Built St. Louis
What's Wrong With This Riverfront?

The riverfront's most odious transgression comes from the dock where one buys tickets for the "steamboats", where a series of lo-fi megaphones blasts peppy, endless old-time jazz and blues music out across the landing.

The incessant canned music filters all the way up the monumental Arch steps, spoiling one of the most pleasant places in the city, an otherwise ideal spot for rest, reflection, and people-watching. It's noise pollution and a public nuisance; I'm shocked it hasn't been outlawed. Isn't playing radios prohibited on National Park Service grounds?

And it's the historical equivalent of a mixed metaphor. St. Louis had long since become a railroad town when these musical styles became popularized in the 1920s; the steamboat had gone the way of the buffalo by then.

(For the record, it's not the style of music I'm opposed to. I love old jazz, swing and Dixieland with a passion. It's the location and presentation. If they had a live band down there? That'd be awesome!)