NEXTSTL POST NAILS IT ON NORTH COUNTY TRANSIT CENTER

Great article on North County Transit Center.

https://nextstl.com/2016/03/north-county-transit-reconfiguration-symptom-not-treatment/

EDIT/PS:  Optinstl doesn't always agree with Nextstl but they are always a good source of info.  Metro DOES need to focus on the areas like North County that are mostly transit dependent.  But Nextstl also seems to support Cortex, which is the biggest waste of money and a giant boondoggle that really only benefits Cortex itself.  The CWE metrolink serves this area just fine. (Regardless of Cortex being non-profit entity, nothing they are proposing there is going to fundamentally change the area. Like Ballpark Village, it will just pull business away from previously existing local businesses, and it is unlikely that it will flourish- if it does indeed flourish at all- for more than a decade.) 

Was just reading this post on Cortex.  https://nextstl.com/2016/03/202424/

 We heard Field Foods was going to be the economic saviour with a grocery store two years ago. Fields is a Boston investor's high end boutique grocery store that got a $12 million dollar grant for the food desert in Peabody Clinton area, NOT the Lafayette Square area. And while the cashiers and other low paying staff come from the area, the management and executives are all from Boston- or were when the store first opened in January 2014. The store has hardly lived up to any of its' promises in terms of sales tax revenues, and mostly seems to compete with locally owned Culinaria downtown.

And remember when Lofts were going to revitalize downtown?  A lot of DINK'S (double income no kids) moved down there, and shocker, the area is declining again as they have kids and move back to the suburbs or more kid-friendly areas of the city.  

The only thing that is going to revitalize St. Louis is a living wage and development in areas that need jobs and public transportation.  Anything North of Delmar, for starters.