Activity in downtown St. Louis picks up since 2023 [Video]

ST. LOUIS — A Canadian university studying downtown recoveries says that St. Louis’ activity in its core picked up from March 2023 to February this year, citing mobile phone usage.

But the University of Toronto’s School of Cities says it can no longer compare downtown St. Louis’ overall activity recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic against its peers due to a change in how data is being collected.

The school this month said that based on cell phone activity, the average number of stops downtown increased 15.9% in February compared with March 2023. That ranked St. Louis 26th in percentage change among 64 North American markets reviewed.

The school said that the downtowns seeing the highest rates of activity increase are those that did poorly in its previous study comparing activity from March 2023 to mid-June 2023 …