Update: I revisited the area in November of 2022.

I’m sure readers have heard about proposed Target going in on the east side of Grand Boulevard just north of Chouteau Avenue. This has long been an industrial area, and the site of quarries.

As can be seen in the above photograph and in the fire insurance map below, it was the central-west portion of the Mill Creek Valley (there’s actually a massive sewer underneath the train tracks and vacant lots through here), and the area was always sort of a dirty, grungy part of the city.

So the question I pose is this: do we spend money developing land that was never really a thriving part of the city, or do we spend money stabilizing and saving neighborhoods that are on the brink of collapsing?