The Wrecking Ball Came for Berkeley City Hall Today

But no Miley Cyrus theatrics here

Feb 12, 2024 at 1:34 pm

The wrecking ball wrecked, a bit. ZACHARY LINHARES

[
          {
            "name": "GPT - Leaderboard - Inline - Content",
            "component": "41932919",
            "insertPoint": "5th",
            "startingPoint": "3",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "3",
            "maxInsertions": 100
          }
          
        ]

A wrecking ball came in like Miley Cyrus at Berkeley's City Hall today. All it wanted was to break its walls — at least, until the backhoe could take over.

The north county municipality invited journalists and other members of the public to a "demolition ceremony" at 10 a.m. this morning. Its release promised, "The demolition of the old city hall symbolizes a new chapter for Berkeley, one filled with opportunities for growth and progress."

And no, that chapter does not involve Berkeley putting itself out of business. St. Louis County's 90+ municipalities are largely hanging on, despite various efforts to merge them.

Instead, clearance of the building, located at 6140 North Hanley, is part of a project to improve Airport Road, a $5.4 million initiative that began last year and includes repaving the road from I-170 to North Florissant Road, along with new sidewalks and a bike path. The new City Hall is already up and running just three-tenths of a mile down Airport Road.

With that project, City Hall promises many good things afoot, with redevelopment initiatives including "mixed-use development, job creation, infrastructure enhancement and community engagement."

But if the ceremony was high on symbolism, it was short on drama; the ball made just a handful of swings for assembled observers. Then they stuck the wrecking ball in the back of a truck and moved in with a non-symbolic backhoe to actually do the job.

The city manager told the crowd the demolition will be finished in the coming days.

click to enlarge

ZACHARY LINHARES

The wrecking ball knocked loose some debris. Good job, wrecking ball.

Cult Tied to 6 People Who Vanished From Berkeley Spread on TikTok: Rashad Jamal’s University of Cosmic Intelligence combines conspiracy theories and sun worship

Man Faces Charges for Digging Up Grandmother’s Corpse in Berkeley: Zebulun Nash, 73, is charged with attempting to deface or destroy property of the troubled Washington Park Cemetery

Tags:

About The Author

Sarah Fenske

Sarah Fenske is the executive editor of the RFT and its sister papers. She is the former host of St. Louis on the Air and continues to host its Legal Roundtable, as well participating as an occasional panelist on Nine PBS' Donnybrook. She lives in St. Louis.

Email Sarah Fenske