Skinker-Debaliviere Neighborhood

Walker Townhomes - Skinker DeBaliviere Neighborhood

Walker Townhomes - Skinker DeBaliviere Neighborhood

Skinker DeBaliviere and DeBaliviere Place continue to become more dense, with infill taking place on long-vacant empty lots. It’s great to see more development in this bustling part of town, now I wonder if there will be desire to open up the streets and make the neighborhood more functional and efficient to get around.

The Loss Of An Urban Intersection At Skinker and Delmar - A Look at St. Louis in 1970

The Loss Of An Urban Intersection At Skinker and Delmar - A Look at St. Louis in 1970

The city has been unsuccessful in developing and enforcing rules on new construction. This lack of vision has led to scads of suburban sites that have chipped away at the fabric of our city. This has been taking place for years, here's an example of the people fighting back against one such plan back in 1970's Skinker-DeBaliviere.

Proposal for Mixed-Use Building on southeast corner of Delmar and Skinker

Proposal for Mixed-Use Building on southeast corner of Delmar and Skinker

Last year, there was a mixed use proposal for the northwest corner of Skinker and Delmar, this year there is one for the southeast corner. Both would be higher uses at an important entry to the Loop. The Skinker/Debaliviere neighborhood would be more whole with this project and the size matches the existing buildings in the area. A favorite announcement in 2017, for sure.

Kingsbury Park

Kingsbury Park

This is a small pocket park that kind of serves as the "town square" of a small 1980's development that has a very unique, kind of Disney or movie-set feel.  It is not typical St. Louis, but I imagine it has an appeal for folks just wanting privacy and a sense of insular seclusion.

The park had the feel of somewhere you shouldn't be if you don't live in the surrounding Kingsbury Place homes.  I got weird looks from the 2 families that were there.  It's surely not a destination place, but it is a really nice and almost charming place if not a wee bit contrived.   The park feels private not public which I believe is the intent of this part of town.  In fact, you won't find the typical city park signage with brown wood with white etched lettering here.

Lucier Park

Lucier Park

The park is located near Hamilton and Westminster and is pretty hard to find and even harder to get to because of the crazy dead ends, one ways, bollards, etc that make navigating this neighborhood a puzzling maze.

Anyhow, I jumped a few curbs and finally found this park which is nothing more than a small playground and football field complete with 2 field goals.

Copyright St. Louis City Talk