First impressions of a city.

I am in St. Louis for a few days attending a training symposium and trade show. It is the first time I've been to this city on the Mississippi for quite a few years, and my impressions are quite mixed. My hotel is very old but recently renovated. My assigned room on the 17th floor is small but nicely appointed. I have a view east to the river and the Veteran's Memorial/Martin Luther King bridge. The view of the famous Arch, though, is blocked by a tinted-glass and steel office tower. Just across the street is the impressive America's Center convention center. People I've dealt with so far, in the hotel, convention center, restaurant, at the airport, have been friendly and helpful. Much of this part of St. Louis seems to be modern and vibrant and based on a foundation more than a century old. The city has a website that offers convenient services to the citizens (including a way to report potholes) and there is even a link on the website to a map of free wi-fi spots in the city. From my window I can see public art, a small park, and things seem clean and well maintained.

But these are kind of secondary first impressions, and quite different from the FIRST first impressions. After claiming my bags at Lambert Field, I travelled the 13.8 miles from the airport to downtown on the MetroLink light rail. Inexpensive, but impressive for all the wrong reasons. Getting to the airport's East MetroLink stop was an adventure in itself. The path led across streets, through parking garages and tunnels, up stairs, down stairs, inside, outside, inside again, and finally up two levels on an elevator. The route was, at least, well marked with signs pointing the way. I'm not sure how well lit the area is at night. I don't think I'd want to take that route at night. Had there not been clear signs with arrows indicating the way to the MetroLink, I would never have gone there in the daytime. It is hard to describe how ugly and uninviting everything looked along the way--how inconvenient it seemed. The floor in most places was wet and/or oily (the weather was warm and dry). The ceiling, when indoors, was low and the passage way narrow. For distances of 10s of meters at a time, the passageway was not wide enough for two people to pass in opposite directions without turning sideways to each other. On one ramp, the walkway was so narrow I could not carry my bags at my side, but had to drag them behind me. When indoors the smell was rank. And everything, walls, ceilings, railings, bannisters, stairs, were all unpainted (except for grafitti) concrete--much of the concrete was stained or crumbling. The feeling was that of an abandoned (hopefully!) war bunker. One's imagination could cause palpitations here! At the elevator, signs indicated two higher levels, "Ticketing," and "Platform." I boarded the elevator and pressed the button for Ticketing. The elevator rose, stopped, the doors opened...onto a completely empty and open area with no attendants, booths, or vending machines visible. I got back onto the elevator and pressed the button for Platform.

Upon arriving at the train platform I found ticket dispensing machines. Cash only. When was the last time you saw that? There were a variety of tickets listed, each with a button to push: One hour; two hours; day pass; week pass, etc. But nothing that told me how long it took to get from the aiport to downtown. I chose the two-hour pass, figuring that to be a good compromise between overspending and not having enough fare for my destination. The machine did, at least work well, and gave me back a quarter in change from my four dollar bills.

I'm glad the weather was nice. The exposed and un-roofed platform was in the middle of two open train tracks, one for an eastbound train and the other for westbound, and I'll bet it can get very uncomfortable here in windy and cold weather. There was no signage or maps telling a passenger which train to get onto to go downtown. A lady at the information desk in the airport had told me to be sure to get on the right train. A loudspeaker did make occasional announcements. For instance, it told the few waiting souls that the westbound train would arrive in 5 minutes and that the train would be out of service on Sunday, sorry for any inconvenience. From a paper map I'd picked up in the airport terminal, I determined that I needed to go East, so I let the westbound train come and go. I asked another waiting person if she knew how often the trains came by and she said she thought every 10 minutes. I did not tell her that I'd already been on the platform for over 20 minutes. Perhaps every 30 minutes is the schedule, for within another 10 minutes an eastbound train was announced and arrived. The train was labled "Shilo/Scott" with no mention of downtown, or of any other intermediate stops, for that matter. Once again, the paper map from inside the airport was the only source I found for the information that I needed. Did I mention that no copies of the paper map were available at the platform?

Once on board, I found the train was clean and relatively comfortable. A map of MetroLink stops posted inside the train did identify the intermediate and ultimate stops. As we rumbled along the driver announced stops, which side the doors would open on, and which bus lines served the upcoming stop. As the train prepared to pull away from each stop she would announce that the doors were closing and you were aboard the eastbound Shilo/Scott train. At least I think that's what she was announcing. I really could never clearly understand the announcements due to a combination of accented dialog, background noise, and a static-y loudspeaker system. During my 40 minutes or so on board many of her announcements were repeated often enough that I managed, I think, to figure out what she was saying. I still don't know where, or what, Shilo/Scott is, since it does not show up on the paper MetroLink map that I got, which ends its coverage at the Missippi River, while the MetroLink apparently goes on eastward into Illinois for some distance.

After we left the airport, the landscape rolling by was striking in the visible blight and decay displayed. Burned-out, tumbled-down, boarded-up, litter-strewn, a nightmare scene of former industrial strength. Right there, naked, in living color for all visitors and natives alike to see. Kabul looks cleaner, more modern, and better maintained. This part of St. Louis truly looked like the aftermath of a war. Perhaps much of our nation will look like this before the current economic crisis ends. I pray not. An old cemetery, headstones askew, seemed to speak of decades, centuries, of human dreams and disappointments. The scenery did improve a bit as we passed UMSL and some medical centers.

Passengers came and went with the stops. Working men and women, some perhaps homeless, college students, college professors, one very well-dressed and distinguished looking man on a power scooter, one young attitude-bearing urban male wearing the lowest sagging pants I've ever seen. As we approached my stop, the rail went underground. Leaving the train, I exited the station over wet tile floors and up concrete steps into the sun, and found myself disoriented. I knew I had to walk west about two blocks to my hotel, but I had no idea which direction was west. I looked for clues on the street signs but did not find anything helpful. I looked for street numbers on buildings. None visible. So, I flipped a coin, turned left and walked that way along Washington Avenue, dragging my luggage along, noisy with its well-worn wheels against the rough concrete.

Now, in an attempt at fairness, I should mention that the St. Louis MetroLink has a helpful website where you can plan a trip in advance. You tell it where you are and where you want to go and the website will provide a detailed itinerary with times, stops, train and bus IDs, and costs. I had not preplanned the trip. I've used light rail in Japan, Europe, other US cities, and the Middle-East and have never needed to pre-plan a trip to get from the international airport to a local convention center. Signage and announcements are generally well designed and posted for the convenience of a stranger. My trip on the red-and-cream colored St. Louis MetroLink was not an unpleasant experience, but, for this stranger, neither was the trip EZ.