A Side Yard in the City: St. Louis, Vacant Land and Shrinking Cities in the News

"Blotting" is the latest urban vacant land trend to be discovered by The Atlantic Cities, billed as "the latest DIY solution for shrinking cities". The failure of the recent explosion in urban issues media is the misguided premise of presenting such discussion as news, the need to have the "latest" idea, a "breaking" innovation, new, original, creative... while ignoring the history of our cities. Allowing city development and history to devolve into a three minute slideshow or a "how to fix" guide fails to

"Blotting" is an awful, non-descriptive term. "Urban homesteading", "city side yards", "parcel-melding" or something else needs to be used. We'll use "urban homesteading" as it clearly conveys the juxtaposition of the competing forces at play; the traditional urban lot, often largely consumed by a building structure, and "homestead", a dwelling and its adjacent land (added land in this case), not traditionally associated with the urban setting.

This use of "urban homesteading" is especially relevant in St. Louis where the 25' x 126' 6" lot dominates. This lot size typically allows a three foot gangway on either side of the home. Adding a vacant parcel as a side yard provides a homestead wholly unlike what has been available in St. Louis. The 25/126 lot is unpopular for single family home construction and not typically large enough for commercial development, even on corner lots. This lot size has impeded land assembly for development.