White Flight, Urban Renewal & Population Loss

It’s true that some of St. Louis’ population loss can be attributed to “white flight” which is defined as:

But we mustn’t forget other factors that contributed to population loss  and that reasons for loss from 1950-1960 are different than those from 2000-2010.

The 1939 World’s Fair in New York is a good glimpse on the views of what 1960 could become, part one sets up the vision as detailed in General Motors’ Futurama exhibit:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNlgfkE9nWA

Part two looks at the rebuilt city of 1960:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtU_jNheyrQ

By 1947 St. Louis Comprehensive Plan detailed how this could become a reality here by 1970. From the introduction:

 The Plan Commission confidently predicts that by 1970 barely a generation hence-the city proper can have 900,000 population. This would be an increase of only slightly more than 10 per cent since the 1940 census, but such a growth of 84,000 calls for making proper room for the new roofs, adequate traffic ways for the added automobiles, economical plans for all the additional public and semi-public facilities to be required. Furthermore, there must be a catching-up with all the improvements perforce neglected during the long war period.

With this mindset to rebuild the city to accommodate the expected 900,000 population by 1970 they proceeded to build vast highway networks and clear many dense neighborhoods.  Thousands of residents, businesses, churches, etc were taken by eminent domain to “improve” the city. For many who were displaced it was often easier to but a home in a suburb than to try to find a house in the city.

In 1950 many city residences were overcrowded. Floor boards were placed over dirt floors to create basement living quarters and others squeezed into flats. Yet thousands of housing units were razed to rebuild entire neighborhoods and highways. Even if your house remained your business might have been taken from you. With no where else to turn, those who could afford to do so left.

The population in 1970 was 622,236, down 234,560 from the 1950 peak of 856,796 just twenty years earlier. A far cry from the 900,000 they expected to occupy the rebuilt city by 1970!

Urban renewal forced many outside the city limits. By 1990, the year I moved to St. Louis, the population was down to 396,685. In the two decades from 1970-1990 the drop was 225,551, greater than the 1950-1970 drop and a much high percentage. But the reasons were different. The massive urban renewal projects were no more but the damage they caused lasting. You had white & black flight — the middle class got the hell out.

The drop from 1990-2010 was less in total numbers and percentages.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: How Often Do You Use The Public Library?

This year the St. Louis Central Library will reopen after a $70 million dollar renovation and the St. Louis County Library is seeking a property tax increase to replace it’s main building and others (story). The library is a great resource we all pay for,  one I know I haven’t used often enough. I’m changing that this year.

Lately I’ve been checking out DVDs from the library for titles I can’t stream on Netflix. I had to update my library card since I hadn’t used it for a while.  Turns out the St. Louis Library requires everyone to update their card after each birthday.

With all this investment in our libraries I was wondering how often you use the library. Take the poll in the right sidebar and add any comments below.

– Steve Patterson

New Low-Floor Buses Make Boarding Easy

More of Metro’s new low-floor buses from California transit bus manufacturer GILLIG are on the routes I ride regularly. Eighteen months ago I was lucky to see one and now about half my bus trips are on a new bus. The old buses are worn out, used long after the expected lifespan. Any new bus would be an improvement over the old but the lower floor makes boarding and unboarding easier and faster for everyone — especially those of us using power chairs.

The old high-floor buses had a mechanical lift to bring us up to the right height. One winter I spent 45 minutes stuck on a lift when it malfunctioned, not fun.  The low-floor bus has a piece of the floor that hinges out to provide a ramp. The operation is faster than the old lifts and it can be operated manually in case of a mechanical failure. The lack of steps is great for others not using mobility devices.

Not all are pleased though, Metro says these seat 39 compared to 43 on the older “Phantom” bus. Metro hasn’t provided me with seating diagrams I requested a couple of weeks ago so I cannot verify their numbers.

I’ll just keep enjoying these new buses and hope service improves on many routes to address overcrowding.

– Steve Patterson

The Short Life Of Some Street Trees

Last week workers replaced the dead street tree in front of my building, it was planted in 2008. Other trees in front of the building are older, but this spot is where dogs go as soon as their owners  take them outside. I’m not sure if that’s the cause of the short lifespan of the last tree or one of numerous reasons it didn’t survive.

Hopefully this tree will last longer. I saw the workers digging out the old tree but I didn’t stick around to see how it had been planted or the conditions. I did snap a picture of a hole for a street tree around the corner just before the tree was planted.

Yes, the earth surrounding the hole is filled with bricks. How do we expect trees to survive when the root system has to compete with bricks and other debris?

– Steve Patterson

Then & Now: Racial Segregation

A century ago whites went to great lengths to keep out non-whites, including deed restrictions:

On February 16, 1911, thirty out of a total of thirty-nine owners of property fronting both sides of Labadie Avenue between Taylor Avenue and Cora Avenue in the city of St. Louis, signed an agreement, which was subsequently recorded, providing in part:

‘* * * the said property is hereby restricted to the use and occupancy for the term of Fifty (50) years from this date, so that it shall be a condition all the time and whether recited and referred to as ( sic) not in subsequent conveyances and shall attach to the land, as a condition precedent to the sale of the same, that hereafter no part of said property or any [334 U.S. 1 , 5] portion thereof shall be, for said term of Fifty-years, occupied by any person not of the Caucasian race, it being intended hereby to restrict the use of said property for said period of time against the occupancy as owners or tenants of any portion of said property for resident or other purpose by people of the Negro or Mongolian Race.’

The entire district described in the agreement included fifty-seven parcels of lamd. The thirty owners who signed the agreement held title to forty-seven parcels, including the particular parcel involved in this case. At the time the agreement was signed, five of the parcels in the district were owned by Negroes. One of those had been occupied by Negro families since 1882, nearly thirty years before the restrictive agreement was executed. The trial court found that owners of seven out of nine homes on the south side of Labadie Avenue, within the restrit ed district and ‘in the immediate vicinity’ of the premises in question, had failed to sign the restrictive agreement in 1911. At the time this action was brought, four of the premises were occupied by Negroes, and had been so occupied for periods ranging from twenty-three to sixty-three years. A fifth parcel had been occupied by Negroes until a year before this suit was instituted. (Source)

The above was part of the majority decision of the US Supreme Court on May 3, 1948 when they ruled it was unconstitutional for the state to enforce such deed restrictions.

Today the situation is reversed, some African-Americans are trying hard to keep whites out of north St. Louis.

In March the BBC did a video report on the dividing line:

Delmar Boulevard, which spans the city from east to west, features million-dollar mansions directly to the south, and poverty-stricken areas to its north. What separates rich and poor is sometimes just one street block. (BBC)

I was recently told that whites shouldn’t be involved north of Delmar because it’s not their community. Whites that move north of Delmar are gentrifiers. North St. Louis is sparsely populated and and incomes are substantially less than south of Delmar.  Clearly more people with higher incomes are needed in north St. Louis to reduce this disparity.

When I was in real estate I had a middle-class African-American family looking to move from St. Louis County to the city but they made it clear to me — they didn’t want to live in the ghetto. I represented them in the purchase as  a fully renovated home in McKinley Heights. We did look at property in north St. Louis, but only for rental purposes, not for them.

Some see whites as a threat, gentrifiers that will cause rents and sale prices to go up.  Maybe, but more people with greater income will mean more jobs as businesses spring up. Some of the new entrepreneurs  could be current African-Americans.

My interest in St. Louis doesn’t stop at Delmar. My interest in the region doesn’t stop at the city limits. If a white person wants to live north of Delmar then go for it.  It was wrong last century for whites to attempt to exclude nonwhites and it’s wrong today for African-Americans to attempt to exclude whites from the same area.

I didn’t like being told to butt out of areas north of Delmar.

– Steve Patterson