The St. Louis region is dotted with bike and pedestrian paths that give residents closer access to nature and transportation alternatives.
Great Rivers Greenway is the public agency responsible for building these in St. Louis and St. Louis and St. Charles counties. It formed after residents in those three jurisdictions passed a sales tax dedicated to parks and greenways, said CEO Susan Trautman.
That sales tax was the organization’s only revenue stream when she first joined the organization in 2010, but a lot has changed in her nearly 15-year tenure, she said.
“We’re well over 40 staff and we have multiple revenue streams, including the passage of Proposition P (an additional sales tax) in 2013, which really changed our organization,” Trautman said. “That doubled our income.”
The organization has also secured close to $100 million in state and federal funding for the forthcoming Brickline Greenway and in 2015 established the Great Rivers Greenway Foundation, a nonprofit that provides funding to help develop the greenway district, she said.
Today, the organization continues to add to its existing 135-mile greenway network, including projects like the Brickline that connect Forest Park to the Arch Grounds or the Centennial Greenway that stretches from Forest Park to St. Charles County.
“Most people don't realize the pieces of Centennial that are built will connect,” Trautman said. “We're beginning those planning efforts where Centennial is actually going to happen.”
But that’s another 10 to 15 years out, much longer than Trautman will remain as the top leader at the organization. She plans to exit next May after 15 years but will likely remain in a part-time role to help with the Brickline.
St. Louis Public Radio’s Eric Schmid sat down with Trautman to discuss her tenure at Great Rivers and what she sees coming next for St. Louis and herself.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Eric Schmid: What do you feel is your proudest accomplishment?
Susan Trautman: Oh my gosh, people have asked me that a lot. The passage of Prop P changed not only Great Rivers Greenway but it made us a steward of the CityArchRiver Project. It also doubled the income for local parks in St. Louis city and county. That's pretty profound when you think about the impact for our residents.
If you ask me, you know what speaks to my heart? Trojan Park in Wellston. Just to see the pure joy of that park — it opened in 2016, and it's still thriving today. I'm really proud of that little space, because it's so impactful to the community.
Schmid: In the course of being this organization’s top leader, what’s been unexpected?
Trautman: The scale and ability you have when you work in collaboration with others; you can really have meaningful impact across the region. I think if you told me in 2010 Great Rivers Greenway would look like it looks today, I probably wouldn't have had that vision. I just knew we were a legacy organization, we build for 100 years. My goal was that our children’s children wouldn’t know a region that wasn’t connected.
Schmid: Part of Great Rivers Greenway’s work more recently has had it engaged with some economic development tools, like the community development corporation recently established in three north St. Louis neighborhoods. Somebody might look from the outside and think, “Why is Great Rivers Greenway involved?”
Trautman: Frankly, it’s not our strength. We are not an economic development agency, although building greenways highly impacts economic development in our region. As we were beginning to plan for the Brickline and we studied projects like the Atlanta Beltline, the New York High Line and others, we saw displacement happening adjacent to these projects, because they become so popular. We heard from the community [in north St. Louis], “you have to help us address that.” In order to do that, we needed to bring the neighborhoods together. It gives the power back to the community to say, this is what I want my neighborhood to look like.
Schmid: Do you feel like this organization is more than just a greenway-building organization?
Trautman: Absolutely, we're a community-building organization in many ways. You look at greenways as a way to provide growth in the region, people want to live near and next to them. In order to build a greenway, you have to bring communities together. I've seen this over and over again in greenways across the region. Once people realize: “Oh, these are my neighbors. I never talked to them before, but now I want this infrastructure, and not only that, I'm going to share it with them every single day.” It really has changed how people view other people.
Schmid: Is there anything that you feel like you wish you could have changed, if you could go back and change anything?
Trautman: I don't know that I can personally change it. … I think the one place that I have a real desire to see become more than it is, is the riverfront. It is the front door to the region. It’s been a challenging space to work in for a lot of reasons.
The river is a challenge. The way that it is used is a challenge, and I think people want to go to a riverfront like they do in other cities around the nation. I would love to see the riverfront be an active, thriving place, and we’re working closely with Gateway Arch Park Foundation to see that happen, but it's been a bigger lift than I thought it might be.
Schmid: But to counter that, y’all do have that park in Laclede’s Landing.
Trautman: We do. Katherine Ward Burg Garden is there. We have also been able to acquire property in Laclede’s Landing along Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard and the river, so we have that vision in place. Timing is everything in terms of finding the right partners in the funding, but we are in a good position to lift off. If there was a federal grant or a donor who said, “You know what, I really care about this area,” we could do something. I don't think I'm going to see it in my time, but I know that the foundation for that success is in place.
Schmid: Can you say a little bit more about the idea of putting Great Rivers Greenway in a position to act in the future, or like setting the foundation up? What else might fall into that bucket that you've done here?
Trautman: That's a critical piece of the work, and that's the piece that most people don't see. It can take 10 to 15 years to realize a park or a greenway, just depending on the geography, the stakeholders around it, funding, capacity, all those pieces have to come in place.
We are very strategic about land acquisitions, site control, easements, cooperation agreements, putting those pieces in place now, frankly, across the region. We're working out in St. Charles County, for instance, to think about growing the greenways in the future, because the population is exploding out there, and the corridors need to be preserved. You have to have a vision towards where you're going and what the priorities are for the community, and then you work towards that, and it could take a while to realize it.
Schmid: What's a prediction you have for St. Louis, considering what you've seen in the past 15 years in this role?
Trautman: I'm confident even by 2030 that St. Louis will be well on the rise again. Not only our efforts but our partnership with Greater St. Louis Inc., the work we're doing with the mayor's office and with partners across the region, I think people really understand how important it is to make sure that the city thrives, and I'm confident that's going to happen, because so many people are in the boat, rowing the oar in the same direction.
Schmid: What’s next for you personally?
Trautman: I always laugh and tell people I’m going to be the campground host at Hahn State Park. No, I will be in the outdoors. I will also hang on and help with the Brickline for a while, but I want to travel. I've got some trips in mind. You're going to find me outside and connected to what's happening in nature for sure.
