Over the next two weeks, Next City will unroll short profiles of 77 people, places and ideas that have changed cities this year. Together, they make up our 2012 Disruption Index. Forefront subscribers can download the Index in full as a PDF, complete with beautiful designs and graphics by Danni Sinisi. Readers who make a $75 donation to Next City will have a full-color printed copy of the Index mailed to them.
Clashing opinions abound over the value and impact of New York City’s High Line, but if there’s one unequivocal truth, it’s that the elevated park is an inspiration. For some cities, that means finally having found a new way to think about an old problem. In St. Louis, locals are hoping to build on that success with the St. Louis Trestle.
The Trestle is a 1.5-mile abandoned railway alignment now owned by the Great Rivers Greenway District, which is building a system of parks and trails throughout the region using a combination of state, federal and private funds. The Trestle crosses over an interstate highway and connects with a riverfront bike path, making it a key part of an expanding network of active trails within the city. For the past few years, the railway has been open to pedestrians and cyclists. Now, Great Rivers Greenway is planning to turn it into a linear park that they’re hoping will attract even more people out to its growing network of activated trails. For the industrial riverfront neighborhood through which the Trestle passes, the new attention could help speed up a promising yet slow process of revival.
Nate Berg is a writer and journalist covering cities, architecture and urban planning. Nate’s work has been published in a wide variety of publications, including the New York Times, NPR, Wired, Metropolis, Fast Company, Dwell, Architect, the Christian Science Monitor, LA Weekly and many others. He is a former staff writer at The Atlantic Cities and was previously an assistant editor at Planetizen.
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