray Gindroz says that a perfect storm of factors - economic change, crushing policy decisions, and over-reaching ambition - brought about the disaster of public housing in the U.S. like Pruitt-Igoe.

June 25, 2012 - Better! Cities & Towns

Businessmen and entrepreneurs want to build up new tech hubs in the middle of the U.S., but Midwestern humility and a lack of monetary drive hold them back.

June 20, 2012 - Inc.

Excavating in East St. Louis in advance of an approaching freeway and future development, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a sophisticated American Indian settlement nearly a thousand years old that "no one knew existed."

June 4, 2012 - NPR

Following up on his insightful essay on the politics of architectural reputation seen through the career of Louis Curtiss, Keith Eggener examines the architect's innovations with glass curtain walls.

May 19, 2012 - Places