St. Louis

Next American City would like to thank all our new friends in St. Louis for joining us for a conversation on retaining and attractive creative individuals. We had an incredible time visiting St. Louis, touring the city, learning about the wards and the history behind each block and most importantly, learning about how the city is primed with engaged residents interested in retaining the past while looking to the future. Special thanks to our partners — Trailnet, STL Style, Great Rivers Greenway, Metropolis St. Louis, Urban Land Institute, Left Bank Books and Will Cycle for Charity.

• View slideshow of this event

 

Vanguard Regional Roundtable: September 23, 2009

“Immediately after the city tour of St. Louis, our Next American Vanguards were joined by several local St. Louis residents interested in talking about how their city is on the brink of really establishing itself. Our luncheon attendees included Alderman Shane Cohn; local historian and blogger Michael Allen, Washington University grad student and blogger Andrew Faulkner; Teach for America St. Louis Managing Director Rob Gubitz; EcoUrban Homes President J Swoboda; blogger Toby Weiss; and PhD student Juan Montana, to name a few.”

“Prior to attending the luncheon, Next American City asked the local St. Louis residents what they perceived as the city’s greatest success and challenge? Their answers below largely shaped the conversation of the day.

QUESTION: What is St. Louis doing right? What can other cities learn from St. Louis? Why do you stay?

All the citizens who know the advantages and potentials of St. Louis have banded together via Cyberspace.  It has been a growing force in the 21st century, and its power to confirm, unite and strengthen resolve is now understood (and possibly loathed?) by the various power structures.  It’s a new form of democracy, and St. Louisans use it for good, not evil!

New generations of St. Louis activists know the advantages of this city, know where the roadblocks are, and refuse to accept “this is just the way it’s done.”  A grassroots movement of accountability and responsibility has happened, and to paraphrase The Doors: City Hall has the guns but we’ve got the numbers, baby.

Our Big Little Town allows you access to just about anyone, because everyone knows everyone who knows someone.  This 3 Degrees of Separation makes it possible to accomplish most anything, and fosters the St. Louisans spirit of support and generosity.  I am continually grateful and awe-struck by how kind this town is.

- Toby Weiss, blogger at beltstl.com

I do think that the downtown redevelopment has been strong.  Culinaria advanced our downtown about 5 years in my mind.  Working across the street from it has given me a new take on the pulse of the city and it feels much more vibrant.  Projects like Culinaria or the City Garden downtown are steps in the right direction.

I also think we do “cost of living” well.  Not sure to what extent we control that but I think it makes this city very affordable when a beer costs $2.50 or $3.  Apartments can be shared with a roommate for $350.  Traffic isn’t bad either and the new hwy 40 will be an added boon.

When we bring new teachers to the city who are from the coasts or have never been to St. Louis, they always comment after their first weekend how great our city is.  People are really nice, there is a lot of exciting things going on, and plenty of activities/places that appeal to a wide swatch of interests.

I also want to give a shout-out to Forest Park, and Forest Park Forever.  When our citizenry decided to do something about our incredible park, they did it big and they did it right.  It is one of the best reasons to live in the west side of the city, in my opinion.

I was not an STL converted fan until the past two years or so, I must admit.  I’ve stayed because I do feel like we’re big enough to matter nationally but small enough so individuals matter as well. 

- Rob Gubitz, Managing Director of Teach for America St. Louis and founder of Hip Hop Congress

I am not completely on top of public policy in St Louis, so I can’t really say anything about that. But I can mention some things I think St Louis has going for it.

1.  St Louis has a very rich local culture. People who stay in the city are either die-heart St Louisians or people who wanted to live in a city just like this one, broken, interesting, open to possibilities. As a result, you get a very unique environment. There are St Louis foods, meeting places, stories, sayings, music styles… all sorts of unique expressions that make the city a very colorful place. If you were to wake up in St Louis you would know where you were.

2.  St Louis is empty. That is a problem, but there are good things that come with that: possibilities. Rent is cheap, so you can easily start a project, a business, a non profit. The infrastructure is all there and there doesn’t seem to be too many legal obstacles to taking advantage of it. I am not sure that the lack of legal obstacles has anything to do with the administration easing restrictions; most likely what happens is that they don’t care to apply the restrictions that there are. In other places, e.g. New York, starting a business is impossible unless you have a lot of money to throw on rent and inspections.

3.  Despite the constant push to demolish buildings, the old city is pretty intact if you compare it with other places. This gives St Louis a very special architectural identity.

4.  St Louis has many good universities that attract thousands of people a year. This resource has been largely unexploited.

5.  There are lots of people that share the sense of possibility, though there are also lots of people that don’t realize that the way things are is not the way they have to be.

- Juan Montana, PhD student Washington University

St. Louis has an open door atmosphere for young people.  The cost of living is cheap, the cost of real estate is relatively cheap and the old civic establishment is tiring.  Getting involved is very easy here.  The establishment really is too lazy to lock the door, and young people can accomplish a lot of things in politics, art and other areas if they try.  Making connections to like-minded people is easy here, because of the smaller size of the urban core.  St. Louis is wonderfully unpretentious, so anything can and does go here.  While older generations are slow to embrace change, young people here aren’t as caught up in identity, image and material life as they are in other cities.  You don’t have to impress people here to get a seat at the table—you just have to have a good idea or be a hard worker.  Hell, you can build your own table if none of the existing ones suit you.  That’s why I stay—this city is accessible and its culture is far more open to change than the naysayers think.  A city that has come so far down in its stature has nothing to lose, and everything to gain—that’s liberating!

Other cities can learn something from St. Louis’ lack of pretentiousness.  This is a city where identity is based on achievement and originality, not boastfulness or projection.  We are earnest and that makes us accessible to newcomers in ways other cities are not.  Also, St. Louis has done a great job of preserving its historic architecture and has remarkable historic neighborhoods like none other in the country.  We have lost a lot, but we have saved a lot that would not get saved if weren’t for the hard-working, let’s-do-it St. Louis preservation ethic.  In the process of preservation, we have retained traces of our social past and even ancient businesses that tell the story of an earlier city.  It’s hard to travel far in the region and not run smack-dab into a part of the past.  The sense of place is tremendous.

- Michael Allen, local historian and blogger at eco-absence.org

Many of the positive aspects of St. Louis are deeply connected to its drawbacks. One of the strongest aspects of St. Louis is the strength of its activist community. This is the silver lining of what could be called a systemic disengagement with politics and citizenship. Paradoxically, this void has intensified activism and allowed activists greater access to government. The city has shrunk by two thirds since its apex and, because of this population loss, the city functions much like a small town. It is easier to network and get the ear of someone in power here than in more successful cities. St. Louis also shows the advantages of a vacuum of power. The city has traditionally had a very weak mayor and been fragmented into numerous wards. While this organization has many drawbacks, it has fostered a self-reliance and allowed greater experimentation than that which is possible in other cities. This self-reliance is also evident in the paucity of chain stores in St. Louis; there are many more locally-based businesses within the city limits than in many similar cities. Self-reliance also characterizes the culture of the city. This in epitomized in the popular City Museum. Not only is it literally built from the detritus of a shrinking city, but its very existence owes itself to lassez-faire governmental regulation and permitting processes. In its acceptance of the diminished status of the city, its innovation, and its singularity, the City Museum is a paragon of the future reinvigoration of the city. Other cities can learn lessons about regional cooperation from St. Louis. Due to its existence as an independent city and intense regional fragmentation, cooperation is necessary just to keep public transit moving and sewage flowing away. I stay because of the unbelievable historic urban fabric of the city. The incredible cast iron, brick, and terra cotta arts of a century ago are the greatest legacy for the city. While St. Louis’s architecture is often overlooked by outsiders and not properly appreciated by lifetime residents, it is the combination of accessibility and the potential for redevelopment that keeps me here. The silver lining of St. Louis’s neglect of cultural and economic potential lies in low property values and increased access to ownership.

Despite the intense misguided demolition of the past half century and wide-scale urban renewal, most of the city qualifies as a historic landmark. We need only find the political will and rekindle the economic foundation to reawaken the “Lion of the Valley.”

- Andrew Faulkner, designer and creative consultant at exquisitestruggle.blogspot.com

I think a lot of progress is evident downtown, namely this summer with Post Office Plaza, Citygarden, and Culinaria (Downtown Schnucks). The combined effect has really sparked a renewed regional interest in our urban core – as we are not just seeing downtown/city residents availing themselves of these amenities – but a broad cross-section of visitors from all over the region. Throughout the summer the Citygarden was continually full of excited and inquisitive residents from the area who seem to be displaying a new connection with the City of St. Louis and a willingness to explore other parts of the city – this will lead eventually to new ideas, new discoveries and new relationships. All three of the above represent examples of what I feel St. Louis is doing well – namely, public/private partnerships that bring new capital to the table and examples of these strategic partnerships can serve as lessons for other cities across the country that have suffered a similar fate over the past half-century.

I personally stay connected to St. Louis because this groundswell of support provides a lot of opportunity for committed citizens to engage in dynamic solutions to age-old problems. From a development perspective, it is a lot more exciting to be part of and witness to the rebirth of St. Louis than to be have a lesser role in a more established urban center.

- Jay Swoboda, founder of EcoUrban Homes and Whats Up? magazine

I love how St. Louis retains its authenticity.  While it may be attributed to its inherent complacency, it seems to resist the widespread gentrification that sanitizes so many urban neighborhoods across the country.  St. Louis is just real.  It has incredible urban fabric that is so original and so solid.  As a result, the city has become a leader in historic preservation, even though there are still some abhorrent demolitions taking place here and there.  But as a whole, the city is like a living history museum.  You can find architectural treasures on literally every block in this town.  It was built to be a great city, and that’s what sets the bar so high for St. Louis.  It has a hell of a legacy to live up to.  This is both a blessing and a curse, but mostly a blessing.

I also think St. Louis’s relative isolation and unknowness makes it a breeding ground for creative expression, innovation and opportunity.  The city acts as a natural filter, so to speak; the trend seekers who depend upon an uber-stimulating city to validate their status will obviously move to a place where they can have their excitement spoonfed to them.  Those with a more imaginative spirit find hopefulness and purpose in a city like St. Louis, where they can easily partake in creating something great…and get noticed for it.  St. Louis is a real city, whose quality of life and relative affordability give the last laugh to those who choose to be part of urban life here.  One can live in a beautiful century-old rowhouse in a vibrant, walkable St. Louis neighborhood at a fraction of the cost of the same lifestyle in a coastal city.  This quality should be responsibly exploited.

- Randy Vines, co-founder, STL Style

QUESTION: What is our biggest impediment in progress? Where doe St. Louis fall short?

Lack of self-esteem
Governmental and developmental disrespect for our urban fabric
Racial divides fostered by City Hall
Valuing corporate interests over private interests when a balance is totally achievable

- Toby Weiss, blogger at beltstl.com

I think we really fall short in a few areas:

1.  segregation/racism:  I think it is disgusting how as you drive through our city you can literally see the red lines that were drawn on real estate maps back in the ‘70s.  This block-to-block culture has created tension when you have mansions, a barbed wire fence and then a street of tenement bldgs. It has also devastated our city’s tax-base which feeds into the poor public schools and other public services.  This creates the vicious cycle of poverty and the tension/misunderstandings that come from this.  I am disgusted by the inability that many of our citizens—both black and white—who don’t know how to interact respectfully with folks from different racial/ethnic backgrounds.

2.  education: This has caused an exodus of young adults with kids because they want good schools for their kids.  As a young professional without a family, I can live in St. Louis and not be affected by this but it is going to be a very difficult choice when it is time to have kids.  Fix the schools and I’d live in STL city forever.

3.  no smoking ban:  I can’t believe we haven’t done this yet.  When I was a senior in high school, 1998, in freaking Fort Wayne, IN, we passed a smoking ban.  I just think it is crazy that this is still something we have to deal with while out for dinner or the bars.

4.  I also think we should think about doing something to expand the creative class.  It is sad to me that our city, which has a rich blues/jazz tradition does not have a big scene of musicians or a dedicated group of people willing to go see them perform.  Maybe subsidies or something for musicians/artists would bring more of the creative class to STL.

- Ron Gubitz, Managing Director at Teach for America St. Louis and founder of Hip Hop Congress

In my opinion, the biggest impediment to progress is segregation. The black population is in very bad shape. No possibilities, terrible education, destroyed neighborhoods, AIDS, violence, malnourishment … I get the sense, but I am not sure about this, that most improvement projects have to do with making St Louis a more amiable place for whites with theaters, attractions, parks, etc., but very little is done for the underserved populations. The first step should be to improve the livelihood of the blacks.

It would also be a practical mistake to try to reactivate the city without addressing this problem. There is too much real state for it to be possible to gentrify the whole thing. Improvements and activity need to start from the ground up.

Homelessness!!! Empty houses and people leaving in the street. As far as I have heard there are some landlords hoarding lots of properties in North St Louis. This should not be allowed.
There are lots of people moving into St Louis every year. They come to study or work at the universities. St Louis is not doing a very good job at retaining them or helping them invest in the city.

It is very hard to break into St Louis. It took us, my wife and I, almost two years to get to know people from St Louis despite trying very hard. A lot of people that come to the Universities have the same feeling. Most say something like this: “You start talking to someone from St Louis and the first thing they ask you is where did you go to High School. The conversation stops when you answer.” I have no idea why this is the case, but I have heard a lot of people say this.

In a related point; I have also heard from many women who are married to people working at WashU, UMSL and SLU that they are bored, that they cannot find anything to do here, that their only social interaction is with other university people. These women are professionals, artists, activists… but they have a hard time getting settled here. The problem seems to be, one the one hand, the university community tend to be closed in itself, and on the other, that the job possibilities for women are somehow precarious. I know of a lot of academic couples that have a very hard time adjusting in St Louis for this reason.

There are thousands of undergrads living in St Louis that do not know the city. When they finish, they leave. Undergrads are a lost resource. They are very flexible since they are starting to live on their own and don’t know yet where they want to go. Many of them are also rich and able to invest money in the city. Engaging them early may make them stay.

Finally, I am not sure that St Louis is aware of the potential of international immigration for reactivating the city. Bosnians, Mexicans, Iraqies, and others come to the city and are willing and able to make the neighborhoods where they live better places. Cherokee street is a case in point, but the example can also be seen in many neighborhoods of other cities; Jackson Heights in Queens is a good example, with Chinese, Indian, middle eastern and Latin American populations opening business and creating new cultural possibilities.

- Juan Montana, PhD student at Washington University

The biggest impediment to progress in St. Louis is the excessive fragmentation in government and civic life.  For starters, having the city separated from its county has deprived the city of revenue and encouraged abandonment of the region’s core.  Then we have 93 municipalities in St. Louis County alone, plus endless taxing districts, improvement districts, school districts, etc.  Regionalism has to be an advocacy cause here, not an aspect of actual government.  We have to fight an uphill battle to show that the future of the city is integral to the future of the region.  We have to fight for regional funding for mass transit, education and sewer improvements.  This makes the work of elected officials more difficult, and many aren’t willing to put in the time to push for anything that transcends their political boundary.  Politics thus is insular.

The same goes for a lot of civic life—there is no strong effort to pool resources and work together.  It’s easy to get involved but hard to build coalitions.  That weakens the impact of charitable giving and civic activism.

Another major problem is that we are failing to attract in-migration from other parts of the nation and world.  Immigration is the spice of urban life, and we don’t have any significant immigration.  Racism persists in all directions as well, keeping people separated.

Then there is the dearth of good adult jobs that keep young people around when they want to buy that house or have a family.  We offer a great lifestyle for 20-somethings and early 30-somethings, but after that we are short on the economic opportunities that keep adults around.  Many people make a big splash here while young but head to another city when they are ready to “settle down.”

- Michael Allen, local historian and blogger at eco-absence.org

Tennessee Williams famously characterized St. Louis as “cold, smug, complacent, intolerant, stupid and provincial.” This view was obviously colored by his unfortunate years here, but over half a century later the departing art critic of the Post Dispatch recently made a similar observation; David Bonetti recently decried the willed ignorance, racism, smugness and stupidity of those in power. It is clear that intolerance, provincialism, and complacency together constitute the single greatest challenge to progress.

Racism here is structural and insidious; the effects of racist policies have lingered to the present day. In how many cities does a wealth dispersion graph draw a straight line in only one direction from the city to the suburbs? Furthermore, in how many cities is it socially normal to deny the existence of one third of the city. For the vocal majority of St. Louis residents traveling north of Delmar Boulevard is akin to sailing off the edge of the flat earth.

The smugness or superiority complex seems to be a psychological reaction to the dramatic decline of the importance of the city. As the city fell from third largest in the country to 52nd, residents became content to be the second most populous city in Missouri and ceased looking outside the region for inspiration and motivation. The major qualifier became not “What do you do?” but “Where’d you go to high school” indicating the degree to which the local status quo has become ironclad. Given this degree of myopia one would assume that local character is sacrosanct. This unfortunately has not been the case. While some neighborhoods retain an intense and unique vitality, the provincialism of the city has prevented St. Louis from learning lessons grasped by many other cities decades ago. This is still a city where, in 2009 three significant buildings have been demolished for un-needed surface parking lots, where a dogged belief exists that a city of 350,000 can only support one performing arts venue (where the same city of 850,000 in 1950 could support more than a dozen venues), and where slum clearance schemes are still seriously debated.

St. Louis falls short by frequently ignoring the world outside its metropolitan area. While the recent cultivation of the biotech industry is an important step away from this stance, the city must look to draw residents and entrepreneurs from the country and the world. For too long St. Louis has been a declining city in a no-growth region where politicians and developers have played the same old zero-sum game. If St. Louis will ever reverse its slide all involved must stop shuffling around employers and residents within the same region and start building a foundation to attract new industries and lure new taxpayers to the city and the region. While the status quo is heavily entrenched, the future prosperity of the city depends on systemic change, both of attitude and action.

- Andrew Faulker, designer and creative consultant at exquistestruggle.blogspot.com

Racism can’t continue to be ignored. St. Louis essentially is the northern most southern city and that carries with it a tremendous amount of baggage. Patterns of targeted neglect, institutionalized poverty, a dysfunctional political environment and a pronounced mistrust among people with varying racial and socioeconomic backgrounds continues to handicap the progress of the region. This will continue to be the case and will require real dialogue with strategic human and capital development projects before St. Louis can return to its former glory as a respected international city.

- Jay Swoboda, founder of EcoUrban Homes and Whats Up magazine

Because St. Louis is an older city, it has weathered all the wounds of a declining urban condition.  While there has been marked improvement in recent years, crime, segregation, government fragmentation and a whole host of other problems not only exist here, but are rather obvious on the surface.  One of the more unique challenges facing St. Louis is the fact that it is one of the most heavily Democratic cities in the United States that is often at odds with the conservative power structure of Missouri.  Due to the city’s extensive population decline over the past half century, it has lost political clout to outstate Missouri and the heavily Republican suburban fringes.  There is deep-rooted animosity between the urban population of St. Louis and the rest of the state, which often ties a legislative noose around the city’s neck with regard to urban/public policy such as transit funding, tax credits, police governance and public school administration.

- Randy Vines, co-founder STL Style

 

Vanguard City Tour: September 23, 2009

“Next American City hosted its first regional meet up on post-conference in St. Louis on September 23, 2009. Our wonderful hosts, Vanguards Jeff and Randy Vines of STL Style, did an excellent job of showcasing St. Louis. The morning kicked off with a two-hour tour of St. Louis with our visiting out-of-towners including Sarah Szurpicki, Sharon Carney and Petyon Chung. The tour, led by local historian Michael Allen, visited neighborhoods throughout St. Louis and balanced history with a look into the future and how current revitalization plans will help reshape communities.”

“Prior to arriving in St. Louis, Next American City asked our Vanguards for their perspective on St. Louis.”

Sarah Szurpicki, co-founder GLUE (Detroit, MI)
I LOVE St. Louis.  I was there in 2008 for about four days and found a similar story and spectrum of experiences that I find in many Rust Belt cities: some neighborhoods with trendy coffee shops and redevelopment; other neighborhoods plagued by vacancy and neglect.  St. Louis is more southern than the rest of the Great Lakes region, with occasional cobblestone streets and big old houses.  Beautiful alleys constantly surprised me as I walked around more affluent neighborhoods, though the frequent cul-de-sacs and residents-only streets seemed to counter the rest of the city’s general mood of friendliness and hospitality.  My most memorable factoids and impressions from my previous visit are: (1) the Arch is wayyyy bigger than I expected, a true marvel that hasn’t lost its punch; (2) burning down an empty house to re-sell the brick to builders in the Southwest is surprisingly lucrative; (3) MetroLink is great, I just wish it traveled to more places; (4) hubba hubba, mid-century architecture! (5) the City Museum is like a child’s fantasy world on steroids, nodding to the architectural history of the city and the whimsy in all of us.

Sharon Carney, special projects director, Michigan Suburbs Alliance (Birmingham, MI)
“Gateway” is one of the first words that comes to mind when I attempt to think of St. Louis outside my personal experience. It seems to have been an entry point for many people—to the West, to new opportunities, to a new life. The city has served as something of a gateway for me, as well, but in a familial sense. St. Louis is my dad’s hometown and one of the only avenues to understanding his childhood and family. Most Thanksgivings I fly into STL airport and from there head to Columbia, Missouri, where brothers and families live. While my time in the city is spent primarily in the car, my dad’s sporadic recollections of his childhood help shape something of an experience and understanding of St. Louis. He points out his grandparents’ old home in a now-tattered neighborhood and talks about traveling by streetcar from his childhood home in Pagedale to the Soulard Farmers Market, visiting the St. Louis Zoo and listening to Jack Buck’s Cardinals broadcasts on the radio. As we head west on I-70, he recounts moving to St. Charles County as a teenager—then the 5th fastest growing in the country. Shortly after graduating high school, he moved out of state in search of something he felt St. Louis and Missouri couldn’t offer him. His account suggests to me that, like many of other major cities, St. Louis has struggled to remain vibrant as people and resources have sprawled, and that its challenges to retain homegrown talent are not entirely new. However, I suspect that with its rich history and geographical and literary significance, there is much to be appreciated in St. Louis, and I am eager to explore!

Payton Chung, research coordinator, Congress for the New Urbanism (Chicago, IL)
As a longtime Chicagoan, I’ve sometimes heard anecdotes contrasting Chicago’s urban history against mistakes that St. Louis made: embracing the railroad early on, not bulldozing our waterfront for urban renewal, not (yet) building a speculative new airport far outside of town. Although the contest over “Empire City of the West” was decided over a century ago, Chicagoans—especially those working around state government, St. Louis being Illinois’ second metropolis—still gently relish what we see as the long decline of St. Louis, since it allows us to neglect our own mistakes. The appalling poverty of East St. Louis averts our eyes from Gary and Englewood; the high river levees hold back water that our highly unnatural canals flushed across a continental divide; despite heralded successes, both cities face a continued outflow of corporate headquarters and industrial jobs; even our bustling downtown is similarly riddled with dark buildings that defy redevelopment. The challenges that St. Louis faces might be deeper: long-term population and job decline, a downtown that slipped below critical mass, more recalcitrant suburbs, greater competition for state resources on both sides of the river, a water feature that’s often as much agony as amenity, and a big reputation problem. Then there’s the provincialism that Chicagoans laugh at: “where did you go to high school?” is a question one can only safely ask of adults in a static city, a place not moving fast enough to follow the warp-speed global economy.

The post-industrial Midwestern cityscape was certainly familiar to me before seeing St. Louis for the first time: the mighty, silent lofts; the musty but palatial public buildings; rows of Victorians on weedy lots; the wide grid of streets enveloping City Beautiful parks. St. Louis has these, of course, but on a scope that sometimes surpasses even Chicago. Washington Avenue is that most urbane of streetscapes—a good mile of mid-rises lining a broad avenue—rendered in an all-American architecture of red brick over reinforced concrete, and now with a subtly elegant street design to match. The landscapes of Forest and Tower Grove parks have survived the past century much more gracefully than most of their now-overprogrammed counterparts. Delmar Loop captures the college-town energy better than any other large Midwestern city—even Minneapolis or Columbus, which both house giant flagship public campuses.