What happened to the Gateway City's French Quarter?

The CNU's John Norquist says that St. Louis once had a waterfront like the French Quarter in New Orleans, only twice as big. Then Interstate 70 cut the city off from the waterfront. “In St. Louis, traffic specialists had their way,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. What followed was suburban sprawl that erased the city's identity. Norquist spoke at Washington University about how St. Louis should consider tearing down its downtown highways and restoring a grid of streets that can absorb a great deal of traffic. If there is congestion, he told the reporter, that's a good sign. “Any place where the economy is going really well, you're going to have congestion,” he said. “It's one of the symptoms of success.”

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