Report: St. Louis Most Dangerous U.S. City

This week, as we were still riding high from the World Series victory, came a report indicating St. Louis is the most dangerous city in the country. Everyone is up in arms saying it is not true and the report is complete BS. Sorry to break it to you St. Louis, but we may very well be the most dangerous city. But what does it mean to the be the most dangerous?

First, someone has to be first on the list. For years we’ve been in the top five bouncing around from spot to spot so landing at #1 should not really come as a shocker. Many white members of the board of aldermen have voted against establishing civilian oversight for the police department. Our police board is controlled by the state, not the citizens of St. Louis. The police don’t want to live in the city. And why don’t they? With a few exceptions, the public schools suck big time. Gee, this isn’t exactly a formula for creating the safest city in the country.

Throughout the 20th Century St. Louis’ leadership made one bad decision after another. In 1916 the citizens of St. Louis passed an ordinance requiring racial segregation of the city! Although struck down by the courts a year later, the racial divide has stuck with us. In the 1940’s federal housing/lending policies pretty much sealed the fate of cities across the country but starving them of much needed lending guarantees. The feds made sure it was easier & cheaper to buy a new house in the emerging suburbs than a renovate old older place in the central core. Huge sections of cities, including St. Louis, were pretty much written off as “obsolete” in part because the areas freely mixed housing, retails and workplaces. Living above a corner store was considered a bad thing, creating risky neighborhoods. Granted, much of this housing stock lacked modern plumbing and electrical service. Conditions in these buildings were indeed poor. But, Soulard stands as a testament as to how these so-called obsolete buildings can be renovated and make useful for new generations.

Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 got people excited about creating grand urban places, part of the City Beautiful Movement (see wiki). By the time we hosted the World’s Fair in 1904 the movement was going strong. This prompted leaders in St. Louis to contemplate clearing the riverfront for such a grand space. The area, the oldest in St. Louis, was now marked territory. Why bother keeping it up? It was 30 years later before the demolition crews got started razing 40 city blocks as part of a WPA project. The original city was being tossed aside. For decades the area remained parking and it was not until the late 60’s the Arch was topped out and the landscaping didn’t happen until the 1970’s. The arch is a stunning monument but if I could turn back time and prevent the demolition of the riverfront I’d do it in a heartbeat.

But the riverfront gave the city leaders their first taste of wholesale demolition, the false notion that problems can simply be wiped away with bulldozers. They were oh so wrong then and yet we continue to see this same logic applied to day in recent projects like clearing McRee Town. In the meantime we saw entire neighborhoods divided for highway construction and others erased from the maps for housing projects that turned out worse than the “slums” they replaced. Pruitt-Igoe, one of the most infamous housing projects in the world, was razed less than 20 years after completion! Note: be sure to attend the lecture thursday afternoon on Modernist public housing — see post. In all of this demolition people were displaced and relocated, some numerous times. Social networks, the foundation of our society, were destroyed along with the physical structures.

The impact of all these decisions and others are not isolated, they are quite cumulative. Our current issues were not created today, they are the legacy of numerous prior decisions. One mistake after another, often in the name of progress of correcting a social ill, added to the problems rather than solving them. Today’s bad decisions — demolition of historic Century building for parking garage, anti-urban Loughborough Commons and suburban Sullivan Place senior housing to name a few — will be issues for St. Louisans to deal with in 30 years or more, long after those responsible are forgotten.

St. Louis lost roughly 60% of its population in a mere five decades. As the population dropped leaders and planners kept coming up with new schemes to turn around the situation, or so they presumed. A 1970’s plan for the city called for the entire destruction of the area we now know as The Gate District bounded by I-44 on the south, Grand on the west, Chouteau on the north and Jefferson on the east. Today St. Louis University is doing their best to destroy the western edge of that area with parking garages, street closures and new construction that doesn’t recognize the street.

Throughout the decades of population loss we increasingly were left with the poorest in society. Cities will always have poor, I don’t see a way around that. But cities must have a middle-class and recent studies are showing the middle class in this country is eroding. We are separating into poor & rich, not a good trend. In cities this, as we are witnessing, can be devastating. Someone who is poor is no more inherently pre-disposed to crime than anyone else. However, poverty and the feeling of desperation that pervades in areas of concentrated poverty can drive good folks to do bad things. Someone who has lost hope in their own future is apt to look for the easy road to our society’s symbols of success, fancy clothes, a sharp ride and some flashy bling. Those who engage in such criminal activity see this as their only choice. This lack of hope and choice among young people is our failure as a society. We have created and allowed this to continue and to grow.

I could go on and on but I won’t belabor the point. The city has screwed up repeatedly and we’ve yet to learn from past mistakes. So when a study says we are the most dangerous in the country I am not at all surprised. Rather than denying reality we must examine the underlying reasons for why we got to our current situation. We cannot continue to sweep those things that we find depressing or embarrassing under the rug. We should feel embarrassed!

Mayor Slay has been in office since 2001 and continues to use Reagan’s trickle down economics in the city. In theory all the attention downtown will eventually make its way to others parts of the city. Sure, in 50-60 years if we are lucky? Washington Avenue, the Old Post Office, Ballpark Village, Convention Hotel, riverfront master plan, Chouteau’s Lake —- all downtown focused. I’m not saying these are not worthwhile efforts but the trickle isn’t happening. A suburban Walgreen’s store in a poor inner-city neighborhood isn’t going to cut it. That cannot be our only plan of action. We need large quantities of middle class people, and not those uptight provincial ones either. We need creative types that appreciate an urban city, not some suburban recreation in an urban area. We need to attract new people and new money from outside our region. New people and new money will help create the hope that doesn’t currently exist in much of our youth out on the streets committing crimes.

How do we get these new middle-class residents? Transit, I believe, is a big part of the answer. Good urban mass transit will attract development and population. But where is Slay or County Executive Dooley on more funding for transit? They are nowhere to be found but Slay is out front seeking for a billion dollar highway bridge to Illinois. East-West Gateway is studying options for transit through north & south St. Louis but these are planned as a future pass through to the county. As it stands, we are likely 15 years away from riding the first train along Natural Bridge or Jefferson. If we locally funded a modern streetcar, or guided tram as Milwaukee is considering, we could probably cut the cost and time in half. Milwaukee ruled out light rail in favor of a guided tram due to cost of construction, $45 million per mile vs “only” $21 million per mile, respectively. See the Milwaukee Connector site for more information.

Next week we vote on a sales tax increase to fund two new recreation centers, one north and one south, along with maintenance for the ones we’ve got. Will this attract new residents? Will it entertain the youth to the point they now have hope in their futures? Doubtful.

St. Louis may well be the most dangerous city in America. I can accept that and work to change the underlying causes. When you vote Tuesday keep that in mind, are you voting for more of the same? When filing opens at the end of this month for half the seats in the Board of Aldermen & two seats on the school board will you sit back and assume that others will solve these issues or will you step forward to chart a new course for the city? Our entrenched leadership has gotten us where we are today — the top of the most dangerous city list. It is now up to us to work to change that reality. If we do not, we cannot bitch about remaining on top in the years to come.

Urban Review Turns Two Today!

Two years ago today I started blogging here at Urban Review and it has been a terrific ride so far. I started the blog as my father returned home after spending several weeks in the hospital after a heart attack. That entire month I could not focus on anything, until I began writing. Urban Review has given me new a focus and purpose. I had no idea, at the beginning, how life changing this blog would be for me.

I started with my own hosting that Halloween two years ago and on November 19, 2004 joined the STLSyndicate collection of St. Louis made blogs. I had 13 visits on that day! In December 2004, the first full month on the Syndicate, I had 1,086 unique visitors (distinct IP addresses), 3,649 visits and 11,179 page views. I was thrilled. After today the unique visitors for this month will exceed 20,000, visits have already topped 50,000 and page views will be over 120,000. If only St. Louis’ population could grow at such a rate.

In this last two years I’ve done over 900 posts and you’ve given feedback to the tune of 6,000+ comments!!! I’ve learned so much more about St. Louis and its people in the last two years than in the prior 14 living here. In researching and writing these hundreds of posts I have gained greater knowledge about so many areas of planning and design. Your comments have also helped build my base of understanding.

I’m quite happy to report that everyone says, “I don’t agree with you 100% of the time.” Some never agree and some may get to the high 90s but that is what makes this great — the ability to discuss issues and disagree. This means we are all thinking as individuals. Well, I take that back, I think some are still in the group mindset (aka ‘The Establishment’) but their numbers are dwindling and our numbers are rising.

The discussion of urbanism has really taken off in St. Louis and I’ll a part of the credit. Kudos also go out to other sites such as the Urban St. Louis forums, The Ecology of Absence and most recently Steve Wilke-Shapiro’s 15thWardSTL. Add in a healthy dose of political coverage from Antonio French at PubDef and you can see why the firm Civic Strategies in Atlanta wrote:

What does it say about St. Louis that it is nurturing the best urblogs in the country? Perhaps simply that somebody cares in River City.

We do care. We care enough to shape the city the way we want it to be, not the way the suburban developers and their bought politicians have been doing for decades. My readership spans all age groups, all races, economic classes and municipal boundaries. Even those that disagree with me on nearly every subject are here because the issues raised are important for a society to air in public. For too long many topics simply were left untouched by the public.

In the last two years I’ve managed to make a name for myself, although that was never the purpose. The purpose, however, has shifted. I do have access to people and places that even a year ago I did not. I’m not using my access like some do: posing for photos with big wigs, attending fancy parties with free food & drink or free tickets to a Cardinals game. No, I’m using this access to obtain documents to further the urbanist cause, to bend ears about bike racks, sidewalks, the need for new zoning, and to push & prod those in seats of power off the fence. The joy in seeing constructive change is all the personal gain I need. So while self-proclaimed “progressive aldermen” wine and dine at Anheuser-Busch sponsored parties I hope that together the rest of us can actually reclaim the city — taking back the city one public right-of-way at a time.

The next two years should interesting. I will be continuing to work on a Masters in Urban Planning and Real Estate Development at Saint Louis University. With this education will bring increased knowledge and even more ability to give critical analysis of issues. Papers and projects throughout will focus on St. Louis and I will be publishing them here. Despite my time spent in grad school I am beginning to layout a road map for the year ago. Like a magazine or newspaper would do, I am thinking about dates and events for the coming year and researching information for future posts. In November I will be organizing those that have volunteers to be “Ward Advisors” so that we can take a closer look at issues in the city.

A number of people have said I have simply been scratching the surface. This is true. In many cases I’ve been simply a small pest — a gadfly. I will continue scratching around on many different topics but I also hope to dig a little deeper into a few. This will likely come as part of my grad school research. But I also hope to root out some of the more problematic in local government. Recently we’ve seen resignations of St. Peters’ mayor and Berkeley’s city manager, both over issues of corruption. In the case of the mayor of St. Peters, he claims he was seeking a “contribution” from a city contractor. Thankfully, this contractor went to the FBI who helped document the request for money in exchange for not vetoing legislation to hire the firm. Sadly, many contractors in St. Louis seem willing to give large sums of money to our local officials. You can call me a conspiracy theorist but I can’t help but think some of these deals are just not on the up and up. Should the evidence ever come my way, I will not hesitate for a second to expose anyone in office or any local company of such wrong doing. I get whispers of stuff here and there but nothing concrete that I can prove. OK, enough politics.

In February I turn 40. Ugh. What happened to that idealistic 23 year-old that moved to St. Louis in 1990? Time goes by so quickly. A couple of weeks ago I attended the visitation for a former employer who died at age 50 of cancer. He went from diagnosis to death in three months. We will all die at some point but we just don’t know when. I have a feeling my 40s will be great, I will have a new degree and new career choices, but I’m not willing to wait until my mid 50s to have more a more urban St. Louis. I want it now. For example, I will continue to push for modern streetcars which are roughly half the cost of light rail. Local funding of such a system would eliminate costly federal requirements, shaving years off the project completion date. Getting new leadership in place and changing our zoning will all be efforts toward creating an urban city again. Ending the reign of suburban sprawl entering the city limits from the likes of Desco and Pyramid will be paramount to our city’s future.

I will continue on with Urban Review as I have the last two years. Bringing you issues as I see them and then allowing you to agree or disagree. I greatly appreciate your readership and feedback. I truly believe that together we are having a positive affect on the future of St. Louis. To those that don’t want to change I have just one word for you, Boo!

Rehabber’s Club Class Tonight: Patterson & Wilke-Shapiro on Design

Architect and blogger Steve Wilke-Shapiro and I will be co-presenting a class tonight as part of the St. Louis Rehabber’s Club Fall educational series:

How to decide what you will and won’t do? Where do you start? How should it look? Creating your design and solving design issues. What is worth doing and what is not? Where to spend your money? How much will it all cost? How to plan out a timeline and stick to it! Steve Wilke-Shapiro and Steve Patterson will speak on these subjects and more!

The Rehabber’s Club Classes are $15 which goes to help the programs of the Rehabber’s Club and its sponsoring organization ReVitalize St. Louis. None of the fee goes to speakers, all are volunteers.

Now some of you might be wondering what I know about residential rehab. Well, my bachelor’s degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Architecture is in “Environmental Design” which is a sorta fancy catch all for a combination of education in architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, construction science, historic preservation and city planning. I’ve spent most of my adult life doing design work for residential projects here in the St. Louis area. These included projects as simple as a small bathroom to a couple of homes where we tore off the roof and turned one story houses into two story houses.

The kitchen at right is part of a project I designed during my five years at Mosby Building Arts (some of you may know Scott Mosby from his Saturday morning home improvement show on KMOX). This suburban house was a dog and sat on the market until our clients purchased the home. My design called for a new garage to be added on one side and use the old 3-car garage for the new master suite. The central part of the house was opened up, giving it a more modern & spacious feeling.

Tonight I’ll talk about renovation of city houses touching on issues such as how to reconfigure the floor plan, material selection, lighting, appliances as well as a provide a detailed do’s and don’ts list. Achieving good design on a budget will also be addressed as most of us don’t have hundreds of thousands to spend on renovations. Steve Wilke-Shapiro will touch on some of this from his experience as well as talk about some of the timelines and such for a successful project.

The class starts tonight at 7pm at the Central Reform Congregation located at the corner of Waterman & Kingshighway (map). No need to pre-register, just come a bit before 7pm, pay your $15 and enjoy the class. See you tonight!

Ald. Jennifer Florida First St. Louis Alderman to Begin Blogging

It seems Ald. Jennifer Florida has become the first Alderman in the City of St. Louis to start a blog as part of her means of communications with constituents and other interested parties such as myself. This is an about face for Florida with respect to blogs, in June she called this site a “stupid blog.” It would appear that Florida has seen the effectiveness of the web as a means of communication and wants to take more control over the message in the 15th Ward. My reaction? Great, what took so long and when are the rest going to follow suit?

When I was running for the St. Louis Board of Aldermen in early 2005 one of the very first things I did was work on a communications strategy. On 1/22/05 my campaign blog went live. From that first post :

I’m pleased to announce that the latest news for my campaign will be presented in a blog format. I will keep voters, volunteers, contributers and the public informed of happenings and appearances via this space. I will also be discussing various issues in greater detail here as well. I will demonstrate to the voters that I am a thinking candidate – I will bring up issues and offer solutions. The comments section will be an opportunity for the public to tell me if I am on tract or not. Public feedback to aldermen is a key component that is missing from our current system. Part of the reason I decided on 25thward.com as my website address is because I think this will serve me well once elected to office. Through this website address I will be able to keep the residents of the 25th Ward informed of hot issues, public meetings, request feedback on upcoming decisions. Making use of current technology will just be one way of being an effective alderman

I touched on this issue a week later on 2/1/05:

So many people say we are not Chicago. True, we are not. We don’t have the population density, the vibrant streets, the thousands of bike racks or Aldermen using the internet to communicate the relevant (albeit mundane) information to ward constituents. Chicago’s aldermen are taking that extra step to use the internet to keep their constituents informed of issues and meetings.

St. Louis’ current system of keeping constituents informed is for aldermen to attend the various neighborhood meetings and give a city hall update to the few people present. Little information is actually communicated – no visuals, no maps, no links to other resources. If you didn’t make it to the meeting you are out of luck. You might get some of the information in a neighborhood newsletter a month or two later – if you are on their mailing list.

My campaign is about bringing fresh thinking to the 25th ward and entire City of St. Louis. Moving the level of communications between city hall and constituents into the 21st century is just one example.

In numerous posts since then, and by way of example, I have shown that complex issues can be effectively communicated and debated. Not everyone will agree on issues. That is the purpose of public discourse, to share perspectives. It is imperative for our elected representatives to hear all sides of issues and from as many people as feasible. With the internet that is unlimited. It is also important to get feedback from all city residents as development projects, by default must take place within a ward, they can have an impact on the entire city.

I applaud Jennifer Florida for being the first St. Louis alderman to make that leap into the 21st Century with modern communications technology. For those aldermen reading this on their old Gateway computer with Windows 95 let me help clarify for you what we are talking about. A “blog” is a form of website. In the old days of the internet, websites were complicated and often costly to set up. No so these days, the blog technology behind the scenes make the setup and posting amazingly simple. The underlying software that runs a blog is referred to these days as “content management” software. So a teenagers blog on myspace.com might well be about what she did today but in the political world a blog can be a means of managing content — notices about upcoming meetings, links to legislation, open discussion on topics under consideration for legislation and of course community visioning. The RSS feed provided via content management software lets more savvy users know when new posts are available for viewing. This information comes to those who want it. The resident who can’t make that 6pm community meeting because they don’t get off work until 10pm can read the site at any time it suits them. The more content the more informed they will be.

I think Jennifer Florida will quickly realize how effective this tool can be, hopefully sharing her experience with her colleagues. One Alderman recently told me he was in Chicago and met someone at an event with the alderman saying he was from St. Louis and the guy asked, “Oh, do you know Steve Patterson’s blog?” Needless to say, this alderman couldn’t believe that he met some random person at a Chicago function and the guy mentions me. It was beyond his comprehension that people in Chicago would be reading about issues in St. Louis. I explained to him, as I have above, how blogs work. He has yet to take my advice. I think many still believe they need thousands of dollars, many computer wizards and hours upon hours of time to have a website. This view is as outdated as our zoning.

So, I’m going to make the members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen an offer in the interest of better communications. I’m willing to give them a presentation on how to set up and maintain a blog. All I ask is that they have at least 4 aldermen present, I can’t take the time one on one unless I’m getting paid. And I am willing to do that — if you want me to help get you started I can do that on the clock as they say. Only conditions here is that I will disclose that I have done so and that my helping in that regard does not constitute any form of endorsement. My goal is to get all 28 aldermen blogging about community meetings, issues, proposed development and such. I might even be able to talk my friend Antonio French of PubDef into co-presenting to them on blogging. And what about those elected aldermen and city council folks in the balance of the region? Sure, I want to see communications increase throughout the region so I can be persuaded to come talk to you as well.

Visit Alderwoman Jennifer Florida’s 15th Ward Blog and also take a look at a review of Florida’s blog by 15th Ward resident Steve Wilke-Shapiro.

Cardinals Fans Fill Downtown St. Louis Streets to Celebrate World Series

As the 7th inning changed into the 8th friends said we needed to be downtown. They were right! As we parked near AT&T the Cardinals won the game. We walked quickly toward the stadium while asking ourselves “where are the fireworks?” The video explains the rest — taking you through the streets, into the stadium and then back out on the streets again. What a night.