17th Anniversary of UrbanReviewSTL

Sunday (10/31/2021) was the 17th anniversary of this blog. In years past I’d have prepared a post looking back and forward, published on the actual anniversary. Now I’m enjoying my final years rather than spend all my free time on the blog.

It was two years ago I disclosed I had cancer. In short, I have stage 4 kidney cancer. I’ll never be cancer-free, it’ll never be in remission. My oncologist described it as a chronic disease.

So far so good. I’m arguably better off now than I was 2 years ago. My last scans (CT & bone scan) showed significant shrinkage of several of my numerous tumors. The reality is eventually my cancer will switch from being a treatable condition to being terminal.

Enough about me, I still spend hours thinking about St. Louis. Here are some subjects on my mind right now:

• The recent loss of population in the 2020 census will make redistricting a challenge. The predominantly black north side is losing population at a significantly higher rate than the rest of the city.
• The population is largely black and white — in nearly equal numbers. As a result I’m glad the initial draft of a new ward map has an equal number of wards with a majority population of each. Cutting the number of seats from 28 to 14 is something I still support. My hope is it will reduce aldermanic micromanagement, empowering bureaucrats to make decisions based on policy, not political influence from legislators.
• I’m enjoying seeing the soccer stadium, front office and training facility be constructed in Downtown West.  What will be more interesting is to see how the surrounding blocks change over time. Will they become more urban, or will parking lots/garages slowly replace existing buildings. If I were in charge I’d made it very difficult/expensive for property owners to raze their buildings for parking.
• I’m glad to see the lawsuit agains the Rams/NFL moving forward, but I hate the idea of St. Louis getting an NFL expansion team as part of a settlement. Why? This would likely put the north riverfront back at risk of being leveled.
• North St. Louis is continuing to be vacated. At first middle class whites left, making room for middle class black families. Then the last white families either found a way to move or they died off. Middle class black families began moving to north St. Louis County as lower income blacks moving into north city behind them. Those who remain, with many exceptions, are looking to move to south city or into the county.  The region must reverse the exodus out of north city & county.
• I don’t have the solutions to the bottom problem above, one thought is maintain the positive pockets. Then turn the remaining areas to natural watershed and/or agricultural land.
• The proposed Target on South Grand, north of Chouteau, is very exciting. However, the large surface parking lot to the south of the building is only ok if temporary. From the south end of the bridge to Chouteau needs to be multi-story urban buildings. Ditto for the west side of Grand.
• Additional investment in transportation needs to be made to support those us who don’t have 24/7 access to an automobile. Jobs need to be closer to the areas needing work.
• As a region we need to reduce the amount of urbanized land per person. This means stopping greenfield development on the edges, focusing on denser development in previously developed areas. This needs to be accomplished equitably.
• As I’ve said before, we need to prepare for the coming side effects of climate change. I’m not at all optimistic the world’s population/governments will take the necessary steps to reduce damage to the environment. Temperatures in St. Louis will rise. In the winter this could mean pests that used to die off each year stick around. In the summer it could mean am increasing number of periods with temperatures over 100°. I often pass a field at 9th & O’Fallon —the tree lawn for these two streets used to have nine additional trees. Going to the grocery store in summer this area is noticeably warmer. The same problem is repeated throughout the region, usually in lower income neighborhoods.
• It’s very nice seeing medical cannabis dispensaries in the city & region. Hopefully this is employing people who needed it most. Unfortunately the ownership is those wealthy enough to afford the high cost of entry.
• Food deserts continue. A Save-A-Lot that opened a few years ago in an inner-ring suburb is closing. It’s increasingly obvious to me slim grocery store margins need customers with a mix of incomes to survive. I’ve seen too many efforts to end food deserts in low-income neighborhoods fail. Near me it looks like GreenLeaf will also fail. The few things I used to get there are no longer available.
• We can’t solve our climate problems simply by replacing all vehicles with electric vehicles. We must make mobility easier by foot, bike, wheelchair, and transit.

The above are just a fraction of the St. Louis subjects I’ve thought about, it’s a bit overwhelming to me. I can’t turn it off.

Thankfully I’m optimistic I’ll have at least another year to post on the above subjects. Thank you for reading.

— Steve Patterson