St. Louis: Is It the Most Important City for Planners?
I recently attended the holiday luncheon for the St. Louis Section of the American Planning Association (APA). In the beginning of the luncheon, Dr. Mark Abbott of Harris Stowe and the current President of the APA St. Louis chapter mentioned that he thought St. Louis was the most important city in the United States for planners for a variety of reasons. I didn’t write down his exact quote, but I think I’ve accurately written his point. Since he mentioned this, I’ve been wondering, why would St. Louis be the most important city for Urban Planners? I came to the conclusion that if St. Louis becomes a great city once again many extremely important and difficult problems will have been solved.
First, Industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast continue to struggle. How to replace the jobs and economic power of heavy industry, as well as make use of the land that was formerly occupied by these uses, is a major problem for cities. If St. Louis succeeds, there will need to be a replacement for these industries.
Secondly, St. Louis is racially polarized, and has historically been a city with harsh racial oppression and segregation. I’m convinced if St. Louis is to succeed there will need to be a unified city and not two separate and distinct communities, largely divided by North and St. Louis. This is a problem not unique to St. Louis, but in many ways heightened. There are no other large minority communities, so it is largely a black and white issue. Also, the city is one of the most segregated in the country. If black and white St. Louis were able to largely work together for the region it would be an enormous accomplishment as well as an extremely powerful national force.
The third reason St. Louis could be the most important American city for planners is the fact that it has fallen so far. It is the poster child for urban decline. While other cities may be in worse shape, none were ever as prominent and successful as St. Louis once was. Detroit is the only other city in St. Louis’s league in terms of the amount of decline an American city has endured. If St. Louis successfully turned around it would be a shining example and undoubtedly have tremendous influence on the success of other industrial American cities.
