Ward 17 Priorities

The 4500 block of McKinley in the Central West End is an especially unappealing place -- running between Taylor and Euclid, it is surrounded by dead space: parking lots, windowless buildings and oversized medical school buildings. It's in the center of the Washington University School of Medicine complex, and it was being repaved today even though it had nary a pothole. The Department of Streets workers even parked a truck in Taylor during rush hour, backing traffic dangerously onto the MetroLink tracks.

Down south on Taylor, from Manchester to Hunt, the street probably has not been repaved in one decade. It barely resembles a street at all, looking more like an one of the ill-maintained roads in the restricted zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, or a street in a forgotten part of East St. Louis. Yet it gets lots of use and runs along blocks of occupied homes. This area has more life to it than that block of McKinley, but it remains neglected.