nextSTL | Greater St. Louis

Salvaging St. Louis, Part III: Biodiversity in Repopulation

Published on Tuesday, 07 May 2013 08:09

Written by American Dirt

In the previous section of this three-part article, I began exploring some of the affordable housing initiatives of St. Louis that have helped it, to some extent, stem its precipitous decline, particularly in comparison to Detroit, its peer city in terms of population loss. If this survey (you could almost call it “home tour”) seemed a bit facile, well, it is. To some extent, that’s the point: St. Louis—in contrast with Detroit—has transcended much of its dire population freefall over the years by repopulating its vacant land with sensitively designed affordable and mixed-income housing. The city is still losing population, but its 8.3% loss from 2000 to 2010 is a pittance compared to the staggering 25% that rocked Detroit during the same time frame.

My home show takes on an even more subjective angle because it has exclusively focused on the portfolio of the St. Louis-based developer, McCormack Baron Salazar, Inc (MBS). I confess that I received an information packet guiding through different developments within the city limits through MBS’s public relations coordinator. But this analysis should rise above the level of a promotional campaign for one of the nation’s largest affordable housing developers. Looking at a particularly successful developer serves as a bellwether for what might prevent other attempts to restore the city’s housing stock from yielding transformative results.

Salvaging St. Louis, Part II: Planting the Seeds for Repopulation

Published on Monday, 29 April 2013 07:04

Written by American Dirt

In the previous part to this study, I explored the similar population trends of two major Midwestern cities, St. Louis and Detroit. Both cities have endured significant losses since their peak in the 1950 census. Interestingly, Detroit seems to absorb the lion’s share of critical attention for its persistent economic malaise, yet St. Louis has actually suffered a slightly greater loss: 62% within its historic city limits, compared to Detroit’s 61%. How has St. Louis evaded much of the stigma of decline that persistently dogs Detroit?

I offered a few big-picture speculations in the previous post, not the least of which is that, by and large, the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area (consisting of 15 counties and St. Louis as an excluded city, or 16 counties if one considers the even larger Consolidated Metropolitan Area) has remained stable or grown slightly over the last few decades, while in Detroit, even many of the suburbs are shrinking as well.

Salvaging St. Louis, Part I: The Macro Influences that Keep It Afloat, If Not Flourishing.

Published on Tuesday, 23 April 2013 07:22

Written by American Dirt

In the most decentralized of American cities, much of the urban fabric that prospered until at least the Great Depression (if not later) suffered such devastation in the second half of the twentieth century that one could claim it was wiped off the face of the earth. Huge swathes of what were once densely settled neighborhoods are all but gone, having lost more than half of their population since 1950. When one ponders the type of city that has suffered this fate, chances are it sits in either the industrialized Northeast or Midwest: places like Cleveland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and even Chicago. In Detroit, the condition of nearly complete depopulation may afflict as much as half of the land within the historic city limits.

Another Midwestern city that has endured almost as profound of a loss as the Motor City—but mercifully manages to escape the damning headlines most of the time—is St. Louis. At its population peak in 1950, it had 850,000 people. As of 2010, that number had plunged to 320,000—an over 62% drop in population, and, amazingly even a bit greater than Detroit’s 61% loss over that same time frame. In stark contrast with Detroit, where the depopulation stretches in all directions from the city center, in St. Louis the majority of population loss has exclusively afflicted the north side of the city. Many of the neighborhoods south of I-44 are as intact and manicured as they were in 1950, like the serene Italian-American neighborhood on the near southwest side of town known as The Hill:

Urban, Suburban, CBD: What Do NFL Stadium Locations Tell Us About the Rams?

Published on Monday, 25 February 2013 06:53

Written by Alex Ihnen

A central question in the ongoing Rams stadium lease drams, is just what type of stadium owner Stan Kroenke wants. It's often said that he admires Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and builder of Patriot Place, a suburban stadium with attached shopping center, healthcare facilities and more. Kroenke is a real estate developer, in case you didn't know. Wouldn't a St. Louis Foxboro be attractive to him? Afterall, we have several possible locations (see Fenton Chrysler plant overlay below).

It's also been said that he likes the Colt's Lucas Oil Stadium, which sits adjacent to the Indianapolis Central Business District (CBD) and covention center. The Edward Jones Dome occupies a very similar setting here. So would he want to renovate it? Maybe built on the Bottle District site? All's quiet from the city's Convention and Visitor's Commission (owner of the dome) and the Rams, so why not take a glance at where NFL stadiums are built.

The Life and Death of Great St. Louis Malls

Published on Wednesday, 05 December 2012 11:01

Written by Joe Huber

Since the 1950s, the spatial development of the surrounding suburbs has been centralized around the shopping mall. From early incarnations like River Roads Mall to downtown redevelopment projects like St. Louis Centre, shopping malls are unique examples that can help us better understand the demographic and cultural shifts in the American consumer culture over the past sixty years. What follows is a historical analysis of three distinct eras shopping mall development and failure in the St. Louis region.

City-to-Suburbs: The Rise of Shopping Malls

Shopping malls as we know them today burst onto the national scene in the 1950s as a response to the suburbanization of America during the post-World War II boom. Single-use zoning, shopping centers, highway development, and subdivisions became the core elements of the post-1950s U.S. spatial development.