Emma Klues, joins us to talk about the Great Rivers Greenway (GRG), a regional public agency which helps connect St. Louis City, County, and St. Charles County with a network of scenic greenways. From lush trails perfect for biking, walking, and running to the history, partnerships, and community engagement, Emma explains the mission of the Great Rivers Greenway and how it came to life in 2000. Urban spaces have been transformed into 140 miles of pathways that not only enhance the beauty of the St. Louis area, but also encourage healthier lifestyles and community connections. These greenways serve as conduits for both recreation and transportation, providing safe routes for cyclists and pedestrians alike.

Emma also shares exciting details about upcoming projects and how the community can get involved, from volunteer opportunities to participating in local meetings. It’s a lively discussion full of laughter and insightful perspectives on how green spaces can enrich our lives and bring people together. So, grab your gear and get ready to explore the great outdoors in St. Louis!

[00:00] Greenways Teaser

[00:31] Show Intro Banter

[02:23] Sponsor and Thought

[03:47] Meet Great Rivers Greenway

[05:29] Funding and Partners

[06:02] Trailnet and River Ring

[07:57] Planning and Land Access

[10:00] Maplewood Connections

[12:15] Brickline Costs and Timeline

[16:12] Break and Sponsor Ad

[17:26] Future Projects Preview

[19:03] North Grand Safety Redesign

[20:25] Hodiamont and Chain of Rocks

[22:12] Volunteering and Cleanup

[22:56] Volunteer Ways to Help

[23:50] How to Sign Up

[24:11] Why St Louis Is Unique

[25:03] Greenway Challenge Game

[25:28] Project Management and Hiring

[26:04] Partners and Free Programs

[27:22] Trail Amenities Fixit Stations

[27:53] Foundation and Fundraising

[29:04] Public Art on Greenways

[31:41] Counting Users With Sensors

[33:44] Elevator Pitch for GRG

[35:32] Sponsor and Dred Scott Message

[37:12] Wrap Up and Mental Floss

[40:42] Laughter Club and Jokes

[46:33] Final Thanks and Sign Off

Takeaways:

1. St. Louis offers amazing greenways for biking, running, and walking, which are a must-try.
2. The Great Rivers Greenway connects over 2 million people across multiple counties for outdoor fun.
3. Emma Klues has been a key player in building these greenways since 2014, promoting community health.
4. Engaging with the community is crucial for the Greenway's development, reflecting local needs and desires.
5. The Brickline Greenway project exemplifies long-term planning, taking years of community input before construction starts.
6. Volunteers can play a vital role in maintaining these greenways, from trash pickup to tree planting activities.

• Homepage - Great Rivers Greenway
• Great Rivers Greenway - Facebook
• Great Rivers Greenway - Instagram
• Great Rivers Greenway - YouTube
• Great Rivers Greenway | LinkedIn

This is Season 9! For more episodes, go to stlintune.com

#greatriversgreenway #bikepaths #greenways #urbanspacetransformation #bicycling #hiking #walking #bikingtowork #stlouisgreenways

You're going to find out more on St. Luis and Pete. Welcome St. Louis in tune.

And thank you for joining us for fresh perspectives on issues and events with experts, community leaders and everyday people who make a difference in shaping our society and world. I'm Arnold Stricker along with co host Mark Langston.

We need a drum roll. I was.

I was waiting for the applause to go there, Mark. I was waiting for that applause.

Yes, we could try to. Thank you very much. Thank you. It's good to be with you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Good to be anywhere. That's right. Thank you very much. I think CNN's doing a special on Elvis, the pelvis.

Really?

Yeah. Yeah.

What's the.

After all these years, who knows? I don't know.

They found him.

They found him though. He's still alive. Did you know that they probably fixed it, but there it used to be misspelled on his tombstone. Aaron. And that was part of the.

Part of the mystery that, oh, he's not in that grave because they didn't spell his name correct on the tombstone.

There's a lot of ways to spell Aaron. That's right. A R, O, N. A R, O,

N. I think it's two A's. Is Elvis is. I think Elvis is two A's.

Okay.

And it only has one A.

Could be E N or E R,

I, N. Oh, you have to confuse this thing.

Blew this case wide open.

I know.

That's Michelle. Two L's, one L. Yeah. E on the end.

Yeah. But they said it was misspelt on the stone. That's why he's not in there.

Oh, okay.

And they said it was really a heavy casket. Too heavy when they carried him.

He was a big guy.

Yeah, he was. Maybe. Yeah.

But they were talking about.

Yeah, who knows? I know. Yeah. Yeah. Elvis is gone.

He.

How old would he be now, though?

I don't know.

He's gone for sure now. Just attrition, isn't it?

That's kind of like what they say about Michael Jackson and all, folks like that because he had a gold casket.

Wow. That's when you got.

I've never seen a hearse pull a U Haul.

Holy smokes.

We're glad that you joined us today, folks, for all of this banter and humor. We want to thank our sponsor, Better Rate Mortgage for their support of the show.

You can listen to previous shows@st.lintune.com where you can also follow us and leave a review.

Our thought to ponder Mark, this is a real good one, especially if you've been watching the Olympics and seen some unbelievable, dramatic kinds of performances, whether it's on the ice or on the snow or wherever it is. And it's usually just ice and snow in the Winter Olympics.

That's why they call it.

But it's don't wait until you've reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take towards reaching that goal. And I see sometimes in the Olympics, people, oh, they did a great job.

But it's, oh, man, I didn't get, I didn't place. But it's like you're at the Olympics.

Yeah, that's what I say, for crying out loud, you're at the Olympics. You're competing in the Olympics, for Pete's sakes. Yeah, I'd be happy with that.

Yeah. So folks out there, if you're not reaching that goal yet, just be proud of the way that you've accomplished what you've accomplished. That much.

You don't get a participation ribbon all the time, but you were part of a great thing.

And what have you learned along the way?

Oh, no telling. Yeah.

It shapes people. I tell you what, they have a process that's continuing and they celebrate along the way. They that is the Great Rivers Greenway.

And on the side, she's a CSTL tour guide through the Missouri Historical Society. She's been an accomplished marketer for a variety of nonprofit organizations. Mark. In and around St. Louis. And I love this.

She's a certified laughter leader.

Yes.

She's a graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a BS in advertising and a minor in environmental Studies. Welcome to St. Louis in Tune.

Thank you so much for having me. I can't follow Elvis, but I'll do what I can.

Now, Emma, some people probably know about the Great Rivers Greenway, some people probably don't. Some people take advantage of it like Mark and myself, either walking or riding the bikes.

What is the Great Rivers Greenway and give a little historical perspective on them.

Absolutely. So we are a regional public agency. We're connecting, as you said, St. Louis City, St. Louis county and St. Charles county together.

With a network of greenways. So greenways are a paved pathway where you can walk, run, push a stroller, roll a wheelchair, ride a bicycle, get outside and enjoy.

You can use them to get around or just get some exercise, make some memories. And we're the ones that are working with communities and partners to bring these to life more and more every year.

And how long has this been going on?

We have 140 miles on the ground and counting.

And is this a.

That's important because it's nice that it's funded.

Yeah.

I always thought, gosh, they're funding themselves, basically.

Yeah, it's a. It is a mix, I will say. So the people voted for it. And it does have that steady funding.

But then we also try to apply for federal grants and leverage other opportunities. We have a 501c3 nonprofit foundation to help people can donate. So it does take all kinds.

But we do have that study funding because that's what the people wanted.

Yeah. The maintenance of the. Keep these trails up and everything is really expensive. And I'm glad that there is a source of funding for it so that.

So that there's money trickling in anyway, goes St. Louis.

Yeah. Because we're going to talk about current projects and future projects, but this.

If you ride or drive through the city, you might see trail net signs, Mark. Maybe you see that or the bike things on the street.

And that's like way, way back, the initial kind of thing where they were trying to put trails through the city.

Yeah. Trailnet existed before we did.

And so they built some of the first parts of Graveway Greenway, also known as Grant's Trail, and part of the Mississippi Greenway, or the Riverfront Trail downtown.

And.

And then as we came to be, we adopted those and brought them into the greenway network that we're building with partners.

But trailnet also continues to do advocacy and planning work for street routes, whether that be a bike lane or improved sidewalks throughout the region. And so it's great to have both.

Okay, so they're still in effect, are they? Did you take over trailnet or they're separate.

No, they're a nonprofit organization. We actually have a fun Venn diagram to explain to people. Like, we want the same things, but we go about it in different ways.

So they're doing a lot of the bike rides, education programs, and a lot of the advocacy and planning work to be able to improve the streets. And then we're building the greenway trails. So we are more of a builder and they are more on that planning and advocacy side.

And these cities, these greenways, are like encircling around the rivers or the borders of that. Is that kind of one of the theories?

One of the original concepts was. Yes, it was called the river ring. The idea of connecting the whole region together.

We've got the Mississippi and the Missouri and the Merrimack Rivers are generally somewhat of the borders of those three counties. And that has evolved over the years, though, because everything is driven by a community engagement.

People want a lot of different connections to where they need to go get groceries or their neighborhoods or schools or churches or work. And so some of them still are along or connecting to the waterways. Some of them are more in neighborhoods and business districts. It's a mix.

People want both because a lot of it is. We're different than Europe, obviously. We rely on vehicles, we rely on automobiles, and the roads are bigger here.

People like suburbia and things like that. And Europe's a little more bicycle friendly, but it's a whole nother. They're a lot older kind of communities.

So in order to build these greenways and get people like from home to work, which is one of the goals, I think, or you go shopping and things like that, how do you go about planning and saying, oh, gee, we need a greenway here, we need a greenway here. And I know you've used in the past old rail lines. And I'm going to get to Mark and I know about this line, the Hodomont line.

Yep.

I've actually drilled.

You say Hodemont or Hodiamont.

They say it's pronounced Hodiamont, but I always knew it was Hodemont.

I've heard both.

Yeah, I guess. Yeah.

And I remember riding the streetcar.

We called it Hodiamont. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, yeah. Back in the day, Hodemont. So coming up, too. But what's your process for figuring this all out?

Because I know you have some upcoming meetings about some of these things.

We do. So the process is really varied depending on where you are.

That's going to be my answer to almost every question, because we are in such A large region. So sometimes there are available railroad lines. Most of the rail in St. Louis is still quite active.

We're really still quite a freight hub of the country.

But.

But if there is abandoned railroad, that's a great opportunity because it's typically already been cleared and flat and things like that. Sometimes we're working within the public right of way.

So for instance, maybe a street is seven lanes wide and we maybe don't need it to be as big as it is. You mentioned the big roads.

So sometimes we're taking perhaps part of a street to narrow it down, still allowing for as much traffic as it needs, but giving some space on the side for a greenway. Sometimes it might be going through a park, sometimes it might be through a neighborhood common area. Sometimes it might be again a business district.

It really varies. We don't have the power of eminent domain. We're not taking anyone's land from them. We work with the willing. So this might be negotiating.

Do we have an easement? Do we have someone donate a piece of their land? Do we need to purchase an easement or something?

It.

It we really just look at that given scenario again, talking to the community first. Is this where you want to connect? What are your key destinations? What are your priorities? And. And then we figure out how we can make it happen.

Whether that be with a municipal partner, a state agency, the local landowners. There's hundreds, literally hundreds of partners to try to figure it out together. So it's a big variety.

I was mayor in Maplewood when it came through our city and I can say that I was an advocate. Maybe it was even my idea to go under Laclede Station Road.

So instead of taking the greenway, it went through Deer Creek park, came from Webs through Deer Creek Park. And then we're going, how are we going to get on the other side? And I said, why don't you go under? So they went under alongside the bank of it.

Now it floods out. I don't know. Floods out a lot.

It's sometimes, yeah, sometimes the greenways are underwater, but rather that than somebody's home or development.

And it's a great. And people don't have to stop when it is all cleared out. It's a wonderful shot. And I watched it from when I was in office to just.

This is going to be a great thing for St. Louis. And. And it's every year you just keep moving forward with this. It's fantastic what you've been doing with it.

Thank you. Thank you for that work too. That one's actually about to extend further through Maplewood and over to The City of St. Louis at Francis Slay Park.

Yep. Yep. There was always a discussion on how to get it there.

Yeah. Yep. So it'll come out of that shopping center we're under construction right there.

There used to be a McDonald's right there on the corner of big bend and Oxford.

They're making that.

And that's under construction for a park and trailhead.

Yeah.

Because the one from Francis Lake park would actually escort you down to the river to pere.

Right.

Yes. So this will be so. Right. Francis lay park will be the confluence, if you will, of the river to pear Greenway.

That goes down all the way to Crondalette park and then also connects to Gravway Greenway, Grants Trail, which gets you all the way to Kirkwood and the Deer Creek Greenway. That comes from Webster and Maplewood.

Yeah. Which is cool.

It is, really. You can spend all day on riding around.

Yeah, you can.

It's going to be more about what you can handle than what the like.

It's about how many miles you can do at that point, which is an exciting problem to have that you've got lots of options and people can get to lots of places.

When you're not riding on the street and you're not having to worry about vehicular traffic.

Yeah. They had a couple plans to go through, I think, downtown Maplewood or the block over. And we oppose that. I know. Trying to find a different way to go.

Yeah.

It's coming on Greenwood.

Yeah.

So it won't be quite. It won't be, like, right in the heart of downtown Maplewood, but on Greenwood to Canterbury. Right.

And so that way, if you're close to there, you could just hop down from downtown and get there. But you're not also, like, further congesting on a business.

And it's safer that way, too.

And bring some new life to those businesses that are on that on Greenwood.

So the latest one, I think completed was Brickline downtown.

Yeah. Brickline greenway is.

We're finishing right now the section on Market street between 22nd street and Compton, so between the energizer park stadium and Harristow State University. So that is really exciting. It's about a mile. And the big party will be on April 13th. You're all invited.

Good.

Yeah. I've watched that construction happen, and it's very beautiful.

And I appreciate what was done on Olive down by Harris Stowe, where just went back to two lanes there and the brick line for the bikes and for the walking path has taken up some other lanes. What is the cost of something like that?

Great question. They really vary, I would say, at this point. And again, remember that we're thinking about this. These are. These are ADA accessible.

So sometimes in that case, it's pretty flat, but sometimes they require grading or ramps or things. For that project, it's probably between 15 and 20 million dollars a mile. So it also includes the public art.

It includes all new infrastructure, rebuilding the street. Sometimes it's new utilities or utility relocation.

And so these are more expensive than some of our early projects, you can imagine, I'm sure, than the Deer Creek Greenway and Maplewood originally. But when you're in that urban context, you're really building the city. And it's a quite a different animal altogether.

And that's a nice benefit mark for the city because they're getting. The olive was paved, which is nice yet.

Market Street.

Yes, Market Street. That was a mess. Yeah, that was.

It really was ready to be paved. Yeah.

And the city can say, hey, you've got that done for us now.

Yeah.

Very grateful to the partners of the city and Harris Stowe and the soccer stadium, everybody along the way, Wells Fargo, all of those partners are coordinating and making sure that we're doing everything the way that's going to work for everyone.

Now, I know a lot of the planning for that. You guys go out to the community. You have, I guess, my words listening session, talk to them. I don't know if you present. Hey, these are some options.

And then how often. How long does this take from.

Okay, we'd like to put something here in this part of the city and if it actually goes through to fruition, like how long did the green the brick line take from beginning thought to almost completion here?

They certainly do. Again, they vary. I told you it'd be the answer to every question. However, it. It really depends on the project. I would say sometimes the.

Probably the soonest that you could go from just an idea to starting construction is two years.

That would be pretty fast in terms of thinking about all the different things that you need community input, but then also the design and engineering permits, zoning, or all kinds of things like that. Sometimes it will take quite a bit longer and depending on like this bricklaying. Greenway was an overall concept.

Wow.

So not unlike the redo of the Arch grounds, the Sea Arch river project, of which we were a partner. So we wanted to get a lot of big ideas and we wanted to hear from the community for the project overall.

So the brick line and Greenway is 10 miles and it's as many. It's connecting Forest park to the Gateway Arch National Park, Fairground park and Tower Grove park and many places in between.

So we really started at that big concept level. It's almost like a plan within our larger plan.

And, and then you break it up into segments and then again, like this specific Market street, that's probably more on that, oh, three or four years of design and study before construction. But the overall, this overall project we're going on, nine, ten years of thinking about the brick line overall. But then you have to make the plan.

What federal funding do you go after? How do the projects move forward? Where, what are the routes that are going to make sense? Studying that technical feasibility.

And in the city of St. Louis, you've also got, where do you have trolley tracks buried underneath? Where do you have what are you going to find? What's possible?

And studying traffic patterns and making sure we're still serving the needs of traffic while also reducing and creating some space for people to safely walk and bike.

Yeah, that'll be great because when we ride from downtown to Forest park, we're going through Harris Stowe campus, we're going through the Slough campus, we're going down Pine all the way to the park there. When you cross Kings highway, that's a real risk right there.

He has, he has an electric bike, though, so don't feel too, that's true. Don't feel too sorry for him.

We still have Big Street. We'll be going under on Clayton Avenue into the park there.

Isn't that great? Yeah, I think it's great. When they get away from the traffic, I do, too. Yeah, I'm all for it.

We're going to take a quick break. This is Arnold Strucker with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune. We're talking to Emma Clues.

She's vice president of communications and outreach for the Great Rivers Greenway. Don't go away. Don't put that bike up yet. We'll be right back.

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We are talking all things Great Rivers Greenway with Emma Clues, vice president of communications and outreach. You guys have a great headquarters there at the City Foundry. City Foundry, right.

Yes.

If you've ever gone to the show there, the movie theater, I'm dating myself using these kinds of terms. You walk right by their office.

I didn't know that.

Stop by any time.

Yeah.

And the Foundry is kind of an interesting place. Not giving them a plug, but a shameless plug here. There's a lot of things to do there.

You can shop, you can eat, and you can go to the movies and you can visit the Great Rivers Greenway.

Yeah. Yeah.

And stop in and see Emma. Say, hey, I heard you on St. Louis in Tune.

That's right.

Can you tell me more about what's going on? Speaking of more, what are the future projects that you guys have that you can talk about and maybe some that you can just squeeze them out of you?

And do you have volunteers?

Yes. One thing at a time, y'. All. Okay. So we have lots of future projects. Incredible things coming up.

I was just pulling up the event calendar to remind everybody because we talked about public engagement is a big piece of what we do. We always want to hear from y'.

All.

So there is an open house for Deer Creek Greenway in Rock hill tonight from 5 to 7 at Rock Hill City Hall. There's also one on Thursday night for Deer Creek Greenway in Ladue, Ladue City hall from four to six.

So I just have to shout out those ways to be able to really engage and again, hear from people directly. You mentioned earlier listening sessions. Sometimes we're doing door to door. Sometimes it's a mailing.

Sometimes we're having an open house like this where we get feedback. We might be going to your neighborhood meeting where we try to be as many places as possible to reach as many people as possible.

And yeah, those are projects that are in the earlier days of planning and so we really that that community input is critical from a construction perspective. We just talked about Market Street. We also have other parts of the Brickline Greenway and construction.

North grand is another one that is actively working. It's looking great. That's another one where the street was way wider than it needed to be.

And it was actually one of the most dangerous streets in the country from a crash and injury and fatality perspective. In the four years of study, there were 700 crashes. 335 of them had injuries. 35, I'm sorry, 17 disabling injuries and seven fatalities in four years.

And so we're thrilled to be reimagining that street to work for everyone. So not only is it not nearly as many lanes, you've got the Greenway on one side, but it also makes a difference for someone just crossing.

If you're pushing a stroller across seven lanes of traffic, that's a big. Even if you're not on the greenway, you're just going to the bus stop or going to church.

Wherever you're going, it's now much safer even just across the street. So regardless of whether you're using the greenway or just that's your neighborhood and you're getting around. But I digress.

There's also construction going on. We're working toward construction for the next section of Centennial Greenway and Olivet. So we're making our way.

If y' all are familiar with the Centennial Greenway that starts in Shaw park in Clayton, it goes north along 170 and it ends right now at Olive. And so we're working on the section. This is actually a rail abandoned railroad segment.

So right between Chevy's and cvs, there's a little piece there that we're working on, the design for that. So that will go into construction fairly soon as well. And gosh, we talked about Hodomont earlier.

So the western trailhead of the Hodomont Greenway is under construction. Gwen Giles park is a city park. That's right at Skinker at the edge of the city.

So that's under construction to redo the park as well as put in the first part of the Haudemont Greenway.

See, Mark, that's what's interesting. It's just not the Greenway park. It's building a park for kids to play in, having activities along the way.

You have an eagle watching at the old Chain of Rocks bridge and you can ride there through downtown St. Louis to get to the Chain of Rocks bridge.

That's great.

If you haven't been up there. It is the. It's one of the best place for eagles.

It's cool.

Wow.

So if you haven't been up there recently in the last couple of years, I do highly recommend.

Wow.

It's great.

Yeah.

I'd love to have a campground along the Greenway somewhere.

All right.

So you can ride your bike and then.

And then camp out.

Bike packing. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Bike. Yeah. Yep.

All right. You're in charge of that.

Okay.

Okay.

Kind of like a BV park. Bicycle vehicle. Recreational.

Yep.

Area there.

There's one up. I don't know somewhere in Missouri where they do that.

Is that along Katy Trail?

Katy Trail?

Yeah, the Katy Trail.

They have one. Yeah.

Tough thing about that. That's. Man, that's really flat.

Is it.

Oh, my gosh.

That's a. Rails to trails. Yeah, that's it.

Yeah.

Okay.

I've never been on the Katy Trail, but it's terrible.

But I haven't.

It's long too. All the way across the state.

Yeah.

But you can ride across the street and then take the train back.

Now. That's fun. Yeah, that's fun.

I haven't done it. We've gone a long way, but.

Yeah. Have you been on the train ever?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, okay. Just all part but on the train.

I love the train.

I didn't get on the train until 20 years ago. 30 years ago. For the first time. I'm not going to tell how old I am, but it was like, wow, I can't. I know. For a long time now. Yep.

Great Rivers greenway.org and what Emma was talking about. These upcoming events. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can see some of those.

The

volunteer opportunities that people can utilize that you guys need volunteers to do a variety of things. What are those things?

Absolutely. The Greenways need you and they appreciate your support. So a lot of the things that we offer are trash pickup. Right. So that's easy.

Almost anyone can do it. All ages are welcome. We also have.

Sorry, but trash has become really a problem.

We really want these places to be beautiful.

We drive along the highway and I am. I'm shocked at the things I see. It's like you just took that cup and threw it out the window. It's. Wow.

Personal responsibility.

I know. I'm sorry. That's one of my pet peeves, though.

You're selling the Volunteer opportunity. I appreciate it.

I need it. You do?

You really need.

And that's great that you're out there picking up somebody else's trash.

Absolutely.

And it's also. It's a good workout. You get some fresh air and it's really like I could do a trash pickup every day.

There's also lots of great removing of invasive stuff species like honeysuckle. Can you get some anger out?

And you might want to lift something

up out of the ground. Get that bush honeysuckle out of there.

Get it out of there.

We also have some tree plantings. We've got partners like Forest Relief of Missouri, so we work with them to plant trees in public spaces.

And then there's also some volunteer opportunities, like being on a community advisory committee for the project that's coming to your neighborhood or being one of our ambassadors that helps us staff our outreach booth. So we have, when there's a. An event in town, like we'll have a booth at Festival of Nations or St. Louis. Earth Day is coming up.

Different things like that. So we have volunteers that help us to give out maps and answer questions. And we have all kinds of volunteer opportunities.

Feel free to check them out.

How do people get yes.

On the website there is a volunteer section under Get Involved. So you can fill out that interest form. And Giovanni, our volunteer coordinator, will get in touch with you.

Our daughter lives in Kansas City and they're. They're just getting going a little bit on this. But you go down to northwest Arkansas, they have a huge slug of trails down Razorback Greenway.

St. Louis is very unique.

To have this group and the support that they have through their funding and the outreach that they get through federal grants and other kinds of things and donations and the 501C3. To put this all together for our city and our region, it's just really wonderful. It's really wonderful.

It is really unique to my knowledge. And somebody tell me if they've heard differently, but I don't know of any other entity that's structured the way we are.

Many people in the world are building trails and building greenways, but to have three counties and 120 towns come together and vote on something to invest in their sales tax dollars into. Connecting everything together is to, to the best of my knowledge, completely unique.

So I really give St. Louis credit, the region for doing this and coming together and voting for this. And it's really motivating for us as a team to. We're just delivering this back to the people that's who wanted It. That's who voted for it.

That's who gives us the input and drives the decision making. And we actually have created an online challenge if you ever want to really understand what it's like to bring a greenway to Life.

So it's greatriversgreenway.org challenge, but you get to make all the decisions. So how do you want to engage the community? What do you want to do about the endangered bats in the tree? How do you want.

When's your construction timeline? Basically, can you bring a greenway to life on time, on budget, and with as much impact as possible for the community?

Wow.

So it's a cool way to see all the different things that go into it. But yeah. Tell me your high score now.

Do you have a construction manager who is on staff who oversees these projects or is it basically bid out and then that contractor handles the management of that?

A little bit of both. So we do bid out. These are.

We work with local contractors, both on the early design, landscape architecture, engineering side as well as the construction side. But we have our project management team who do oversee and are out there checking how it's going, doing those site visits, that kind of thing.

And you're also looking for a cfo?

We are, yes. If anybody would like to be our director of finance and admin, we wish our lovely Michael Carson the best in his retirement.

But we are looking for a new person for that role.

I wanted you to get that on the air.

Thank you. Thank you.

Vendors and partnerships. There's people who might supply some kinds of other than funding for the Great Rivers Greenway and also people that you.

Groups that you partner with talk about those specific opportunities.

Yeah. So many different partnerships. We've.

I worked here for 12 years now and I've not yet thought of someone we wouldn't partner with because we're just everywhere. So again, challenge extended. If you can think of anyone. We have the partners of the municipalities and the cities and towns, obviously.

We've got all of the county agencies and state agencies. Agencies. We have nonprofits, churches, schools, companies, everybody along the way because we just are embedded in these communities.

So those types of partnerships to bring the greenways to life are very vast. And then we have partners. We mentioned trailnet earlier. We have nonprofit organizations that might partner with us to do programming on the greenway.

We're working with St. Louis Bicycle Works on some of their wonderful earn a bike and learn to ride programs. We have programs like STL Run Crew is a great meetup in town that does walking and running.

Events like just community getting together, beginner bird watching with St. Louis Audubon Society, you name it. That calendar is full of events. Everything we do is free and open to anyone.

And working a lot with partnerships because they're the experts with bird watching, for example. Right. So we'll welcome you to the greenway, but then we'll really turn it over to them to teach you that skill.

So we find a lot of partnership value in those types of partnerships as well.

Now, along the way, like if you're riding your bike and you have a flat tire and you don't have the supplies I've seen at some trails, I'm not sure if it's on these that there are like a bike maintenance area.

Yes, we do have a few of those bike fix it stations. So it's got like a stand so you can put your bike up and work on it. And then you've got your basic tools to be able to.

To change out a flat if you know what to do. The tools are there just like on a cable cord that you can use. So they stay there. But yeah, happy to provide those.

And sometimes we've even had the local bike shop donate that for the greenway, which is wonderful.

That's great.

Now, the foundation, tell us a little bit about the foundation. I know it's separate from the organization, but they collaborate in a variety of ways.

Absolutely. And yeah, very integrated.

So the Great Rivers Greenway foundation, you can remember that one, is our opportunity to really work with those who are so excited about the Greenways and want to give back.

And so people can invest their dollars, whether that be just A$5 a month or something, where they want to give several million dollars to a big project.

And to make it happen, we're working with folks all over the region and those are fully tax deductible gifts that can go to a traditional nonprofit rather than a government agency. And then they also work on doing their own, some of their own programs and events.

So they have a mornings outside series that they're doing right now for some of our friends of Great Rivers Greenway, just to make sure that we're getting people out to the greenways and maybe ones that they've never been to sometimes. I don't know about y', all, but a lot of times you have a go to right. That's closest to you. And so it's a great opportunity.

All of our programs and events are ways to get people out there a little bit more. And they do have something coming up. I will just say I got a plug. They've got something.

Coming up on Sunday afternoon, Urban Chestnut Brewing Company is hosting us for Stein's for support, which is what their local give back program. So got to give that a shout out as well.

Good.

Oh, yeah, I love it. Go.

You mentioned art.

Yes.

What kind of art? And I know Metrolink. Metro has art along the Metrolink. And some people, Michael, who cares? I'm out there looking at nature. I'm just walking.

I'm just bike riding.

And a lot of people when I'm on the trail, they're plugged in rather than being plugged into nature and listening to the birds or whatever talk about the art, why the art? And how do artists, local artists, get a possibility to have one of their sculptures displayed?

Absolutely. Public art is a great opportunity to really enhance the Greenway experience and also to connect you to St. Louis.

So we think of public art as one of the tools of interpretation. So if you are thinking about all the stories of the places that you're traveling through, you might learn about those through a sign.

You might learn about those through a tour. But public art is another way of learning about this place, and that might be what's happening right now. It might be something from the past.

And throughout the Greenway, some of the pieces are just about being beautiful and adding to your experience and something to see. Some of them are temporary. Some of them are permanent.

We've done temporary banner exhibits, especially on north grand, where the Brickline Greenway is now under construction. Before it was there, we did a temp. We had four local artists do banners on the street.

Light poles kind of help signal, hey, this is going to be coming. And let's celebrate some of the stories of our neighborhood before we even build the thing. Sometimes it's also.

There's a mural, for instance, if y' all have ever been to the Mary Meacham Freedom Crossing, the Underground Railroad site that's about three miles north of the arch. There's an amazing mural on the side of an MSD facility. Thank you.

To be able to help interpret that story and because you might, like you said, you might just blow right past and not think about, oh, this is where people cross the river to try to attempt to get to freedom. And so things like that can make you pause and reflect or spark your curiosity to learn more.

We're certainly not the keepers of all things history, but if we can put up right now, we're working on that. That Pillars of the Valley installation is on Market street, the segment we were talking about.

So if those Pillars of the Valley can spark your interest to go check out Gwen Moore's incredible exhibit at the Missouri History Museum, for example. That's a great opportunity for people to learn about it just as they're going into the soccer game or just as they're taking a walk to.

To get to work. And to your point earlier about how can people get involved, if anyone, whether it's an artist, engineer, contractor.

If you go to our website, at the bottom of the web of every page is a subscribe button, and we do have email alerts for any opportunities that we put out.

So if you want to know when there's an engineering contract or when there's a call for public art, you can subscribe to all those specific opportunities.

Is there a way to determine how many people utilize all of the greenways or a specific greenway during a year?

Doesn't he ask good questions?

He does. And we, and I, we do have a way. We have our best guests.

There's hidden cameras.

Hey, take it easy. Take it easy. You didn't know. We have. The brand that we use is called eco counters.

So these are a nondescript brown pole, and it's just an infrared sensor to know whether someone is passing or not. So it's not a camera.

We don't know who they are, but we do know whether someone is passing that spot and which direction and whether a bike is present or not. Obviously, they might be walking, running, other things, but we. They can sense the metal as well. So we have a sense of it. So now that's.

Those are just in some spots along the greenway. It's not a perfect science, but it's a way for us to project.

We have about 3 million trips on the greenways every year, so we know people are using them. Now, those. That doesn't mean 3 million unique people, but 3 million trips.

And some people might never go past a sensor because they're on a different part of the greenway. And some people might go past it 10 times because they're doing laps. So that's an estimate of what we're able to track. But it's a.

It also really helps us understand on a sunny Saturday morning, On the Centennial Greenway in St. Charles, you have a ton of bikes. You've got a lot of people out there, they're having a great time. On a rainy Monday morning, there's almost no one.

And that helps you start to understand this is probably not for transportation. This is probably more of a recreational greenway, which we have a sense of, but it's good to have that data.

Whereas the St. Vincent Greenway, that's just north of the Missouri History Museum, that parallels the Metrolink line all the way up to Umsel, rainy Monday morning, it's still cranking.

That's.

People are using that to get to transit. They're going to work, they're going to school, and so that the eco counters.

While we don't know who's out there, we do get some hints as to how they might be using it, which can help us plan what kind of amenities it might need. Maybe where a bike fix it station would do well, that kind of thing.

That's really valuable information.

Yes, really valuable, especially for future planning and the utilization of what's going on and then your maintenance, how you're going to maintain it, things like that.

Oh yeah.

And how it might change over time too. Sometimes as they get more connected, it might change the usage.

If you can get to new places, it might not be just the local traffic anymore or different. They may evolve over time.

Okay, so I'm somebody from out of town and I see you on the elevator in a building and I notice that you have a. A name tag on that says Great Rivers Greenway. And I say, what's Great Rivers Greenway?

Emma?

We are the, your regional public agency that's connecting the whole region together with Greenway so you can get outside.

Okay, how about that?

Okay.

And then I'd say, do you have five hours we can talk about it?

Give the 45 second because we're going up to the 20th floor.

And where are you? Yeah, where are you from now?

Serious? I'm from Resume speed Missouri. Okay.

So yeah, I would say so we work with communities all over our region to get their input and then bring to life this network of paved pathways that are accessible. We've got conservation projects along the way, public art, free programs and events all the time.

We want to connect the St. Louis region together and connect all the incredible things that are here already so that people can really have a dynamic experience and increase the vibrancy in our region. It also increases our economic vitality, transportation options, public health, community connections, and the overall just.

This is a great place to be, which we know, but it makes it more fun when you can go really connect everything.

Doesn't she do a great job, Mark?

Yes, I think, yeah.

Great. Rivers Greenway board and executive director. She does a great job.

Oh yeah.

Thank you. Thank you.

We thank you for coming in. You can stick around. We're going to be doing a couple other things and I want to hit on your side bar job that you have.

It's not really a paid job, but we'll come back to that. And folks, hopefully we've tantalized you with what that is.

What could that be?

What could that be? This Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune. Don't go away.

Everyone in St. Louis promises a better mortgage rate, but what you really need to turn that perfect house into your dream home is a better mortgage. At better rate mortgage, we open the door to so much more.

Whether you're purchasing your first home or taking cash out to make your dream home even dreamier, our door is open. Come on in and get started today. We'll show you how.

The decision declared that Dred Scott could not be free because he was not a citizen.

The Dred Scott Heritage foundation is requesting a commemorative stamp for to be issued from the US Postal Service to recognize and remember the heritage of this amendment by issuing a stamp with the likeness of the man Dred Scott. But we need your support and the support of thousands of people who would like to see this happen.

To achieve this goal, we ask you to download, sign and share the one page petition with others. To find the petition, please go to dredscottlives.org and click on the Dred Scott Petition drive on the right side of the page.

On behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage foundation, this has been Arnold Stricker of St. Louis in tunes. Yeehaw.

Yeehaw

had a great conversation with Emma Clues, vice president of communications and outreach at the Great Rivers Greenway. Great riversgreenway.org folks. Unbelievable group. You need to connect with them, get involved.

Check their website out, see how you can assist with them. If you can do that, other than utilize the greenways for walking or bike riding.

And I'm gonna go. They. You can design one a greenway. I'm gonna go design one. I want to see just how smart I am.

We're gonna destroy i70 and put the greenway right there.

You heard it here first, people.

If they're not gonna put metrolink down the middle, we'll put the green.

58% of the respondents believe Sherlock Holmes was a real person, while 20% said that Winston Churchill was not.

Wow.

What are they teaching over there?

Oh, that's wow. Yeah.

And you know the state with the most area codes, Mark, think about it.

Let me think. Missouri. No, wait. The other one would be California.

California, 35.

Holy smokes.

That's what I thought. Followed by Texas with 27 and New York with 19. Oh, my God. Eleven states have only one area code. Kind of like Wyoming, South Dakota.

Oh, okay.

Probably Idaho.

Okay, that's weird.

Now, Missouri is one of the few states that has eight states bordering it.

Wow. I know a lot of horses, too.

California. You're out of luck with that one.

Yeah. Oh, they don't have anything. Right. That's it. They're going to fall in the ocean.

Yeah.

They might just wait till that big.

That's that great earthquake.

That big earthquake could be. What is it called? The.

The big one.

Yeah. No, I don't know what it is.

Yeah. San Andreas fault.

Thank you. Thank you. Gosh darn it. Thank you very much. I couldn't remember. OK, what happens?

Is it St. Andreas Day today?

No, no, but there are a couple. It's National Tortilla Chip day. Do you like tortilla chips?

I can dig that.

You can dig that. Okay. It's flag day in Mexico.

Hola. Anybody watching their flag right now?

Hola. That's the only thing I know. Oh, wait a minute. Where was that? National Steak Burger day.

Do you like steak and shake?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Steak and shake. That's right. Or Freddy's.

Freddy's. Freddy's.

Freddy's. I'm. I've been becoming a Freddy's fan lately.

Yes.

National Trading card Day. Did you ever do trading cards?

I never did. Did you?

No. My son Michael's doing it with baseball cards.

Okay.

I am alarmed at how much they're worth. It's amazing. I'm like, what?

Some of them, especially the old ones.

Oh, it's unbelievable.

Turn of the 20th century ones, huh?

Yeah. And I'm having trouble with my. My days of the days. But those are a couple of World Bartender Day. That's one of your favorites. I know, I know.

At Twin Peaks Day. Don't understand that one at all. But that's about.

Yeah, Okay.

I don't know where. If I've got anything else. Yeah, I've got other. Nothing.

Emma's stuck around because it's really important to. We're honored that she's also a certified laughter leader. A small but mighty group of us have met up to laugh once a week for over a decade.

Yeah.

It's not like it's a book club, it's a laugh club.

Wow. It is, really?

And you do laughter yoga?

We do. So does that work? Okay. Laughter yoga. It's a little bit of a misnomer, so we just call it laughter club.

But the doctor that invented it uses some of the same deeper breathing as yoga. And laughter is very good for you.

That's why we do laughter at the end of the show.

I mean, we all know this, but he was really studying all the benefits of laughter. It flushes that sailor out of your lungs, oxygenates your whole body. One minute of belly laughter is like three minutes on a rowing machine.

That's just good time management. Okay. That's okay. It's great for you.

And so he was doing all this research and he discovered that your body can't tell the difference between real and fake laughter. So it doesn't matter if you think it's funny, you just laugh anyway. It's good for you, really. Which is like all exercise.

Like, you don't have to like it, you just do it. So he created this practice. It's all over the world in almost every country. There's thousands and thousands of clubs.

And you get together and do silly little things like, okay, let's pretend you're taking a laughter pill and then you're throwing them to each other. Whatever. Yeah, right. And you just. We basically get together and laugh for about 45 minutes.

It's a very good workout, but it's a very non traditional workout. But it's super fun and it's a great way to start your Friday.

I initially thought that. Yeah, I initially thought that you're laughing at somebody who can't get in that yoga position.

There's a lot of that going.

No, that's part of the beauty of it is that you're not laughing at anyone, just laughing. It does. You don't have to make fun of anybody. Great.

We laugh all the time. Yeah, I know.

We do. You're getting a good workout because we've talked about that. You sometimes. If it's a relief valve.

Exactly.

Other than crying.

Yes.

Or getting angry. It's a great relief valve. We like to do that. So here we go. Mark, you have your joke that you were going to say.

I have one joke. Yes.

Okay.

I don't know if it's a joke. I went to the doctor the other day.

Okay.

And he said, how's your bowel movement? I told you this was not. And I said, I poop every day about seven o'. Clock. He goes, that's good. And I said, I get up at 8. Thank you very much.

I'm just trying. I know. It's just.

Okay. Did you know that the rule I before E except after C has been disproved by science? Science. S, C, I, E, N, C, E. If you have to explain it, then

he's an old teacher.

Principal. Even tablets were replaced by scrolls. Scrolls were replaced by books. Now we scroll through books on tablets.

Two burly men came to my house the other day to lay new flooring in my kitchen. Once they'd moved the stove, dishwasher and refrigerator out of the way, the job was done in no time.

And when they were getting ready to leave, I asked them, can you put the appliances back? They waved a piece of paper in my face and demanded $45, saying, that wasn't in our contract.

Being small and alone with my granddaughter just arriving, I had no choice but to pay. And a few minutes later, the doorbell rang. It was the two men again.

They asked if we could move my granddaughter's car, which was blocking their van in the driveway. I told them there was a fee of $60.

And you might remember this JFK President John F. Kennedy statement when he was saying, we're going to commit to getting a man on the moon before the end of the decade. And he said, we don't do this because it's easy. We do this because it's hard. Okay. So here was an inspirational message on a sign in a building.

We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it was easy.

What is? They get worse. Emma. Emma, you should run now.

This is great.

In the Restroom at Walmart. I found a sign that read think on the mirror above the sink. So I pulled out my marker and wrote soap above the soap dispenser to match it. Wow.

Yeah. Really? This is really dance stuff.

5 year old daughter came and said to her mom, why is some of your hair white? Mom says, every time you make me sad, another hair turns white. The daughter eyes got really wide. Mom, what did you do to grandma? Wow.

And Mark, Riverdance. I know you like to do Riverdance. It was invented by an Irish family with seven kids but with only one toilet.

That would do it. Yes.

Teachers marking off the attendance roll. When she comes across the name H I, J, K M, she says, I'm sorry, I'm not sure how to pronounce the name. Then spells it out just like that.

H I, J, K M. A girl raises her hand and says, that's me. It's pronounced Noel.

Oh God. I don't want to encourage them anymore.

I'm sure you do this at home, Mark. We don't throw away perfectly good food in this house. No, we put the leftovers in Tupperware.

Put the Tupperware in the fridge, let it go bad, and then throw it out.

That's right, that's right. Yep, yep, yep.

Let's see.

I got a lot of Styrofoam like leftovers in the fridge.

And a lot of restaurants have gone to, they try to do the paper thing, getting away from plastic, all the plastic things. And lastly, warning sign. We don't care if you smoke in this room. We don't care if you play poker naked.

However, both of these things are illegal in Louisiana. If caught by state troopers, citations will be issued.

Wow. Take a file there, brother.

I should have said Louisiana.

It's a tough Louisiana.

Louisiana. That's all for this hour, folks. Thanks for listening.

If you've enjoyed this episode, you can listen to additional shows@stlintune.com you can follow us there. Also, we want to thank Bob Berthisel for our theme music, our sponsor, Better 8 Mortgage, our guest, Emma Clues and co host Mark Langston.

And we thank you for being a part of our community of curious minds. St. Louis in tune is a production of Motif Media Group and the US Radio Network.

Remember to keep seeking, keep learning, walk worthy, and let your light shine. For St. Louis in tune, I'm Arnold Stricker.