Paths Forward

Great Rivers Greenway is in the business of making connections.

The greenways connect people to nature, to local transit, to local businesses, to local history and culture. They connect neighborhoods to neighborhoods, people to people.  

Great Rivers Greenway, on the cusp of its 25th anniversary in 2025, has built 135 miles of greenways so far in St. Louis, St. Louis County, and St. Charles County. Over the years, the public has grown more familiar with the regional parks and trails district and has learned how they can benefit from the greenways.

“People want them faster than we can build them,” says Emma Klues, the group’s vice president of communications and outreach. “It’s a great place to be in. I also think we’re gaining momentum in that sense of the will of the people regionwide, which is delightful.” 

The ultimate goal is to build a network of more than 600 miles of greenways. The work could take decades. There are about 20 to 25 projects going on at any one time, each an often delicate, coordinated balance of connecting with parks departments, city halls, utilities, contractors, and the wishes of the people. 

Some people may bicycle, walk, or run on the greenways. Some may not use them at all. But they may live near one and want their voices heard. 

“But by and large, the sentiment is through the roof,” Klues says. “The awareness is growing.” 

One current project is the Brickline Greenway, set to cover about 10 miles across St. Louis, connecting four public parks (Fairground Park, Forest Park, Tower Grove Park, and the Gateway Arch National Park) and neighborhoods along the way. Construction of a segment along Market Street from Harris-Stowe State University at Compton Avenue to CITYPARK is expected to start in late summer. 

Two partner connectors will eventually link to the Brickline Greenway. The Tower Grove Connector, led by the City of St. Louis and Greater St. Louis, Inc., will go along Tower Grove and Vandeventer avenues, and the 20th Street Project will complete a loop on the east side of the project. 

The Origin of Connection

What is a greenway? Why not call it a trail, a sidewalk, a pedestrian or bike path?  

“I think of it as trail plus, right?” Klues says. “The paved accessible trail itself, the conservation projects and plants along the way, the amenities: bike racks, benches, restrooms, drinking fountains, and then all the destinations you want to get to.” 

The idea for Great Rivers Greenway got its start in the late 1990s, when business and civic leaders established the nonprofit St. Louis 2004 to create a vision and goals for the region. From that came Proposition C, which voters passed in 2000 to create a sales tax. Another sales tax initiative, Proposition P, also funds the greenways, as well as grants and private funding and other sources.

Great Rivers Greenway, with offices at City Foundry, has grown to about 40 employees. They work with hundreds of partners and thousands of volunteers. Klues says 95 cents of every dollar they spend is returned to the taxpayers in the form of greenway projects and programs. 

“We are 120 towns, and three counties, and 1,200 square miles,” she points out. “It’s the same as the state of Rhode Island or Yosemite National Park, landwise. We have several rivers. There’s interstates everywhere. There’s a ton of really interesting, huge barriers that we have to get around to get everyone connected, and that’s the whole goal, right? Connection is the key word: connecting to nature, connecting to each other, connecting to destinations…that is really the central core of everything.”

Connecting Ideas and Communities

Shaughnessy Daniels, who worked for St. Louis 2004 in the late 1990s, is Great Rivers Greenway’s director of civic engagement. She and her team make sure they get community feedback about every project at every stage of planning, design and construction, sometimes before a greenway takes shape as a line on a map.

“We want to make sure that when we finish a greenway, that residents or community members can say that they had a stake in the process,” she says.

The way the organization reaches people depends on the community, and their methods have changed over time as people communicate differently. Yard signs, social media, traditional media, public surveys, virtual meetings, billboards, erecting pop-up tents, literally knocking on doors — sometimes, they must deploy every tool, she says.  

It’s necessary to dig into people’s concerns, she says, because safety might mean something different to different people. Klues remembers one meeting where planners envisioned rows of trees along a greenway. 

“Someone was like, ‘it’s a hallway of trees!’ And they were just thrilled. And the other person was like, ‘it’s a hallway of trees! This is terrifying.” That person saw the trees as a safety issue, Klues explains. 

Accessibility might also mean something different — some people might be concerned about crossing the street with a stroller, or tree roots that might grow and pop up concrete in a sidewalk, making it difficult to traverse in a wheelchair. Some might want easy access to a greenway from their neighborhood, some might worry about too much public access.

“It’s just a lot of listening and asking for clarification to make sure we can get to the right outcome,” Daniels says. 

Talking with people about one greenway project might mean talking with people from several different municipalities or neighborhoods, and that often brings them together. 

Great Rivers Greenway created an advisory committee of people from seven different St. Louis city neighborhoods to talk about building a greenway along the old Hodiamont tracks. As committee members walked the old streetcar line and got to know one another, they decided to band together to work on eliminating illegal dumping in the alleys. 

“They were stronger and more in a coalition because of having been brought together for us,” Klues says. “They were starting to do their own things, which is great.”   

Daniels and her team are careful to keep track of demographics, getting feedback from different ages, genders, and zip codes. They aim to talk to leaders, people who live near the greenways, and people who don’t live nearby but will use them anyway. 

People from St. Charles may come to a meeting in Maplewood, and that’s OK, Daniels says. 

“When you have a network where people really feel ownership, and it’s not just ownership of their one greenway segment, they feel ownership of the regional network — and they should. I mean, why not? This is for everybody.” 

Daniels said one resident once said she felt like Great Rivers Greenway was bringing the neighborhoods “out of their silos” by bringing them together. 

“And they feel better and stronger as a result of that,” she says. “That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s awesome.”

How does Daniels use the greenways? She lives in Florissant, and one of her favorites is the nearby Sunset Greenway, because it’s windy and close to nature and the Missouri River. She and her husband recently saw a deer on the greenway. 

She also loves the newly renovated Chain of Rocks Park, the history of the bridge as part of Route 66, and the opportunity to walk over the Mississippi River to the Illinois side and back. 

“I just find that fascinating,” she says. 

Planning and Building Connections

Angelica Gutierrez is a senior project manager at Great Rivers Greenway, part of a team who navigates construction challenges, permitting, and unexpected hiccups. She also manages grants and transportation funding. 

Gutierrez grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, where a majority of the population relies on public transportation and bicycles. On Sunday mornings, the city hosts “ciclovias,” Spanish for “cycle ways,” where the majority of streets are closed to all vehicles but bicycles. 

“I miss that,” she says. “Everybody’s healthy, lovely, because they have their places to go and walk and exercise for recreation as well as for commuting, for transportation.” 

She’s an industrial engineer by training, determined to build relationships here so she can do her part to build greenways for the St. Louis area.   

“I like challenges,” she says. “Meeting a new mayor, or city manager — of course I am intimidated a little bit at first. But… I tend to think that I’m easy to talk to.  I can build that relationship. So for me, that’s been great.” 

Together, via meetings, text, and constant communication, Gutierrez works with residents, community partners, designers, engineers and landowners to plan the design, getting feedback as they work through 30 percent, then 70 percent, then 100 percent design of the project. 

The planning takes a tremendous amount of organization and communication.

“It’s a dance, you know?” she says. “Specialities are important, and we need to make sure (of) what we are procuring and what services we need for each project.” 

The work also requires a good system for everyone to be on the same page for project details, budgets, timelines, and scope, and she says Great Rivers Greenway has good systems in place.

“I think your brain has to be in order,” she says. “I remember some of the classes that I took in project management. They tell you, you don’t have to have a good memory. You have to have a good system in place that is reliable and that you can count on whenever, wherever.”

Most of the time, the greenways are built on public lands, where municipalities give them permission to build. That’s the best-case scenario, she says. It’s most challenging to work with the railroad, she says, because they have their own rules they must follow.

Great Rivers Greenway is working on acquiring railroad land which would connect part of the Centennial Greenway from a new community center in Warson Park through Olivette to University City. 

When talking with leaders and members of the public, she often tells them that the greenways are a gift to their community. 

“The space is open to everyone, for walking, for biking, for those pushing a stroller or using a wheelchair,” she explains. “I guess that is the spiel I like to repeat the most: This is a gift for you. We’re trying to make the community better by providing this trail system. You know: connection, connections, meaningful connections.”

How does Gutierrez use the greenways? She lives in Fenton, so she enjoys the Meramec Greenway, and frequents the Centennial Greenway as well as Deer Creek Greenway. She likes to walk with her family, and recently invited some friends to participate in a Great Rivers Greenway-sponsored yoga and walking event.

Maintaining and Growing Connections

Ben Grossman is the public agency’s director of greenway operations, and he and his team are in charge of taking care of the greenways once they’re built, including assets like restrooms, drinking fountains, and bicycle fix-it stations, and supporting municipalities and parks departments to help do the work. 

That also includes conservation efforts such as managing prairie and forest habitats through controlled burning and tree planting as well as removing invasive plant species like bush honeysuckle.

“We work behind the scenes,” he says. “We hope that it just looks beautiful for everybody, and they enjoy it, and it’s what they’ve ever hoped and dreamed for their community.”

Working with several different municipalities to help maintain and beautify a greenway is challenging in that not every city has the resources, expertise, or staff to do the work. Some cities may not have a parks department. 

“We want to make sure, from an equity standpoint, that users throughout the whole region receive all the nice things that you would like to have in a greenway,” Grossman says.  “And maybe because you can’t afford to manage your landscape plants or have a planting bed, for instance, doesn’t mean that your community shouldn’t have one. It just means we need to make a stronger effort to try to make sure that happens, and that’s where we add more resources.” 

Great Rivers Greenway draws out an operations and maintenance agreement for each project, outlining a municipality’s roles and responsibilities for work like mowing and planting. They also offer training, or rent larger equipment like blowers that different partners can use to clear off a pathway, and lend out multiples of tools like rakes and gloves for volunteer events.

“And we’ve just organically seen our partners at these events start talking to each other like, oh yeah, we’ve got this thing, and yeah, we’d be happy to borrow that, or loan that to you guys if you want to,” Grossman says. “And so again, I think it’s just breaking down those barriers and getting folks in the same room to talk.”  

The relationships are helpful when it comes to sudden hiccups, such as incidents of vandalism or if a car runs into a sign or tree. They also need to keep tabs on possible greenway closures in case a utility or construction crew needs to work nearby.  

There’s more acceptance nowadays for planting and maintaining native habitats, Grossman says, and Great Rivers Greenway works to educate people about their work, doing things like posting photos on social media about wildflowers in bloom. 

“Twenty years ago, it was just, you know, why would you let those weeds grow?” he says. “Even putting up a simple sign that says ‘pollinator habitat’ will cut down on 99 percent of the phone calls about, why aren’t you mowing this?”

How does Grossman use the greenways? He lives close to the Dardenne Greenway, so he and his family like to bike there. They are also soccer fans, and like to use the Brickline Greenway at CITYPARK on game days. 

When he walks or rides the greenways, he can see the results of his team’s work, and hopes people notice and feel the same about the greenways as they do.

“The connection is the big thing,” he says, adding that Great Rivers Greenway connects ecological corridors and connects people to places and cultural resources.

“It’s really unique to have such a huge, aspirational resource that is the region’s,” he adds. “It’s not just one community’s. It really is this regional asset. My hopes and dreams are that all of the leaders of our region will see it the same way, and really want to invest in it and make sure this is something that’s around forever.”