A lot has changed in St. Louis over the years, including urbanization, city blight, gentrification, etc., and that began as early as 1888 in some parts of the city. This painting embraces a kind of optimism about the pre-WWII industrial expansion that was going on in parts of the city and shows it off in bright colors and flashy ways that belies the truth of how the sprawl actually became more of a problem than a solution.