Riverfront park's debut stirs spirit of renewal in ailing East St. Louis

"We refer to it as the new jewel on the Mississippi," said Mike Buehlhorn, executive director of the Metro East Park and Recreation District. "This is a huge dream. It's just awesome, I don't know how else to say it."

Martin, the park's namesake, was a prominent lawyer who pushed for it for years before dying in 2004 at age 91. In 1968, he formed a nonprofit group to raise money to protect the tract from commercial development.

The park's opening couldn't have come at a better time for Mayor Alvin Parks Jr of East St. Louis. He hopes the park draws tourists and precious development to the city and its riverfront.

"I am terrifically excited about what the development is. . . . It gives you the absolute best view of St. Louis as you will have anywhere on the planet," Parks said. The mayor added that the park's greatest benefit is yet to come, through potential development such as condominiums and hotels.

East St. Louis, once a thriving home to glass makers and other industrial companies, withered into one of the nation's poorest cities after the decline of factories and the exodus of whites in the 1960s. It's a place where potholed streets resemble lunar landscapes, where more than 35 percent of the roughly 31,000 residents live in poverty.

The deed to City Hall once went to a man to cover a multimillion-dollar judgment over a jail beating before the city got the building back on appeal. In recent years, five residents - including the head of the local Democratic Party - were convicted of scheming to buy votes.

But the city also was the adoptive home of the late Katherine Dunham, a famed dancer and choreographer. Track legend and Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee was born and raised here, and a youth center now bears her name. Late jazz great Miles Davis grew up here, as did NFL Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow and tennis Hall of Famer Jimmy Connors.

Now the park, with a four-story overlook and a mechanical geyser, represents a beacon of hope for urban renewal, supporters say.