University City, St. Louis, has long been one of my favorite St. Louis neighborhoods. It’s one of St. Louis’s walkable shopping districts, and it’s also home to a few strong arts institutions; The Pageant, The Center of Contemporary Arts (COCA), and the Craft Alliance.
I attended an alumni event last week for my organization’s summer campers and camp staff at Cicero’s on Delmar, and I spent the hour before the event wandering the neighborhood.
More than one storefront boasted the naming of Delmar as “One of the Ten Best Streets in America” by the American Planning Association.
All photos by smalltowngirl
The APA says this of their Best Streets/Great Places awards:
APA Great Places exemplify exceptional character and highlight the role planners and planning play in creating communities of lasting value.
It’s nice to see one St. Louis’ more interesting neighborhoods recognized nationally.
When I step out of my “NY vs. MO” mindset, I can grant Delmar Blvd. the hipster and diversity kudos it works hard to earn, although I have to admit that the area felt a little sterile to me after life in NY.
(Look closely, and you can see the Delmar Blvd street sign reflecting in the window of Rag-o-Rama)
Shops like Ragorama and Vintage Vinyl (named one of the country’s best indie music stores by Rolling Stone), bar/restaurants like Blueberry Hill (whose owners are responsible for much of Delmar’s development), and venues like The Tivoli call out “cool” to me.
(Check out the pink Vintage Vinyl bumper sticker on the backside of the crosswalk signal in the upper right corner of the shot)
Places on Delmar like the Panera Bread Company are too St.-Louis-Shopping-Mall-esque for my liking. I like malls, but I don’t want to feel like I’m in one when I’m walking a city street. Panera started in St. Louis as “The St. Louis Bread Company”, and for years, you would see it called Panera on the East Coast and “St. Louis Bread Co.” in the Midwest.
Now I’m reminiscent for Panera’s brazen St. Louisness. Somehow the bagels stopped tasting as good in St. Louis when the store changed its name to Panera here. (A rose by any other name, is, indeed, not as sweet, Mr. Shakespeare.)
I hope that some of the parts of Delmar Blvd that strike me as wealthy, sterile and overdeveloped will mellow and gain chracter with age. Still, Delmar is one of my favorite spots in the city, even after 10 years away, and I agree with the APA that Delmar Blvd adds “lasting value” to the city of St. Louis. I just hope that in time, it gains the grit and urban texture of some of the world’s most famous city neighborhoods.
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